Category: Blog

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Setting benchmarks

Whilst intentional reflection may happen at the end or beginning of a year or personal growth journey, unintentional reflection happens all the time. And, we barely notice it, most of the time. But, several times a week, if not several times a day, we measure ourselves against something or someone; we’re either measuring ourselves against others or ourselves.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, we set benchmarks all the time. It’s how we discern how well we’re doing, and we can either set internal or external benchmarks. There’s a place for both, but it’s important to start to acknowledge where we’re dropping our anchor. Like a boat on the ocean, we can’t healthily remain anchored in one place all the time, but there are good times and places to drop anchor between floating or sailing.

When it comes to setting benchmarks for growth, it’s often healthier to spend more time with our internal benchmarks and maybe use external benchmarks for lighter references. It’s almost like saying: Look where I am now (external) versus look how far I’ve come (internal).

For someone like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, earning millions a year or selling a company for tens of millions is not really a big deal. But for most of us, it would be life-changing! Likewise, if we look at the performance in specific funds and compare it to the growth in our personal investment portfolio, we may not see a correlation. These are all external benchmarks that are easy to internalise and, if we anchor there, we may feel extremely disheartened in our reflection.

So, when we create a plan, we’re essentially creating a framework for internal benchmarks. These could relate to our financial situation, but they can also apply to every other area in life; personal relationship goals, studying, health, hobbies and community outreach. When we work on our internal benchmarks, it’s helpful to have reference to what’s going on in the world around us.

A poignant example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic that changed the world forever. If we had only considered our internal benchmarks and ignored what was going on externally, we would have felt enormous pressure to perform better. But bringing in the social, economic, political, and health issues of that event helps us to adjust and review our internal benchmarks in a relative context – and still be able to say, “Look how far I’ve come!”.

And, if we’d only anchored in external benchmarks, soley focussed on what was going on around us, we would have been completely overwhelmed. One of the reasons for this is that when we see the success of others, we only see the spotlight on the end achievements and don’t see the hard work, frustration, dissapointment and failed attempts that went in behind the scenes. We then assume that our own journey is not matching up.

If we want to measure our progress in a relatable and balanced manner, it’s important to understand the role of both internal and external benchmarks and learn to be comfortable with moving freely between the two.

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Building your business online

For many years the culture of all communication has been changing. Initially, many of us thought that the social media and digital branding space was merely a digital version of what we were doing in the real world.

But it’s not. It’s more complex and nuanced than we realise.

How we communicate with our family and friends has changed. And it also means that how we build our businesses has also changed. With a significant increase in businesses trying to engage more online since the global impact of COVID-19, understanding how to use social media to build a business brand and reach a larger paying audience is crucial.

Many clients have shared their stories of how they’re creating additional income streams and leveraging their social media networks to make these side-hustles viable. Single-income and even dual-income families find it even more challenging to cover expenses and manage their budgets. But starting a Facebook page just ahead of the festive season may not be enough to boost December sales. Launching an online sales platform in February may not break even until late July.

Social media is quick and relatively easy to set up. For the basics, it’s free, making it an attractive way to announce and promote your business. But despite the ease and speed of setting it up, it’s not a quick fix.

If you’re in this boat with your business or side gig, don’t give up just yet. In a recent conversation with Tim Slatter, an online communications strategist, he reinforced the old axiom of ‘slow and steady wins the race’. Having helped SMEs establish sustainable online brands for over a decade, he’s seen how every single business they’ve worked with, in a wide variety of sectors, all needed a minimum of 6-18 months to establish themselves online.

According to Slatter, this is because the complexity of online branding extends far beyond a clever marketing hook. It delves deeper into the why, who and what of the business value proposition (motivation, audience and message). Marketing hooks are great, but customers and clients are now looking for deeper engagement with a brand story.

In some other research, tactycs.io released a helpful article earlier in 2021 that seeks to answer the golden question: How long should my social media take to work?

The first thing, they say, is to understand what we mean by “work for me”. Are we looking for more sales, increased website traffic, brand awareness or relationship maintenance? This is important because it helps us understand what we want to achieve when building our business online, which in turn helps us set more realistic expectations.

