Budgeting, Goals, Investing, Insurance
Financial Planning for Every Stage of Life
Different stages of life require different wealth creation, growth, and protection strategies. At GAP Wealth I provide advice and strategies to suit your personal circumstances, responsibilities, goals, and dreams. Here’s a look at four of the most common phases of life and how your financial planning needs change with them. By understanding this, you can get a better idea of how a financial advisor can help you make the most of your planning process to secure your future.
Business Owner
As a business owner, you probably have felt at times that running your business successfully is one of the most important things in life. It’s likely you have poured a number of resources into it. For this reason, you should give careful consideration to your business’s financial plan as well. A solid business plan is critical to the long-term viability of a business. An experienced financial planner will take you through an integrated process that will address the considerations of where you are currently, vs where you want to be in the future, and create strategies to help you get there.
- Purchase insurance to help cover outstanding business loans or mortgages if you die or suffer from critical illness
- Protection of assets
- Evaluate your current business structure and provide improvements
- Cash Flow Analysis
- Distinguish between personal and business goals
- Tax savings strategies
- Risk management planning
- Creation of a custom investment plan (both local and offshore)
- Business exit strategy and succession plan
Getting Married
The opportunity to go through life with a loving partner may be the greatest benefit of a successful marriage. That said, marriage may affect your finances in many ways. It can shape your ability to save for financial goals, to plan for retirement, to plan your estate, and to capitalize on tax and insurance-related benefits. There are certain bases you should cover to protect the life that you and your fiancé are building together. You’ve got a big future ahead of you and being prepared can only help make the journey better.
- Determine your new investment contributions and allocations, taking into account your combined income and expenses
- Work with both of you as a neutral party to help you as a couple focus on your financial goals, increase communication, create “next steps,” and improve your financial outlook
- Create (or update) your will, and update your beneficiaries, power of attorney, and health care proxy
- Look into getting life insurance and re-evaluate other insurance policies.
- Buy a house that won’t put too much stress on your assets
- Strategy to pay down debt faster
Starting a family
When you’re starting a family, financial planning becomes even more important. Someone else will soon depend on you to provide for them, and that’s no small responsibility. Making a family financial plan can help you stay on top of things.
- Decide on a guardian for your young children
- Setup a custom plan for increasing your cash reserves
- Decide how you would like your assets to be distributed from your estate in the event of your death
- Review your financial status, life goals, and needs. Project your future income and plan for hobbies or asset acquisitions that you’d like to enjoy as you get closer to retirement (cottage, vacations, golf memberships, etc.)
- Look into getting Critical Illness Insurance
- Review and update your will, as should be done on a yearly basis. Things certainly have changed over the years. Ensure you are covering all of your beneficiaries and that your power of attorneys is up to date
- Review pension information, and assess the ability to structure your assets in the most tax-advantaged manner
- Plan for your children’s future through registered education saving plans (RESPs) and a low-cost life insurance policy they can build on later
Retirement
Planning for retirement is so much more than just the financial element, it’s a very personal decision too, so there is also the emotional element to consider. Taking the time now to determine what kind of life you eventually want to live will help you work through those emotional decisions and plan out how hard your savings have to work. Guidance from an experienced financial advisor can take away the stress of financial planning for retirement.
- Tracking your retirement budget and making necessary adjustments to maintain your desired standard of living
- Review your combined potential income after retirement and reallocate your investments to help provide the income you need while still providing for some growth in capital to help beat inflation and fund your later years
- Updating your Wills and estate planning
- Look at how to fund potential long-term care costs
- Setting up a low tax/tax-free inheritance
- Exploring new passive income streams
Expertise
Financial advisors know more about investing and managing money than most people. They can guide you to better choices than you might make on your own.
Advice
It’s in the name: Financial advisors can make suggestions about the best strategies to implement to improve your finances. This can include everything from what investments to make to what insurance to buy.
Accountability
Financial advisors help keep you on track by talking you out of making emotional decisions about your money. For example, selling all your stock funds when the market plummets.
Action
Working with a financial advisor means someone else can handle what you don’t have time for and make sure your money is being deployed in the best way.
About
I provide individual investment and wealth management services for private clients and companies. I've been trusted by clients, large and small to manage, and preserve their wealth. How can I help you with yours?