Financial Planning For The Self-Employed
They say the great thing about being self-employed is getting to choose which 23 hours of the day you work!
Wearing all the hats and being versatile, customer-centric, an accountant, a marketer, a sales manager, and an admin, all the while being an expert in your field is enough to make your head spin. It’s a wonder there’s any time left in the day to enjoy the fruits of your freedom, let alone deal with the peaks and troughs that come with unpredictable business cycles.
A strong financial plan is essential for anyone who’s self-employed. Without the safety net afforded to us when we work for someone else, the responsibility of your business’ success lies solely on you. Having a financial planner that understands your needs and your challenges can mean the difference between an uncertain future and a comfortable one.
That’s where the team at MyFuture has you covered. We have worked with countless entrepreneurs and other self-employed individuals to develop and manage secure financial plans to see them through to retirement and we’d love to do the same for you.
Financial Planning For The Self-Employed
The unique opportunities that freelancers face come with unique challenges too. If you’re self-employed, you are in charge of ensuring you and your family’s quality of life in the present, but also making sure that the money you earn lasts you as long as you need it to.
Being self-employed has many advantages that make it worth the risks you take. Financial freedom, flexibility, control and ownership, and a direct return on the time and money you invest in your endeavours certainly make being your own boss a fulfilling journey. But being self-employed is not all sunshine and daisies.
If you are self-employed or working as a freelancer, you take on the burden of an uncertain income, especially if you get sick or have a reduced workload. Likewise, tax and ACC contributions are not automatically paid on your behalf. There are no matching contributions, no company stock shares, and no automatic payroll deductions. This is why it’s crucial to have a robust financial plan in place for you and your family’s peace of mind.
A good financial plan for anyone who’s self-employed acknowledges these inherent challenges, but puts in place strategies to overcome them so you can feel secure that the work you’re putting in will sustain you now and in the future.
How Do I Manage My Self-Employment Money?
Managing cash flow as someone who is self-employed or freelancing can be a lifesaver.
You’re probably well aware that you need to stay ahead of your finances and plan for gaps in work or client payments to weather the difficult times and stay afloat. But how much do you need to see you through and how much can you save for other expenses and your eventual retirement?
That’s where we come in. Understanding how your cash flow is best utilised and where and when you have the opportunities to invest, save, or put away for a rainy day is our specialty. Getting in touch with our team of Qualified Financial Advisers will be the best financial decision you ever make.
With our financial planning advice, you’ll be able to both plan for inevitable uncertain periods and give you and your family the safety net you deserve.
Get Ahead With Quality Financial Advice
Our Qualified Financial Advisers can help you achieve your wealth creation goals with a tailored financial plan and proven financial expertise.
How To Plan For Retirement When Self-Employed
Without an accounts department or HR team to fall back on, you might be on your own trying to navigate the muddy waters of saving on taxes, savings, and financial planning. Learning how to set up a retirement plan when you’re self-employed is another set of skills to add to an already full plate.
Setting up and maintaining a healthy retirement plan requires a fair amount of discipline, but also the knowledge, skills, and strategies in place that will get you to retirement securely. It also requires a fair amount of planning to understand how much you can add to a pension on a yearly basis and how much you’ll need to live comfortably through retirement.
Fortunately, that’s where MyFuture does the hard work so you don’t have to do the guesswork. With the help of the financial advisers at MyFuture, we can work with you to prioritise your retirement goals, help you make the right investments to get you there, and get you on track for your dream retirement.
Reach out to us now for your no obligation FREE Discovery Session to find out how our financial advice can help entrepreneurs and the self-employed shoot for the stars and reach them.
What is our 6-Step Financial Advice Process?
The 6-step financial advice process is the international benchmark for financial planning. This holistic approach is proven to increase the likelihood of you achieving your financial goals.
Discovery Session
This is our opportunity to get to know you better, understand your financial goals (short, medium and long-term), and what resources you have to achieve those goals.
Research & Recommendations
During these steps, we do the research, run the numbers, document and present our recommendations to you. This can be a comprehensive financial plan focused on long-term wealth creation and/or a statement of advice focused on your more immediate financial needs. We will need to verify the information you provided during the Discovery Session by requesting supporting documents such as loan and savings account balances, payslips, etc. This ensures we are using highly accurate information when developing our recommendations.
Implementation
This step is all about implementing the recommendations. We don’t just provide the recommendation; we take responsibility for helping you implement it. This could involve helping you to complete application forms, working with a broker to restructure your lending, or finding you suitable investments. We understand you’re busy, so our goal is to make your financial world as easy as possible by doing as much as we can in-house for you. However, ultimately, we never have access to your money and cannot sign anything on your behalf, so you need to be an active, willing, and ideally enthusiastic participant in this process.
Ongoing Service & Reviews
This is where the real fun begins—managing and tracking your long-term financial success. We have periodic reviews to ensure your strategy is still appropriate if your goals or circumstances have changed. We adjust when necessary and provide annual snapshots so you can see your progress over time. Most importantly, you have your very own trusted Personal Financial Adviser available anytime to help with the little or big stuff. Worried about making next month’s mortgage repayments? Call us. Your parents gave you an early inheritance? Call us. Broke up with your partner and split all your assets? Call us! We’re here for you every step of the way to ensure that whatever life throws at you, you stay on track with your long-term financial goals.
Frequently Asked Questions