Many people choose a new year to consider change in many aspects of their lives. Partner Kevin Whitmarsh and Financial Planner Phil Collard consider some of the issues.


Healthy, wealthy and wise


Phil Collard, Financial Planner


There’s a good chance that, at the end of December 2011, you will have allowed yourselves one final week to really enjoy all of your bad habits before having resolved to ban them from your life for ever more. I am, of course, talking about New Year’s resolutions.


Whether we claim to believe in making them or not, many of us go through the process of waking up on January 2nd with a renewed vigour for life (January the 1st is a day of grace to get over the excesses of the night before, let’s be honest).


By far the most common theme of New Year’s resolutions is health, as we all know. Whether it is giving up smoking or getting fit, we all start the year determined to stay focused and keep to that resolution.


As admirable a resolution as that is, the New Year is also a great opportunity to focus on our wealth as well as our health... what greater motivation can there be to get us through the winter months of starting and finishing work in the dark than to focus on what most of us are doing it for?


Our resolution to get our financial planning in order should extend well beyond a commitment to spend less on frivolity and more on savings. After all, these are superficial intentions without any real meaning in the


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same way that the resolution to “get fit” doesn’t really define what “fit” means.


By way of an explanation; let me just take that example of resolving to “save more money”.


As objectives go, it seems sound enough and, furthermore, it is fairly easy to quantify whether you are sticking to your resolution... a cursory glance at your savings balance will demonstrate whether you are saving more or not. What better measure of success can there be?


BUT, as an objective in itself, it doesn’t really scream out to be achieved since there is no clear purpose and it is purpose which defines whether you will stay focused or not. Instead of focusing on the resolution, you should focus on the goal.


In terms of the resolution to “get fit”, for instance, we would need to ask ourselves what “fit” means to us and why we are trying to achieve it. We might, by way of an example, really want to run a marathon and getting fit is necessary to achieve that. Our resolution remains, therefore, to “get fit” but now we have a goal which, in reality, is the bit that will really keep us focused. Without that, we have nothing to keep us on track.


The same applies to our example resolution to “save more”. This is a “resolution” of course, but it is not a goal on which we will focus unless we consider what it is we are saving for.


Whether the object of your desire is a short- term tangible asset, such as a car, or a long- term dream of retiring at a given date in the future with a specific level of income, it would seem much more likely that you will succeed


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