Planning 40-65

Your career is likely to be well established (which doesn't mean that you won't want to have a change later on - maybe in your mid 50's). Your income is likely to be more stable than in your younger years, your KiwiSaver account may have a solid balance from those years of saving.

You may own a home (on your own or with the bank) and you are starting to think about what retirement might look like.

As well as thinking about what your future is going to look like and making sure that any children you have are on track, you may be starting to have concerns about your parents, and be needing to factor in how you are going to support them (whether emotionally, with chores or maybe financially) to your lifestyle and your plans.  This is the time to start thinking about this question in preparation for retirement: 'If it didn't matter what income you earned, what would you do with your time?

We find that these are the years where you are likely to have surplus funds that you can put into investments for your retirement, as well as enjoying some freedoms, travelling, taking longer holidays -maybe even a sabbatical if your career allows for that.

Making sure that your KiwiSaver account and investments are working for you starts becoming more important at this stage of your life.  

This is the same with your insurances.  Having got this far, the last thing you want to derail your planning is to become unable to work and earn because of ill-health or injury, and have no income protection insurance or trauma insurance to tide you over until you are better.  The quality of your insurance cover becomes crucial during these years and you may need to change your insurance cover during this period, to make sure that you have the appropriate types of insurance for you.

As your investments and net wealth increase, and your debt vanishes, the types of insurance cover and the amount of insurance cover that you need changes and reduces.

That is why it is important to continually review your financial solutions - which is what Moneyworks do with our Membership Fee Financial Advice clients, meeting every year to make sure that they are still on track to achieve their goals, and that everything is working properly for them.