Building a secure future
Life is to be lived for today. But there is also a tomorrow, and a next day after that. An important task of life then is to prepare for the long-term, putting in place the building blocks for a sustainable life structure for the future. This is a challenge to be overcome when the moment is so enjoyable that any thoughts of long-term planning seem an irrelevant distraction. Or when today’s priorities and pressures seem so overwhelming that the future seems a far-away and distant place. Or current life options seem so limited that the future is too troublesome to contemplate.
Luck may secure your future life security, more likely than not you need to shift current priorities to plan now for the long-term. This is not simply establishing the disciplines of financial planning and money management to ensure stability for you and your loved ones. It is also about dealing now with those life issues which if ignored will catch up in the longer-run.
This is a life challenge that needs careful navigation. A preoccupation with long-term security can easily become a cautious and fearful outlook, seeking to protect and preserve what you currently have rather than take risks to gain what you might achieve in future. And a live lived only for an imagined future point might miss out on the enjoyment of what is available right now.
Meeting and overcoming this life challenge:
Keeping on top of Your Finances |
Making the Big Life Decisions |
Dealing with Life’s Setbacks |
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Keeping on Top of Your Finances
Money does make the world go round. In the short term, you need to
operate within a budget that balances your income, expenditure and
investment plans. You also need to plan for the future to ensure
that your bases are covered, protecting you from the unexpected and
the inevitable.
“My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.”
Errol Flynn
“Having more money does not insure happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.”
Hobart Brown
Some general sites for financial advice.
financialplan.about.com: overview financial planning and advice site with lots of links to useful resource
www.find.co.uk: accessing thousands of financial sites
www.fsa.gov.uk: consumer information
Calculating your Net Worth
A high income right now will not secure your long-term future. Your
financial independence depends on your net worth, the difference
between your assets and liabilities, and increasing that net worth
to the point at which it becomes a revenue generating stream in its
own right. What is your net worth?
“Your net worth is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
Benjamin Franklin
www.fool.co.uk: checklist with prompts to calculate your net worth
Finding and Managing a Financial Adviser
Keep directly involved in your financial affairs. But do draw on others’ knowledge
and expertise. Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and colleagues
is one way to find a financial adviser. Or do your own research to
locate an adviser with the skills, experience and ethics to give you
the kind of advice that makes an important life difference.
www.businesslink.gov.uk: where to get advice on choosing a financial adviser
www.unbiased.co.uk: find an Independent Financial Adviser near your home or workplace
Quick Ways to Save Money
“Millionaire
minds” spend and save money in ways that are different to most
of us. They may be criticised as frugal or even miserly, but they don’t
spend money on unnecessary items and when they do spend, they ensure
they buy at the best price. And they are imaginative in finding ways
to save money.
“Economy is half the battle of life. It is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“In the old days a man who saved money was a miser; nowadays he's a wonder. “
(anon)
www.moneysavingexpert.com: “It's about saving money on anything and everything – finding the best deals and beating the system”
www.savemoneyuk.com: hints and tips to make your cash go further and work for you better.
Ageing and Retirement Planning
There are many uncertainties in life. There are also inevitabilities;
the march of time being the most certain. We can deny the aging process
or we can address the reality that we are moving into a new phase
of life and need to plan and prepare for a different future.
“People are living longer than ever before, a phenomenon undoubtedly made necessary by the 30-year mortgage.”
Doug Larson
“Retirement: It's nice to get out of the rat race, but you have to learn to get along with less cheese.”
Gene Perret
www.ageconcern.co.uk: a campaigning site covering issues like age discrimination, work and pensions with lots of other useful information
www.allmoneymatters.org.uk: everything you wanted to know about UK Pensions but were too afraid to ask.
Making the Big Life Decisions
Look out for the big decisions of life, the decisions that if taken
wisely will establish a platform for your long-term well-being, and
if mismanaged, will hurt you and constrain your options for the future.
“Life is the sum of all your choices.”
Albert Camus
Marriage and the Implications
Should you marry? Who should you marry? When should you marry? Difficult
decisions. Get this decision right and your life happiness and outcomes
will be enhanced. Get it wrong and life may be troublesome.
“Here's to matrimony, the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented”
Heinrich Heine
“Never feel remorse for what you have thought about your wife; she has thought much worse things about you.”
Jean Rostand
marriage.about.com: articles, tips and lots of other links
Buying and Selling a House
It is a hassle and it is stressful. But it is also an important life
decision. Making the right decision at the right time will not only
enhance your short-term happiness, it will contribute to your longer-term
financial future.
