About The Good Fortune Guide

The questions below will help you understand your relationship with money further and provide insight into how well you are currently managing your economy.

• How do you spend your money currently?
• How much do you save?
• How much could you save?
• Where do you direct those savings?
• When you quantify your assets, what percentage of them are investment assets and what percentage are lifestyle?
• How much income do you generate that does not require you to work?
• How much income do you need your investments to generate, so you do not have to work for a paycheque anymore?

The three ‘financial’ life stages

When you are thinking about your life in a financial sense, it is valuable to break it down into three life stages. The first is a period of financial dependence, the second a period of accumulation while working and the third is a period of draw down for retirement. This section will focus on Accumulation and Retirement.

Below we have outlined some of the common needs we help people navigate in the accumulation phase, along with the typical time frames that these occur. It’s worth thinking about them, as it allows you to plan for them.

Developing your strategy

A philosophy we live by is to help you control what you can control and manage the risks of the things that you cannot.

Examples of things that are within your control include:

1. Your cashflow and spending
2. You hove some control over the amount of tax that you pay
3. You have some control over the amount of debt that you have and how quickly you reduce it
4. You have control over how much you invest

Examples of things that are outside of your control include:

1. Interest rates
2. Investment returns
3. Currency changes
4. Employment security

Understanding your Financial plan