Alison Adam is an Authorised Representative, GWM Adviser Services Limited, Australian Financial Services Licensee 

I have just read a news article about the benefits of spending money on time savings items.  Talk about an alluring title – it was called “Money really can buy happiness, if spent on the right thing – time”.  One of the driving forces at Income Solutions is the belief that the amount of income you can achieve is the driving force that funds your lifestyle.  It is not the amount of capital wealth you have accumulated that will necessarily be the defining factor for whether you are able to enjoy a lifestyle of your choosing.  The term “asset rich and income poor” has certainly been around as long as my living memory stands, and most likely well beyond, supporting our belief.  We are called Income Solutions for a reason.

The article is based around a study that has been undertaken by the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University.  The article goes on to say that the research has shown it doesn’t take a lot of money to improve your mood but it does need to be spent on the right thing.  The “right thing” has been defined as spending on small things which help buy back some time.  Some examples might be hiring a cleaner or a nanny to complete everyday tasks.  The benefit of spending money on outsourcing to a service is actually a purchase of free time for the spender.  This free time can then be spent doing something that makes the spender happy, such as spending time relaxing or spending quality time with family or friends.  Professor James Arvanitakis is quoted in the article as saying “Rather than looking at being busy and successful, we should look at success as having the time to do all the things we want: career, family and time with ourselves”.

The connection between Income Solutions and the key messages in this article is significant.  Income Solutions advocate goals based planning.  Every client is unique and the key to what separates one client from another is their goals.  While there are often recurring themes amongst our clients goals, often involving family or building wealth for the future, when you really dig a little bit deeper, a goal might evolve to become intensely personalised, such as “I want to buy a caravan in 2019, before my children enter high school, and travel around Australia for 6 months”.   Often, we see people who have similar dreams half formulated in their mind but think it’s something that they need to win Tattslotto to achieve.  This is where the other key message in the article comes into play: outsourcing to a professional service.  A Financial Planner can help define a half-formulated goal and put planning in place to achieve the goal.  It’s a very rewarding achievement for both a client and the Financial Planner and is truly a definition of spending money to buy happiness.

Goals obviously don’t just stop – they evolve, change course, are achieved and new goals formulated.  This is why Income Solutions seek long term relationships with our clients.  Goals are often long term and outsourcing the management of long term goals is definitely another aspect of spending money to buy happiness.  This can sometimes be hard, because there really isn’t any “big bang” moment where everything slots into place.  The reality of a long-term goals is that it takes time, commitment and focus.  It’s a journey.  It is hard to keep on track, especially if the achievement of the goal seems so far away and your everyday life keeps diverting your time and money off track.   Paying a professional Financial Planner to help you achieve a goal can seem like an expense you don’t need.  We have heard people who oppose paying for an ongoing service say “you’ve taught me a lot and I could see the value in learning it but now I think I can do the rest myself”.   This might be true, although if there hasn’t been a history of commitment and focus it is perhaps unlikely.  Even if it does prove to be true, how much time and energy will be dedicated to this task, taking precious time away from your personal and family life.

In a crazy modern world where there are so many distractions, spending money by outsourcing to a professional Financial Planner is actually buying you free time.  Free time…..  Makes me think of another saying “Money well spent.”

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