My Life, My Terms

I have recently separated from my husband of twelve years. He went to live overseas for an incredibly lucrative job but after two years of regularly living apart, we just couldn’t keep the relationship going. It has been quite a dramatic change in circumstance, but we still remain friends.

I have been self-employed for several years as I needed flexibility to look after the children. It was scary to think that my self-employment income might now need to cover more than it did before. At first, the idea of separating our financial aairs made me feel extremely stressed out, but it has proven more simple than I expected.

I made an appointment to see my financial adviser at her office and told her what was happening. She really listened and made me feel safe and comfortable. She asked me a lot of questions and then gave me time to think about how I wanted to live my ‘new’ life and what goals I wanted to set for myself.

We also looked at changing my insurances, developing new saving habits, and starting my own individual investment portfolio. I got to think about how I wanted my retirement to look now that I’d not be spending it as originally planned. It turned out that there were so many things I was really happy about changing.

It was incredible that my financial adviser could take such a complex and multi-faceted situation and wring some clarity out of it. For the first time since we made the decision to separate, I felt excited about the future and was looking forward to making the changes that I needed to make. It was incredibly empowering to make decisions about how to live my life on my terms.

Guiding Kiwis to financial wellbeing is what we do.

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