Life’s values come before investment values …

Learn about yourself before you learn to invest. The results will be better … for you and those around you.

The tip comes from someone who knows; Sunél Veldtman, a director of Barnard Jacobs Mellet Wealth, a wealth company and specialist adviser to some of South Africa’s most affluent individuals and families.

She is also the popular presenter of the ‘Feminine Touch on Finances’ workshops that promote female financial empowerment through practical guidance on financial fundamentals.

Face-to-face exposure to hundreds of cases of financial frustration has convinced Veldtman that personal insight into life’s goals has to shape a financial plan rather than a desire to win all the money.

“The aim in Monopoly is to end up with the most money, but life’s not Monopoly,” says Veldtman, a Certified Financial Planner. “The aim of the game of life is different for everyone, but for most people it is not to have the most money.

“Before we know how much to save and where and how to invest, we need to understand why we’re doing these things. We are often unsuccessful in our saving and investment strategies because we cannot link our money to our life vision and goals.”

Without self-knowledge, people “succumb to the pressures to spend in a consumer-driven society” or are driven by insecurity to “build up wealth with no real purpose”.

She adds: “You might have a massive bank balance, but you have no real joy.

“A life dominated by materialistic goals, even obvious ones like the holiday home or the house in the nice neighbourhood, might keep you from achieving the things that give you real joy.”

For Veldtman, financial planning begins by getting clients to discover what they really want. The catalyst is often a bout of self-questioning to determine goals that go a lot deeper than inflation-positive returns and portfolio diversification.

Sometimes just a few simple questions do the trick, for instance if you knew that you only had a short time to live what would you do with your life or what would be your biggest regrets?

“Truthful answers help you understand your value system,” says Veldtman.

“Clearly the need for security and basic needs should be met first, but once you know your life values you can begin to design a financial strategy that will give you happiness.

“Research shows that people who have a written plan in line with their life goals and live within their means are generally happier than people who don’t … because life is not Monopoly.”