People have a wide range of feelings and perspectives regarding investing. Some view investing as a way to grow wealth and secure a financial future, while others may view it as too risky or complex.

Some of us are confident in our investment knowledge and feel comfortable making decisions independently, while others prefer to seek guidance from financial advisors or investment professionals.

Still, others may feel nervous about the stock market and prefer to put their money in lower-risk investments such as bonds or savings accounts.

Ultimately, our feelings about investing will be influenced by our individual financial goals, risk tolerance, experience, and knowledge. Understanding our attitudes and feelings towards investing is important to make investment decisions that align with our personal financial planning values and goals.

For the next 12 months, here are some great tips to keep you focused and motivated in your investment strategy.

First off – start early! The earlier you start investing, the more time your money has to grow. The “Power of Compounding Interest” drives your investment over time, creating wealth out of your money. It’s why every financial guru recommends starting as soon as you can, even if it’s a small amount. And, apart from the value of compounding over time, it helps us develop healthy saving habits early on.

Second – diversify. Spread your investments across different asset classes and geographies to reduce risk. The proper diversification strategy is a vital step in the investment journey, needed to ensure a balance of growth and stability of the portfolio. In a nutshell, it’s about avoiding putting all our eggs in one basket.

Third – monitor and review: Regularly reviewing investments ensures they are aligned with our goals and enables us to make changes where necessary. It helps us choose and stick with investing approaches that are most suitable for our investment needs.

Fourth – stay disciplined: Stick to your investment strategy and avoid making impulsive decisions based on short-term market fluctuations. This has been one of the most valuable tips in our recent times of market volatility. Fear of missing out or losing everything can cause us to switch too early or too frequently, which erodes our wealth over time.

Fifth – create a budget. Whilst this is normally the first thing anyone does when trying to bring order and structure to their finances, it’s the first thing that we let go of when money gets tight or we start investing on a larger scale. Few people like sticking to budgets, but it remains at the heart of a healthy financial plan. 

Whether you’re starting out on your investment journey, jump starting an investment strategy or simply struggling to stay the course, these tips should hold you in good stead. Otherwise, just reach out and let’s chat!

Vincent van Gogh is quoted as saying: “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” This quote highlights the idea that even the smallest actions or details can contribute to the creation of something significant. Focusing on and taking care of the small things can achieve big results over time.

Essentially, this is about being productive. In the moment, we might think that it’s just a small action or an insignificant choice, but they all add up. Productivity has a direct impact on our health, time and money. By being productive and efficient, we can complete tasks faster, produce more work, and increase the value we create and enjoy in life.

Those of us who are productive and manage our time well are more likely to be able to save money, manage our stress better, and make healthier life and financial decisions.

One of the first ways to prioritise the important ‘small things’ is to avoid multitasking. Multitasking is often seen as a way to increase efficiency and productivity, but in reality, it can have the opposite effect.

When we multitask, we divide our attention between multiple tasks, leading to decreased focus and lower quality of work. And, switching between tasks generally creates more stress and mental fatigue, but it’s incremental, so we don’t always notice it at the time. After a few hours of multitasking, we may simply feel frustrated but not really know why because we’ve felt busy, but haven’t been productive.

It’s better to focus on one task at a time, giving it the necessary attention and effort to complete it effectively before moving on to the next task. This can lead to improved concentration, higher-quality work, and overall greater productivity.

Here are some practical ideas to try out:

• Identify your goals and priorities: Determine what is most important to you and what you want to achieve.
• Make a to-do list: Write down all the tasks that need to be done and prioritise them based on their importance and urgency.
• Use the 80/20 rule: Focus on the 20% of tasks that will produce 80% of the results.
• Avoid distractions: Eliminate distractions such as emails, social media, and unimportant tasks to focus on what is truly important.
• Take breaks: Regular breaks can help increase productivity and avoid burnout.
• Review and adjust regularly: Review your priorities and to-do list, and adjust as needed based on new information and developments.

Remember, consistency and attention to detail in small tasks can lead to significant outcomes. Focusing on the small details and consistently working towards our goals can achieve great results over time, leading to big payoffs in the end.

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of economic uncertainty. Many people are unsure of their financial future, concerned that they won’t be able to retire because of financial setbacks related to the pandemic and other global events.

Saving for retirement often aligns closely with benefiting from tax advantages, tax-free investing and tax deferment. Life beyond work is a season of life that we can start planning for now and see immediate savings in our tax returns and the long-term wonders of compounding interest.

Retirement planning refers to financial strategies for saving, investing, and ultimately distributing money to sustain oneself during retirement. It’s a very personal journey, and the amount we need to save depends on our age, income, desired retirement income, inflation, and more. But what so many people overlook is that they can reap short-term benefits, too – tax savings being the most obvious, but emotional and mental wellness are also notable benefits.

Life after work is not just a financial conversation – it’s a whole-of-life conversation! Debt is only one challenge; divorce, depression and disenchantment all feature high on the list of struggles that those entering life after work face – and if they’re not prepared, these can be devastating.

