Philip Holland Financial Independence financialindependence

Do you have a bucket list? If so – fantastic! If not – I am sure you have some sort of ‘list' hiding away in your brain of things you want to do.

My ‘bucket list' is always growing. Having just ticked one major goal off – look out for me at Stockcars at Baypark this summer – it occurred to me most people's ‘bucket lists' are full of stuff they want to do, but are generally lacking in some of the more robust stuff that we should do.

So I thought I would come up with five things you should do now.

1. Review your estate planning – when was the last time you reviewed your will? Do you need a trust? What would happen to your kids if you were to fall off your perch? The list goes on. This is almost 101 of life, yet so many people ‘forget' to do it.

2. Start to save for your retirement – KiwiSaver is the best thing out there. By doing nothing you are simply making it harder for you in the long term. The reality is given the economic environment out there, we all need to take some responsibility to do it for ourselves.

3. Risk Management Plan – the sad thing is most people work hard for their income and wealth only to fall short of protecting it. New Zealanders are typically slack with protecting their assets with many viewing insurances as the last bill to pay. We are starting to learn from around the world and at home that insurance is no longer the ‘nice to have' – it is now a ‘must have'. So do you have a plan in place and when did you review it last?

4. Debt – this has been such a big issue into the global financial meltdown. There is good debt and bad debt, but either way, make sure you review your debt arrangements today. It may be fixing your mortgage or restructuring how you repay your debt. But make sure you have a debt reduction plan in place.

5. Spread the word – I know this one is slightly out there, but make sure those people you care about have the above four things covered. The last thing you want to be doing is wishing you had talked to them about these things and seeing them suffer as a result.

So start your list of things to get done today.

Philip Holland is the managing director for the Financial Independence group, Tauranga's leading specialist insurance and mortgage advisers. For further information please contact an adviser at Financial Independence phone 07 578 4414 or email info@yourbroker.co.nz
A Disclosure Statement is available free of charge on request. The opinions stated in this article are those of the writer and should not be taken as specific advice.