Three hidden secrets to successful financial planning – Purpose, Plan and Pudding

Welcome to my series of blogs and articles or commentaries (however you prefer to classify them).

These are designed to keep my clients informed and for any prospective new clients to get a feel for what we do at Hartcliff and illustrate how we differ from conventional Financial Advisors.

I have themed my blogs and articles based on the journey you take from the beginning to the outcomes – how you fulfil your purpose. These fall into one of three categories

Purpose – Why we are doing it

Plan – What we are doing

Pudding – The Outcomes!

But I hear you ask, Why Pudding?

Well when we (and by we, I mean myself and the wonderful Marianne Smith from our marketing consultants Doo Marketing) were discussing themes, we came up with the first 2 quite quickly and the P’s. Searching for that final P however, was quite a challenge, until Marianne just said “outcomes is the proof of the pudding”, and we all said, almost in unison, “Pudding!” and that’s how we got our 3^rd P.

That did get me thinking, as puddings are actually a good analogy for what we do at Hartcliff.

Puddings are the sweet treat or an indulgent reward, and who doesn’t like a pudding? But it has to be the right pudding!

Let me put this into context.

What I like:

Anyone who knows me will know I have a terribly sweet tooth and that I have a particular weakness for chocolate (if you look in the dictionary under “chocaholic”, it’s just a picture of me).

What I dislike:

If you were to say to me “I have the ideal pudding for you, a chocolate covered strawberry”, well that is my idea of food Hell as I don’t like Strawberries at all and in my mind they have no right to ruin Chocolate!

So it’s not just about the pudding, it has to be the right pudding! The right ingredients based on your needs likes and dislikes, to produce the pudding that is just right for you!

And that is just how we do things at Hartcliff, it’s not just a question of producing a generic plan for retirement for example, it’s producing a plan that suits YOUR retirement and what you want to do with the rest of your life.

That’s why our most important job is to make sure we find out as much as possible about you and what you really REALLY want and desire from your lifestyle. We then construct the right plan for you to make sure that, if it’s Baked Alaska you want, that’s what you get, not a treacle sponge and custard! Even though both are nice, they are very different.

Well after typing that, I think I deserve a treat, and there is a Walnut Whip with my name on it in the fridge.  I will leave you to enjoy our blogs and if you would like to get in touch regarding any of the three of categories, it would be great to hear from you.

Andy