So, What is Financial Planning Exactly?
People tend to think of Financial Planners as people you seek out when you have spare money to invest. In other words, you don’t really need them unless you’re fairly “well off”. It’s a surprisingly common misconception. In fact, investment advice is just one aspect of what Financial Planners do. Moreover, we work with people of all income levels. So, what is it we do, exactly?
Broadly, we use our knowledge to help you achieve your goals and objectives by tailoring strategies to address your specific needs.
In particular – we provide assistance and guidance on:
- Budgeting – reviewing your finances and identifying opportunities to manage debt and save money. Individuals or families who are successful in reaching financial goals usually tend to do so by budgeting. Far from being restrictive, a well-constructed budget gives you the confidence to spend on things that are important and necessary week to week, whist ensuring you’re on track to achieve bigger, or long term financial goals -e.g. buying a home, putting your kids through Uni, getting started with a property investment portfolio etc.
- Risk Management – guiding you on protecting your family and your assets in the event of illness, injury, disability, or death.
- Tax Planning – because we’re connected to an accountancy practise, we help you minimise tax through a variety of means, including ownership structuring with trusts etc and optimal distribution of assets among family members to maximise allowances.
- Government Benefits and Allowances – determining your eligibility for the many different types of government assistance and benefits, such as pensions, family benefits, co-contribution allowances. And ensuring you receive the correct entitlements.
- Retirement Planning – helping you find answers to the important questions such as; “how much money do I need to retire?”; “what do I need to do before I retire?” and “will I be able to retire comfortably now?”
- Estate Planning – we show you how best to structure your assets to benefit your estate when you are no longer here.
- Education on Financial Matters – helping you to understand your investments and other key financial matters. This builds your knowledge, confidence and ultimately makes you more capable of achieving better financial outcomes for you and your family.
One of the most important first steps of financial planning is to start thinking about important goals you would like to achieve.
Another is simply to get started on your Financial Planning journey as early as possible. This will help sharpen your financial senses and develop an understanding of what needs to happen, and by when, for you to realise your goals.
The main advantages of having a professional planner help you are:
- You benefit from greatly your planner’s knowledge, experience and perspective on financial matters.
- Working with a planner makes you accountable as your planner acts as a kind of financial coach. Checking in with you to make sure you are following through on your plan.
- Besides all that, your planner will also help you make sound investment decisions and provide you with periodic valuations of your investment portfolio.
Are you interested to know more about working with a financial advisor?
Contact House of Wealth today for a free consultation.
This article is intended as an information source only and to provide general information only. The comments, examples, words and extracts from legislation and other sources in this publication do not constitute legal advice, financial or tax advice and should not be relied upon as such. All readers should seek advice from a professional adviser regarding the application of any of the comments in this article to their particular situation.