Opinion: New Year, new you?

Simon Yates CFP DipPFS CertsCII(MP & ER)

It's that time of year again!  I'm writing this a couple of weekends before Christmas.  I've just been fetching the decorations down.  Feels like I've only just put them away from last year.

So, that's another year almost slipped by.  How was it for you?  Did you get everything that you wished for?

For many people, December is when they reflect on whether or not they've had a good year.  Did everything go to plan?  Did they have a plan in the first place and if so how far off course have the changing economic winds blown them?  So much for looking backwards; useful feedback but it's what we're going to do from now on that counts.  What about the coming year and the years beyond that?  And I'm not talking about a New Year's Resolution that we stick to until the second week of January! I'm talking about a structured plan based on what we really want to do with our lives.

Those of you who know our Lifestyle Financial Planning services well will understand my philosophy: plan what you want to do with the rest of your life, put in place a financial plan to achieve it, take the necessary action, review the results against your plan, then adapt to changes as necessary.

Putting clients' lifestyles at the heart of financial planning seems so obvious to me, yet out of the 70,000 registered investment advisers in the UK only about 950 of us are Certified Financial Planners, trained and assessed in helping clients to work out what lifestyles they want and helping them to put action-based financial plans in place.

Do your financial plans match up to your lifestyle expectations?  Do you have a plan in place to ensure you can maintain your lifestyle?

If you do then that's great.  If not, then I'll leave you with the wise words of Van Morrison: "precious time is slipping away."

Have a peaceful holiday and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.