Building Your Abundance Lifestyle Road Map:

We all deal with our finances based on our own different perspectives..

Bring it on..

Some of us love planning and being involved with our finances

Mmmm, ok, lets get it done.

Some of us don't mind being involved but could think of better ways to spend our time.

Oh no, do we have to!!

Some of us could think of nothing worse to do than look at numbers and deal with finances.

The fact of the matter is:

As with all things in life, if we take control and have a plan for how we would like things to be and happen, based on our Goals and Dreams, we are far more likely to achieve these Goals and Dreams.

It is when we leave these things and avoid them, that we lose control and lose our way and in most cases end up not achieving what we would like to.​

So, what does Financial Planning mean to you and how can we help you & your Family achieve your Goals and Dreams?

Let's look at your Planning in 5 Simple Steps:

To get a more detailed explanation of how we address all the steps above, take a look at a short set of videos we have prepared for you.

With these videos you will get:

• A Simple but complete step by step overview of our full planning process.
• A helpful FREE downloadable Goal Planning Guide.
• Free downloadable Simple Step by step Budgeting and Assets and Liabilities schedule to get you started.
• A whole bunch of other really useful guidance and information to help you immediately with your planning.

Your 5 Steps to Planning your Financial Future -

(An Overview)

STEP 1 : The BIG Picture

We all have Goals and Dreams and many awesome things that we would like to do and accomplish in our lives...

Happy Healthy Family

Lovely Family Home

Great Holidays

Good Education for our Children

Without some sort of Plan to achieve these goals or objectives, it is very unlikely that we will get any where close.

It is therefore IMPERATIVE that we start with a PLAN.

So, how do we develop a PLAN that gets you to where you would like to be and achieve going forward?​

It Starts with your GOALS..​

STEP 2 : Determining Your Goals

Goals will give you Focus and Direction.

How close are you to reaching your goals?

STEP 3 : Building Your Plan.

Your needs and requirements will change as you move through the different stages of life.

Let's start with the BIG picture.

Your life can be split into 4 primary phases.

Each stage of life has special and specific needs. Take a look below.

Youth

(Creating Capacity)

• Mom and Dad take responsibility for your life and needs.
• Get a good education and learn about life.
• Pocket money teaches you about the value of money.
• Learn about saving, needs and wants, charity.

Young Family

(Concentrate your Attention)

• Starting out in life.

• First Job
• New Car
• Getting Married
• First Home
• Starting a Family

• Things to be aware of when Planning:

• Financial Risk to your family: -
• New Car Debt
• Home Bond Debt

• Accumulating Wealth over your working life.

• Structured Pre-tax Savings
• Structured Post tax Savings

Mature Family

(Organizing your Wealth)

• Family & Lifestyle.

• At the peak of your career.
• Family are growing up and off to varsity.
• Children becoming self sufficient.
• You have more time for yourself & your spouse.

• Financially.

• Your wealth is growing fast.
• Your costs should be dropping.
• Your debt should be reducing if not at zero.
• Your need for risk cover should also be reducing.

Retirement

(Securing your Wellness)

• Lifestyle & changes.

• Hand over the baton at work.
• Kids leave or left home.
• More time with your spouse.
• Time for your hobbies, travel grandchildren etc.

• Financial Independence.

• Your wealth should be in place.
• Your savings provide for your income needs.
• No liabilities.
• No need for risk cover.

From a "Wealth" perspective, your life can be divided into 2 primary phases:

Pre-Retirement

Pre-Retirement: - (Your Accumulation Phase)

In this part of your life, you earn an income which you then use to provide for your living expenses and lifestyle and hopefully you also allocate some of the income to your Savings.

Post-Retirement

Post-Retirement: - (Your Savings provide for your Lifestyle needs)

In this part of your life, you no longer have an income and your Savings then become responsible for providing you with an income for the rest of your lives.

Based on a FULL understanding of your and your families needs and requirements, we then develop a tailor made plan for you, which will look something like this.

(The below is a case study and is for illustration purposes only.)

CASE STUDY : 

• The 2 graphs to the right show the savings/accumulation and withdrawal wealth projection profiles of a person who is currently 25 years old.
• He will be saving 15% of his gross income annually for the full length of his working life.
• He retires at the age of 63.
• His intended replacement ratio is +-73.5% (i.e. the income provided by his savings in the first year of his retirement will be +-73.5% of his net income he was earning in the year before he retired.
• His savings are planned to last approximately until his age 90.

