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ACHIEVING FINANCIAL SUCCESS

i believe almost all of us would want to achieve some form of financial success or freedom in our life. 

the key to financial success is dependent very much on first and foremost is knowing where we are now which is our current financial situation. secondly deciding on where we want to go which is our goals and objectives. the next stage is what kind of resources we have in order to get there or achieve our goals and objectives. finally making a plan on what we should do now which is none other than what we would term as OUR FINANCIAL SOLUTION.

in order to do this, it will be helpful for us to understand our level of financial responsibilities throughout our life. as we get started in life after leaving school, most of us will be concerned about our own personal matters like companionship, career development and education. obviously our main concern will be financial independence and the best way is to get ourselves sufficiently provided for in the event of unforeseen circumstances. as our earnings relatively low at this point of time, most of us would probably be able to start accumulating funds with small level of savings.

as we begin to reach our 30's, our priorities become more family oriented. some of us may have a new members in the family and our family expenditure will bound to increase over time. taking out housing loan is almost inevitable. on a positive side, our income will tend to be higher than the past, offering more funds to be spent and invested. our financial concerns will center around income and expenditure, providing adequate protection to family members in the event of unforeseen circumstances and medical insurance. in the area of accumulation, child education planning is obviously a priority at this stage apart from enhancing our investments.

between 30's to 40's, most of us would have young children starting school. cost of living continues to increase as our children go to school and we tend to be involve very much in family centered activities. our career status will be given to advance as we begin to incur more funds on upgrading of homes and vehicles. our financial concerns at this stage apart from maintaining our family living standard and providing adequate financial protection during unforeseen circumstances, would be to take care of our aged parents. medical insurance will have to be reviewed again for the family at this stage. in the area of accumulation, we should be looking at developing a consistent and long term investment strategy focusing on assets allocation.

as we reach our 40's to 50's, which is also the middle age level, we will begin to reflect more about live and our family. as matured parents whose children are usually teens, family and children issues become more challenging. our expenditure level will be at its highest and the cost of education will begin to have greater impact on our financial situation. family centered activities continue as our career hits the peak. financially, we are more stable as our liabilities may start to decrease. our financial concerns at this stage will largely be focused on our investment strategy with more emphasis on diversification and assets allocation. retirement planning will become important apart from reviewing the adequate of our financial protection for our family. medical insurance planning will continue to be important.

when we reach our 50's to 60's, this is the final stage our working life before retiring for most. at this stage, our children will be grown ups an begin to lead more active life on their own. children are usually teens, family and children issues become more challenging. family expenditure level will most probably be at moderate level but children education cost remains high. one tends to spend m,ore time with spouse by now as we begin to prepare for retirement. medical cost may also rise at this stage. our financial concerns will largely be to ensure that we prepare well for retirement. fund accumulation, long term investment strategy and providing regular investment income for the future will become important. providing financial protection for spouse and even grandchildren will also be considered. obviously, effective medical insurance planning for retirement will be crucial.

now that we have gone through our life cycle reviewing the various personal and family financial issues, let's take a look at the stage where we may be most vulnerable and the possible action plans we can take throughout. as we would have noticed the VULNERABLE GAP is really in our middle age where family expenditure is high and the disposable income may not be able to meet the financial needs in the event of unforeseen circumstances. 

regular savings should be encouraged in the beginning with more focus on protection for the family and ourselves as when we hit our middle age, one should have the highest capacity to save and invest. this is the stage where asset allocation strategies will become very important.

so the question really is where do we get started. with an understanding of the various issues and challenges in life, we usually encourage one to start by thinking of the priorities we have in life. once we have our priorities done, then we go through a short process of gathering some information about our personal financial situation. with this, we would be able to analyse the matter and devise a plan of actions to get us to where we want to.