Then, when it comes to setting realistic expectations, tactycs.io also ran a survey to determine what type of turnaround time an entrepreneur could expect on some of the current popular social media platforms.

These stats are pulled from their article:

How long does Instagram take to work?

Typically we recommend anywhere from 5-10 posts per week over a minimum of six months. Some have seen success much faster, and others have to put in closer to 18 months of consistent work to see success on Instagram.

How long does Facebook take to work?

A Facebook business page can take anywhere from 12 months to 24 months to become successful. Facebook pushes for supplementing your business page with ads or sponsored posts to accelerate the process.

How long does Twitter take to work?

Twitter moves fast, do you? Because of the ability to engage with content as a business, Twitter can see a quicker road to success. But don’t be fooled; this doesn’t mean it’s easier… It’s become an expectation that you post on Twitter multiple times a day, engage with your direct audience along with others. That means you keep your channel live, respond fast, and seek out other supplemental content posted by others. This could take anywhere from four to 16 months.

How long does YouTube take to work?

Being the second largest search engine in the world has its benefits. YouTube is an extremely powerful tool and doesn’t require as much momentum as other social media platforms. A larger following certainly helps, but valuable content is CRITICAL here. For business-focused timelines, an average of six months to two years can be used for YouTube.

How long does LinkedIn take to work?

If you find yourself with a group of 10-20 extremely connected employees willing to help grow the presence, you can see some of the quickest growth out of all the social media pages. 

LinkedIn is filled with business-oriented individuals who are willing to engage/support in exchange for the same. The research suggests eight to 16 months.

If you’re looking to bolster your income, remember, it’s a lot like leveraging the markets for long-term investing; give your investment time to root and grow, don’t expect immediate returns.

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Don’t derail your finances

“As you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.” Irish Blessing

When everything is going right, we often feel that something is about to go horribly wrong. Sometimes, it’s helpful to smile at our human traits and do all we can to avoid derailing our plans!

It’s so easy to fall into a self-sabotaging state, especially when things don’t turn out the way we’d hoped. But just because things don’t go the way we want them to doesn’t mean we need to derail everything. We can get back on track and stay on track.

First: Recall your intention

Getting intentional with a financial goal means creating a clear connection between what we’d like to accomplish and why we want to accomplish it. This connection is important to investing our time and energy into our success.

When you get off track, take a moment to step back and revisit why you set this financial goal in the first place. When we recall the inspiration behind our goal and why it’s important, we are encouraged to get back to working on it.

Second: Set realistic expectations

There’s nothing wrong with “hoping for the best” from your investments, but you could be heading for trouble if your financial goals have unrealistic assumptions. Working with investment professionals and financial advisors are key to setting realistic expectations.

Third: Anticipate tough times

Whether you want to get out of debt or you’re hoping to lose weight, change isn’t easy. You’ll encounter some days that are harder than others, and it’s important to accept that there will be a rough road ahead (or some splinters on that bannister).

Consider potential pitfalls and develop a plan for dealing with those times when you might want to give up. When you have a plan, you’ll feel more confident in your ability to keep going.

Fourth: Don’t do it alone

It requires a level of vulnerability, which is why many of us avoid this, but asking for help in either getting started on a goal, or to just be held accountable, can be exactly what you need to see it through.

Whether it’s your partner, friend, family member, coach or advisor, an accountability partner can help kickstart and sustain your progress. Don’t do it alone; appoint people you trust to be there to cheer you along when you’re feeling down or give you the push you need when you’re feeling stagnant.

Five: Mistakes are part of the process

Progress never comes in a straight line. Sometimes we may think that one step back means that we’ve gone back to square one.

Remember, you’re going to mess up sometimes. But rather than declare yourself a dismal failure, use your energy to create a plan to get back on track.

Don’t derail your finances when things go wrong or seem overwhelmingly impossible. Reach out to your support structures, be kind to yourself and take breaks when you need to. You’ve got this!

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Tired of being anxious about money?

Of all conversations about money, there’s a common emotion that comes up. It’s one that everyone feels alone in, that they’re the only ones to feel this, but time and time again, it appears in daily financial conversations, reminding us that we’re actually not alone.