Despite all this – we continue to engage with people who are not prepared for retirement. Sometimes it’s due to factors outside of their control, like the economic uncertainty mentioned at the beginning of this blog, but sometimes it’s due to avoidance and poor advice.

There’s room for improvement in retirement planning and saving, and a quarter of non-retirees have no retirement savings. Thankfully, it’s never too late to start saving for life after work, and there are ways to catch up if you feel like you’ve fallen behind.

When tax returns are due, we always find that there’s an increase in questions about retirement savings and how they can reduce tax. These questions don’t always have simple answers, so it’s a good idea to consult a financial advisor to get personalised advice that fits your financial situation and goals. Whether you are looking to save on your tax bill in the immediate future or bolster emotional and mental fitness by securing your financial bearings for life beyond work, the sooner you can engage with your retirement plan, the better.

For years, people have said that insurance is sold and not bought. The stigma surrounding the industry and those representing it still hangs thick in our social memory, with old stories of brokers peddling policies purely to earn commission instead of seeking the best needs of their clients. However, in the last decade or so, we saw a shift in motivation for sales, with a breed of financial planners and advisors emerging who chose to put their clients first, not the product providers, insurance houses and investment offices.

Coupled with pandemic-influenced buying habits and near-limitless access to information, we are finding that risk products are being requested more and more, shifting it to a product class that is bought and not sold.

From various reports, research and client feedback, the most significant factor prompting consumers to start exploring different life insurance is their concern for the future, most likely heightened by the pandemic and other global issues.

Interestingly, people are only sometimes using cost as a motivator for their final choices. As financial advisors, we have found that our role has shifted from being gatekeepers of information to being gatekeepers of value. Where clients would typically ask for information about different products, we’re finding that the conversations are shifting more to understanding which products best suit their lifestyles and future goals. This means that cost is only one consideration, if it even features.

In a world of fake news, value is now found in product providers who can fulfil their promises and offer flexibility, integrated value and robust client engagement. Near-instant communication through online chats, social media and platforms like WhatsApp, means clients expect faster and more comprehensive feedback on claims, adjustments, annual changes and product upgrades.

Value is not only found in the end product; greater accessibility through digital buying platforms and underwriting innovations requiring a less invasive process all contribute to the perception of a company that can understand its customers and deliver on its promises.

At the end of the day, this relates to how we choose our risk cover, who we choose to invest with, and how we build our own reputations in the 21st century. Access to information, improved technology, and a recent history of black swan events have impacted how we consume and contribute to our local and global communities. If you feel like you need to rethink your financial plan, please get in touch soon and let’s see how we can enhance your situation.

“A deep life is a good life.” – Cal Newport, Author of “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.”

Have you heard of deep work? A term coined by Cal Newport, deep work is a state of distraction-free concentration when your brain works at its maximum potential.

As you read this, you probably realise just how hard it is to find a space of genuinely distraction-free concentration. Even whilst reading this blog, you may be thinking about your next task, hearing the notifications from your mobile device or switching between tabs in your browser. We all have a ton of distractions that we’ve allowed to permeate, and often govern, our days.

So whilst we think we’re making the most of our productive time, there’s a good chance we’re not. Instead of deep work, we’re engaging in shallow work. Newport’s deep work theory suggests that to be truly productive, we should log out of all communication tools and work uninterrupted for long periods every day. So while we might not be able to step away from communication tools fully, we can aim for 60-90 distraction-free minutes at a time.

Deep work is effective for two reasons: it helps us avoid distractions and rewires our brains to help us learn hard things faster—so we can get better work done in less time. The next step to implementing deep work into your schedule is to choose a deep work philosophy.

In his book, Newport outlines four different philosophies to follow as you decide how to schedule your deep work. Depending on your lifestyle, some approaches may work better than others: 

Rhythmic philosophy

With this approach, you establish a regular habit and rhythm for deep work, blocking out between 1-4 hour chunks to focus at the same time every day. For example, schedule time for deep work between 8-10 am every weekday. The key to this strategy is consistency, which you can achieve by committing to a certain amount of deep work daily.

Journalistic philosophy

This method allows you to fit deep work wherever you can into your schedule. You could schedule time for deep work when you have 90 minutes between meetings, and this requires you to switch into deep work mode at will, which can be difficult for beginners. The rhythmic philosophy may be your best bet if you have a predictable meeting schedule.  

Monastic philosophy

This approach eliminates or drastically reduces shallow work across all aspects of your life. For example, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson famously avoids email and speaking engagements to free up his brain space for writing. That means Stephenson is nearly impossible to get a hold of but highly prolific, with over 80 works to his name.

Bimodal philosophy

This method involves dividing your time, with long stretches (at least a full day) set aside for deep work and the rest dedicated to everything else. Bimodal scheduling is a more flexible version of the monastic philosophy—instead of completely eliminating shallow work, you can spend a day or more working deeply and then return to your other obligations.

Again, like so many other skills we’re learning in our current age, it begins with mindfulness. Many of us begin our days by responding to emails, and before we realise, we’ve spent an entire day simply following the needs and requests of other people. Becoming mindful of how we spend our work time is the first step to choosing how to spend our time more productively. A deep life is a good life.