Typically many of the personal clients we work with are nudged into seeking advice by a quickly approaching event in their lives…

Retirement.

You see much of the work we do for our clients is to help them organise their financial affairs in the run up to their intended date where they cease work.

In reality very few of our clients actually stop “work”.

Many just change their focus. Some continue to do consultancy work, some help out their favourite charities and many spend more time with their children and grandchildren. Others love their jobs so much they just carry on working (but safe in the knowledge that they have their financial affairs in order so they could give up if they wanted to).

However part of our job as financial planners is to ensure that our clients are best placed to spend their time ‘in retirement’ doing whatever the want to do for as long as feasibly possible!

It’s interesting. Whilst it’s understandable that many of our clients seek our advice when the age in which they intend to ‘retire’ (and as I’ve already mentioned this means different things to different people) the reality is that there’s a lot of value in seeking advice far earlier than that…

One of the things I’ve learned when working with our clients approaching retirement, many of whom have enough money to sustain their lifestyle for the rest of their lives, is more often than not they haven’t got there by accident.

Many of our clients have put actions in place and worked for decades building businesses, saving regularly and taking regular consistent actions which have helped them achieve financial security.

You see the reality of financial security for the majority of those who are in this position isn’t a story of ‘get rich quick’ or ‘get rich easy’ but something different…

For most who have achieved financial security regardless of the route to this security the reality is that they have done this slowly and has usually taken both loads of focus and loads of effort.

For some this journey to financial security has been taken alone. However for many this journey has been with the support of independent coaches, external strategies and with support to help them achieve their goals.

For many of those who are yet to achieve financial security but have time until they ‘retire’ a relationship with a financial planner can help.

By putting a plan in place, focussing on the actions you need to take to achieve your goals and keeping you accountable by taking the small steps towards this aspiration is a fundamental first step.

Now there are costs involved in engaging with a financial planner. Like any professional from an accountant, a lawyer or a reputable business coach.

However if working with a financial planner can provide clarity, confirm the actions you need to take to achieve financial security and recommend strategies which get you towards a position where you’re financially secure that might well be a short time cost worth incurring to achieve your longer term goals.

What do you think?