Mapping the journey - financial planning through life’s stages

Early adulthood – “young and carefree.” In our twenties, financial planning is often the last thing on our minds. Starting out in a career (or still studying or searching for direction), we may feel invincible and unburdened. With relatively few responsibilities, it’s easy to think “I can sort this out myself” or “I don’t have enough money to need advice.” Yet this stage lays the groundwork for everything to come. Earning your first steady income means deciding how much to save, how to manage any debts, and when to start investing for the future. Key milestones arrive quickly: moving out on your own, perhaps buying a first home, and maybe settling down with a partner. For example, buying a home usually means taking on a mortgage - a major commitment that raises questions about budgeting, interest rates, and protecting your new investment. Even at this youthful stage, there’s value in guidance. Setting up good habits, like building an emergency fund, contributing to a pension early, and avoiding costly mistakes, can save years of financial pain later. A planner can help prioritize these goals. They won’t clutter your life with jargon or push expensive products; rather, they focus on the simple steps that get you on track from day one. It’s about establishing a solid foundation while you’re carefree enough to take action without the weight of later-life obligations.

The “settling down” years. By our late twenties and into our thirties, life tends to grow more complex. Careers progress and incomes (hopefully) rise. Many people take on new roles in life - becoming a homeowner, a spouse, a parent. This is the season of settling down, and with it comes a cascade of financial decisions. Suddenly, the questions multiply: Should we buy a bigger house or stick to a starter home? How do we juggle mortgage payments with saving for the future? If we have children, how do we protect them financially? These years are all about wealth accumulation - building up assets and security for the long run - but that goal competes with many immediate needs. For instance, starting a family brings joy as well as significant expense, from childcare and school costs to simply keeping the household running. It’s also a time when prudent planning can yield big benefits: locking in life insurance when premiums are low, contributing regularly to investments and pensions, and making a will once you have dependants or property. Each choice, whether it’s investing extra cash or paying down the mortgage, has ripple effects. Without a joined-up plan, one might focus on one area (say, buying a dream home) at the expense of another (like building a retirement fund). This is where comprehensive advice proves its worth. A good financial planner helps balance all these moving parts, ensuring you’re saving enough for retirement while also protecting your young family and optimising taxes across the board. Crucially, they act as an objective partner at key moments: for example, when you receive a bonus or inheritance in your thirties, they’ll help decide whether to invest it, pay off debts, or perhaps start that business you’ve been dreaming of. Life is starting to get real, and having a trusted adviser at your side can make those big decisions far less daunting.

Hitting your stride - the “financial independence” stage. By our forties, many of us have established careers and growing responsibilities. Children might be a bit older (with university on the horizon), elderly parents may need care, and retirement no longer feels like a far-off abstraction. This period often represents the peak earnings years - and along with higher income comes more complex choices. It’s a time when people often aspire to a sense of financial independence: not that you’re retiring yet, but you aim to be free of financial worries, firmly in control of your finances. Paradoxically, this is also when life tends to throw big transitions our way. Some may change careers or start businesses mid-life; others might go through divorces or health scares. You might be paying off the last of the mortgage, while simultaneously thinking about helping your teenagers with university fees or first-home deposits. You could even receive an inheritance around now, as your parents or relatives pass wealth down. Each of these events carries financial implications that can be hard to untangle alone. A skilled adviser helps you navigate this thicket of decisions. For example, if you come into an inheritance or a large bonus in your forties, what’s the smartest use for it - investing for your own retirement, paying for your children’s education, or clearing remaining debts? If you’re considering starting a business, how do you fund it without jeopardising family security? And if divorce or other family changes occur, how do you protect your interests and plan for a new future? At this stage, planning becomes as much about protecting what you’ve built as it is about continuing to grow it. Reviewing pension contributions, maximising ISA allowances each year, and ensuring you have the right mix of investments are all on the agenda. You also begin to think about the long term more seriously - for instance, creating an inheritance tax plan or setting up trusts to ensure your loved ones are taken care of. The right advice can weave together tax planning, investing strategy, insurance cover, and estate planning into one cohesive approach, so you’re prepared for whatever comes next. Real life doesn’t happen neatly one thing at a time: often, you might find yourself dealing with overlapping challenges (career moves and family issues and financial opportunities all at once). That’s why having a holistic plan, and someone to adjust it as needed, is so critical in these peak years.

A new chapter - transitioning toward retirement. In our fifties and early sixties, we often experience a turning point. The kids (if you have them) are likely becoming independent adults. The mortgage might be nearly paid off. You may find yourself with more personal freedom as the hectic years of raising a family ease up. At the same time, retirement looms on the horizon - not as an abstract someday, but as a concrete plan to be crafted. This period is truly a new chapter, bridging the wealth accumulation phase and the beginning of wealth decumulation. Financially, the focus shifts toward making sure everything is in place for your post-work life. Key triggers in these years include deciding when and how to retire: do you accelerate your savings and aim for early retirement, or would you prefer to work part-time for a while? Many people at this stage downsize their home once it’s emptier, freeing up capital (and reducing expenses) for retirement. Others might sell a business they spent decades building, converting that equity into funds for the future. These decisions are significant and often emotional - after all, they involve changing your lifestyle, not just your bank account. On top of that, you may face family milestones that require planning: perhaps funding your children’s weddings or helping them with a house deposit, or welcoming grandchildren and wanting to contribute to their future. There’s also the unfortunate reality that some marriages don’t last to retirement, meaning financial plans might need revisiting in the event of a late-life divorce or a second marriage. Throughout these complex twists, professional advice can provide clarity and confidence. An adviser will help you answer questions like: Can I afford the retirement lifestyle I envision, and what steps must I take now to secure it? How should I adjust my investment strategy as I get closer to needing the money – is it time to dial down risk, or could that jeopardise growth? What’s the best way to draw income from my pension and investments when the time comes? There are technical challenges too, such as navigating pension rules (for instance, taking your tax-free cash entitlement, or deciding between an annuity versus drawdown strategy) and making sure you use any remaining tax allowances to your advantage. These are the years to firm up your estate planning as well - updating your will, setting up powers of attorney, and thinking through how to pass on wealth efficiently. The beauty of reaching this stage with a solid plan in hand is that it lets you approach retirement with excitement rather than anxiety. You know that the groundwork has been laid, and you have a clear roadmap for the transition.

