Here’s hoping 2021 is a great year! 2020 was interesting to say the least!

I hope you and your loved ones are able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas, thankful for the situation we find ourselves in here in Australia. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but we could hardly have hoped to be ending 2020 in a better place given what’s transpired this year.

If you’re like most Australians, there were some times of genuine fear earlier in the year, but we now see confidence roaring back as the country has opened up again.

As Winston Churchill said, “Never waste a good crisis”. Now is the ideal moment to take stock of the ups and downs of 2020 and use it as the launchpad to take your financial future by the scruff of the neck in the new year.

If there’s one thing we can learn from 2020, it’s how unpredictable the future can be. No one could have written the script for this year. However, while we can’t pinpoint exactly what the future holds, we can plan for eventualities with logic and reason. We can break things down into the short-term, medium-term and long-term, and plan accordingly.

You’ve been around long enough to know that life throws curveballs now and then. The key is to take a best-guess approach to thinking what you want your future to look like, creating a plan to get you on the right track, while taking into account what sorts of bumps could come along and preparing for those, and then reviewing and revising the plan as things unfold.

One quote says it all… ‘If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail”. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that having a plan enables us to adapt.

It’s important to keep making plans! Doing so helps motivate you to keep taking the actions that will lead to success. If you wait for the perfect time to act, you’ll never act. If you are constantly implementing small steps in the right direction, there will be times when you’ll go a little backwards, but your trajectory will be certainly moving forward towards achieving longer term success.

It’s easy to get trapped in the short-term and the lack of forward planning then leads to regret. Yet, as humans, our big brains mean we are capable of thinking about the future… so it therefore makes sense to plan for that future we’re thinking about.

I love this concept – what gets scheduled, gets done. With a plan for the future, you can tackle the future with a proactive mindset but with the capability to adapt the plan when life throws up something unexpected. Without a plan, you risk achieving little when times are good and blowing things up when things turn sour.

Think about this for a moment… most people would have spent more time planning their last holiday than they’ve ever spent planning their financial future. I’m sure you’ve reaped the benefits from a well-planned holiday, both in terms of cost and enjoyment. Imagine the benefits of a well-planned financial future!

What’s your plan going forward? If you’re not sure, enjoy Christmas and get in touch in the new year.

Enjoy the pudding and see you in 2021.

Cheers,

Daniel