Page 99 - Smart Money

Smart Money

that peace of mind, knowing that in your eventual death, the money that
you have accumulated goes to the appropriate parties.

My advice for couples is to talk to each other about what you want to do,
what your priorities are. All too frequently a couple will sit with me, and
one of them will start talking about what ‘we’ want, and then the other
person looks at them and says, “Hang on, that’s not what we want at all;
that’s what you want.” Talk about exactly what you want as individuals,
but also as a couple, because your spouse’s priorities might surprise each
of you.

The cliché that I always use is you can’t start too early with your
fi nancial planning, but you can start too late. You might be at a
reasonably simplistic stage, where you are repaying debt and
your needs might be a little bit simpler. But if you start planning

early, a small benefit adds up incrementally over time, and the

compounding effect can add tens of thousands and hundreds of
thousands of dollars to your end point.
We always suggest that you set up a plan, but you don’t just sit on your
hands. Put the plan in place and then review it, monitor it, visit your plan
again and adapt. If you need to adjust it, adjust it. The best plan today is
not necessarily going to be the best course of action in five or ten years.
And again, the sooner you start the better.
Don’t let yourself be daunted by a million different options. Someone
in their 20s could do any one of hundreds of legitimate investment
strategies, but the sheer number of them scares them off and so they do
none of those. So at least talk, research, and find some things that you
like and are interested in and investigate them. Talk to professionals, and
once you have honed in on a couple of things that you have an interest in
and might benefit you, investigate those further. You might identify some
things that you are very happy with and you choose to establish.
Finally, don’t be fooled by the flashing lights and the fountains. There are
a lot of financial planners and professionals that talk the good game and