November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada.
What does it mean to a successful professional like yourself?
In a nutshell, it means that you’re fully aware of your financial standing: know your net worth, how to reach your financial and personal goals. [tweet_box design=”default” excerpt=”Financial literacy is financial efficiencies and balance via @rubachandassoc #CountMeInCA #FLM2015″]Financial literacy for professionals means you find efficiencies and balance[/tweet_box].
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[tweet_dis]Financial literacy for those around the 40 years of age mark means financial risk management[/tweet_dis]
1. Having a will…. do you have one? If so, have you reviewed it recently? When speaking with a lawyer, it is very likely that the topic of powers of attorney comes up. Just do it.
- Interesting tidbit: [tweet_dis excerpt=”Do you have a will? Lawyers are leading the ‘don’t have a will’ list via @rubachandassoc #willplanning”]among professionals, lawyers are leading the “don’t have a will” list![/tweet_dis]
2. Death is obviously not something that we like to discuss or think about but you, yes you, need to consider what would happen to your loved ones.
3. But wait! There’s more than life insurance… you’re alive (great!) but imagine that you’re no longer able to work and to provide financially as before (not great). As a result, you won’t be able to count on your income to cover your expenses. In some cases, your expenses may even increase if you need special care or modifications to your home. The best solution for this is to [tweet_dis]insure your largest asset, your income earning capacity.[/tweet_dis]
- You may have some coverage through work. Make sure you know what kind of coverage you have and in what cases you would or would not be covered.
- Speaking of work, in the era of cost cutting, we can lose our jobs with little or no warning. Firms collapse. Departments disappear. [tweet_dis] The only person who can look after your financial security is you. [/tweet_dis] If you lose or change your job, you may no longer be covered by a group plan and you may no longer be insurable. Don’t you want to have control over your coverage?
5. In general, professionals are delaying having a family. It’s also not uncommon for some to start new families (again). If you have child(ren), make sure you provide for them if something happened to you. Not only by defining distribution of your assets (through your will) but also making sure that both families are glad to see each when they do.
Now is a good time to start putting all the documents together. Dig up those old statements that you don’t even know why you keep. Get together with a financial planner to speak about risk management, get a tax efficient financial plan together and ultimately, help to get clarity on your lifestyle goals.