It’s about now that we start to think, “where did the year go?”. Melbourne Cup is out of the way and shortly we’ll all be entering the countdown to Christmas. (Is it just me, or did the decorations start going up very, very early this year?)

Now is a good time to reflect on your financial behaviour in 2019. Have you been naughty or nice? There is still time to do something about it.

So, let’s work through a few questions to see which of Santa’s lists you’re likely to be on come December 25^th…

You may find yourself on the “Naughty” list if you:

• Didn’t have any financial goals, instead just cruising through life hoping things are on the right track.
• Didn’t have a spending plan.
• Increased your credit card debt over the year or didn’t reduce the debt you already had.
• Took on “bad debt” for things you couldn’t afford.
• Didn’t read your superannuation statement.
• Didn’t save money on a regular basis.
• Didn’t have an emergency cash reserve.
• Didn’t have proper insurances in place to protect you and your family.
• Still don’t have a will!
• Took investment advice from someone who actually doesn’t know much about investing.

Santa will be adding you to the “Nice” list if you:

• Had goals in place to guide financial decision making.
• Know where you spend your money (i.e. you have a spending plan) – this also comes in very handy come Christmas!
• Always shop with a list.
• Made inroads into your mortgage.
• Know where your super is, how it’s invested and how much it costs you.
• Have financial protection in place for you and your family.
• Saved a little extra money for retirement.
• Invested sensibly in a widely diversified and low-cost way.
• Or, if you’re not sure of some of the answers to the questions above, you have a professional and independent financial adviser guiding you.

Just reading through the lists above is possibly sounding alarm bells as when it’s put in front of most people, they can quickly see whether they are close to being on the right track or running off the rails. The question is, who then chooses to do something about it?

If you’re not highly confident in the direction your financial decisions are taking you, now is the time to do something about it.

I come across far too many people who are complacent in thinking that their regular pay cheque is good, and they are getting by… the danger to them is in having no long-term strategic plan to get them where they ultimately want to get to in life. Just a few changes could make a huge difference to their financial future.

Here’s the simple reality we all face… the more years we spend on Santa’s financial naughty list, the worse off our long-term financial future will be.

So many people know they need to do something, they know they need help, but they kick the can down the road and just keep putting it off and putting it off. How many Christmases will pass by before you start getting your financial future on the right track?

I hope Santa will be good to you this year.

Cheers,

Daniel