With life expectancy continuing to rise, it is prudent to have a plan to fund your lifestyle until your 100th birthday. The increase in life expectancy is being driven by people’s improving health and better medical care. The current life expectancy for men is 79.5 and for women it is 83.3. However, by 2030 many women in England and Wales will live to nearly 90 years of age, while men will survive to 85. In some parts of the country, a woman’s life expectancy could be as high as 92.
Therefore, it is important to ensure you have enough resources to fund your lifestyle. Not knowing if you have enough money to last your lifetime creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety. If you are unsure or have a tricky financial situation, such as how to minimise tax from inheritance, engaging a financial planner is a wise move. Actually going through the financial planning process is educational and in many cases, helps couples resolve issues.
It can be very cathartic. Husbands and wives talk about their dreams and aspirations but with an impartial financial adviser who can help to determine what is affordable. We have had so many people going off and buying yachts, cruising around the world or buying holiday homes after realising they can afford it. The goal for each and every client is to make sure they have adequate resources to fund their lifestyle. People don’t always realise they are funding a lifestyle. We have some clients who struggle to live on £20,000 per month and others who can live off £20,000 a year. Whether you are 40 or 60 years of age, financial planning is all about building enough resources to fund a lifestyle.
The working years are generally the accumulation stage and retirement is the decumulation. Once our clients are fully informed of their financial situation and what can be funded and for how long, they feel much more confident about living and spending. Most people think if they see a financial planner, it’s about saving for the future. It’s not. It’s about leading the life you want now and ensuring the future is taken care of. Financial planning is all about overcoming fears and realising hopes, goals and dreams – it’s not just about crunching numbers. A big part of what we do at Gem & Co is changing people’s mindset and demonstrating the ‘yacht’ is affordable. It’s sensible to see a financial planner if you have complex needs, accumulated wealth, high earnings, no time – or you are not sure if you have enough resources to last until the 100th birthday card arrives from the Queen.
