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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, January 31, 2013 · 16 Investment meetings should be about your needs M eetings with your investment adviser should be changed and recharged regularly. Investment meetings can sometimes be irrelevant to your core needs. The discussion needs to move from irrelevant and often boring investment theory to matters that are important to you. You are the client so meetings should be about your needs. They should revolve around your core values and the most important aspects of your life. Family, quality of life and financial independence are a high priority for clients, so those are the issues you will likely want to discuss. The investment meeting should transition to reviewing those core values and what financial actions Dollars & Sense By Peter Watson need to be accomplished now, so you can successfully realize your most important life goals. Family values may include helping your grandchildren pay for the high costs of a post-secondary education or ensuring that you are able to maintain your desired lifestyle during those many decades of retirement. It is very simple to upgrade meetings just by changing the focus of the conversation. That can happen through the continuous application of one of the most important financial planning tools: retirement planning cash flow projections. These projections are the estimates of money coming to you during retirement from all sources including government benefits, employment pensions, RRIF payments and cash flow from other investments. This money goes towards cash outflows include housing costs, living expenses, travel and all other expenses supporting your desired standard of living. When looking at the cash flow projections on a computer screen, the focus should only be on whether or not you will be OK. If the line showing your investment assets continues to be stable or grows (using reasonable and conservative rate of return assumptions) then you are fine. If that critical investment asset line declines and disappears, it is because you have outlived your capital and you've done what many fear the most, depending financially on others. The retirement planning cash flow projections are the bedrock foundation of your lifestyle. This is not just an excellent financial planning tool; it is what you can use to plan your life. At what age will you be financially independent where work is no longer a necessity but an option? Could you retire earlier than planned or perhaps interrupt your career and take a year to travel the world? Just ask your advisor to change certain assumptions and really explore what life options you have. Forget the boring math of cash flow projections and exploit the process for what it can be, a life planning tool that will help you understand all of life's possibilities. As stated earlier as you change the assumptions of your lifestyle options, monitor the investment asset line to ensure you do not run out of assets before you run out of life. Continue tracking the process to see if you are financially OK. The order of planning the rest of your life is to begin with the retirement cash flow discussion with your financial adviser and learn what options you have. -- Submitted by Peter Watson, MBA, CFP, R.F.P., CIM, FCSI.