NOTE : 

• Although this example is very simple, it is based on very real data and underlying returns & inflation assumptions.
• Saving 15% of your Gross Income is an approximation of the minimum required savings level recommended for the average household to reach financial independence. (this is based on a +-40 year accumulation period)

​

The outcome and benefits of your Planning.

You will be able to answer a number of critical questions such as:

STEP 4 : Implementing your Plan.

This is where the Rubber hits the Road"...  Where you take ACTION.

So, how do you actually  apply and Implement this planning in your life?

Below are some examples of Families in different phases of their lives..

These illustrations will give you some guidelines as to what YOU could include in YOUR Financial Planning...  

As well as your next ACTION steps...​

• Young Family starting out: Age 25 - 35
• Family - growing kids & busy life: Age 35 - 55
• Close to retirement / retired

You are a young Family between the ages of 25 and 35.

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This is a time in your life where there is a lot going on and a lot of new experiences.

• You are starting out in a new career,
• You buy your first car on higher purchase,
• You get married,
• You buy your first home,
• You start your family
• Your children start school.

So, what are the things you should be looking at in this phase of your life?

There are 2 broad aspects which are important and need to be addressed at this stage:

Immediate term : Your Risk cover requirements need to be addressed i.e. (Life cover, disability, dread disease and Income cover)

You may ask Why?

​

• The answer is, what if something happened to you and you are no longer there to support your family, what situation would you leave them in … Would they be able to keep their current standard of living or would you leave them in a compromised position and struggling with debt and bills to pay.

Longer term : A well planned Savings and Investment strategy needs to be put in place.

You may ask Why?

​

• The longer term start starts right now. Unfortunately, most people leave their savings to whats left after paying their monthly bills instead of planning and budgeting to save what they need to first and then living within their means. This leads to more than 90% of people not being able to retire financially secure.

“The earlier you start saving the better as the benefits of compounding are HUGE“.

Take a look at one of our FREE Explainer Videos below. 

Young Couple starting out - Age +-25

Young Family - Age +-35

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You may like to make contact with us directly?

Please give me a call

You are between the ages of 35 and 55, have growing kids and a hectic lifestyle...

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In this stage of your life you :

• Are well placed in your career and nearing the top of your game,
• Have children that are growing up fast, in high school or possibly even off to University.
• Your pace of life is pretty hectic and full,
• Your lifestyle expenses are high and there are lots of cash flow demands on you...
• At the same time, your wealth should be growing nicely and your debt levels should be reducing with time.
• And I am sure that you can think of a list of other exciting as well as challenging aspects of your life at this point...

So, what are the things you should be looking at from a Lifestyle Financial Planning perspective at this stage of your life?

Although the below points may sound crazy, if you had addressed your planning correctly and have and are sticking to your goals and milestones, you should be aimed at:.

• Reducing your debt as quickly as possible,
• Growing your wealth steadily and benefiting from the wonderful effects of compounding,
• Your savings levels should be rising especially towards the end of this stage as your costs should be falling,
• Your need for Risk cover should be reducing as your wealth grows and you near retirement.

What we have set out above may sound a bit like "lifestyle Bliss", but by implementing clear and specific "Lifestyle Financial Planning" you will be able to live a financially stress free life and have the confidence that you have addressed all aspects of what you are aiming to achieve in your life and furthermore, know that you are on track to achieve these goals..

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So, how do you get this right and how can you know where you stand currently and plan correctly for the future?

Below is button which will give you access to a FREE short 3 set video series which will give you a great outline as to how to approach your Planning from here on out.

We suggest that you take a look at these little videos as a starting point.

After all, this is your whole life savings you are thinking about and also the potential of Retiring Financially Independent.. or not. You would rather be in a position of knowledge and be able to make the right decisions.​

Interested in taking a look at the short 3 set video series, click the button below.

Please link me to the Video series

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You may like to make contact with us directly. 

I would like to make contact, please give me a call.

You are about to Retire or already Retired.

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Retiring or retirement is a wonderful time of life where you get to spend more time with you spouse and the special people in your life and doing the things you have always planned to do.

Unfortunately for many people this picture is maybe not as rosy as I have described above.

BUT...​

If one has planned correctly along the way and implemented and stuck to the plan, things should work out well.

