Regardless of your age, life stage or wage, a financial planner can work with you to reach your financial and life goals, whether short-term or long-term. Financial planning is about developing strategies to help you manage your financial affairs and meet your life goals – and the first step is to make sure you have access to the right advice.

If financial goals could be achieved by simply putting money away in the bank, there wouldn’t be a need for a financial plan. Unfortunately, life is a little more complex as:

• Interest rates go up and down,
• Share markets rise and fall,
• Property markets rise and fall,
• Yearly changes to Taxation rules,
• Yearly changes to Centrelink rules,
• Your ethical concerns may change,
• Your family position may change, and
• The need to support extended family financially or with unpaid time.

This is why you should seek professional advice and have a personal financial plan drawn up and then modified over time.