A phrase we sometimes use in conversations with investors to explain what we do at iPlanning is that we are planners not players. Our strategy always is to have a financial plan and only make changes to the plan if goals and objectives change.

One of the practices we often employ during our review meetings is to have a financial stress test. This is when we check three risk factors in the light of a potential overnight stock market drop of drop of 20%. The three questions we ask are:

• Are your investment objectives impacted?
• Is your ability to fund your month by month desired standard of living affected?
• Is your access to cash in an emergency compromised?

As far as we are aware every client has passed the stress test when those criteria were applied. This is good news and sticking to the plan in place is the best plan.

However there is one test that is harder to assess during our review meetings and that is the ‘risk tolerance’ test. This is when we ask how would you cope if the investment waters got very choppy?

The answer to this question is often linked to how long you have been an investor and what kind of temperament you have. This is when some of you need to have a chat about perspective and a discussion on why ‘panic’ is not an answer!

Those of you who have been invested for a long time know that these times of turbulence have happened before on your journey and that they do pass. None of us like turbulence but on a long flight there is an inevitability about it and we fasten our seat-belts.

Our encouragement to you is that you stick with the plan we have in place for you and tighten your seat belts. If you want to meet because you are loosing perspective or have any other concerns then all you need do is arrange a meeting with one of us.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

iPlanning’s in-house fitness fanatic is busy preparing to run her first Marathon on Sunday. Tracy is running the Brighton Marathon along with her mum, Pat, and eldest daughter, Hannah.

“We are 3 generations of the same family, Mother, Daughter and Granddaughter. On 15th April 2018, we are running our first ever marathon, the Brighton Marathon.

To give us the incentive to reach that finish line, we have chosen 3 charities that we would like to support, Alzheimer’s Society, Stroke Association and Epilepsy Action, all three causes are close to our hearts as a family”

If you want to know more about why she’s running and the charities she is raising money for then you can click here to visit their fundraising page.

iPlanning would like to wish “The 3 Generations” the best of luck. Hope you have a great day.

iPlanning will be closed today continuing a 15+ year old tradition. On March 1st we declare an unofficial bank holiday to celebrate Dydd Gwyl Dewi – St David’s Day.

We’ve blogged about the reasons behind this decision in the past and if you’re interested you can read about it here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

On a number of occasions I’ve had to break the news to people, some of them clients, that the material they are reading or listening to is a scam. What used to be restricted to be only phone calls and letters, is now finding its way into our field of vision via email, web adverts and social media. Offers always seem attractive, include free advice and usually promise to help you receive some financial reward.

What amazed me on most occasions is that the people I have to explain the scam to, or even have to persuade them that it is a scam, are highly intelligent people. Some of them on the verge of parting with money and give their details away.

Scammers have always been around and they are not going away anytime soon. If attempts to scam us didn’t work then they scammers would stop and give up. The truth is that it does work and the scammers are getting cleverer and more sophisticated.

The reason we at iPlanning are raising this issue is that there has been an increase in pension scams since the announcement of greater pension freedoms and access to pension funds.

If you are contacted by people, usually people you don’t know, about releasing or accessing your pension, don’t give them any information or any hint that you are interested.

There are useful sources resources open to you if you are approached or think you’ve been scammed. Probably the first place to visit is the Financial Regulators ScamSmart site and this link will take you to where you need to go.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

Many opportunities in life are good, even great. That doesn’t mean we should pursue them. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins says that once-in-a-lifetime opportunities come up every day. Most people take any great opportunity that comes their way, even if it’s not in alignment with their life vision. Consequently, most people’s lives are moving in a thousand different directions. They aren’t able to consciously move forward in a singular direction.

On the other hand, happy people say no to even amazing opportunities. They will not sacrifice freedom for security. They will not get derailed by distractions — even attractive distractions. They don’t lose sight of what’s important and what isn’t.

Very few things in life are best. You can only determine what’s best for you once you know where you want your life to go. Be careful not to continuously engage in good activities and miss the best ones.

At iPlanning we are reminding ourselves of the need to prioritise in 2017. We do so whenever we pit our tea or coffee mug on our new coasters. If you haven’t had one then contact the office and we’ll send you one.

Make 2017 a great one by prioritising and focusing in on the important.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

Image Credits: freeimages.com/photographer/stellab-46383; freeimages.com/photographer/wjs7652-46286

It can be scary when you realise that you’ve reached a stage in life where you can look back on over 35 years of fluctuating investment markets before pausing to write a few comments! It’s also a comfort to be able to look back that far especially when I can do so to reflect on something specific.

The point of my looking back is to note two things that are true about clients of ours who could be classed as successful investors.

Firstly they have ridden the storms without bailing out!

Secondly they have been consistent investors.

In the first instance they recognize that investment is long term and spending time in the market has paid off handsomely. Secondly, they have been prepared to regularly commit further surplus capital or income to their portfolios without worrying about timing the markets. If opportunities arise to invest when there are dips in the marker then they enjoy the bonus. However if they have surplus capital when this doesn’t happen they still commit to investment. They know that time in the market is more important than timing the market.

So what has this got to do with looking back, giraffes and turtles?

A giraffe and a turtle can occupy the same space but see at different levels. They are in the same place at the same time and yet the “turtle-view” is so much different to the “giraffe view”. What the turtle sees gives him one perspective while the perspective the giraffe has is very different.

During times of global nervousness like we are currently experiencing, both economically and financially, the length of time I have been around helps me see things more from a giraffe viewpoint than a turtle’s perspective.

I feel like a giraffe because I can see back as far as my first experience of a back market drop. 1987 – Black Monday. Overnight the UK index fell by 26% The Hong Kong index fell by 45%. Everything looked black and bleak  – even the weather. It prompted negative opinions like the ones captured in the quote below.

