Will you be Ready for Change When it Comes?

21 September 2017

There is an old saying that “The only constant in life is change”, and how we adapt to those changes is a key driver of whether we succeed or fail, whether it be related to work, family situations or even financial matters. Last week, I attended a conference where Olympic rower and America’s Cup sailor Rob Waddell was a keynote speaker, and he spoke about major changes he’d made in his sporting life and how he’d gone through a process where he almost had to start again to reach his new goal.

For most of us, the goals may not be as huge as competing in a major sporting event, but there will be times throughout our life when we have to encounter a change of circumstance, and it is just as important to be prepared to change course, or have options in place to deal with the changes when they happen, whether they are brought about by your own choices or thrown at you as an unforeseen event.

If the change is brought about by a health event, such as diagnosis of a critical illness or an inability to work due to accident or illness, then the most obvious way of preparing for change is by using a previously set-up comprehensive insurance scheme to cover living expenses or access funds to help with recovery. But your plan B may well be a savings account or assets which can be sold to release funds when required. The same goes for plans for those affected by natural disasters or weather events which may have a significant effect on living arrangements and can impact a number of future decisions. The decisions made before the event unfolds -It is too late to put something in place afterwards- will have a significant impact on your recovery and return to any semblance of normality.

But what about changes that may not be related to insurance events. The major life changes that people experience are birth, death, marriage and relationship break-up, and obviously all of these can have an impact on your financial situation in different ways. Recently we have seen a number of clients whose relationship status has changed, leading them to a situation where they may have to start again or even apply for a home loan at a time when their original plan was to have cleared their liabilities. We have also seen clients whose employment or living situation has changed. Sometimes for the worst, but also on a number of occasions when a change of job or family make-up has led to an increase in income, allowing them to restructure their borrowing to reduce their debt at a much faster rate.

It is important to have someone to talk to who can help you manage not only your current financial obligations, but also work with you throughout any change of direction that life may throw at you so that you can deal with the new situation. This could be as simple as setting up a savings plan to allow you to access additional funds in times of need, or putting insurances and home loan structures in place to suit your requirements today, but also to provide a solution for whatever changes you may experience in the future. 

Published In The Whakatane Beacon

This post was written by

John White - who has written 3 posts

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