It’s no secret that many South Africans sometimes encounter life changes that bring significant financial challenges – and accompanying responsibilities. The good news is that you have the ability to prepare for many of these eventualities through sound life financial planning, and to minimise the impact they have on your financial well-being. The best way to do this is to recognise that certain stages of life represent a financial milestone which can either consolidate your financial position – or be the cause of unforeseen instability.

Why Some Life Events Have a Greater Impact on Your Finances

Your financial position naturally evolves as your life progresses, and it makes sense to plan ahead for the most common changes. At the very least, it’s helpful to understand how best to plan ahead. When it comes to financial planning – and life planning in general – foresight is far better than hindsight! Enlisting the advice of a skilled financial advisor is helpful, because it provides objective insight into the best financial strategies as your financial position grows from strength to strength.

Starting Out: Earning a Living is Just the Beginning

For many people typically starting out on a career path or entering the job market, the focus is often on simply earning a salary, learning new skills, and becoming more financially independent. It’s a financial milestone, and often a time of rapid growth, excitement, and opportunity. There’s a newfound sense of security that comes with employment or successful entrepreneurship – but that sense of security can be misplaced. Smart financial planning means making provision for the long term, and even more so, for the unexpected. What could possibly go wrong?

• Being suddenly laid off could wreak havoc with your ability to pay bills – and lead to major financial setbacks.
• Serious illness, an accident, or life-changing injury could lead to disability and the inability to continue earning an income.
• Broader events like a global economic downturn could disrupt certain industry sectors and cause a ripple effect that creates large-scale unemployment.

Even for someone just starting out in a career, setting up some form of income protection and disability cover is a good way to make provision for the unexpected. It’s important to bear in mind that income protection isn’t just applicable to salaried employees – it’s even more important for self-employed business owners, freelancers, commission earners, and creatives like musicians or those in the arts. Income protection is a surprisingly broad insurance category, and even applies to those who may not earn an income, like homemakers or students.

Life-Changing Relationships

When a relationship becomes serious enough for partners to cohabit or share financial responsibilities, it’s important to take steps to protect your financial stability. This financial milestone, like many others, can go unnoticed in the euphoria and busyness – but should not be neglected. Now is the time to consider estate planning, so that your loved ones are cared for in the event of your unexpected passing. And if you’re getting married, entering into joint financial commitments, or possibly purchasing a house, then credit life insurance and additional death cover become absolutely essential to ensure your debts are adequately covered. In the event of parenthood, having death and disability cover is just as important to protect the interests of your children, should the unforeseen occur. Having a valid, executable will is also a priority, and your financial advisor will be able to assist you with every aspect as these lifestyle changes come into effect.

Investing in Your Health

Anticipating and making provision for changes in your health is also a significant financial milestone. Why? Simply because it is almost inevitable that your cost of healthcare will increase as you grow older. Without the right resources, these costs can become overwhelming. There is also the possibility of sudden personal setbacks like a physical disability or the diagnosis of a serious disease. Many South Africans still lack adequate medical cover, while the already high costs of proper medical treatment tend to increase year on year. Understanding and having access to the right healthcare solutions is essential, and your financial advisor will help you budget for this while ensuring you get the best possible benefits. Financial risk assessment is a vitally important aspect of planning for every financial milestone and every eventuality – including the prospect of a long, healthy life that necessitates robust retirement planning and wealth management.

Smart, Personalised Financial Planning

At the Pogir Group, we recognise the fact that every individual’s needs are unique. Regardless of your stage of life, our qualified, experienced financial advisors will help you with every aspect of your life financial planning. We also provide easy access to short term insurance solutions, medical aid schemes and healthcare solutions, employee benefit programs, and expert wealth management. For more information, or to arrange a no-obligation consultation, simply contact us and we’ll assist you, promptly and professionally. Pogir. Smart, with heart.