Written by Mark Salter

What’s at the top of your Christmas list? New clothes, the latest gadget or perhaps it’s spending time with family or friends or giving to others.

By now you will hopefully have some idea of gifts you will give to family and friends and a plan for the festive period. Christmas seems to creep up on me quicker each year and with so much to think about from organising Secret Santa for the office Christmas party to what vegetables we’ll be cooking. I often do nothing until someone tells me there are only a couple of weekends and a single evening of late night shopping to go. I’m sure I’m not alone on this!

I always end up thinking to myself, next year will be different, I’ll plan Christmas and start shopping earlier so I can enjoy the few days before Christmas, possibly with a few long walks with my family and a glass of mulled wine in the evening.

Thinking about what I do every day for people and reflecting on how difficult I find planning for Christmas each year, I suddenly thought that when I’m planning someone’s future, they only have one chance to get it right. They can’t sit down in retirement and think ‘I didn’t really plan that very well’, so I’ll do it so much better next time.

What are your goals in life? A nice home? A good education for your children? Perhaps it's to own your own business then retire early and travel the world? Or maybe it's a comfortable retirement and being in the position to help your family or friends when they need it?

Whatever your goals, you've probably wondered how you’re going to pay for it. You might want to put aside a sum every month. You may have come into a lump sum and want to make the best of it.

Building a plan for the rest of your life and then designing an investment portfolio is one of the most valuable services a financial planner can perform for you. If you're serious about doing something with your money, you will most likely need to invest it.

But where should you invest? How? In what?

We need to balance our investments. We need to diversify. But how do we do it?

For some people, it might be quite simple. Monthly payments into a low-cost multi-asset fund. For others there are all kinds of complex considerations – tax liabilities, foreign currency requirements, inheritance, charitable donations or maybe the need for a regular income.

At FFP we help you to build the investment plan that's right for you. We take account of your family life, your aspirations, your wider financial situation, your capacity to put your savings at risk, or your need for income or your need to grow your capital to meet your life goals.

We match up your circumstances with an investment portfolio that has the best chance of helping you to achieve your goals – whatever they might be – a home, education or support in later life.

The more you can work together with a financial planner and the more you can share information in an open and honest way, the better your financial planner can help with your plan. And the better your plan, the more likely you are to succeed.

Writing this and thinking about Christmas has made me appreciate how important financial planning is and that everyone needs a plan. It doesn’t matter how simple or complex that plan might be, it’s so important we start planning early and we do everything we can to get it right and end our days with no regrets.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my articles over the year and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

December 2019