“Following the stock market crash, a group of 33 eminent economists from various nations met in Washington, D.C. in December 1987, and collectively predicted that ‘the next few years could be the most troubled since the 1930s.'” (Wikepedia)

This was just one of many turbulent times for investors. The current dip is not pleasant to witness, often because as we are going through it we are prone to see the situation more like a turtle than a giraffe.

It may be scary to think that I can look back as far as Black Monday but it is also comforting to know that what I’ve noticed is that following every dip, no matter how severe, there has been a recovery and that clients who have stayed the course have benefited from that recovery.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

A 90 day period is a reasonable time to plan the completion of unfinished tasks, deal with things that need attention or even initiate new plans for the future.

This exercise is particularly useful as it accomplishes a number of things, too many to note in a short blog, but here are a few examples.

1. This exercise gets me back on track. Inevitably I will have drifted from the direction I set myself at the beginning of the year or some other time during the year.
2. This exercise re-sets my priorities. “This is my predicament” wrote Epictetus a couple of thousand years ago, “over and over again we loose sight of what is important and what isn’t”. My list can help me re-calibrate.
3. This exercise improves my focus. Clutter has accumulated, vision has leaked, mental energy has drained, goals have become fuzzy. This list helps me to sort out my thinking, clear my vision and free up some mental energy.

So, if you grabbed a pen and started writing a similar list, what would be on it? Now is the time to think about things you want to deal with before the end of the year. Leaving it until December is probably too late.

The things you carry over into 2016 that you wished you could have dealt with in 2015 could very well depend on your “To end the year on a high I need to…..” list.

If you want a simple template to help you recalibrate then send us a message.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

During a trip to one of my favourite little seaside towns on Cape Ann in Massachusetts I saw these words on a sign in a Barber shop window.

We repair homemade haircuts.

Many a DIY attempt at cutting hair have ended up as embarrassing disasters. There are many tales of DIY disasters. Very often it is well intentioned individuals who:

• take on a task they are ill equipped to tackle,
• think they can do something better than experts,
• believe they can save money,
• underestimate the time and effort it takes to complete a task.

A lot of people who ultimately became clients are people who tried to become financially organised or tried to plan their financial future on their own.

What they didn’t realise was that:

• good intentions alone are not enough,
• the knowledge and expertise they thought they had isn’t adequate,
• finding time to plan and monitor progress is difficult to schedule into a busy life.

After many DIY attempts we are often contacted to repair the damage and take over. Clients soon realise that the cost of not getting advice and help is much greater than the cost of getting advice.

We help our clients move from having good intentions to being intentional.

Great advice about getting advice is posted on one of my all-time favourite blogs. Michael Hyatt shared his experience of making a mistake in appointing the wrong adviser to help him with organizing his finances, and then gives wise advice on seeking advice. He begins his post by stating that “when it comes to your success, your advisors can make or break you”.

The 4 points he makes and expands on are:

• You can’t succeed alone.
• You need trusted advisors.
• You need multiple advisors.
• You need qualified advisors.

There’s no benefit in me repeating what has already been stated so well by another, so please follow this link for great advice on getting advice!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

The conference is jam packed with sessions and seminars led by some of the world’s top speakers, authors and leaders. Listening to innovative thinkers, successful practitioners and inspirational achievers gives me new and global perspectives, ideas to implement and motivation to improve and develop. Attending these meetings is an investment that has given me direction, kept me future focused and fueled me to keep going during times that were so tough I could have given in.

Once again I am looking forward to learning from the best in their feelings being a part of a multicultural crowd of 10,000 others who have chosen to invest in their personal development. My hope is that I will return a better person with improved skills, greater knowledge and a better understanding of the next steps to take. My goal is that this will all cascade down to making the iPlanning team that I work with better able to serve our growing client bank.

It’s a privilege to attend these meetings and a quote from Jim Rohn comes to mind.

“The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, ‘If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.’ Now I say, ‘I will take care of me for you if you will take care of you for me.’”

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author only and are not necessarily those of I Planning Wealth Management Ltd. All material in this post should be considered as general information only and should in no way be construed as a recommendation of a specific product or course of action. Each circumstance is different and professional advice tailored to your circumstances should be sought from a qualified financial adviser.

The first reminder came when a client turned to Aled and said: “it is twenty years this week that I first came to see you father.” He remembered the date because it was a week after he had retired. It was 20 years to the week that he was glad he resisted the pressure from a bank salesman who had been alerted to the big cheque he had deposited. It was twenty years ago that the decision to invest and not deposit was taken.

The journey had begun and the investment review last week, during which we discussed portfolio valuations that were beyond what we ever dreamed of achieving twenty years ago, was just one of dozens we have had over the past 20 years.

The meetings we have are not merely discussions on finance but on the holidays enjoyed, children and grandchildren and Blues music. Meetings with clients who have become friends, are satisfying moments.

A week later Tracy and I were meeting with clients who recalled that it was 29 years ago the relationship started. The journey began by helping them overcome the odds to purchase a house they thought was beyond their reach, a dream too far.

Twenty nine years later they still live in the house which became their home and where they raised two children. Our meeting contained an investment review and a creative discussion about how the dream of retirement could become reality sooner than when the state pension kicked in.

However our meeting also contained the harder conversation surrounding pursuing a critical illness claim following the diagnosis of cancer. A financial plan to purchase a home, create an investment portfolio and make financial independence possible needs to be built on a foundation of protecting the important things life; family, income and health – comprehensive wealth management!

Again our conversations over the years have not been limited to financial topics but to common rugby interests, the growth and development of our children and holiday adventures.

When we explain to new clients that we are here to provide leadership relationship and creativity, it’s nice to be reminded in meetings such as these just mentioned that those are not merely empty words.