The Anne Files (Blog)

There is a line in a Dr Seuss book: “And this mess is so big And so deep and so tall, We cannot pick it up. There is no way at all!”.  It describes that feeling of overwhelm, when the problem at hand just seems insurmountable.  Unfortunately for those suffering from financial overwhelm, the situation often results in indecision and inaction which can ultimately make things worse. If you are struggling to get traction in your

Where are you on the Financial Success Hierarchy?  Have you completed all the levels?  Are you on your way? No one is born knowing about money.  We are very likely to have picked up our biases and beliefs from how others  behaved around us when we were growing up.  These ingrained “truths” can sabotage us in many ways and we may not achieve the financial futures that we could and should.  Overcoming your blocks around

One of the assumptions made by traditional financial planning is that a client makes rational decisions.  Advisers are educated to expect that people will arrive at the “fact-finding” meeting with all their financial information at the ready along with a clearly defined list of goals that they want to achieve. I can honestly say, that in my experience, working with new clients almost never happens in such an over-simplified, vanilla, just follow the process kind

Being originally from England, I am not unhappy with the use of double negatives (did you see what I did there?). I have since learned however, that as well as enabling the mastery of understatement, a double negative can also be used as a very effective decision making tool. It is quite easy to identify the benefits of something by looking at how things will be better if you do it or buy it.  If

I recently wrote about how clients of financial advisers can ask questions to test for conflicts of interest around their advice relationship.  Reflecting on it since, my thoughts have now turned to exploring all the positive qualities that un-conflicted advisers can bring to their client engagements. Doing this has taken me back to what it was that attracted me to financial planning as a profession in the first place (for those that don’t know me,

There is no doubt about it, Financial Advice is taking a hammering at the Royal Commission into Banking and Financial Services.  With advisers charging fees for no service, making recommendations with the purpose of meeting sales targets and even charging to accounts of customers who have died it is clear that there is some work to be done to restore the reputation of financial planners in general. As a relative newcomer to financial services and

One of the biggest challenges facing financial planning as a profession is the need to shrug off its commission based origins. Early pioneers of financial advice were essentially door to door salesmen. Working for the big life companies and pounding the pavement, their wages were based on the number of policies sold. In some sections of the advice community, this style of remuneration is still very entrenched.  Even though a Statement of Advice document has

I usually try to keep my ranting on my blog to a minimum, but I have been so saddened by the story of the 71 year old lady from WA who is faced with losing her home to a high risk investment strategy that was probably never appropriate for her (ABC report here). Over a number of years, on a nurse’s wage,  she has amassed 11 investment properties (in addition to her home), owes over

Call me a tight-wad, but I have always enjoyed being a bit thrifty.  Whether it be scraping that last little bit of sauce from the jar before I open the next one, or my “fashion” items from the ’80s that still like to wear occasionally,  I like to get the most out of everything before I am done with it. I suspect that the seed was sown by my parents.  As children of the second

I sometimes get approached by people who are not wanting to go the full-monty financial planning experience.   They may be looking for  guidance on a specific decision they need to make, or for a second opinion on a strategy that they are already following. These requests can be tricky to satisfy.  The regulations under which financial planners are authorised require that all personalised advice is given in writing.  We also have to be certain that