Are you living your best life? If you’re not sure, think about it and find out. Most see retirement as a single event or milestone, and the biggest question they have is: “Am I going to be ok”? Or, put differently, “Do I have enough”?
This week, among the meetings I had with clients, there were 2 instances which highlighted the benefits of doing proper planning and understanding one’s real financial situation.
The first was a client we have just started to work with. Let’s call her Jane. Jane worked through our onboarding process with us and got to our third meeting, where we showed her the reality of her situation and then explored several possibilities based on how she wanted to live the rest of her life. The relief on Jane’s face when she realised that she would be OK was clearly visible. When I first met Jane, I sensed that she carried a lot of stress and fear around her financial situation, and knowing that she had enough to live as she was brought an end to this stress.
In fact, not only would she be OK, but we showed her that we could help her build a plan for her life and her money that allowed her to visit family overseas, upgrade her car, and start to live a little.
The other couple I met with have been clients for 5 years. Let’s call them Jack and Jill. They had been dealing with a corporate who met with them once a year and ran over their investment performance. They approached us because in their last meeting with their adviser, as they left, Jill asked, “Are we going to be ok”? To which he replied, “You should be”. Jill told me how she didn’t sleep for a week, and after telling her children about the experience, they referred them to Client Care, so we took them through our process.
Five years down the line, Jack and Jill know they have way more money than they need, especially if they had continued to live as they were. They now annually visit their family all around the world and are next year planning a family holiday with their 5 children and all their grandkids. They understand the concept of “giving with a warm heart” rather than “with a cold hand”. For a couple in their 70s who grew up in the War, this was hugely empowering.
As we finished the meeting with Jack and Jill, she asked me. “How many advisers tell their clients to spend more money”? My answer was simple, not enough.