Enjoying the rewards - life in retirement. Finally, the day comes when you step back from full-time work. The retirement years, age 65 and beyond, for many, should be a time to enjoy the fruits of decades of labour. But even now, financial planning doesn’t stop; it simply shifts focus. You move definitively from accumulating wealth to decumulating it, and that requires careful management. In the early years of retirement, you might be ticking off those bucket-list items: travelling the world, picking up new hobbies, spending more time with family and friends. Your spending in these “active” retirement years might even be higher than before, as you finally use the savings you’ve built. Later, as you advance through your seventies and eighties, your pace of life may slow, and other considerations take centre stage - healthcare costs, possibly long-term care needs, and ensuring your legacy is passed on according to your wishes. Throughout retirement, a major challenge is making your money last. Without a salary, you rely on pensions, investments, and other income sources to fund your lifestyle. Deciding how much you can safely withdraw each year, which accounts to draw from first, and how to minimize taxes on your withdrawals is a balancing act. A misstep, like withdrawing too aggressively early on, or failing to plan for medical expenses, can undermine your financial security in later years. This is why many retirees continue to value financial advice greatly. A planner can set up a sensible withdrawal strategy (maybe using the drawdown approach on your invested funds, while timing any annuity purchases or state pension claims optimally). They can help adjust your portfolio to sustain growth for a longer lifespan while managing risk carefully. And importantly, they provide an objective perspective if unexpected events occur - for example, if markets decline, they’ll counsel you on whether to adjust spending or stay the course, rather than panic. In addition, retirement is when estate planning truly comes to fruition. You may choose to give gifts to children or grandchildren while you’re alive, to help them now and reduce future inheritance tax liabilities. You might also increase charitable giving or set up trusts to ensure your legacy reflects your values. These decisions have complex tax and legal angles; professional advice ensures you do it in the most effective way. Ultimately, the goal in this stage is right there in its name: enjoying the rewards of a life’s work. By having a holistic plan and guidance, you free yourself to focus on what matters most, whether that’s time with loved ones, travel, personal passions, or community, confident that the financial side is taken care of.

Through each of these stages, from youthful carefree days to the golden years, one thing becomes clear: real life is rarely linear or tidy. We might wish for a simple progression of education, career, house, family, retirement, done in that order at neat intervals. In practice, life can be messy and surprising. Opportunities and challenges arise when least expected. You might change careers in your fifties, or become a first-time parent in your forties. You could receive a windfall, or face a sudden health issue. Such complexity is exactly why financial planning isn’t a one-time task you check off a list, but an ongoing process. It demands joined-up thinking, coordinating tax, investments, pensions, insurance, and life planning considerations all at once, rather than siloed decisions. For example, a decision about when to retire isn’t just about your pension; it’s also about your tax situation, your investment risk, your healthcare plans, and even your family dynamics. Without a comprehensive view, it’s easy to make choices in one area that inadvertently hurt another (like taking a large pension withdrawal without considering the tax bill, or focusing all your savings on your children’s education and neglecting your own retirement fund). A client-first financial planner keeps an eye on the whole picture so that all the pieces of your plan work together.

At Brigantia, we believe that financial planning should empower you at every stage of life - and that it can be done in a way that always puts your interests first. Unfortunately, the financial advice industry has a reputation for conflicts of interest: too many advisers are content to recommend high-fee “products” or churn investments to earn commissions, all of which chip away at your wealth. We take a different approach. Our mission is to provide transparent, low-cost advice that is truly tailored to you. That means no hidden charges or unnecessary complexity - just clear, honest guidance. We steer our clients away from the high-commission, “financial junk” products so prevalent in traditional advice markets. We don’t believe in opaque fees or bloated arrangements; we believe in simplicity and value. By keeping costs down and avoiding conflicts, we ensure more of your money stays working for you, compounding for your benefit instead of lining someone else’s pocket. Over the long run, this can make an enormous difference to your outcomes. Equally important, our role is to be there whenever life changes course. We aim to build long-term relationships precisely so we can help you adjust your plan as needed, again and again over the decades. That might mean revisiting your strategy when you get that big promotion, or when a new baby arrives, or when it’s time to weigh long-term care options. Our reward as advisers comes from seeing you succeed, from young and carefree all the way through to enjoying your rewards in retirement, not from selling you something that isn’t right for you. In short, doing the right thing for clients isn’t just good ethics; it’s good business, because happy clients stay for the journey.

The bottom line: You may not think you need financial advice today. But life has a way of changing, and with change comes new decisions and sometimes uncertainty. Getting guidance at the right moments can save you money, reduce stress, and open up opportunities you didn’t realise were possible. Everyone’s journey is different, but nobody’s journey is completely smooth. Having a trusted financial planner can help you navigate the twists and turns, make the most of the good times, and weather the difficult times. Whatever stage you’re in now, and wherever you want to go next, a client-first planner will help you get there with confidence. By keeping things simple, transparent and focused on you, we aim to deliver better outcomes at every step. Financial planning isn’t about prediction or fortune-telling - it’s about preparation and partnership. With the right advice throughout life’s stages, you can face the future knowing you’ve made the smart choices to secure your goals, your family, and your peace of mind.