Staff Reporter
Article by Jonathan Holdaway
WRITTEN by Susan Jeffers, Feel the fear and do it anyway is the title of one of the first ‘motivational’ books I received as a Christmas present in 1987, just over two months after ‘Black Monday’ on October 19.
This was the first stock market crash I had experienced in my career, and was sudden, severe and largely unexpected. It came straight after the weekend of the great storm of 1987, and wiped off around 23% of the value of the FTSE 100 in two days.
I remember going out to help save my father’s boat that weekend, as it was moored a little offshore and in danger of being set adrift and wrecked. At that time I was unaware that the markets were about to suffer a similar fate.
At that time everyone thought it was the end of the world and yet, looking back at a chart of the FTSE 100 now, it is hardly discernible as a little blip on an otherwise relentless rise upwards.
There is a standard warning which is often quoted about investments: ‘the value can go down as well as up’ and this would be one that appeals to the pessimists amongst us.
However, as an optimist and with my experience of many stock market crashes over the last 30 years or so, I prefer ‘what comes down must go up again’.
In fact, I would go as far as to say why wouldn’t you want to buy something at a 20-30% discount?
Now is also a great time to do some proper financial lifetime cashflow planning – a key component of my wealth planning proposition.
My clients can literally see what their financial future may look like and discover their own ‘number’. This is the amount of money they will need, factoring in future expected life events in order to achieve everything they want to in their life. Bringing money to life.
It allows them to incorporate any proposed changes and examine the impact before going ahead with them.
‘What if’ scenarios can also be included, to test the resilience of their plan, so that the effects of a future crisis, and another stock market crash can be assessed in the plan.
It’s a highly successful, innovative way of connecting people to their money, allowing them to stay on track, no matter what the world throws at them.
Ensure that your money doesn’t run out before you do – let me provide you with a plan and help keep you on track until you achieve your goals, and answer some of the questions previously posed by my clients.
Can I afford to retire at 60, or at least move to a three-day week?
Can we afford to give our kids £25k as a deposit for a house?
If I retired at 60, how long could we maintain our lifestyle and when would the money run out?
What growth rate do I need in my portfolio to meet my future plans?
No lifetime cashflow plan can predict your future but as General Eisenhower once said, ‘Plans are a waste of time. But planning is essential’.