This feeling? 

Anxiety.

One of the reasons for this is that we grow up thinking that our adult life will look a certain way. We think we will either follow in our parents’ footsteps or are determined to avoid their mistakes and hopefully turn out considerably better. 

But the reality is that no matter what our plans or perceptions were growing up, they seldom take that form when we’re all grown up. It’s not uncommon to see people sharing their social media stories about how hard their day of “adulting” has been.

As New York Times financial writer Carl Richards once said; Almost everybody has an idea of what the financial life of their dreams would look like. Almost nobody has a plan for how to get there.

This is why so many people feel anxious about their money. They know where they’d like to be, but they don’t know how to get there.

Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. It’s like when the doctor tells us to eat more vegetables and exercise for at least an hour a day; it’s information we know but don’t really have the motivation to do something about it. We can either wait for a crisis or choose to do something about it before the proverbial hits the fan.

Putting a basic, anxiety fighting financial plan into place begins really small and super manageable.

Here are four steps that we’ve talked about several times before but need to hear again.

First: Pay attention to your spending.

Some people call this budgeting, but it’s actually even easier. All we have to do is begin by paying close attention to how we spend money. It’s the first step to budgeting, but it’s also the first step to finding wasted money and learning to confront unhealthy spending habits.

Second: Find wasted money.

As Carl Richards also says: The hard part of saving isn’t saving itself. The hard part is finding the money to save. With life having changed so radically in the last 24 months, you might very well have subscriptions or memberships that you’re still paying for but not using. You might also eat in more, and find that you don’t need to spend so much on takeout. Or perhaps your family needs one less vehicle and can cut back on the payments, maintenance and insurance costs on additional vehicles.

When you’ve found wasted money, don’t simply find something new to spend it on; automate your savings, even if it’s 50 bucks a week.

Third: Automate savings.

Online banking makes this concept a dream. Set up a basic savings pocket that automatically pulls the money you were spending on gym or car payments. It’s not going to hurt because you didn’t use this money for anything else anyway. But now, instead of the money going to someone else, it will start to build up into your own savings account.

These are three things that you can start doing today. You don’t need to meet with anyone, gain approval or radically change your life. All you need to do is pay attention to your spending, find wasted money and automate savings.

Before you know it, you will feel less anxious about finances, and we’ll be able to have better, more meaningful conversations about money and the future.

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Avoid being overwhelmed by change

One of the biggest challenges with change is that it can be overwhelming. There are many reasons why we might be averse to constant change, but when it is just simply too much all at once, we will find ourselves overwhelmed and in this space, our ability to make healthy decisions is seriously hampered.

The secret to sustainable, non-overwhelming change is to approach it with the 1% rule. This rule basically recognises that we don’t need to be twice as effective to achieve twice as much. We only need to be a little bit more effective, every single day. Improving 1% and sustaining that change, and then building on it 1% at a time, means that our change will be exponential over the long term.

When we procrastinate and avoid change, we start looking down the barrel of a very intimidating gun and think there’s no way we can survive what faces us. But, if we choose to make small changes every day, we can avoid being overwhelmed by change altogether!

Consider two plants in a forest that have just broken through the soil and catch the early rays of sun on their leaves for the first time. If one plant will grow and take over the area, it doesn’t have to grow twice, three times or even ten times faster than the other one. All it has to do is grow a tiny bit faster each day.

With each day, the plant that grows faster will soak up a little more sunlight, absorb more nutrients and very soon, it will overshadow the other plant. It will most likely be significantly larger and healthier within a few weeks, just by growing a little faster every day.

If you want to change your financial situation, you don’t need to earn double your income or half your expenses. If you want to improve your personal relationships, you don’t have to find twice as much time in your day; you can improve by showing a little more interest every day and showing up 1% more than you do already.

If you want to improve your health, you don’t have to cut sugar, meat, dairy and gluten all at once. You can start by eating clean one day a week (which is actually 1/7, or 14%), then two days, then three, until you reach your healthy sweet spot. Within a few weeks, you’ll realise that you’ve achieved a goal that would have completely overwhelmed you and derailed your plan to change if tackled full-on at the start.

