I’ve been helping my clients do this for more than 7 years and currently look after more than £6.03million of their money and we look at their progress towards their goals at LEAST once a year. 

 For some clients we do this each QUARTER or each MONTH as we look at their Net Worth and overall progress towards their goals and check that they are still on track to achieve those things that are really important to them – and that the things that they THOUGHT they wanted and are STILL the things they really want. 

 But to track your movement towards a GOAL you need to be SURE where you are starting from. And that can be tricky when we’re talking about finances.

Have you got money in a pension scheme? 

Do you know how much there is and how much it will be when you retire? 

 Are there any restrictions on how and when you can take the money and how does that fit with when YOU want to retire? 

What about income from your business? 

After all you’re unlikely to want to hang up your boots completely, as you LOVE what you do and the impact you have on the lives of your clients. 

 Will you still have part-time income from your business, or a passive income source?

Not bad for something that started as a company pension that at the time I felt like I was almost bullied into taking out when I first started work. 

When I joined Boots in 1997 after my 3 months’ probation, I was sent a letter inviting me to join the pension scheme with a BIG underlined section that explained that if I declined the invitation this month they’d offer it again next month, but after that the offer was withdrawn permanently. 

 EVEN if I worked there for YEARS I would NEVER get offered to join again. 

So I signed the form, having no idea at 21 what a pension was, any more than it’s for when you retire and they take money from your payslip. And just left it to do its thing, until much later when I actually understood what I was meant to be looking at!!