Financial planning for life events

Life can throw us curveballs of the unexpected, but there are also many life events that we can anticipate and plan for.

At First Financial, our financial planning services have an important point of difference – it’s all about you.

First Financial is a boutique, client-centric firm, which means the relationships we share with you are intimate, valuable and engaging.

We don’t subscribe to a one-size-fits-all approach and our planning ethos takes into account all major life events and how to future-proof your finances to thrive through them, not just survive.

In this article, we discuss some of the ‘big ticket financial events’ you may bump up against on your path through life and how best to manage your money around them.

Our trajectory through life is unique, but all of us need to manage our finances in a way that ensures we can provide for ourselves and those we love.

Understanding how to best manage your finances through major life milestones will give you the confidence to make every financial move a smart one.

At First Financial, we avoid traditional risk profiling.

Instead, your unique circumstances and attitude form the foundation for our tailor-made plans.

The life events that will likely dominate your 20s, 30s and 40s are those that concern your own education and career path building and the consolidation of your family and their path to learning and thriving.

During these decades, these are the major life milestones you will likely be spending your money on.

As you age you expect life to get easier.

Maybe the kids are off your hands and you’re looking forward to a comfortable retirement.

But even when you feel like it’s time to kick back, life often has a way of bringing you back down to earth.

We briefly touch on each of these milestone events below.

There is no doubt that a good education is a great foundation for life, but unfortunately, it is not free.

During your 20s you will likely still be juggling the costs of your own education and this could extend into your 30s or 40s and include the educational expenses of your spouse and children.

In the rapidly changing world, upskilling and career changes are also common, so learning is no longer a ‘set and forget’ experience that you tackle while you’re young.

Consider the amount of funds you will need to get through your own educational goals and assist your loved ones to reach their full potential.

Entering into serious adult relationships has inevitable financial implications that constitute a major financial milestone.

If you do choose to get married, things like engagement rings, weddings and honeymoons are expenses that need to be drawn from somewhere.

And once the party is over there is the consolidation of finances and assets to consider – not to mention the additional costs of health insurance etc.

While swept up in the romance of a relationship, particularly at the beginning, it’s easy to neglect the super important relationship milestone in itself – how to manage your finances together.

Are you and your partner on the same page, financially?

Could you benefit from financial advice early on in your relationship?

For those who wish to expand their family with children, the costs often begin mounting long before the baby arrives.

Think pregnancy and fertility costs, birth and health management costs – these outgoings all occur even before the regular costs of supporting an entirely new person come into play.

Caring for your children will be the single most important, and expensive, thing you do.

What are your financial plans for managing this phase of your life?

How does that work with your salary and income expectations?

Your financial adviser can do some projected figures here, long before you bring any bundle of joy home, to help you to make important decisions to benefit your future family.

Relationship breakdown is a possible implication of any decade, and can have devastating financial consequences.

While you don’t necessarily have to ‘prepare for divorce,’ if the breakdown of a significant relationship is on the cards in your life, being prepared for the financial strain of this can help you to move through this painful time.

Divorces, or even the dissolution of non-marriage relationships where finances or children are shared, can mount legal expenses, asset splitting costs and the outlay of setting up a new household.

Your financial planner can help you to navigate this tricky life event if it does come to pass.

No one likes to think of the worst, but unforeseen life events such as illnesses, accidents or other major upheavals all rely on your prior planning and firm financial planning foundations.

At First Financial, our services include advice about the types of:

• Business insurance
• Life insurance
• Trauma insurance and
• Income protection you should need to prepare for the worst.

While our philosophy is always to expect the best, it makes sense to ensure our clients have the financial resources to withstand a less-than-positive life experience.

For some people, starting a transition to retirement (TtR) strategy is the ideal way to begin winding down and easing out of full-time work.

You can drop some hours at work and use the supplementary income to help maintain the same lifestyle.

The TtR strategy is undoubtedly difficult to navigate on your own… but depending on your personal circumstances it could be highly advantageous.

This is where we can help.

The financial advisers in our team understand that everyone’s situation is different and can provide you with sound advice on how and when it is best to reduce your working hours to move into retirement.

A hot button topic right now is the rising cost of living, inflationary pressures and upward trajectory of interest rates.

While it’s impossible to have a crystal ball to determine what will happen in the future, a good financial adviser will future-proof your wealth management plan to accommodate the ups and downs of the economy itself.

Our philosophy is all about staying ahead of change, including legislative changes, and we constantly evolve and refine our strategies and plans to ensure our clients get the best possible advice at all times.

If you’d like to talk to First Financial about bringing certainty into your financial future, contact our financial planners today.

We tailor our financial planning services to your unique circumstances and develop long-standing relationships with our clients to last the distance, so that when you’re experiencing one of life’s financial milestones, we’re just a phone call away for advice.