Financial wellbeing is a subject that examines all aspects of the relationship between money and happiness.
A lot of financial wellbeing research and articles focus on the negative aspects of money, for example debt and budgeting. Whilst this is undoubtedly important, we also want to educate people on how they can use their money to make themselves happier.
This is the purpose of the Financial Wellbeing Conference. To provide advisers with the tools to create financial plans that will make their clients happier, not just wealthier.
Helping Clients Get Happy
Financial advisers, planners and coaches are all in the business of helping their clients to make sense of their money. This might involve planning for the future; creating investment plans; helping clients to ‘live the life you want to live’.
A happy client is a sticky client, right? But how much more sticky would they be if your advice caused an increase in their wellbeing?
Help To Be Happy
In The Financial Wellbeing Book and podcast, we have a mantra. Financial planning, we suggest, is really very simple; just work out what you want from life, and spend your money on that.
There are all sorts of barriers to working out what you want from life, however. Self limiting beliefs; permission to be happy; the cognitive biases highlighted by the study of Behavioural Finance. Plus there is the basic problem that we are unable to challenge our own assumptions.
People need help to be happy.
Happier On Purpose
Over many years of financial planning, one constant I have discovered is that when people reach that magic ‘Enough’ figure, their focus changes away from accumulating wealth, and on to finding purpose. Often this involves helping other people.
They then discover that they didn’t need as much money as they thought they would in order to maximise their wellbeing.
Financial planning is therefore about helping people create a path to a future that they didn’t actually know was possible. Helping them to find their purpose, what makes them happy. And then looking at how their money can be used to help them achieve it (or, often, to realise that money actually has little to do with pursuing their purpose).
Daily Wellbeing
The other four factors that contribute to our overall wellbeing are: career; health; social contact; community.
A focus on financial wellbeing alone, therefore, will not make us happier. The real growth comes when these five parts to wellbeing interact with each other.
There is much we can do to increase financial wellbeing, from spending money on experiences not stuff, to having a clear path to identifiable objectives. But we can also increase overall wellbeing by looking at how our wealth affects these other aspects of wellbeing.
The Conference
At the Financial Wellbeing Conference, we will have speakers and a few exhibitors who will cover all of these areas.
You will be inspired, yes, but the aim of the conference, the success criteria, will be if you go back to your office armed with ideas and tools to actually change how you advise your clients.
We hope to see you at the Financial Wellbeing Conference to explore how we can help clients to become happier, not just wealthier.
This article is for financial professionals only. Any information contained within is of a general nature and should not be construed as a form of personal recommendation or financial advice. Nor is the information to be considered an offer or solicitation to deal in any financial instrument or to engage in any investment service or activity. Parmenion accepts no duty of care or liability for loss arising from any person acting, or refraining from acting, as a result of any information contained within this article. All investment carries risk. The value of investments, and the income from them, can go down as well as up and investors may get back less than they put in. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.