Being in a comfort zone is not an assurance that you will succeed forever. In the same manner, doing the same strategy in your wealth-building all your life will not guarantee that you will achieve your goals.
Why? Because things change. Your relationship status change. From being single you either get married or be in a domestic relationship. If things get worse, you may fall under the category of “It’s Complicated” or “Separated/Divorced”.
Along the way, you may also lose your job, shut down your business, or get near the golden years of your life.
Other than these (or because of these), your financial status change as well. These big life changes will most likely need adjustments on your finances.
Here are some of the most life-changing events that may happen to you sooner or later and are reasons for you to re-align and reboot your investment strategies.
1) You are going to be a father or a mother.
That’s because you will need to consider certain variables such as medications and supplements, medical consultations for mother and child, delivery of your baby, healthcare, crib, diapers, food, nanny services, among others.
In my case, we had to leave the country in order to earn more than what we could back home.
According to iMoney Philippines, in this day and age, raising a child, in the best environment, can cost as much as P500,000 a year. The average income Filipinos will, of course, have to adjust accordingly.
It’s best that you re-calculate your regular investing amount and make sure you add your child and spouse in your list of financial goals.
2) You lost your job or you just want to find a new one.
Anyone’s employment situation will surely change anytime. Everyone should be ready, especially our OFW’s who are living on per contract job stints.
Your investing schedule will definitely need an overhaul should become unemployed. While looking for a new job, make sure to live way below than what you used to.
Also, do not invest your severance pay/end-of-service benefits in high-risk placements such as the stock market. Keep these as part of your emergency cash instead.
Once you found a new lease of life in another company, you may then go back to your normal investing schedule.
Whatever your financial goals are, you should determine whether your previous long term goals have now become medium-term or short-term goals.
3) Your kids have grown up and you are now alone.
Time will come when your children finally grow into young adults. He or she will go to college and find their dream jobs or settle down on their own.
This may bring smiles on your face but don’t get too confident. You should remember that these are usually the struggling years of a young adult.
You may allow your kids to work while studying but this will never be enough. You may need to take out loans or use up your emergency fund if there are expenses not covered by your investments intended for his or her tuition fees alone.
But always remember, never ever touch the money which is intended for use by you or your spouse during your retirement years just to pay up for your growing child’s school needs.
You can instead help them out find other ways to address these. But not from your retirement fund.
4) You now belong to the S-Gen or the Sandwich Generation.
You may be one of the many Filipinos supporting your aging parents or even your grannies while also taking care of your own children.
If you are currently in this situation, then you are now a lucky member of the Sandwich Generation Club. This is a very crucial time to build more emergency fund. This is a time when cash is really king.
If your aging parents have bank and investment accounts, it’s best that you discuss about these with your other siblings and agree on what to do with these while they are still healthy.
If they have properties under their names, it is now the right time to find out who their estate planner is.
5) You are nearing your golden years.
Your long term goals may have started to close in. Now is also the right time to for you to have some fine-tuning of your investment strategies.
There should be no more close monitoring of the stock prices or currency rates. You may need to slow down and protect yourself from the volatility of the markets and go instead for lesser-risk investment vehicles such as balanced funds or other fixed income instruments.
You may also need to check on the possible benefits that you can get from your insurance packages and SSS or GSIS pension plans.
While keeping track of your money, do not forget that you should also enjoy the rewards of preparing earlier in your life so that you can have the best retirement years possible.
Rock your way to abundance!
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