Look at Your Financial Situation Holistically
What’s the biggest financial mistake you can make? Choosing the wrong investments? Waiting too long to save for retirement? Underestimating the costs of retirement? All these are reasonable answers, but the biggest mistake you might make is not looking at your financial picture holistically – considering all the elements of yourself.
Helping your family – When your children are young, you’ll need to decide if you’re investing in their post-secondary education. When they’re young adults, you may need to decide if you’re helping with financial hurdles like a down payment on a new home. When you’re drawing up your estate plans, you’ll need to distribute assets to your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones.
Personal beliefs – Civic, ethical, and moral concerns positively affect the world around you, so you might be considering charitable gifts throughout your life and making philanthropy part of your legacy by including gifting techniques in your financial strategy today and your estate plans for tomorrow.
Life’s purpose while retired – Stepping off a career path means entering a world of new possibilities. You may define, and live out, your new sense of purpose at this stage of your life by traveling around the world, giving back to the community by volunteering, or pursuing hobbies. Each of these choices will carry different financial implications for how much you’ll need to accumulate for retirement and how much you will need to take out each year from your retirement accounts.
Physical and mental health – On the most basic level, the healthier you are and the better you take care of yourself, the lower your health care bills will likely be during retirement, which will affect the amount you need to put away for health care. However, you may also want to prepare for the costs of long-term care, which can be enormous.
It can be challenging to weave all these elements into a single, unified vision, which is where I can help. But, in any case, be prepared to look at your situation holistically – because, when putting together a lifetime’s financial strategy, every part of your life matters.
McKenna Gaetz, B.MGT., CFP®, CEA®
Edward Jones
McKenna.Gaetz@edwardjones.com | 780-430-3020
www.edwardjones.ca/mckenna-gaetz
