Do you have enough money?

What if I were to ask you “how comfortable do you feel that you’ve got enough money to do what you’d like to do?

I’m wondering how confidently you’d be able to answer this question. My guess is that most people really aren’t sure how much they need.

And I’m not talking about how much you need in the short term- this month or this year. I’m talking about the longer term.

For example, have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions:

Do you have enough money to send your children to private school?

Do you have enough money to enjoy the holidays you’d love to take?

Do you have enough money to stop working at the age you’d like, or maybe reduce your hours?

The bigger question that encompasses all the above is maybe “How much is enough?”

I know how frustrating it can be when you have various pension pots, investments plans and savings but you have no idea what this means in practical terms as to how long that money will last.

Financial planning will answer the question “Do I have enough money?”

The process looks at your current financial position and your goals and objectives. It will show what happens to your wealth both during the period that it is accumulating and more importantly what happens when you start drawing from the various pots.

Various different scenarios can be built in to cover “what ifs”-

What if I retire at 60 rather than 65?

What if I save extra into my pension now?

What if I downsize when I retire?

Financial planning will show you whether your current and expected future financial position will allow your goals to be achieved. If not, it will show what actions you can take to improve the position.

If you plan to retire at 65 how confident are you that you have enough money saved to make that the right option for you. Maybe you can retire earlier than that. If so, wouldn’t that be a treat?

Getting advice and researching what funds to invest in is only part of the story. Make sure you can then identify whether you have enough money.

See Life Wealth Design for further details of this service, and a case study showing how this can be used in practice.

If you’d like to discuss this in more detail please call me on 01932 698150 or contact me on mary@mary-waring.co.uk. We can then answer the question “How much is enough?”

 photo credit: flickr/Images-of-money