David & Elaine
David and Elaine (Not our Elaine) were retired and living off the income and some of the capital that they had accumulated over the years. After allowing for various pension incomes, they were supplementing their income from their savings. If interest rates went up they spent more. If interest rates went down they spent less.
Over the years they had accumulated various ISA’s and a few shares. Mostly bought off the Money pages of the Sunday papers and always from leading investment houses who tempted them with ‘promises’ of high returns. So they bought in.
Trouble is, monitoring investments takes time and the changes are fast moving, timing is difficult and predictions almost impossible like trying to know what the weather will be on a certain day. So David & Elaine had gradually built for themselves a portfolio that they didn’t understand and would prefer to forget about it.
Worse. Every Sunday saw both David and Elaine continuing to scour the Money pages of the Sunday papers, and opening the immense amount of Direct Mail received from their various investment providers.
Then the markets went down. David & Elaine were worried. So a friend referred them to our Lifetime Financial Planner .
Our Lifetime Financial Planner met with them and analysed their position; the Planner looked at all of their various investments and their income situation. More important the Planner got David & Elaine to really think about their expenditure requirements and how much they would LIKE to spend to give them the life they wanted.
Then ‘crunched their Number’. Here’s what the Planner found.
Option 1:
David & Elaine could keep doing what they were doing. Living off interest and dividends, forever fearful of market movements over which they had no control, forever afraid to dip into their savings, just in case. Forever going without. Forever cutting back.
Or they could consider: –
Option 2:
They could ask themselves “What’s most important?” To constantly worry about such matters, or to consider the option of planning to live their life with the INTENTION of spending their liquid capital in their lifetime, leaving their home and personal effects to their children when they eventually died. After all, even their children were saying that they “wish Mum and Dad would spend it!”
So our Lifetime Financial Planner helped David & Elaine understand just how much return they needed on their investments so their money lasted their lifetime. This meant they could actually spend more, yet take LESS risk with their investments, and in the process consolidate and simplify their portfolio to reduce charges.
More important, David & Elaine got their life back. No more reading papers. Instead more fun! More eating out, more holidays, more treats for the grandchildren.
For David & Elaine, their money suddenly made sense.
They continue to meet with our Lifetime Financial Planner who continues to help them monitor their Number and manage their wealth to give them the life they want.
For David & Elaine it was a very rewarding experience, providing them with a better lifestyle, less risk, more security and more peace of mind.