Now that you have a fundamental understanding of the roles of accountants, financial planners, financial advisors, and financial coaches, it is key to work through how to maximise their effectiveness and efficiency.
You are ultimately responsible not only for the inputs (cash) and the opportunity cost (what you must give up in order to invest, pay down debt or activate the strategies the consultants have suggested), but you also have to live with the result (profit or loss).
So, although you may surround yourselves with professional experts, it is a fool's errand to walk in blindly and not pay attention to what is being recommended. This means getting second opinions before embarking on large investments and ensuring you have the financial acumen to set your financial journey on the right course.
How to get the best results for your financial investments
In childhood education it is said that “it takes a village to raise a child”, this is also true in the world of personal finance. You cannot achieve results by relying on advice from your accountant – it's not their job to advise you on investments. Similarly, you can't ask your financial coach or planner to do your annual tax returns.
The key to success and maximising your results is to surround yourself with trusted professionals that work together on your common goals. It is true that they will have differing ideas on what should be done, when you should be investing or how, but there are a range of strategies to keep everything on track.
Setting clear objectives or roadmap from the start
As mentioned in previous chapters of this book, when it comes to the role of your financial planner, it is about setting a financial roadmap for you.
By working with your financial planner to set this roadmap at the beginning, you are setting yourself up for the best chance of success through collaboration, iteration and compliance at every required turn.
Your financial planner is your ‘long term’ advisor, they may even direct you to first work with a financial coach for 12-months before coming and sitting down with them again – to get your financial affairs in order, debts paid down etc.
They will also advise you when it is important to see an accountant, and why – ie. prior to tax time.
By setting the goals and objectives from the start with your financial planner, you can share them with your other financial advisors, even sending a group email so that everyone is on the same page and understands what the goals and objectives are, so they are all working to best serve your interests.
Accountability and transparency is the key
By sharing your financial plan with your accountant, financial coach and any other advisors, you are building a network around you that will ‘keep each other honest’. For example, if your accountant looks at the financial plan, and reviews your current income to deduce that there is simply not the expendable income to invest in such a plan – then this is something you can Zoom/Teams/Skype – or even face-to-face meet – with both professionals.
Although you may have teething problems at the start as each professional is undoubtedly going to try and position themselves as the ‘more important’, the fact remains – they are all working for you, so make them do just that.
How to manage your financial professional network
Sure, you may experience a clash of egos, conflicting ideas or even some heated discussions – however, it is paramount that you remember you are the client, it is your money, and you call.
As a good business manager would do, you need to keep every professional in their respective ‘swimming lanes’. Your accountant for example, is there to provide you with tax advice, work to minimise the tax you pay, maximise your cash for investment and ensure that you are accountable to the ATO.
Your financial coach is there to get your household budget and savings goals under control, while your financial planner is there to look at your future, how to invest in superannuation, investment funds and long-term initiatives to reach your financial goals.
All financial consultants are important to reaching your financial goals – but they must be transparent, accountable, and stay in their swimming lanes – if they don’t, you will have sharks in the water, and you are the little fish in the middle.
So, ensure you have a great team around you, expert professionals that understand your investment levels, your financial acumen and that their role is to work with and for you. The achievement of your financial roadmap is simply a journey to be enjoyed, not an arduous peak-hour commute.