The ‘shoulda-coulda-woulda’ syndrome

By Finbar Garcia LUTCF, FSS, MFA

Happy New Year!

Procrastination can be the biggest setback and thief of time. Many persons procrastinate daily, instead of making the choices for a better future. This, for some is a comfort zone which they believe is the best way to live, while some others regret not acting sooner.

While you will need to think carefully about any financial matters at hand, planning is the best way to deal with it, but it must be followed by action.

It’s 2024 – where are you with your financial goals? Are you one of those who ring in the new year with resolutions that drop off a few days later?

Let’s plan together, as we focus on three simple areas to get you off to a positive start, after all it’s a new year.

Your Life and Critical Illness insurance – When last did you have a review of this part of your financial plan? As you get older, your needs, health and responsibilities will change, hopefully for the better.

Ask yourself these questions: ‘Am I satisfied with my Life coverage?’;

‘Will my loved ones continue to live comfortably if I die unexpectedly?’; ‘Would my critical illness policy cover all my living and medical expenses?’; ‘Can my spouse manage all the outstanding and future expenses?’;

‘Are all my loans covered?’;

‘Is there enough money for my children’s education?’;

‘Would we have to plan fundraisers to survive?’

These are just a few areas that you may want to revisit or put into action NOW. I have heard many persons say, “I wish he/she had taken out some more insurance” or even, “How are we to survive now? He was the breadwinner.” Procrastination can ruin your loved one’s future.

Your retirement policy – Yes, we are all dreaming of the day we no longer have to go to work, but just relax, wake up late, enjoy life and still receive our pre-retirement income.

Stop dreaming and make it happen! You may work for 40 years or more and will live for another for longer, so how are you going to survive?

Would you be going back to another job? Depending on family to help you? Or hoping to receive that government old age grant?

Why place these stressful burdens on yourself as you get older, when you should have planned years ago. It’s never too late to start, but the investment needed now may be too large for your current income and expenses.

However, starting is key to a better retirement. This part of your planning is always age based, so the younger you are, the better and easier it is to set aside in your budget a retirement expense.

This habit will eventually become a natural process and nothing or nobody can derail your retirement plan.

Procrastination can kill you and your retirement dreams. Don’t let the ‘young’ you, suffer the ‘older’ you because of procrastination.

Your emergency fund – Almost every day there is an emergency: de car, de house, or some other thing, and of course, it entails money.

So, are you prepared for this? Other than Covid-19, which was a disaster and financial headache the world over, we need to set aside some small amount of money into an investment account. You can call it ‘just-in-case money’.

Failure to do this will result in the first two we spoke about becoming a serious financial issue, which will eventually end in your not contributing towards it and causing more financial hell in your older years.

During the Covid period, when some financial institutions were looking at securing their loans from being in default, insurance companies stepped in and made sure their clients were able to access cash and still secure their financial future with the policies they invested in.

This was not an easy task, but this type of financial planning allows our clients to plan and prepare for the unforeseen events. What lessons have you learnt from the pandemic? Have you started to rebuild or still thinking about tomorrow?

Tomorrow was never promised to us, but today is.

Having whet your appetite, I advise you to get serious. Stop procrastinating now! Your future depends on you – not your children, not the government, not even your parents {for the younger ones}, and not any social services or associations.

Wake up, life goes on, lets enjoy it together.

Don’t be a shoulda-woulda-coulda person.

Action speaks louder than words.

Call me for more information on planning your financial future. Send your questions to myfinancialadvisor2020@gmail.com or call 620-1185.