Changing your financial situation could mean changing how you save and spend or changing how you feel and talk about your money. These changes can be daunting, but you can avoid being overwhelmed by change if you can commit to making small changes every day.

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How do you measure financial success?

In a recent article from Morningstar, they raised two excellent points about measuring financial success.

Like so many of us, Morningstar believes that great investing advice means understanding our hopes, dreams, and ideals to determine what really matters. It doesn’t just focus on the finish line — it focuses on the journey. Great advice can help people reach their goals.

But what exactly does this look like? How do we measure financial success and reach our goals?

According to the latest research, true financial success comes from two viewpoints: actual financial progress (the numbers) and financial wellbeing or empowerment (the feeling of success or security). These are both important to this conversation as the evidence shows we must achieve both.

A good place to start is to consider our financial progress and our financial wellbeing on a scale of 1 to 10. They can be independently rated as the one will be fairly objective (based on the numbers) and the other will be fairly subjective (based on our feelings). Looking at it in this way can also help us understand which we currently value more than the other and help reframe our perspectives.

For some of us, we will find that if the numbers are good, our feelings are good. For others, we might find contentment regardless of the numbers.   

To demonstrate the evidence, the graph below compares people who feel empowered by their finances with people who don’t. It shows empowered people had mostly positive experiences with their finances, even in the lowest income ranges. Those who felt disempowered were less happy than their peers and didn’t reach the positive range until their annual earnings were well above $100,000 (US-based stats).

 

Source: https://www.morningstar.com/lp/when-more-is-less 

Traditionally, financial planning and advice have centred around “crunching the numbers”. This was because it was perceived as more of a management function and not a relational function. In recent years we have seen a shift from financial planning being a transactional engagement to being more relationship-centric, with products and services taking a back seat along the journey and the advisor riding upfront with their client.

Instead of being on the sidelines, we are partners in prosperity on your road to financial success. The lesson here is fascinating: A sense of financial wellbeing—as well as the money itself—may be the key to success in our financial lives. So, please reach out to me if there are some behavioural traits, such as reinforcing good investing habits, that we can help with. 

Even if you have enough assets to withstand a reasonable economic shock, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be anxious about your finances. On the other end of the spectrum, some of us aren’t in the greatest place economically, and despite best intentions, we still spend with abandon because we feel fine about our finances.

If we want to be truly successful, we must find a balance between the two.

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Learning leverages healthy decisions (2/3)

“I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Winston Churchill

So often, after about 12-14 years in conventional schooling systems, all we want to do is “get out”! There are exceptional educators out there who take time and energy to nurture not only the minds of their learners but their whole well-being.

They’re the ones who take note, take care and take kids seriously. But ultimately, these experiences lightly pepper our schooling years, and for most of the time, we’re taught the curriculum so that we can reach the milestones and earn a grade.

As Winston Churchill wisely noted, there’s a difference between learning and being taught. As we continue to learn along the path of life in our adult years, we can find that the breakaway from the scholastic structure can be a breath of fresh air for our learning journey. And – embracing this can help us make healthier decisions for our health, relationships, and finances.

Take Breaks

The methodology of schooling can cause us to work for long periods on a project without taking breaks. Taking breaks can be the easiest, most effective unlock for learning and growth. Breaks allow us to assimilate what we’ve been working on and consider different ways to tackle the next steps.

Whether this is our daily routine or when working on special projects, taking breaks (for a few minutes or a few days) can help us make healthier decisions and be more creative in our problem-solving.

Learn from Strangers

The best way to learn from strangers is to engage in conversations with new people! Standing in line at the licensing department, travelling on public transport or even simply hanging out at the local park opens up opportunities to meet and talk with new people.

Every conversation with a stranger is an opportunity to learn something new. When we are aware of this, we can observe our behaviour and become more present in our conversations with strangers. 

Seek a Stimulating Job

It’s not always easy to land a job that you find challenging and stimulating, but since we spend so much time at work, finding an intellectually fulfilling job is a huge advantage to leverage our daily learning to make healthier decisions. Even if you don’t love everything about your job, finding ways to improve how your job is done can be equally invigorating, and we can learn so much in the process.