So, what are the things you should be looking at in this phase of your life?

From a Personal Perspective:​

• Retirement means handing over the baton at work to the next generation,
• Your children are probably getting ready to leave home or have already left,
• You have much more time with your spouse,
• You have time for your hobbies and travel and the grandchildren too.
• And I am sure that you can think of a list of other wonderful things that you plan to or are doing in your retired years.

From a Financial Perspective:​

• Your Wealth and Savings should be in place and should be at least sufficient to provide for your financial independence,
• You should have NO liabilities at all,
• You should have in place and made provision for good medical services and support. (Medical Aid).
• You should be able to live that life that you had always planned and you should NOT have to stress about money or Income (cash flow).

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So, how do you get this right and how can you know where you stand currently and plan correctly for the future?

Below is a button which will give you access to a FREE short 3 set video series which will give you a great outline as to how to approach your Planning from here on out.

We suggest that you take a look at these little videos as a starting point. After all, this is your whole life savings you are thinking about and you would rather be in a position of knowledge and be able to make the right decisions.​

Interested in taking a look at the short 3 set video series, click the button below.

Please link me to the Video series

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You may like to make contact with us directly. 

I would like to make contact, please give me a call.

STEP 5 : Keeping on course.

This is often a very overlooked part of ones planning. In order to build the ongoing review process into ones daily life, we have set out below a recommended review process. We implement this process with our clients and aim to build it into their lives as a "good" lifestyle habit.

Our Suggested Review Process.

Ongoing - Monthly Reviews:

Savings & Withdrawals:

Accumulation Phase: Based on your Planning, you would in all likelihood, assuming you are in the Accumulation phase of your life, have a monthly contribution strategy towards your portfolio. This strategy would be in line with building your portfolio on an ongoing basis.

You would need to make sure that you follow that strategy or even get ahead if possible and reasonable within your circumstances.

If you are Retired: it is important to ensure that you test and stick to your recommended income/withdrawal parameters, based on your best case planning outcomes.

Keep up to date :

There are 2 main area you want to be alert to on an ongoing basis:

Economic : Ensure you have a good understanding and feel for what is happening from an Economic perspective, both locally in South Africa as well as around the world.

Legislative : Keep up to date with current and new legislation that is introduced and that could or would affect your portfolio or portfolio structures..

Quarterly Reviews:

   There are 3 areas to review at this point.

Portfolio Performance:

A : Compare quarterly, annual and since inception values within your portfolio. This will give you an overview of portfolio performance which can then be compared with indices and markets generally to assess performance.

B : It is important to take a Longer term focus and outlook for your portfolio. No one Asset manager, asset class or fund is always a winner. We would suggest you evaluate your funds performance based on a 3, 5 and 10 year performance record.

If you are Retired: it is important to ensure that you test and stick to your recommended income/withdrawal parameters, based on your best case planning outcomes.

Economic :

Review the broader economic outlook for South Africa and the world (Past as well as Future).

Watch our Blog posts for regular updates on Economic reviews and commentary that will help give you perspective on markets locally and internationally.

Legislative :

Keep up to date with current and new legislation that is introduced and that could or would affect your portfolio or portfolio structures..

Annual Reviews:

There are 5 areas we would recommend you review at this point in time.

Portfolio Performance:

As per your quarterly review, compare quarterly, annual and since inception values within your portfolio. This will give you an overview of portfolio performance which can then be compared with indices and markets generally to assess performance.

Financial Planning :

Review your Financial Plan and compare current costs etc (Income, Expenses, Lifestyle, family situation and changes, etc) against projected values in the Plan to ensure that you are on track or ahead of your planning goals. If adjustments need to be made, implement after due analysis.

Estate Planning :

Review your estate planning and Wills at these meetings. It is vitally important to make sure that should your circumstances change in any way, that you ensure that your Wills and Estate planning documentation are updated to accommodate these changes.

Medical Planning :

Most medical schemes allow you one review per year. Make sure that you carefully assess what your needs have been over the last year and ensure that the Plan that you are on is the correct plan to take you and your family forward through the year ahead. If you feel that you may need other facilities in your plan, investigate what options are on offer and adjust your plan according to your needs.

Asset Risk Planning :

It is important to review your asset values annually and to ensure that your insured values are in line with your current assets values. If not, this could lead to a problem should you need to claim. You also don’t want to be paying a higher premium than what is necessary.