Whether you like it or not, you need money to fund your lifestyle. If you don't earn enough money to fund your lifestyle then you either have to borrow money from somewhere or change your lifestyle to lower your expenses. If you don't want to lower your expenses your only options are to borrow from your available credit (not recommended). The other option is to borrow from your savings until they're depleted (also not recommended).
The last thing you may want to do is drastically changing your lifestyle and cut things out, however it's the first thing you should be doing since it's immediate and doesn't sabatoge your future financial plan by increasing debt and eating up your savings.
Here are 4 of the Biggest Financial Frustrations we hear about from our clients:
1. Cashflow. Basically, if your outflow is greater than your inflow, your upkeep will be your downfall. Cash is King. How much cash flows through your hands each month? Coming in and going out. It's important to speed up the process of how much comes in and slow down the exit process.
2. Unwise Debt. This is consumer debt such as credit cards, car loans, camper loans, line of credit debt that doesn't have investments attached to it (so you can write off the interest). Paying interest on depreciating assets is not wise. Everytime I go to a teller they try to sign me up for more potential debt. That luxury car, boat and motorcycle sitting in the garage unused. We talk with couples who have barely any RRSPs but are spending tons of money to service debt on such items. (See our Blog on 4 Ways to Ensure You'll Retire Poor)
3. Overwhelmed. We see this all of the time. People who do not know how much the family income really is or how much they owe or how much they spend. There have investments scattered around town that they're paying annual fees on but no real advisor. They have bank acounts they did not even know existed but never with any significant savings in them. There's a real uneasy feeling, there's stress, there's marital conflict and there's a lot of fear.
4. No Plan. They have no agreed upon budget or Financial Plan with set targets of where they want to go. No plan for consolidating, reducing and eliminating debt. No plan for increasing income and reducing expenses. No Plan but Plenty of Naive Optimism for their future. Everything will be ok...they're Living in LaLa Land where life is just Grand". We need to run our family money like a business enterprise with a 6 month, 1, 3, 5 & 10 year plan.
The good news is that with some tweaking and minor adjustments you can deal with the major financial frustrations, increase cashflow and sleep better at night having a newfound peace of mind. Families that have a Financial Advisor and a proper financial plan are more likely to Achieve Financial Freedom Sooner and have a more stress-free journey along the way.
Upcoming Workshops on Retirement Income - More Information
Your Retirement Income Specialists
Willis and Nancy Langford
