Tell Me What You Want What You Really Really Want?
The Spice Girls asked the question 30 years ago today, when they launched their first single, back in 1996. Where has the time gone!
They were not thinking about pensions, ISAs or retirement planning at the time, but it turns out to be the same question that sits underneath every good financial plan we have ever built.
Most people walk into a first meeting ready to talk about pensions, tax allowances or investment performance. Those things matter and we will come to them, but they are rarely the real issue. The real question is far simpler.
What do you want your money to do for you?
It sounds obvious, yet in over twenty years of sitting across the table from people in Glasgow and beyond, I have found it is one of the hardest questions to answer honestly. Clients can usually tell me exactly what they earn, roughly what their house is worth and the balance sitting in their pension. Fewer can tell me what they actually want their life to look like in ten or twenty years.
Without that answer, financial planning becomes guesswork dressed up in spreadsheets.
One client came to us wanting what she called financial security. It is a phrase we hear often and on its own it tells us almost nothing. Once we talked it through properly, a much clearer picture appeared. She wanted to drop to part time hours at 55 without her lifestyle taking a hit. She wanted to help her daughter through university without either of them taking on debt. She wanted two proper holidays abroad every year once she retired.
With those goals in front of us, we could finally do our job. We worked out how much needed to be saved, where it should sit and whether her current path would actually get her there. The hard part was never the planning itself. It was pinning down where she was trying to get to.
Why This Question Trips People Up
Talking openly about what you want from the future does not come naturally to a lot of people.
There is a very Scottish habit of playing things down. Mention early retirement, wintering abroad or buying a second property and it can feel like you are getting above yourself. Plenty of people talk themselves out of an ambition before they have even checked whether it is realistic.
Others assume they should already have the answer sorted. By your forties or fifties there is a quiet pressure to have life figured out, so admitting you are not sure what retirement should look like can feel uncomfortable, almost like falling behind.
The result, more often than not, is drift. People keep contributing to their pension, keep saving and keep making sensible sounding decisions, but without much idea what any of it is actually building towards.
The pandemic did not help. A lot of clients reassessed what mattered to them during that period but never quite replaced the routines and ambitions that got put on hold. Once you have spent a few years reacting to circumstances rather than choosing them, it gets harder to say clearly what you want next.
What has stayed consistent throughout my career is that most goals turn out to be more achievable than people assume. I have sat with clients convinced that retiring at 60 was a pipe dream, right up until we ran the actual numbers. Others thought helping their children onto the property ladder was out of reach until a proper plan showed them otherwise. More often than not, the obstacle was never the money. It was not having a clear enough target to aim at.
What Unclear Goals Cost You
Not knowing what you are aiming for does not just leave you feeling a bit vague about the future. It can cost real money.
Pensions are a good example. Plenty of people contribute the bare minimum simply because they assume it will be enough, with no particular income target in mind and no real picture of what retirement looks like. The contribution figure ends up arbitrary rather than part of any wider plan. Years later they discover their pension will produce far less income than they had quietly hoped, and by then the options have narrowed to saving more, working longer or accepting a smaller retirement than they wanted.
Investment decisions suffer from the same problem. Someone who hopes to retire at 60 but has never sat down and worked that out properly might end up invested in a way that does not match that timeframe at all, either taking on too much risk without realising how little time they actually have, or playing it too safe and missing the growth they need.
David, a business owner from East Kilbride, is a case in point. At 48 he intended to sell his business and stop working entirely by 55, though nobody involved in his financial affairs actually knew that. His accountant was focused on growing the business. His pension contributions stayed modest because he was banking on the sale to fund his retirement. Almost everything he owned sat inside one asset, the company itself.
Once we understood what he was actually working towards, things changed quickly. As a Scottish higher rate taxpayer, every pound David added to his pension attracted tax relief at 42 pence in the pound, so we increased his contributions to make full use of that relief ahead of the sale, within his £60,000 annual allowance. We began moving some wealth outside the business and built a proper seven year exit strategy around it. Nothing about David’s finances changed overnight. What changed was that his plans were finally out in the open where we could plan around them.
| The numbers only start to mean anything once you know what they are for. |
A Better Place to Start
When people think about financial planning, they tend to start with products. Should I open another ISA? Should I put more into my pension? Should my money be invested differently?
Fair questions, but the wrong starting point. Life comes first.
What parts of your life now would you want to keep exactly as they are? What would change if money stopped being the deciding factor? What does an ordinary week look like in the future you are actually trying to build?
The more specific your answers, the easier the planning becomes. “I would like to travel more” does not give us much to work with. “I would like to spend three months every winter somewhere warm from age 60” gives us something we can build a plan around. “I want more freedom” is hard to measure. “I want the option to work three days a week from 58” is not.
Before your next review
Write down three specific things you want your money to achieve over the next five years. Not vague hopes such as more freedom or financial security, but specifics with numbers and dates attached. Bring that list with you and we will build the plan around it.
The numbers only start to mean anything once you know what they are for. That is where every conversation with us begins, and it is the piece most people skip on their own.
So let me ask you the question that started this article: what do you want? What do you really, really want?
If you can answer that question clearly, we can help you get there. If you cannot answer it yet, we can help you spice up your life.
Book a conversation >>> or call us to take the first step on 0141 221 3222
BE AWARE
This information is for guidance only and does not constitute regulated financial advice. To ensure you have personalised advice for your particular set of circumstances, you must make an appointment and speak to one of our professional advisers. Please note these services are chargeable. The facts in this article were correct at time of writing, but you may be reading it in the future. Always check rates and allowances before taking action or speak to a qualified financial planner. All investments carry an element of risk, they can fall as well as rise and you may not get back what you pay in. Errors & omissions excepted.
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