Money, Meaning and What Really Matters

Most financial plans begin with goals or objectives.

Retire at 60. Travel more. Help the children. Pay off the mortgage. All perfectly reasonable objectives. And having those objectives matters. Without them it is difficult to know what your money is meant to be doing. But those objectives alone may not be enough.

Perhaps there is another question that deserves just as much attention:

What’s the reason behind these objectives?

At Ovation we refer to these as Motivations.

Goals and objectives describe what you want to achieve. Motivations explain why you want to achieve them. Two people may both want to retire at 60, but one is motivated by spending more time with grandchildren, while the other wants the freedom to travel or pursue a lifelong passion. The objective is the same. The motivation is very different.

Financial planning isn’t about collecting financial objectives. It’s about making sure your money supports the life you actually want to live.

Not Every Objective Improves Wellbeing

In a recent episode of The Financial Wellbeing Podcast, we discussed research into different types of life objectives.

It suggested that when the pursuit of money becomes our primary life objective, life satisfaction can actually decline over time. Those whose objectives involved relationships, social connection or helping others tended to report greater life satisfaction.

Money matters, but it works best when it supports the life you want to live, rather than becoming the goal in itself.

A life built only around earning more, owning more, or reaching the next financial milestone may not give us what we expected when we finally arrive at the goal.

Imagine working longer hours for years to afford a bigger house, only to realise that the house you already had was perfectly adequate.

The financial objective has been achieved, but the cost may have been time with your family, neglected friendships or the hobby you kept promising yourself you’d return to.

The money achieved its objective. But perhaps not the life you were hoping to build.

Transitions Give Us A Chance To Go Deeper

Retirement is the obvious example. For years the aim may have been to stop working by a certain age. But if retirement has only ever been a date in the diary rather than a vision for the future, it can arrive and suddenly the diary looks very empty.

The same can happen when children leave home, a business is sold or someone decides to reduce their hours.

Some are planned. Others simply happen. Either way, taking time to think about what motivates us can help us live with greater meaning and purpose.

A transition removes some of the structure that has shaped our life for years. While that can feel unsettling, it also creates the space to ask deeper questions about what you want the next chapter of life to look like.

Perhaps the next objective is not another financial number or age to hit.

It might be:

• Returning to a hobby that was pushed aside

• Learning something new

• Spending more time with family and friends

• Supporting a cause that matters to you

• Doing work you enjoy, without needing it to dominate your week

• Using your experience to help other people

These may still need money behind them. The difference is that the money has a purpose. It becomes a tool for creating the life you want, rather than an objective in its own right.

Three Questions Worth Asking

The podcast offered three useful questions for reviewing your objectives:

When do you feel most excited and energised?

Think about the activities, conversations and people that make you lose track of time.

Who or what do you want to make a difference to?

That might be children, grandchildren, a community, a charity or the natural world.

How do you want to help?

Through your time, skills, practical support, financial gifts or simply being more available.

You do not need a grand life purpose. Something purposeful is enough.

Where Financial Planning Helps

It’s easy to dismiss an idea because it feels financially unrealistic.

• “I would love to reduce my hours, but I probably can’t”

• “We have always wanted to travel more, but perhaps we should keep saving”

• “I would like to help the children now, but what if we need the money later”

A good financial plan lets you explore those choices properly.

Cashflow forecasting helps you test different futures, giving you confidence to explore choices that might previously have felt unrealistic. Just as importantly, a coaching conversation with your planner can help uncover whether an objective will make you happier, or whether it is simply something you feel you ought to want.

At Ovation, that is why we start with the person, not the product.

Our Financial Planners are trained in coaching because a plan should do more than organise your money. It should help you make confident decisions about the life that money is there to support.

The next time you set yourself a financial objective, don’t just ask, “Can I achieve it?” Ask yourself, “What will achieving it allow me to do?”

And, if the answer isn’t immediately obvious, that’s perfectly normal. Exploring those questions is one of the most valuable conversations financial planning can offer. Speak to your Financial Planner at Ovation about what really matters to you – and how your money can help you get there.