Personal Financial Planning – That Sounds Scary?

At Switchfoot we believe that your business is there to serve you, the owner, not the other way round. That is why our process for providing business and accountancy advice starts with creating a personal financial plan.

What is a Personal Financial Plan?

A personal financial plan is a document detailing your current and future personal financial circumstances. It includes a timeline listing all the key milestones during your life that will have an impact on your assets, liabilities, income and expenditure. It is a best guess at your current and future needs.

Creating a plan helps you to:

Identify key milestones in your life
Identify the cashflow consequences of your milestones
identify your goals
Create a plan to achieve them
identify risks to your plan

What questions does a Personal Financial Plan help answer?

Are you on course to deliver an acceptable standard of living in retirement?
Is your business meeting your needs?
How should we structure your salary, dividends, pensions and other benefits to meet your needs as efficiently as possible?
When should we start succession planning?
Gap analysis – what shortfalls exist and how much more does the business need to deliver you?
How much will you need to sell your business for to fund your plans in the future?
How resilient is your family’s financial plan? What are the financial consequences of illness or death, and how can we help mitigate the financial risks?

The process sounds daunting

If I told you most people enjoy the process, would you believe me? It does involve giving us access to a lot of personal financial data and for you to share your dreams and aspirations. It will force you to think deeply about what is really important to you and your family.

“I have just had my first introductory call with Seb from Switchfoot Wealth. I was instantly impressed with Seb’s professionalism, calm demeanour, patience, and the way he takes time to explain things in simple terms – something which is incredibly useful if you’re not particularly financially literate. What’s more, Seb has already got me excited about developing my personal financial plan and bringing my goals to life. I’m looking forward to working with Seb in the future, and I can highly recommend his services. Thanks, Seb!”

Russ Avery – Switchfoot Accounting Client

What’s involved in creating a Personal Financial Plan?

With your permission, an introduction will be made to Switchfoot Wealth Limited. The planning sessions are carried out by Sebastian Elwell – The Personal Finance Society’s Retirement Advice Specialist of the Year 2020/21. They are never a product-pushing exercise; rather, they are a way of identifying what is really important to you and finding out how we can truly help you to achieve your dreams. Products are always secondary.

An element of the session will be financial education and helping you to build financial confidence.

What to do with your Personal Financial Plan?

Your plan becomes one of your key business tools. It should motivate and guide you to make changes both in your personal financial planning and in your business.

The immediate next steps will include:

– Create a salary and dividend plan for the business based on your personal cashflow needs

– Create gap analysis – what does the business need to do to deliver these results

– Create a business plan – to deliver on your milestones.

– Set business goals and create accountability.

Please note: This is not meant to constitute professional advice. It is generic guidance only –please seek specific advice for your circumstances.