What is the first thing I should do when starting to plan my financial future?

In order to plan your financial future and control your finances effectively, the first thing you need to do is establish your starting point.  How do you do that?   You need to work out what your nett worth is.   A Net Worth Statement is a snapshot of your current financial situation, and will give you important clues about where you should concentrate your financial planning efforts.  Read more »

Getting yourself financially fit

When it comes to money matters, are you Donald Trump, Margaret Thatcher, Mother Teresa or Elvis?  Understanding how you spend your money and its role and importance in achieving your dreams can help you work a realistic plan to help you achieve your goals. Read more »

SORT ME – SORTING YOU

The true state of our finances is something many of us prefer not to think about – if we don’t know it’s broke, we don’t need to fix it!  But knowledge is power, especially when it comes to money. And often the solution isn’t as painful as you might think, once you know what the problem is. Read more »

I have received questions from a number of readers asking my help with their financial decisions.  I would love to be able to answer these questions however they often tend to be very specific to the readers personal situations and difficult to answer within the context of this column.  I thought some guidelines to help you make your decisions would be useful. Read more »

A GP looks after your personal health, a dentist your teeth, a lawyer your legal needs and a counsellor your relationship. But who cares for your financial health?  You can either decide to do it yourself and become knowledgeable in financial matters or perhaps it’s time to consider using a financial adviser to help you achieve your financial goals. Read more »

Over time, one often accumulates a number of bank accounts that you don’t need, and you are not sure why you have them and what they are used for.  The more accounts you have the more you pay in bank fees.  One of the keys to good money management is to keep things as simple as possible.  Typically all you need is one day to day account and one for savings.  Your long term investing would be separate to this. Read more »