Financial Planning & Planners – Unlocking Money Health For Short & Long-Term Financial Security
When people come to us for financial planning advice, we find that no matter where they are along their journey, they share a common desire for prosperity. After all, prosperity is living your best life, free from anxiety to face the future with confidence in where you’re heading, and clarity on how to get there.
Think about this – your journey in all areas of life follows a unique and personal path that can be mapped with milestones, often progressing in importance towards a state of contentment that’s founded on certainty and confidence. This picture can be applied to almost any of life’s facets, from personal wellbeing to family, careers, and relationships.
Even money – your money is a journey and follows a path just the same.
WestStar’s focus is the financial side of your prosperity, and how this serves your personal circumstances, goals, and dreams. Our financial planning services and advice are valuable in determining the direction and trajectory of your financial journey, and they help us and our clients keep sight of the milestones on the way to financial health.
For useful information on how to craft a financial plan that suits your money goals, read this financial planning article.
What is Financial Planning?
In simple terms, financial planning is a deliberate step-by-step approach to meeting your life’s goals. Why is this approach so valuable?
“It is my goal to make sure the families I work with are brilliantly prepared for the future. At WestStar we call this “prosperity” – knowing where you’re going, and how best to get there. Each client has a different path, with unique barriers to their own version of success, and in helping them to jump their barriers, I cater to their learning styles and their level of investment experience.” – Alex Fitch, Financial Consultant
While many people try and reach their life’s goals by going it alone, walking the journey beside a professional financial advisor will make the paths to follow far more certain, and your choices crystal clear. Everybody knows the adage – “Failing to plan means planning to fail:” this truth is particularly relevant in the financial world.
Financial planning provides the tried-and-trusted approach through which to manage your finances and target your personal goals; it also charts the paths to follow every step of the way. These paths come together in your personal financial plan.
Your financial plan acts as a guide to follow through your life’s journey. Essentially, it enables you to take control of your financial future – your income, taxes, expenses, investments, and risks – in pursuing your personal goals.
As part of the financial planning process, a professional financial planning advisor (at WestStar we call ourselves Financial Consultants) will help you determine your short – and long-term financial goals, and create a balanced plan to target them. This may involve aspects such as sensible spending, careful budgeting, and tax planning, to help you put more of your hard-earned money towards increasing cash flow and building your capital.
A qualified financial consultant will also get to know what matters to you while looking at your situation through your eyes. They will craft your journey with you, breaking it down into the steps that need taking. Your advisor will establish the nature and sequence of those milestones unique to your journey and goals.
“Each client deserves a genuine relationship along with the confidence to achieve their goals. My role as an advisor begins as a teacher. Once the client is armed with the knowledge and education, I then become the coach.” – Bryce Powers CRPC®, Financial Consultant
Everyone’s money journey is as unique as they are, and while there is no universal model from which to build a template or rehash strategies, you’ll find some key financial components at the heart of most comprehensive financial plans.
These are the touchpoints upon which a journey to prosperity is built.
- Individual financial planning
- Tax advice & social security planning
- Investment planning
- Risk management
- Retirement planning
- Legacy (Estate Planning)
At WestStar our financial consultants guide our clients through a journey that focuses on 6 interlinked financial planning imperatives. These imperatives are brought together in our personalized prosperity planning approach and find direction and dynamism in our client’s customized roadmaps.
Depending on your life stage, your financial consultant will build many of these components into your financial plan as they guide and steward you towards your goals.
Let’s take a look at these 4 components you’re bound to need along your journey.
- Investments
- Insurance
- Retirement
- Legacy (Estate Planning)
Investments
While traditional saving is generally focused on meeting your short- and medium-term goals (and can prove beneficial in difficult times), investment strategies are used to target long-term goals like retirement, your dream or vacation home, and securing your financial independence. Your investments are the growth engine of your financial plan, ensuring that – by earning interest and beating inflation – your money increases its buying power over time.
Your financial plan will act as a roadmap in helping you and your consultant navigate the right types of investments to fit your needs, circumstances, personality, and goals. Your plan will also take your personal circumstances, objectives, and risk tolerance into consideration.
With your financial consultant’s help and guidance, you can custom-build an investment portfolio to target your money goals, at your comfortable level of risk.
Insurance
Insurance is an essential part of any sound financial plan. The main reason for buying life insurance is to safeguard you and your family from unforeseen circumstances or events, but it can also help you accumulate and preserve wealth, while providing access to emergency funds at the right time.
Life Insurance Health Insurance Disability Insurance Long-term care Insurance Home Insurance Motor Insurance
Beyond life insurance, there are additional types of insurance that you need to consider, such as health insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, home insurance, and motor insurance. These can be of real importance in safeguarding you and your family against life’s storms.
Your financial consultant will help you establish these protective supports as part of your financial plan, so you can manage risk at all times on your money journey.
Retirement
When your working life comes to an end, you’ll want to retain the lifestyle you’re comfortable with for decades to come. It pays to establish your retirement priorities and a personal plan that’ll get you there, and to begin implementing a dedicated savings and investment plan with your consultant. Your future self will thank you for doing so when your working days come to an end.
For more on the importance of retirement planning, read this great article.
Legacy (Estate Planning)
Creating a legacy to be proud of requires real considered thought and careful planning. After all, it’s your final milestone, and with it comes the establishment of the legacy you’ll leave behind for those you love and cherish.
A professional financial consultant will help you calculate the value of your estate, and help you determine how best to distribute assets to your loved ones. After all, when all is said and done, their future protection and happiness is a worthy culmination of any life journey.
The Importance of Financial Planning
As we said earlier, financial planning is a deliberate step-by-step approach to meeting your life’s goals. Without financial planning, you may be leaving a great deal to chance. The crux of financial planning is for you to build and maintain adequate funds and investments throughout your working life, to ensure the right level of income throughout your retirement. Also, to safeguard what you’re building from unforeseen events that can derail you along the way.
By maintaining your financial health, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your journey without anxiety and concern, and face tomorrow with the confidence that comes from knowing where you’re heading, and that you’ll be able to target your goals with a sound financial plan.
To make sure you’re equipped with the knowledge and advice to develop and pursue your financial plan with confidence, chat to us. We’re ready to help you embark on the adventure today.
Let’s talk about your goals and dreams.
WestStar Prosperity Partners
For a comprehensive review of your personal situation, always consult with a tax or legal advisor. Neither Cetera Advisor Networks LLC nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice.
Securities and advisory services are offered through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, member FINRA/SIPC, a broker-dealer and registered investment adviser. Cetera is under separate ownership from any other named entity.