Property confusion and guilty spending…
I got a huge kick out of working with May. It’s always great to see someone take in what we talk about, embrace making some changes to their money management structure, and get great results quickly. But when we met, May was struggling with a challenge we see too often. May was a young executive and had done some good groundwork with her money. May was saving a healthy amount each month and wanted to buy property. But May didn’t understand how the property market worked, how she could buy property, or what her options were.
As a result May had a vague idea of what she wanted to do but no clear strategy on the specifics or how to make it happen. Because May wasn’t clear on where she needed to get to, she was saving as much as she could and was feeling guilty every time she spent money. May hadn’t gone on a holiday in a while and even though she was saving well she wasn’t sure if she could ‘afford’ it and still be able to buy property.
When I took May through her planning process a big focus was around helping her understand the financial impact of buying property at different price points, borrowing levels, and whether to buy as an investment or her own home. We also ran the numbers to show May what her spare cash situation would like like after she purchased to make sure May would be happy with the lifestyle outcomes she could get as a homeowner. After seeing this on paper May got a huge boost in her confidence and was ready to take action with confidence.
But this is only half the story. May got another big benefit from going through the advice and planning process. After looking through the numbers we realised it was possible for May to follow the property strategy she wanted, WHILE increasing how much she was spending on her lifestyle today. Because we had a clear strategy and could see everything coming together, May was very happy to spend more on her today. We also increased how much May was putting into her travel fund, needless to say she was stoked!
The other extra bonus May was that she got to save a bunch of time she’d previously been spending managing her money. Because we set up an automated banking system to manage May’s saving and spending, May no longer had to spend her spare time shuffling money around her different accounts. Shortly after setting up the banking system May told me she felt like a 16 year old again because she didn’t have to think about money, only how she was going to spend it!
And May has been kicking butt ever since.
It’s been great to see it all come together for May. I love helping people ‘hack’ the system to make their money management easier, and I absolutely love helping people give themselves PERMISSION to spend more (especially if it’s on travel). May was doing well before we met, but her situation reinforced to me that no matter how well you’re doing there’s always ways to improve.
Here’s what May said about our work together:
“Pivot Wealth is my first experience of financial advice/planning and I was pleasantly surprised with the practical and client-centred approach that Ben and his team took with me. I didn’t really know what to expect or even what I wanted, but Pivot was able to help me define my financial and non-financial goals in a way that was meaningful for me. The ‘coaching’ structure of the program Pivot offers has been valuable in building my financial literacy. Super useful for young professionals to get a solid start on taking control of their financial future!”
– May