People often turn to a financial planner to help simplify their finances and set achievable financial goals, providing greater confidence to plan for their future. 

A financial planner will be able to help you with areas such as budgeting, cash flow management, a savings plan, superannuation, tax planning, home loan repayments, debt management and reduction, insurance, investments and retirement. Understandably, your financial goals will change over your lifespan. You need a financial plan to suit the stage of life you are in. Here are some of the common needs of each life stage:

Young to mid life

You are establishing and building your career and perhaps starting a family. You may be looking at:

  • Buying Your First Home
  • Travelling
  • Getting Married
  • Having Children
  • Family Healthcare
  • Business Planning.

Mid Life

This is your consolidation stage – achieving a comfortable lifestyle and thinking about managing your long-term future. You’re likely to focus on:

Protecting Your Lifestyle

  • Healthcare
  • Investments
  • Financing Home Renovations
  • Tax Management
  • Debt Management
  • Inheritance
  • Retirement Planning
  • Long-Term Care Planning
  • Income Protection

Pre-Retirement

With 20 or more years of retirement ahead of you, your priorities will depend on how well you’ve prepared. Your main concerns may be:

  • Protecting Your Assets
  • Debt Elimination
  • Family Healthcare
  • Helping Your Children
  • Retirement Planning
  • Wills And Trusts
  • Business Exit Strategy

Retirement

This is the time to indulge in hobbies or travel, enjoy your family and prepare for transferring your wealth. You may be thinking of:

  • Protecting Your Assets
  • Healthcare
  • Aged Care Planning
  • Travelling
  • Buying A Caravan
  • Inheritance Tax Mitigation
  • Gifting To Family
  • Preserving Your Capital
  • Estate Planning

Your financial planner should make clear recommendations, outline the risks involved and communicate any possible strengths or weaknesses in your plan. Remember that your financial planner cannot predict the market or ensure investments are always favourable.

Your planner should however, keep you updated with any changes that could influence your investments, such as market slumps. While short term timeframes in regards to growth investment are a high risk, investing over a longer period of time means you can wait out the lows of the market.

Once your goals are decided, your planner will put a financial plan in place.

These are just some of the questions that a financial adviser will be able to help you with. But good financial advice is not only about answering questions, it’s about defining your goals, both immediate and long term, and recommending solutions that fit your personal circumstances to achieve those goals.

The following points are some of the benefits that financial advice may provide you:

It gives you direction and control

Can you imagine jumping into the car to drive across town to a street and suburb you’ve never been to before without a street directory?

How would you know if you were heading in the right direction?

Financial advice provides you with a roadmap. Your financial adviser will prepare a personalised plan detailing your current position and recommend solutions to reach your destination (goals).

Advice can help make your money work harder

Recommending solutions that take advantage of tax concessions or investment options that have a higher return potential for the same level of risk means that your money may grow more.

You may avoid making expensive mistakes

Many people make investment decisions that are influenced by emotions. Let’s face it, money can be a very emotional issue. A financial adviser can provide impartial advice which focuses on and encourages successful investment behaviour without emotional ties.

Reduce debt

You may learn how to reduce debt and start a wealth creation plan.

Retirement income

The amount of money you need to have accumulated to provide for the standard of living you want in retirement. How to maximise your retirement savings with both social security and tax laws.

Protecting your estate

How to plan and manage the transition of your estate should you die or become incapacitated to such an extent that you can no longer make the necessary decisions regarding your investments.

Protection of your assets

Protection of your assets and goals for you and your dependents through the use of insurance can be a vital part of your financial plan.

Setting a budget

Setting a budget to ensure your immediate needs are being serviced as well as establishing groundwork for the future.

A wealth check up

Remember your circumstances will change. Marriage, divorce, buying a house, a new child, children’s education, redundancy, retirement and getting an inheritance all have an effect on your lifestyle. These events can also require changes to your investment strategies and goals.

But the simple fact of ageing changes your plans. Long-term plans soon become medium-term plans, medium-term plans soon become short-term plans. Remember when you started a medium-term plan 10 years ago – an investment for your child’s education? Well, their graduation last year has changed your plan.

Remember how you couldn’t sleep the first few weeks after you took out that 20 year mortgage thinking, ‘How am I ever going to repay this?’ Now that you’ve paid if off, what are you going to do with all that extra spending money??

This information is general information only. You should consider the appropriateness of this information with regards to your objectives, financial situation and needs.