Mitigating risk: in a professional capacity it’s extremely important, right? Some people dedicate 40 plus hours a week to doing it — it’s their day in and day out.
A risk manager identifies, assesses and evaluates any potential risks that could hinder the company’s safety, security or prosperity. They’re driven by the mantra that ‘prevention is better than cure’ and leave nothing to chance.
When we consider that risk management and mitigation is enormous in our professional world, why is it that the same can’t always be said for our personal lives, too?
Think about it — how much time and attention do you really dedicate to some of the most important things in your life to ensure you’re not leaving yourself open to unnecessary risks? Things like your relationships, your career and most importantly — your finances.
Probably not as much time as you could, or should.
Fine-combing your finances
91% of the population (46.5 million) haven’t received any financial advice in the last 12 months; and only 28% have used financial advice at some point in their life.
That means a lot of us are DIYing it instead — potentially opening ourselves up to greater risks if we don’t know what we’re doing.
After all, you (probably) wouldn’t trust your own judgement to make a competent diagnosis of a health problem — no matter how much Googling you’ve done. You’d ask a medical professional for an expert opinion. It’s their job.
The same approach can be taken to your financial planning.
Unless you’re really clued up on the latest tax rules and the best way to make your money work as hard as it can, you could be leaving yourself open to some significant risks by not asking for help from the experts.
Take retirement for example. Do you know how much you’ll need to retire when and how you want to? 43% of the public don’t. In fact, only one in five adults in the UK have any kind of defined financial goals in place at all.
And the consequences of turning a blind eye could be far-reaching. You could be working much later into your life than you’d planned, you might have to make some serious lifestyle changes to survive on your retirement income or, worse yet, you could run out of money altogether.
Risk mitigation shouldn’t just be for the office. It’s arguably more important in your personal life than anywhere else.
Want to make sure you aren’t leaving your finances open to risk? We’ll be at the upcoming European Legal Security Forum on 2 July — pop along to our stand to see how we can help.
You can also visit Octopus Wealth for more information or to chat with one of our experienced financial planners today.