Remain flexible

Lifelong learners are always willing to change their mind. The more we learn, the more we realise that it’s not the truth that changes, but our understanding of that truth that deepens. 

Superficially, it could seem like we’re changing our minds, but rather, we’re changing our position and growing our minds. This is why it’s better to find questions that can’t be answered than to hold onto answers that can’t be questioned.

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It’s time to turn up the kindness, to yourself

In a recent blog from Marelisa Fabrega, lawyer and entrepreneur, she spoke of 17 ways to be kinder to yourself! It seems like a lot, but when we think about all the ways and times that we put ourselves down, it’s not that much.

There’s a reason why this message of needing to be kinder to ourselves has become so pervasive; it’s because poor mental health has greater awareness than ever before. We are growing in our ability to self-observe in a healthy way – not simply taking selfies and saturating our Instafeed, but in a personal and private way. We’ve also accumulated decades of psychological profiling that helps us understand why we fail and why we succeed, and much of it has to do with positive and negative conditioning.

Success is not about choosing the right job and earning piles of money. It’s not about developing a product or service that no one else can compete with. It’s about finding our place and our purpose and having the confidence to fulfil it.

Here are a few of Fabrega’s suggestions to turn up the kindness:

Respect Yourself. 

Self-respect is valuing yourself for who you are, and not allowing others to dictate your value. It’s trusting yourself, thinking for yourself, forming your own opinions, and making your own decisions. In addition, it’s refusing to compare yourself to others.

Finally, self-respect is about keeping your promises to yourself and following through on what you tell yourself that you’re going to do. Be kind to yourself by deeply respecting yourself.

Forgive Yourself. 

We all mess up. Look at the following:

  • Maybe you did something in the past that you’re not proud of.
  • Perhaps you failed to stand up for yourself and you let someone else get the better of you.
  • You may have missed a great opportunity because you got scared.
  • Maybe you failed to follow through on an important goal.

If you’re angry at yourself, you need to show yourself kindness: stop blaming yourself, resolve to do better from now on, and forgive yourself.

Carve Out Some Time For Yourself. 

Every day carve out some time for yourself and do something that brings you joy. You can draw, journal, write short stories, play a musical instrument, or do anything else that you love to do. Be kind to yourself by giving yourself some “me time” each day.

Give Yourself Recognition. 

Often, we’re quick to acknowledge the achievements of others but slow to acknowledge our own. That has to stop. Become aware of your own achievements and give yourself recognition.

When you do something you’re proud of, stop for a minute and dwell on it. Praise yourself and relish the achievement. Compliment yourself. Pat yourself on the back and say the following: “Kudos to me!”

Remind Yourself of Your Good Qualities.

Maybe you’re a little heavier than “the ideal body type”, but you have long, lustrous hair. Maybe you’re not great at sports, but you’re an ace at math. Maybe you tend to be melodramatic, but you have a great sense of humor.

Always remind yourself of your good qualities.

Tell Yourself, “I Am Enough”. 

We’ve all had times in our lives when we’ve thought, “I’m not good looking enough, or smart enough, or strong enough to get what I want.” Stop it with the “I’m not enough” self-talk and replace it with the following;

“I’m enough, just as I am.”

“I’m worthy.”

“I deserve to be happy.”

“I deserve to have everything I want.”

In addition, tell yourself that nothing has to happen to make you worthy. You are already enough.

Accept Yourself.

Accept yourself as you are. You have strengths, and you have weaknesses. Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you fail. Sometimes you’re right, and sometimes you’re wrong. Allow yourself to fully be who you are.

If you need someone to back you on this journey of turning up the kindness, let’s connect and make it happen.

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What’s an annuity?

Have you ever heard someone say that you need to make your money work for you? It seems like an impossible achievement for many of us because we immediately think we need a stack of dollar bills to leverage this strategy.

And, that’s not entirely incorrect. We do need a large sum invested, but we don’t necessarily need it all at once, and it’s certainly achievable with a long term plan.

