A financial review is an attempt to bring your financial arrangements in line with your personal circumstances and objectives, and external conditions.
A financial review consists of the following steps:
- On the basis of your present circumstances and objectives, and prevailing economic conditions, sketch out the optimal configuration of your finances.
- Detail your actual current financial situation.
- Make any necessary changes.
I’d strongly recommend you do 1) before 2) so your current position doesn’t influence the theoretical ideal.
Income vs. Assets
Our financial situation consists of two components – income (the money received per unit time) and assets (the stock of money and other valuables we possess). What follows is primarily concerned with assets, although a similar process can and should be conducted for income and expenditure; ie ascertain your income, work out how it would best be spent, how it is currently being spent, and implement any necessary changes.
How Often?
Conducting a financial
review too often can lead to excessive tinkering and/or anxiety. Failing to do so often enough may fuel financial inefficiency. For most people carrying out this procedure once or twice a year is appropriate.
In the current economic difficulties, it’s advisable to keep a closer watch on deposit interest rates. It’s common for institutions to offer high introductory rates, which are soon reduced to derisory levels once sufficient customers have been attracted.
Financial Review Tools
It’s perfectly possible to carry out a financial review with pencil, paper and (maybe) a calculator. However, numerous computer packages can ease the task ranging from a standard spreadsheet, to specialist free and commercial software.
Constructing the Optimum Mix
Start by setting aside your “rainy day” money. Ideally this should be between 3-6 months living costs with the exact amount determined by your confidence about the future. This money is to tide you over should disaster strike and should be kept readily available, preferably in an interest-bearing instant access deposit account.
Next consider your insurance and pension provisions. At this stage forget what you actually have and consider only what you need. Insurance comes in many varieties, the most obvious being life, house, car, healthcare. But you can also insure against losing your job, critical illness, accident, pets… Insurance is essentially a bet on something you hope never happens, but if it does at least your finances will be taken care of.
The amount of pension cover you need depends on i) the income you hope to have in retirement, ii) the time before you retire, and iii) the expected returns on your fund. Obviously iii) is the most difficult to estimate. The temptation with pension planning is to delay it in favor of more immediate demands, however the golden rule is the sooner you start, the more likely you are to enjoy an agreeable standard of retirement.
Finally, having taken care of the bare essentials, consider the allocation of what remains. These funds can be distributed between cash, bonds, stocks and other asset classes such as real estate (including your home!). There is no unique solution. The right mix for you depends on:
- your financial goals (retirement, buying a house, putting the kids through college…)
- your attitude toward risk
- your age (generally the older you are the more conservative you should be towards risk)
- personal preferences (you may be inclined to investing in a certain stock/sector)
Within broad categories such as stocks and bonds consider more specifically how your funds should be spread. For most people it probably makes sense to keep the bulk of their stock investments in trackers such as ETFs, but you might want to use some money for specific stocks.
Assessing the Current Situation
In this stage you need to work out your actual financial position. Check the balance on all your deposit accounts, and the capital value of bond and stock holdings. Note the type and value of all insurances held and the current worth of your pension fund. Make a realistic valuation of your real estate holdings – based on sold (rather than asking) prices.
Make Necessary Changes
Ideally you should now have two figures against each category – the ideal and the actual. Your actual situation and the theoretical ideal are constantly changing. It’s impossible to keep both exactly aligned. The key task is to identify areas of greatest discrepancy and consider making changes to equalize them. Before making changes, consider the costs of the proposed change alongside its benefits. Change only where the benefits clearly exceed the costs.
In addition to making changes between broad categories, consider also the use of funds within categories. For example, as mentioned above savings rates are frequently changing, so be sure your cash is earning the highest possible rate.