WE ARE officially in another recession and as usual, everyone has been asked to tighten their belts again.
The first place to start is an analysis of your spending.
Carlo Gill, Liberty financial adviser, told SunMoney that a financial analysis shows you where you need to change your financial activity.
You need to list your goals, what money you are willing to risk losing, your employment status, assets, cash flow, debt, investments and insurance.
“An audit by a registered financial adviser provides a boundary in which you must make your plans.”
The audit needs to be as accurate as possible so you can establish how possible your short and long-term goals are. Don’t forget to include retirement plans and estate duty as well as insurance such as death, disability and critical illness cover.
Who needs an audit?
As soon as you start earning cash, you need to build clear spending and saving guidelines that allow you to achieve personal goals.
And once you have had a financial audit, you can adjust the same audit throughout your life, changing it to suit your current cashflow and employment opportunities.
Gill said Mzansi people need to start getting financial audits as soon as they start earning money so that they can plan their future as quickly as possible. Just as a company needs to review its financials often to determine the success of the firm, so do private individuals.
“We hear from people about how overwhelming they find their personal finances. But that’s just because they feel like they have to do everything at once and that a financial audit feels more like their money is being sent to some of inflexible prison, but the truth of the matter is that a audit does the opposite. An audit clears away the clutter of random spending and the flurry of bills at the end of the month.
No matter how big your salary or how popular your set of skills, sound financial advice is valuable.
If you feel unsatisfied about your current policies or how your investments are set up, speak to your financial adviser.