Here’s a quick overview:

  • Annuities are financial products that offer a guaranteed income stream (used primarily to fund retirement)
  • Annuities exist first in an accumulation phase; this is when we fund the product with either a lump-sum or periodic payments (which is why we don’t necessarily need all the money upfront)
  • Once the annuitization phase has been reached, the product begins paying out to the annuitant for either a fixed period or for the annuitant’s remaining lifetime.
  • Annuities can be structured into different kinds of instruments. These are commonly defined as fixed, variable, immediate, and deferred income, which gives investors flexibility.

Let’s dive a little deeper…

Annuities are contracts sold by financial institutions where the funds are invested to pay out a fixed income stream later on. They are mainly used for retirement purposes and help individuals address the risk of outliving their savings. Upon annuitization, the holding institution will issue a stream of payments at a later point in time.

Annuities are appropriate financial products for individuals seeking stable, guaranteed income. Because the lump sum put into the annuity is illiquid and subject to withdrawal penalties, it is not recommended for short term savings or for those with liquidity needs to use this financial product.

A big benefit of well-structured annuities is that holders cannot outlive their income stream, which hedges longevity risk. So long as the investor understands that they are trading a liquid lump sum for a guaranteed series of cash flows, the product is appropriate. Some people hope to cash out an annuity in the future at a profit, however, this is not the intended use of the product.

Immediate annuities are often purchased by people of any age who have received a large lump sum of money and who prefer to exchange it for cash flows into the future. The lottery winner’s curse is the fact that many lottery winners who take the lump sum windfall often spend all of that money in a relatively short period.

Annuities can be structured generally as either fixed or variable.

Fixed annuities provide regular periodic payments to the holder (also called the annuitant) and are often used in retirement planning. Variable annuities allow the owner to receive larger future payments if investments of the annuity fund do well and smaller payments if its investments do poorly. This provides for less stable cash flow than a fixed annuity but allows the annuitant to reap the benefits of strong returns from their fund’s investments.

It’s important to note that annuities are not a sure thing – nothing is! But, inside of a well-built financial portfolio, annuities are helpful products to ensure income at a later stage in life.

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The best place to invest

Somehow, despite all the messages to be kinder to ourselves, we have this predisposition to put ourselves down. Along the line, the early messages of “You can do better” become “You’re not good enough.”

We live in an age where the focus is on self. As we scroll through social media, we see countless selfies, all the time hoping to find a like, mention or comment on one of our own posts. Slowly, we begin to see our lives through the lens of everyone else. Some people call this the ego; it’s not who we really are. But this is how we show up every day, and it influences every decision we make and every cent we spend.

In the bestselling book “Eat, Pray, Love”, author Elizabeth Gilbert recounts when she walked into a building in New York City. She was hurrying toward the elevator when she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. She didn’t immediately recognize herself. Instead, she thought: “Oh, look! I know her. She’s my friend.”

As Gilbert moved toward her reflection with a smile, ready to hug this person, she realized that she was looking at herself. Later, as she remembered this incident, she was journaling and wrote the following at the bottom of the page:

“Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.”

This is a wonderful first step in reminding ourselves that we are good enough and worthy of investment. Ultimately, it’s the best place to invest.

Investing in yourself is an integrated and ongoing practice. It’s not just about mental, physical, emotional or financial kindness; it’s about all of them in a healthy balance. In one sentence, one might say: Spend some money on yourself to do what you want to do to feel better and think happier.

Everyone has a different budget and a different lifestyle, so for one person, it might look like a spa day at a luxury resort; for another, it might be a quiet cup of coffee whilst reading a book for an hour at your local deli. Perhaps it’s going to a movie by yourself or taking a drive along the coast with your family. When you recognize yourself as a friend, you’ll be more willing to invest in yourself.

Whilst these are smaller, day-to-day ideas, you can also invest in yourself by starting a business and believing that you have what it takes to provide your own income. You can also ensure that your medical cover is in place to get great medical care when you need it. As you review your medical cover, you can add other products like GAP, income protection and dread disease benefits.

These are all powerful ways to invest in your best asset: you!

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