“When it comes to unpopularity, estate agents feature in the top three of most disliked people (I seem to recall that politicians and journalists were the other two).”
Jane Mack
trial.which.co.uk: independent service from “Which”
www.upmystreet.com: impartial site to search and compare detailed information about a specific postcode, city, town, district or region
www.reallymoving.com: UK's leading provider of online home-moving services, an independent service.
www.fool.co.uk: 9 useful tips for home sellers
Setting up Your Own Business
What is motivating you to set up your own business? A well thought
and profitable business concept that will give you greater work satisfaction
and financial independence? Or a sense of desperation driven by a
troubling sense that all is not going well for you in your current
role? Work through the issues, options and opportunities and risks
of business start up.
“If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.”
Ray Kroc
www.startinbusiness.co.uk: starting, buying, or expanding a business
www.businesslink.gov.uk: practical advice and tips for starting a business
www.bizhelp24.com: practical advice and business resources for anyone looking to start up a small business
Children and Education
An area of anxiety for many parents. Making the right choice is a complicated
tangle of social views, political beliefs, opinions about the effectiveness
of options within the educational system and financial realities.
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
Albert Einstein
“I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could tolerated anything so primitive.”
John W Gardner
sewww.schoolsnet.com: search the UK's largest and most accurate database of educational opportunities.
www.direct.gov.uk: accessing a range of government information and services.
www.cfw.tufts.edu: websites on topics of interest to parents and professionals. All the sites have been systematically evaluated by professionals in child development.
www.adviceguide.org.uk: comprehensive resource on all aspects of education
www.education-otherwise.org: a UK-based membership organisation that provides support and information for families whose children are being educated outside school
Wills, Inheritance tax and the Family Future
An aspect of life that is easy to ignore and neglect. But a critical
activity to ensure that your wishes for how you want things to be
area translated into practical measures.
“Fools and obstinate men make lawyers rich.”
(anon)
www.online-will.co.uk: information about making a will in the UK
Dealing with Life’s Setbacks
Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Sometimes events occur
which threaten all that we have striven to build and achieve. There
are two sets of response. We can allow these times to make us weaker
and more fearful of life’s future challenges. Or we can find
ways to navigate through the difficult times.
“Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward.”
Henry Ford
Coping with Redundancy
Redundancy can be viewed as a personal injustice, a devastating blow
to self esteem and the beginnings of financial hardship. It can also
be a catalyst to rethink life priorities and an opportunity to pursue
new career possibilities.
“Nothing bad is going to happen to us. If we get fired, it's not failure; it’s a midlife vocational reassessment.”
P. J. O'Rourke
www.businesslink.gov.uk: comprehensive and systematic guide to redundancy from the perspective of employer and employee
www.redundancyhelp.co.uk: useful and practical advice, support and tips
www.adviceguide.org.uk: on line Citizens Advice Bureaus
Dealing with Divorce
Divorce is difficult. It can be a destructive process resulting in
little more than unpleasant memories, resentment and a sense of life
failure. It can also be cathartic, closing down a phase of life that
wasn’t working and moving us onto a better future.
"When a couple decide to divorce, they should inform both sets
of parents before having a party and telling all their friends. This
is not only courteous but practical.
Parents may be very willing to pitch in with comments, criticism and
malicious gossip of their own to help the divorce along."
P.J. O'Rourke.
“My divorce came to me as a complete surprise. That's what happens when you haven't been home in eighteen years.”
Lee Trevino
www.divorcewizards.com: a guide to divorce
www.divorce.co.uk: practicalities and support
Debt and Bankruptcy
Life Law Number One: don’t get into debt. But if you are and
your personal and/or business finances are crashing around you, don’t
ignore the harsh realities. Denial will make a difficult situation
an impossible one. Face the facts and manage the problem proactively.
“Bankruptcy stared me in the face, but one thought kept me calm; soon I'd be too poor to need an anti-theft alarm.”
Gina Rothfels
www.nacab.org.uk:the Citizens Advice Bureau web site
www.cashbazar.com: lots of practical stuff
www.bizhelp24.com: practical advice for commercial and personal bankruptcy
Coming to Terms with the Death of a Loved One
Of all of life’s contingencies, the death of a loved one is the
most difficult. The loss of an elderly parent is tough. The trauma
associated with a child’s death is so awful that it seems impossible
to imagine how life could ever be enjoyed again. Sites which might
help navigate through a painful process in life:
“Never ask the Gods for life set free from grief, but ask for courage that endures long.”
Menander
“If you're going through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill
www.helpguide.org: comprehensive resource with practical articles
www.bbc.co.uk: information on the experience of bereavement and advice on ways to come to terms with loss.