We often make plans for holidays, career changes, moving locations, or perhaps a five year or ten-year plan, but sometimes we neglect to plan far into the future and retirement and beyond. A good plan will take time and organisation but will enable you to live a life aligned with your values, with more time to enjoy the things you like to do, and enough money to get you through (and more if you invest it correctly!) Time flies, and you don’t want to retire without having lived a prosperous life and set up suitable structures to make life easier and of better quality for you and your family.
Many factors can impact your finances and security over the years. It is essential that everyone, regardless of their current age, status, income or education, prepares as much as possible. You may be thinking, but retirement is so far away. But by planning and organising your future in advance, you can significantly reduce any stress you have around money, create a tax strategy to save you from spending more than you need to, make better career and financial decisions as you have a long-term plan and bigger picture to work towards, avoid running out of money in retirement. You can live a life of better quality and ensure nothing is burdened on your children.
If you are ready to start planning for your future, for retirement and beyond, then here are some top tips to help you get started.
1. Identify your values
Your values can be defined by what is important to you. Take some time to think about what these are, which ones are important to you, and which ones you would like to carry through your life. Your values will be the foundation for everything in your life moving forward. This will ensure that you are doing more of the things you enjoy, as when you look back, you may be surprised at how many activities you participate in every week that do not align with your values. Do you value family? Alone time? Health and fitness?
2. Make a plan
It is essential to consider what you want your life, future, and retirement to look like. When you have a rough idea of what you want this to look like, you can begin to break it down into manageable steps for you to take over the years. This kind of plan will keep you aligned and focused over the years as you watch yourself take the steps to a successful future. It would help if you kept an open mind, as your aspirations may change over the years, and that is okay. Your plan can be adjusted whenever it needs to be to fit with what you want in life. Just make sure to follow a similar structure, whereby you look ahead and plan your steps. This will keep you motivated and moving forward.
3. Conduct a financial review
When you know what you want and your values, you can start to consider your finances. First, it is vital to begin looking at your current financial situation and then compare it with where you want to be. This will help you identify the next steps you need to take to help you get there and stay on track with your plan. A vital step is to review your current outgoings against your values; for example, you might spend more money than you want to on eating out and television subscriptions.
Then you can move forward onto what you need to put in place for a prosperous future, for example, opening a savings account, investing your money in a variety of stocks and shares, opening a retirement fund, and obtaining the relevant insurance policies.
You may wish, at this point, to seek some professional financial support.
4. Write a will
Writing a will is an essential step for anyone, at any age. This is because a choice sets out instructions after your passing and will protect your wishes, your loved ones and the distribution of your assets. In your will and plans, you can set out what kind of funeral you wish to have, who should look after your children and pets, make sure that your children are financially secure and assist with inheritance tax. Writing a will early on will also enable you to take your time, and shop around for the best deals possible for you and your family, for example, discover how to save funeral costs and many more.
Planning for your future will take time but will give you much more freedom and money to live your life to the fullest.