Dust off those January Blues

Well here we are into a New Year and here at Bleathwood we are aware everyone thought is suffering those January blues.  Many of you will be doing your best to keep them at bay by sitting with a lovely cuppa thumbing through holiday brochures or surfing on line.  All with a view of searching for blue skies and sun on your back when summer finally arrives.  You will probably end up spending quite a few hours searching for your annual jaunt to the sun.

Here at Bleathwood we are working hard with those clients who are not only just planning this year’s trips away, but when they finally start to work less or even enjoy 365 days off a year, the opportunity to dust off those winter blues more than once a year.

Why is that we spend so many hours on things like planning our holidays, but we fail to set aside 60 to 90 minutes a year to create our future plans, and then even review them.

So what is financial planning all about?  Well it is more than just sitting down and talking about pensions or your ISA’s.  It should be asking the question like, should I be investing more in China or other Emerging Markets or taking less risk? 

It is more about what those things are going to do for YOU, why should you do them and how to use them properly.  We help our client’s to think about how they map out their finances to help them create the financial future they want and need.  We give them the chance to design their finances.  We try to take away the guess work.  Even try to answer those “what if” questions.  Like when can we or I afford to retire, send my children to University, buy that holiday home, travel far and wide.

How do we do this?  Well we listen, gather the data and start to map things out using a Cashflow Modelling tool.  Look, financial advice is about advice, not products, they are sometimes the tools you need to achieve the life you need.

So why should you do it?  Well we are living in a time of low interest rates and potentially rising inflation, it is difficult to find ways of making money work smarter, whilst not knowing how long you need it to last?  Add to that statistically we are living longer.  Therefore does it not make sense to spend some time on understanding not only what you want, how you can you do that and see how the journey looks through regular reviews.  They always say – “If you fail to plan then you plan to fail”.

So whilst you are suffering your January Blues.  Further frustrated because you have already broken 1 or 2 of your New Year resolutions.  Change your thought process.  Dig out your finances and give them an early spring clean by having a chat with your Independent Financial Advisors.

You may never again suffer those January Blues – but we cannot promise that.  

06 Jan 2017

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