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Chase De Vere on the value and benefits of setting financial goals.
Many people have savings and investment goals in their life, from saving for a rainy day to planning for a comfortable retirement. Working out exactly what you want to get out of your investments will help you set realistic targets and keep you on track.
Types of goals
Common investment goals are retirement planning or a property purchase over the long term (15 years or more); life events, such as school and university fees over the medium term (10-15 years); and rainy-day fund or lifestyle funds for goals such as a dream car or cruise over the medium to shorter term (5-10 years).
The minimum time horizon for investing should be five years. But whatever your goal is, it is important to consider the time horizon at the outset, as this will determine the type of investments you consider. It also makes sense to revisit your goals at regular intervals to account for changes to your personal circumstances.
Investment strategies
Investment strategies should often include a combination of various fund types in order to obtain a balanced and diversified approach. Maintaining this approach is usually key to the chances of achieving your investment goals, while bearing in mind that at some point you will want access to your money.
Long term: retirement plan
The importance of shifting goals can be seen in retirement planning, where it is quite common for funds to be geared towards equities in their early stages to try to build capital. As an individual grows closer to retirement age, their pension plan will tend to lean more towards bonds to reduce volatility. This ensures that they do not become susceptible to a sudden slump in stock markets just as they are about to cash in some of the fund.
Medium term: school and university fee plans
School and university fees planning may involve the same idea of buying a mix of equities, bonds and other investments. Most plans of this type are geared to begin paying out after a fixed-term horizon, usually 10 years, with withdrawals allowed incrementally after that to meet the fees. In this way, they need to be more flexible than pension plans. Parents often start plans when a baby is born so they start paying out when the child starts secondary school aged 11, or even before, especially if the children will go to fee-paying schools.
Short to medium term: lifestyle plans
Investment companies can offer 10-year plans or even shorter savings schemes that help pay out for a future holiday or dream car. A large number of products exist for this, including Individual Savings Accounts that contain stocks and shares, depending on your timescale and willingness to accept risk.
Ready for the next step?
Whether you are looking to invest for income or growth, Chase de Vere can provide the independent financial advice, comprehensive investment solutions and ongoing service to help you achieve your goals.
To identify which options are right for you or to find out more, please call or email us on 020 3142 2057 or [email protected].
The value of your investments can go down as well as up, so you could get back less than you invested.
