One trait I’m trying to encourage myself to be more over the past couple of years is curious.

It’s interesting. As a financial planner, often people come to you for answers. However often the real beauty and key to do this is to be better at asking questions…a skill I’ve been aiming to cultivate over the past few years.

Luckily I’ve add some massive opportunities to do so, Firstly through the podcast I hosted with my daughter for many years, The Kindness Project – where we spoke to people doing good in the world.

Now through the work we’re doing exploring the factors you might want to consider when thinking about the crossroad many of us face in our lives in our 50’s or 60’s, as part of whathappensnext.life, I’m interviewing a wide range of experts to share their wisdom about how to navigate change in this element of our lives successfully. 

This is what I’ve learned recently…

Cliff Spolander taught us about the considerations we might want to make when selling our business, which many of us may have to deal with during our journey towards ‘what happens next’.

This included:-

–          The advantage of setting clear goals and importantly alingning business goals with personal targets.

–          Looking at profit as an important measure when looking at business valuations and considering when approaching sale, reducing unnecessary costs and diverse revenue streams

and

–          The importance of looking at your business from the perspective of someone buying it. I think often we’re all guilty of getting stuck in the trap of valuing in a business knowing how much blood, sweat and tears we’re poured into growing it…when it reality the market looks at our businesses in an entirely different way.

You can find the full interview here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6reOWVBqFT0

JANE THOMAS taught us about how if we understand our motivations better, and frame our motivations in ‘maps’, we might be able to have a greater understanding of how to spend our time doing things we love.

We also talked a lot about the importance of recognising individual motivators in career development, and the links between happiness, wellbeing and career success.

We also, and I reckon this is vital when we’re thinking about what happens next, how understanding what motivates us is key to working out what to do when you hit a crossroads in life.

She also shared a great story of how motivational maps helped a reluctant teacher say no to a job she knew she wouldn’t enjoy but do work she truly loves.

You can find the full interview here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8TEs7av8Tk

Finally, Emannuel Asquo taught us about the important of…

Setting goals and creating a financial plan. Whilst goals don’t always increase our wellbeing, it’s clear that having a plan and aspirational goals are really important

And Why, when thinking about our financial wellbeing it’s important to get the basics right. Budgeting, the simple art of controlling our income and expenditure of maintaining an appropriate balance, is fundamental when it comes to our financial plan.

Whilst it’s a little bit (read a lot) simplistic…The Charles Dickens character Micawber wasn’t too wrong when talking about financial wellbeing when he said…

Annual income: Twenty pounds, Annual expenditure : Nineteen pounds 99 pence. Result happiness

Annual income: Twenty pounds, Annual expenditure : Twenty two pounds: Result Misery.

Now clearly the world is for more complex and the whole idea of what happens next is that we explore the nuance. But it’s also important to get the financial basics right, and that starts with a clear budget plan..

You can find the full interview here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNNpUSDE9KU

Our mission is to continue to share insights which empower and enable you to live certainly more financially secure lives but continue to interview people where the insights are more broad.

I hope you continue to benefit from these insights but would love to know some of the other topics you’d love to see at What Happens Next too.

So, feel free to email me at hello@cervellofp.co.uk or put a comment on this blog and we’ll do what we can to help.