Duggan It's Your Life

Live It, Control It, Afford It...Love It!
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9925060-7-0
Verlag: Michael Hanrahan Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 212 Seiten

Do you feel like you're on a daily treadmill? Are you questioning if this is your lot in life? Do you feel like you never get ahead financially, that you're struggling to make ends meet? Do you long for some 'me' time? Do you know what you'd love to do in life but can't seem to make it happen? Financial Planner Lisa Duggan has seen these problems and frustrations time and again. In It's Your Life Lisa will show you how to take control of your finances, to view money as an enabler, combining your individual values, what makes YOU tick, with your financial decision-making so that you understand the choices you have. This book encourages you to look at your 'WHY?'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Duggan, Lisa

Leseproben

Chapter 2 I CAN SEE
CLEARLY NOW3 The benefits of taking control of life and money “The key to ultimate happiness and fulfilment lies within our own transformation. The more we learn and grow and evolve as individuals, the more we will find happiness and satisfaction in relationships, work and life.”
Kristi Bowman Life; the physical, mental and spiritual experiences that constitute our existence, and money; cold hard cash – the two are intrinsically linked. It is only by realising the intersection of the two that we can proceed to manage both. Too often people have looked at money or financial management in isolation; just take a look at the bookshelves. If it takes your fancy you can read about how to become a foreign exchange trader, grow “rich” through share trading, build yourself a property portfolio – the list goes on. All of these may be valid, but wherein lies their meaning to you? We all know that we should manage our money, not overspend, save for the future, just as we know that we should exercise more, eat the right food and drink a little less wine. Being able to live an active life and be around to see our kids grow up seems to be enough of a motivator (well, for most anyway) to ensure that we look after our health, but what about the finances? It is only by truly understanding how you wish to live your life, and the impact your finances have on your ability to achieve such, that you will have the ongoing motivation and drive to make change. The sooner we understand this relationship the better off we will all be. Sadly this linkage is often not understood. A large inhibitor to taking action and making change in relation to our life or money is often the fear of the unknown or the new, fear of whether “we will be alright”. In gaining a greater understanding of your options and the impact of decisions this fear can be allayed. Life is way too short for regrets. I recall a friend who for years worked in various sedentary office jobs. Over this time she experienced little job satisfaction and moved from position to position, merely seeking to ensure a continuous income was available for her family. She was stuck in an ever revolving wheel, never taking the time to understand what her values were, what would really satisfy her, and the changes, both personally and financially, that would be needed to achieve this. Some 20 years later, only through a life-changing event – the collapse of her marriage – did she take time out to evaluate. As a result she is now happily employed in an outdoor vocation – landscaping – and couldn’t be happier, only regretting not making the change earlier. When questioned about why she didn’t make this change years before, she replied, “I couldn’t afford to.” I would argue that she could have, should she have sat down and worked through how. In other words, if she had taken control over her money, rather than letting it control her. It comes back to that fundamental question...money, we all need it, but how much? That depends on what you want to do, not anyone else. The media commonly states that we all need to keep working hard and ensure we have a million dollars plus set aside for retirement – but do you need a million? That’s where the importance of understanding your driving goals comes into play. I work with some clients who are living a very satisfied and contented life on an income of $45,000 and others with an income of $200,000. As you may have guessed, they have very different interests in life. Only in understanding how you want to live can you answer the question of what is enough. I was recently in Asia and overheard two obviously senior company executives from Australia chatting. One of the comments I overhead in their conversation that really struck me was, “Gee, we could move over here and afford to live, without all the stress we are under.” You’ll be pleased to know that I did resist the urge to jump into their conversation. I did however ponder the comment, and thought “why can’t they make transformation in their lives back in Australia to remove that stress?” Perhaps they can’t, and without knowing their goals and what rates on their list of desires I obviously can’t be sure, but they should at least go through the exercise. What are they prepared to trade to relieve the stress? What are their most important values? I was following the same path a few years ago, letting money control my life. Was I happy? Yes and no. Was I stressed and burnt out? Yes. Some of you may know the feeling. I didn’t really see any way out as I was not prepared to fail in my ambition of building a successful financial planning practice, and as far as I could see that involved me being at the practice five or six days per week, putting in the long hours and driving the dollars. My journey to being in control of my life and finances started with an anxiety attack as you’ve read, and in some ways culminated with a hysterectomy (more about that later). I only wish that I had addressed how I wanted to live earlier. The benefits of gaining that understanding and then managing my finances in accordance with such have been amazing. I now understand that for me to be truly happy I need (in no particular order): • a strong sense of community • outdoor pursuits such as gardening and horse riding • a slower paced life with fewer deadlines (I’m wondering why I chose to write a book...) • a partner to share with • to contribute to the lives of others • annual holidays • a loving and supportive circle of friends and family • my dog, Molly • good food and wine. I also realised what I don’t need: • a flash mansion (currently building 16 squares versus the previous 32) • ready access to 5-star hotels and restaurants – the local bakery does a mean bacon and egg roll • negative people • central heating, air conditioning and insulation – okay, well they may be nice in the future, but the point is, I can live without them for the time being. (My fingerless gloves are working a treat at the moment!) So what do you need? And what don’t you need? Take a moment to ponder this. Can you answer these questions? Through this revelation and understanding how my finances impact on the above, I am now in control! Living in the country, in my second year of having a vegetable garden, loving playing with Molly, riding my horse, in the process of building a new home, sharing my ups And downs with Basil, and only working four days per week. I didn’t achieve this on my own, and I owe a lot to Avril Baxter (who was my business coach at the time), strong family support, Basil of course, and a fantastic psychologist, Felicity Dunne (see chapter 6 regarding Teams). I recall when contemplating reducing my working days to facilitate some of my other passions discussing this with Felicity and the almost guilt I felt, that at 41 I wasn’t really entitled to “work part time”. Her advice to me was: “No-one is going to write on your tomb stone that, Lisa was great, she worked really hard.” It’s crucial that we maintain perspective. A useful exercise that many may find helpful is one which Felicity used with me to assist with coping with my anxiety. I like to refer to it as the “so what” test! If you are concerned about something, ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen? Once you have answered your question, follow up by asking, so what? And again, so what? It’s a great way to work through any concerns and keep perspective. If I had understood the above earlier, I’m sure I would have done things differently, not that I harbour regrets, but it’s important to understand the impact and benefits of how you are living your life. I – like any other young, ambitious female – went through high school, onto university and then into a career. I never gave any real thought to marriage or children; they were just things that I thought happened along the way as a normal part of life. Well, in my instance the marriage part did (for a while anyway). There’s plans to give the marriage thing another go, but this time round we’ll save the $30,000 on a wedding as I know that will mean heating, air-conditioning and insulation! Children did not however happen as they were supposed to...who would have thought? Turns out that falling pregnant wasn’t going to be a natural occurrence in my case, and I was too busy working, and then recovering from a divorce. Before I knew it I was 40 and having a hysterectomy. (Did you know that you have to be less than 35 years of age to adopt in Australia?) Don’t get me wrong, I did have another opportunity at about 39 to consider IVF with Basil. We had however jointly decided that we were happy in our partnership, and due to age and complications we prioritised that over children. I am still content with that decision. The point is that if I had taken the time to examine my priorities and what I wanted from life in my twenties I could have taken action to make such occur. I recently met with clients for a review. They have always said that they would love to add to their family (currently they have two beautiful boys) but in the last few years it had not happened. We had a long discussion about whether this was still a...