We know many aviation professionals hope to achieve financial independence, but what does this really mean?
Our team at MGD has produced another thought-provoking paper, “Event-Based Advice – The Value of Good Financial Advice Delivered at the Right Time”, which discusses how getting good financial advice at the right time can help people gain financial independence and stay that way. Financial independence means that you have sufficient wealth such that work is optional and you can live life without onerous financial constraints. It doesn’t mean being tremendously rich, but it does mean being rich enough so that on a day-to-day basis, you have the freedom to make reasonable choices about the goods and services you buy, whether for yourself or for others, without worrying that you will one day run out of money.
How do you achieve financial independence and keep a hold of it? At every stage, from career commencement to retirement, we make personal choices that have financial consequences, and we also make specific financial choices. It is quite logical and obvious when we think about it that making good choices along the way and avoiding mistakes, especially at important times, gives us every chance of financial and life success.
Getting valuable financial advice at the right time is what we call event-based advice. Our recent paper, “Event-Based Advice – The Value of Good Financial Advice Delivered at the Right Time”, identifies dozens of different types of events and choices in different demographic categories in which people have broadly similar financial situations and problems to solve:
- Young Professionals;
- Middle-Years Accumulators;
- Pre-Retirees; and
- Retirees.
We may be spurred into action to make a financial decision when we are faced with an important event at one of these life stages. Or it could be that we just have an aha moment when we realise it is time to get our affairs sorted and plan ahead.
We argue that getting on track with your finances and achieving short-term objectives along the path to financial independence is not just about financial success. Making good choices and progress will allow you to live much more positively and have a happier, healthier life.
Our paper on event-based advice discusses how good financial advisers work collaboratively with other professional advisers – for example, lawyers, mortgage brokers, and accountants, to name but a few – to get the right outcome for a client at the right time. Financial decisions at event-driven decision points don’t occur in a vacuum. As the financial environment is constantly changing, it is very important to stay on top of specific laws, regulations, and taxation, which can have a great effect on whether to employ a financial strategy or not, as well as its outcome.
From our experience, we believe that people have common needs and often want help to:
- Understand when they will attain financial independence (or understand if they have already);
- Optimise their financial strategies and asset ownership to meet lifetime goals;
- Avoid financial mistakes and reduce regret;
- Attain personal financial resilience and portfolio resilience;
- Understand the purpose of their money and their financial capacity to do things for themselves and others, especially children; and
- Become educated and informed to make good decisions about specific financial choices at important times.
If you are interested in any of the themes discussed, including achieving and maintaining financial independence, we invite you to please download our recent paper, “Event-Based Advice – The Value of Good Financial Advice Delivered at the Right Time”.
Click here to access the full paper.
If you’d like to explore more of our content or past webinars that address some of these important considerations, please visit our website. Of course, if you would like to discuss anything in person or would like assistance with your financial planning, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected] or calling our office on (07) 3391 5055 (Brisbane) or (02) 8039 0544 (Sydney).
Disclaimer: Any advice included in this article is general and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. As such, you should consider its appropriateness having regard to these factors before acting on it. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain financial product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement. Any tax information in this article refers to current laws, is not based on your unique circumstances and should not be relied on as tax advice.
