Do you ever wake up and just lack energy, motivation and start to sink under the burden of the day ahead, worrying about everything which may or may not happen, and looking at everything with dread?
Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s a virus – there are probably loads of labels or reasons you may add to justify it – but maybe, there is something far more positive you could do. Continue reading “4 ways to improve the view of your day”
It’s all too tempting to channel your children into a mini-me. Yes they look up to their parents as super heroes who can do marvellous things, and there is a likelihood, that what ever example you set as a parent, they will follow.
If you munch on pizza and burgers in front of the TV each night, that precedent is set for eating unhealthily (both in manner and content). If however you exercise, that too may rub off, and they will most likely follow our example to some degree, which in turn brings you great joy. The obvious exception to this, is when you work for months to refine a yoga pose, and your 4 year old daughter walks straight in, does it, and goes on her way as if nothing ever happened (the experience of a face-planted crow!).
Rather than forcing our children to follow in our footsteps, making them have ballet lessons, toughening up the son with a good dose of winter rugby in the wind and hail and so on, there are 4 clear stages in which we can help them build up ‘grit’ – a form of determination which will help them through life.
An Interest (and this needs to be encouraged rather than focusing on their weaknesses);
Deliberate and regular practise (to refine the skills);
A purpose (the long term reasoning about what it brings to others) and
Hope (that resilience that they will keep trying and moving forwards despite what comes their way).
You can read more in this article from Success magazine
Funnily enough, it is not just children who this applies to, it is us as well – especially when your 4 year old contortionist leaves the room with you in a twisted crumpled heap!
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
Anyone who has ever come into contact with a Serenity financial life planner will be more than aware of our passion for not just financial planning, but financial life planning.
That small four letter word ‘life’ may not seem that significant but it epitomises the whole point of all of us being here. The whole purpose of being on the planet is about life, and without that key element, perhaps there is no point, no purpose, and no logic.
In this article in Forbes, George Kinder, the founding father of Financial Life Planning explains the huge difference between financial planning and financial life planning.
In short, one deals with people’s money, the other focuses on their lives and happiness first, then sets to work around the money part. In a way, it is comparing living to living life.
To quote one of our very great friends Andy Hart of Maven Adviser, ‘no adviser ever got a letter from a pension policy asking for help’.
Emotion drives decisions, and decisions drive life, this is when we finally figure out that people’s emotions drive everything. To understand emotions, and ultimately our clients’ drivers through their lives, we need to listen to them, not project our opinions on how clever we think we are.
It’s all about having a deep and meaningful relationship with our clients through their lives, not a synthetic relationship with their money for as long as it lasts. Without that deep relationship, we are just continually guessing at what may be best for our clients, guesses which may have a long term detrimental effect on their happiness.
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
Many people find that their view and experience of their retirement may be very different from what they expect. Reality can be a pretty harsh awakener (especially if it’s your own retirement).
In the financial part of the equation, you can of course model, plan and adjust assumptions and figures as you head towards the big day and the rest of your life. Of course it takes a high degree of knowledge and skill to get the figures absolutely correct, and with the aid of technology, it is easier to get pretty close, even building in re-runs of the 2008 credit crunch (remember that?).
Even if you have the financial plan in place, it may be that the other side of retirement – LIFE – can all of a sudden, not unfold quite as you had imagined.
Will your retirement be all holidays and lunches at garden centres? Will it be just looking forward to watching your favourite TV show with an eccles cake and a cup of tea at 3.30pm ? Or, could it be full of purpose, full of fun, a brand new start?
Frequently people who had such high expectations for their retirement, find that a year or two in, they have managed to find themselves in a rut of mundaneness (they may even be fulfilling their spouses retirement and not even thinking about their own). They may even look back and wish that they had stayed working and be paid to be bored, rather than sacrifice an income and lack little social interaction.
People just like you are quickly realising that they need to plan their retirement just as they plan their future. That planning is not just about scheduling in a month-long break to Malta each October, but figuring out how each day and week may look for you. What will you do to happily fill the time, and regain your purpose and passions which may well have been put on hold for 50 years (whilst ‘grown up life’ for in the way).
Finding your happy retirement is not just going to be attached to a number – a certain amount of income, especially if all those years lack fun, freedom and a real purpose. You will probably find that the things which bring you the most joy, may not even cost much at all, you just need to find them and not be trapped in a retirement bucket.
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
The answer to that is ‘yes’ if you are the client who I was recently working with!
I’ll explain how… Continue reading “Is there a £500k hole in your pocket”
Here is a questions often asked – what is a financial life plan, and why would I need that as opposed to a financial plan?
More and more consumers are understanding that there is a difference between the old way of financial advice (selling as many products as possible) and financial planning (where recommendations are able to demonstrate that they are relevant and appropriate for the long term).
So where is Financial Life Planning different? Continue reading “What is a financial life plan ?”
There is much talk at the moment around transferring pension benefits from Defined Benefit (Final Salary) schemes – especially in the wake of the British Steele pension issue. It is a hugely complex area, one which requires high levels of care and consideration, and it is not just the financial issues to consider, it is a whole different way of planning around your pension and life. Continue reading “Cruising or Paddling Your Own Canoe ? That is the difference between pensions!”
At our ‘Serenity On Tour’ seminars (which spanned the UK covering Cornwall, London, Lincoln and North Wales), one of the presenters asked these questions …
Not many attendees knew the answer to the first question, less to the second, and less again to the third. The point behind the exercise, was that if you do not know what you are going to spend next month, then how on earth will you know what you will spend in retirement? Continue reading “How to fix a terrible money habit in one month”
What is the one thing you feel MOST uncomfortable talking about?
Have a think a moment, then write down a few ideas.
What did you come up with?
Perhaps you had some of these : politics? religion? death? mental health? regrets? sexual orientation?
How about money? How comfortable would you really feel about talking to others openly about your finances – how much you earn, how much you owe, or how much is in your bank account? Continue reading “The last taboo – talking about money…”
Your emotions and the financial markets may have more in common that you first think.
Over the long term, the general trend of financial markets is upwards. Like it or loathe it, the concept of financial growth (some may call it capitalism) seems to work. Of course, from time to time, there are little wobbles along the way, sometimes (2001 and 2008 spring to mind) there is a calamitous drop in value. Given time however, and avoiding panic, generally, things recover, and after a while, are back to where they were, and improving again (unless of course you had all your assets in one company which went bust) . This is the message we convey to our investment clients at Serenity – trust in the plan, and despite the short term wobbles, in the end, the plan will see you through.
Using happiness as the global currency instead of money, generally, society can hope to work towards greater joy, feeling better about the things around us and ourselves. Trust that generally, life will be ok, and we find that the investment in ourselves will pay dividends, be it health or mental functions. Continue reading “What your emotions and the financial markets have in common”
Escaping The Bucket 