5 steps to Financial Freedom

Transcription

1 5 steps to Financial Freedom Hey there I m so pleased that you ve decided to sign up to my newsletter. The ideas you ll find here are designed to help YOU achieve more of the things that really matter to YOU. So that s about your goals for yourself and your loved ones. I m Paul Claireaux, author of the book, Who can you trust about money? and creator of the workshop, How to plan your Financial Freedom in 5 simple steps. And I ll reveal those 5 steps to you here. But before that, I d like to ask you a question. This is an important question because it s the one we all need to ask ourselves when starting something new. And deciding to learn how to plan a path to financial freedom will be a new thing for many people. So here s the question...

2 Why is Financial Freedom important to you? What does it mean and what difference would it make to you to achieve it? Now I know that s a big question to ask you up front, but I urge you to set aside some quiet time and to consider it carefully. You could write your thoughts here this is your document after all. This is what financial freedom means to me: If you re looking for some inspiration, here s what some of my workshop delegates have told me. Financial freedom is about being able to: Travel more with the family Provide great experiences for the children Choose to work less Choose to work differently or do different stuff Stop worrying about the mortgage Everyone s situation is different and we all have different answers. So I m keen to hear your thoughts, and if you re happy to share, please share your thoughts at and tell us what it means to you. I d love to hear from you.

3 But why get involved in the planning? Well, whatever your reason for wanting financial freedom, you ll have at least three reasons for wanting to do some planning yourself. You ll want to: Understand (and believe in) the plans you make Make smarter financial decisions Save a lot of money on advice And this is all perfectly possible, once you know how. The challenge is in learning how! Now it s fair to say that they don t teach you this stuff at school. And if you look inside a turgid textbook on tax or pensions or investments you may put yourself off this subject altogether. Digesting those books is hard and boring. I know, I ve done it. Some of them are over 800 pages long and they don t contain cartoons or jokes either! But imagine how you d feel when you discover that the traditional investment theory they teach... is flawed. So after your first 20 books, you had to read another set just to understand where the first set was wrong! Am I having a laugh?

4 Well, yes, but I m not joking. You really do not want to waste your time and money on all those books when the KEY ideas are right here. If you want to get to grips with financial life planning, you re in the right place. And you ll have a lot of fun learning it too. Okay, but couldn t I just talk to an expert? Well yes, you could, and I d encourage you to do so, if and when you need to buy any financial products. But to start planning your financial freedom... Financial products are the LAST thing you need. And I don t sell those things so you can relax about that. This is about education, pure and simple. You need to know at least the basics about your money because there are some big problems with advice in the world today. We can t cover them all here I ll do that on the website but here s one BIG issue you must know about now. Good quality advice at a fair price is difficult to find, anywhere in the world and the reason is simple. Most advisers seek to charge fees as a percentage of your funds. Some give discounts for larger funds but many do not. So they earn ten times as much for advice on a 250,000 portfolio as they do on just 25,000! And that means they focus their help on their wealthier clients. But don t worry, if you re not (yet) wealthy because you ll still be able to access the highest quality of ideas right here. And if you are wealthy (and you have your own adviser) Well... The ideas you find here might help you work out if the advice you re getting is worth what you re paying for it! You see, adviser charges can range from a few hundred to well over ten thousand pounds. So, it s worth making savings where you can, eh? And the fact is that not all advisers give great advice all the time even when they charge so much.

5 So watch out! Okay, but what about advice from family or friends? Well, you could take advice from your family and friends, and I guess they won t charge for it. But are they really the best qualified to help you? Would you seek medical advice from them too? The thing is, an investment that worked well for them in their day is not guaranteed to work well for you from this point in time. Most markets move in cycles. So you need to learn how to assess any idea that anyone puts to you before you jump into it. And I ll offer you a way to do that another time. Now let s look at that 5 step process I promised.

6 5 steps to plan YOUR financial freedom. This is a powerful and proven process for your financial planning. And I ve designed it to be EASY to remember each step begins with a letter from the word IRATE. Step 1 is about developing your IDEAS In this first step you develop your ideas around what you want for your life. This is about finding the ideas that will inspire you. This is about much more than the money some of these things may cost little or nothing at all. But it s important to slow down here and consider carefully what matters to you. What are your goals for yourself and your loved ones? What do you really want to have, to do or become?

7 In this step you ll focus on your goals (from Step 1) with a financial cost attached. Step 2 is the REALITY check Here you ll look closely at the stuff that costs money. And you ll check what you need to do, if anything, to get on track to achieve them. Now, reality checks require numbers and I know some people don t like maths, but don t worry. I ve developed an easy way to do this. What s more, I can show you how your goals might cost you a LOT less than many of those experts will tell you! We can t cover the details here but you ll see just how easy this is if you check out my cappuccino savings plan article at my website In Step 3 you ADJUST your plan To ensure it fits with your financial realities. You might not need this step if you ve found (from Step 2) that your plan is perfect as it is! But most people need to adjust some aspect. And we ll explore the things to adjust (to get your plan on track) without giving up on your dreams. Step 4 is about TESTING your plan This is where you ll plan for unexpected and unpleasant events like a spell of bad health, or a property or stock market crash. And in Step 5 you EXECUTE your plan This is where you change what you re doing (and set up any savings or investment products, if you need them). So you can relax about your money and get on with your life. And that s it... That s financial life planning in 5 IRATE steps. You might say there s no need to get angry about money at all But it really does help to get IRATE!

8 Next steps learn more and join the tribe I m sure you can now see the value of making your own financial life plans. And how reasonably easy it could be to do so. But there s a bit more to learn if you re going to map out (in full) your own financial freedom plan, and if you want to learn how to check your numbers with that super easy way I mentioned. So I m building a members only area in my website and will make those extra lessons available to you. I ll let you know when that area opens and, in the meantime, feel free to tell me what else you d like to see there. I ll do my best to provide what you want... Just message me via the Contact page. All the best for now. Paul About Paul Claireaux I m a trained financial life coach, have a diploma in financial planning and I m passionate about helping you achieve more of what you want. As a qualified wealth professional, with over 25 years experience in the financial industry, I know how those products (and advisers) work and how you can deal with them to your advantage. I m also the author of the acclaimed book Who can you trust about money?, described as One of the best-written and most engaging books of its kind by Moira O Neill, award-winning journalist and personal finance editor of Investors Chronicle. This document is for educational purposes only. I do not sell or advise on financial products. Copyright All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of Paul Claireaux PaulClaireaux.com Achieve more of what matters to you Paulclaireaux.com is operated by Irate Investment Ltd, a UK limited company registered in England and Wales, Company No Company details and full terms and conditions of site use are available at