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Blog#6- This will change your life…..(in 2 minutes, only 2 minutes!)

23rd July 2016

Paddy Delaney

Hi there,

Thanks for tuning in to week 6, hard to believe where the time is going, it’s flying!

A close friend of the family died during the week, a man who loved numbers, who approached everything with an eye on the numbers, and was always planful and considered, yet he was a ‘gas ticket’ and loved life to the full. My intuition tells me he’d have liked where this blog is going!

Several people got in touch with me following last weeks’ Blog (Click Here) wondering what they should be doing with their money, instead of buying the nice shiny new possessions we discussed!

As you know I’m not in the business of giving individual advice here, and even if I was it’s an impossible question to answer without you knowing firstly what your financial plan is. Have a plan, and that will answer that question for you, and keep you disciplined when temptation arises!

“What’s a financial plan” i hear you ask.

Having one will change your life, fact! It’ll  feel like you are emerging from your shell!

butterfly chrysalis

(That’s a Butterfly Chrysalis- in case you didn’t realise what this week’s tenuous link was!!)

For many of us (including yours truly) the predetermined ‘financial plan’ was always to get a job which pays money, keep it, find a partner and woo him/her with some of that money! Then get a mortgage which requires us to hand over a chunk of that money, pay it off over 25/35 years. Have a few kids, educate them with the money, and make sure they have what they need to fly the nest (by 18!!).

The next step is to retire whenever we are ‘allowed to’, in and around 65-ish. Hopefully have enough of that money set aside to go and enjoy the fruits of our labour, doing things that we had spent the last 45 years not doing because we were working for the money! Sound familiar to many of you??

But hold the phone…………Is there anything to stop you aiming for something completely different? Can you have an alternative plan?

If you wanted to and planned for it can you retire at 60? Can you pay off your mortgage way before it’s due? Can you accumulate enough money to send your children to whatever school/college they or you wish? Can you buy that dream home? Can you have the financial freedom well before mid 60’s to allow you do whatever it is you wish at that point? All that you would need to do so is enough money. Right?

Hint: The answer to all of the above questions is ‘YES’, but for most of us it will only come about if we identify our financial goals, and put in place a plan to achieve them.

In essence that is what a financial plan is based on, your financial goals.

butterfly-18355_960_720

Look how happy they are having reached their goals!

Your homework for next week is to consider what your financial goals are, and please please please think BIG. Don’t be fearful or concerned that they are never going to be achievable, open your mind to the possibilities and go nuts!

Write down a minimum of 2 short-term goals (1-10 years) and 2 long term goals 15years+.

We will look next week at what the next steps may be in order to turn these goals into a clear and not so flighty plan!

Thanks for reading,

Paddy.

R.I.P Eddie.

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