The importance of setting financial goals and how to achieve them – your Roadmap to financial independence 

As we enter the new year, it is a great time to reflect on our lives and consider making changes for the future. Many people make resolutions to improve their physical or financial health, but often these resolutions are forgotten by the end of January.

Setting financial goals helps you establish an individual and robust financial plan that will serve you for far longer than a few weeks.  A good place to start is by understanding your existing position, listing your assets, and subtracting your liabilities to establish your net worth. Then, consider your income and expenditure to create a budget. This may sound simple, but many people have never taken the time to do this.

The next step is identifying and prioritising your goals. For instance, is it more important to retire early or purchase that holiday home? Can you do both?

Making these types of decisions is key to improving your chances of reaching long term financial satisfaction.

Once you have considered your goals and budget, you will need to set aside sums for emergencies as well as save for short-term goals, such as assisting children in getting on the property ladder or helping to fund a child or grandchild’s education.

Financial planning also involves understanding and accommodating your personal risk tolerance and capacity for loss. Knowing how comfortable you would be with potential declines in the value of investments and balancing this with your desired level of returns can help decide how your money is invested.

You will need to consider how widely diversified should your financial plan be, and are there any constraints, such as ethical preferences?  Your financial plan may also call for the use of protection insurance to protect against financial losses. After all, if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

Financial planning also addresses the end of life and beyond. An estate plan prepared as part of your overall financial plan will help you make sure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes and whether or not you intend to include the chancellor as one of your beneficiaries. You’ll also be able to support charitable organisations and causes that are close to your heart to create a legacy that honours your life and wishes.

Once goals have been established, rather than buying and selling investments on the basis of unproven tactics, you will see the benefit of a disciplined long-term investment approach to assist you in reaching your goals, and you will be able to reduce the cost of taxes by positioning yourself to make the best use of allowances, deductions and other tax strategies.

Financial planners often refer to the process as “building a roadmap” to ensure you stay on track to achieve your financial goals.

I love a road map. I remember the days before the beginning of a journey, I would study the road map and write myself a list of instructions to get me to the desired destination. Things have changed; I simply enter the postcode of my desired destination and trust the satellite navigation system to direct me.

This technology has the added benefit of adapting to find the best route according to my preferences, taking into account speed limits and traffic conditions, and constantly adjusting to ensure I reach my desired destination with as much ease as possible. I still prefer to look at the route on a map to understand my journey and allow me to apply a little common sense on the way, but trusting the experts with the overall route has certainly improved my experience.

In a similar way, once we establish your current position and where you want to go, we can help you get there. And rather more like a satellite navigation system than a traditional road map, we regularly revisit your plan and adjust accordingly. This allows us to react to changes in economic factors and personal circumstances which will affect your financial journey. You might even want to change direction on the way or add in some extra steps.

MM Wealth has been trusted for nearly 40 years to support clients in reaching their goals, whilst allowing them to follow the map and understand the journey they are taking, providing the flexibility to alter course whenever required.

If you need help with financial planning and goal setting, please speak to our financial planning team at 01223 233331 or email info@mmwealth.co.uk.

Disclaimer

Opinions constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without warning.  The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, and you may not recover the amount of your original investment.

The information in this article is not intended as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities or any other investment, nor does it constitute a personal recommendation.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate estate planning and tax planning.

The information contained within this blog is based on our understanding of legislation, whether proposed or in force, and market practice at the time of writing.  Levels, bases and reliefs from taxation may be subject to change.