Money might not buy your clients happiness, but it can make their lives easier. 

From retiring earlier and spending more time doing the things they love, to making it affordable to outsource the chores they hate, money has a hugely important role to play.

A long-term financial plan is about managing your clients’ aspirations and helping them to achieve their goals, which often means focusing on more than simply money.

Financial wellbeing – an increasingly important concept in the planning profession – looks at the building blocks to long-term happiness. These include factors like money and career, but also health and wellbeing, and social and community relationships.

For this reason, a long-term plan needs to be individual to each client and focused on both their long-term financial and happiness goals. 

Keep reading to find out how Boolers can help you and your clients now.

Understanding what individual happiness looks like can help clients make their dreams a reality

Before we can put a plan in place that helps ensure your clients’ happiness, we need to know what “happy” looks like to them. 

Sitting down with a financial planner is a great opportunity for individuals to think seriously – possibly for the first time – about what their future happiness will actually look like.

Whether your clients’ after-work plans involve travelling the world or downsizing to be nearer to grandchildren, there will be financial implications. There will be non-monetary, happiness considerations too.

We can help your clients to think about what makes them happy now, and what will make them happy in later life. 

A Royal London report from November 2022 found that 72% of over-55s preferred spending money on experiences, rather than possessions. 

Travelling was important for many (37%), with bucket list holidays like seeing the Northern Lights, road-tripping across America, and enjoying an African safari topping the list of travel destinations.

Our discussions about your clients’ long-term aspirations will concentrate on where they are now and help to develop a plan to get them to where they want to be. This means talking about money, savings and investments, but also about long-term happiness. 

• Are they in a career that makes them happy?
• Is there a way to maintain happiness in the present while working towards a long-term dream?

With careful and bespoke financial planning, the answer will hopefully be “yes”.

Social interactions and maintaining physical and mental health are key to long-term contentment

As we have seen, non-financial areas of your clients’ lives will impact their overall financial wellbeing. Social relationships, good health (both physical and mental), and feeling part of a community can all help to boost happiness, especially as we get older. 

These are three key areas and they are encompassed by the most important goals that over-55s have for their retirement:

• Time with family and friends (52%)
• Relaxation (47%)
• Maintaining health and fitness (45%)

It is often time spent with loved ones that makes us happiest, and so it’s right that your clients will want to prioritise this in their retirement.

Having the disposable cash to enjoy meals and evenings out with friends means having a firm grasp on your finances. Maintaining physical and mental wellbeing might also mean being able to afford a gym or sports club membership. The social side of participating in these events can have a favourable effect on your clients’ mental health too.

Financial advice is about your clients’ long-term aspirations. The link between money and happiness plays a huge part in all of our dreams for the future. 

Helping your clients to manage the “finance” part of their financial wellbeing

Both elements (the “financial” and “wellbeing” parts) of your clients’ financial wellbeing are built on strong foundations.

They require your clients to think carefully about what makes them happy. They can then work with us to put a financial plan in place to get them to where they need to be.

Financial planning isn’t simply about having enough money to pay their bills, it’s about your clients living the lifestyle they have dreamed about. And that means having a grasp and a focus on purely financial matters, like:

• Managing a household budget and spending habits
• Managing debt and keeping a rainy day fund
• Saving and investing for a specific future goal.

Boolers’ expert financial advice can help your clients in each of these important areas.

Get in touch

If you have clients who would benefit from help with any of the topics raised in this blog – from household budgeting to debt management and financial protection – please get in touch. Email enquiries@boolers.co.uk or call 0116 240 7070.

Please note

The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.