Your Financial Objectives
Bespoke solutions based on your specific needs
Just as in other aspects of your life, setting financial goals is a tried-and-true way to reach those goals. Before you can begin to define your own financial planning strategy, you need to identify what is important to you. Then you have a foundation to decide what you want to do with your money. This will also help you identify the kinds of savings and investing, retirement, protection, and tax planning strategies that may be appropriate for meeting your goals.
Figuring out where to start can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. This is why IBB Wealth provide an extensive range of services, plus the ability to create bespoke solutions based on your specific needs via our WiseWealth® service.
Life stages
With increased life expectancy, the goal posts for what is considered short, medium and long term is shifting, more so for younger individuals. This is because someone in their mid-20s today might spend 40 to 45 years working and then have 20 to 30 years in retirement. So those in their 20s and 30s may want to consider medium-term objectives to be between ten and 30 years, and long term as anything over 30 years.
Recognising when it is appropriate to invest and when it is better to save money in cash to meet your different goals is very important. In general, anything you’ll need money for in five years or less is seen as short term, while goals set five to ten years from now are considered mid term. Long-term goals are usually those for which you’ll need money in ten or more years.
Short-Term Goals
Short-term goals that you are aiming to achieve over the next one to five years, such as buying a new car or the next holiday, are better suited to cash savings. This is because investing in the stock market over short time frames exposes you to potential volatility, and if the market falls you will have little time to recoup any reductions in your money.
If you’re only saving or investing for a relatively short period of time, you need more certainty about how your savings and investments will perform, and for your money to be easily accessible.
Mid-Term Goals
Medium term refers to investments with a five and ten-year time horizon. So your goal is further away than a short-term investment, but it’s not in the distant future. Medium-term investment goals might include paying for a wedding, starting a business, paying for your children’s education, or something similar.
With medium-term investments, you can afford to ride out some market volatility, which you can’t in a short-term investment. You may also start introducing shares and bonds to your portfolio, as you’ll have more time to grow your investments and longer to recover from any downturns along the way.
Long-Term Goals
Long-term investments sit on the distant horizon, typically ten years away or more. It’s out of sight, but not entirely out of mind. A longer time horizon gives your money time to work, and time to enjoy the benefits of compounding. This is when you reinvest any returns, along with your initial investment, to generate further returns in future.
It also means you’re able to diversify your portfolio, including a mix of assets that offer a healthy blend of risk and return, and with sensible protection and varied exposure. Relatively speaking, time is on your side, so you should be able to ride out the volatility of the market.
Knowing yourself, your needs and goals
Its well worth taking the time to think about what you really want from your future. Knowing yourself, your needs and goals, and your appetite for risk, is a good start. Your focus should be on ensuring that the inevitable bumps along your investment journey do not force you, of course.
The specialist team at IBB Wealth will help you define and develop your goals and understand your approach to investment risk to determine the appropriate asset allocation for your investment goals.