How holiday-proof are your clients’ finances?

Glen Hare, co-founder of advisory practice Fox and Hare, has underscored the importance of clients being as financially, and mentally, prepared for the holidays as they can be.

Serving a client base predominantly between the ages of 25 to 45 years old, Mr Hare said the priorities of this age bracket tend to stray from those of retirees and pre retirees, particularly during the holiday season.

“Their priorities are definitely travel and spending time with family,” he told ifa.

“But in terms of what we talk about over this period, it's about being really conscious of spending.”

According to Mr Hare, advisers should help clients strike a balance between making the most of the holidays and keeping conscious of their spending habits.

“It is easy [to overspend], it's Christmas. You obviously want to have fun, but you want to make sure that you don't jeopardise the goals and all the hard work you've put in over the course of the previous 12 months.”

“Don't use the silly season as a time to jeopardise those goals.”

As such, Mr Hare emphasised the importance of clients being armed with a clear cash flow strategy or budget across the festive season, especially if they don't want their gift-giving budget to be blown out of proportion.

“Don't let [clients] wait until the night before Christmas. Start accumulating or putting together gifts over the course of a couple of months, just kind of flattening out that cash flow pace and also taking advantage of sales that are available earlier in the year,” he suggested.

“And another thing that I've seen actually people do more and more - I've also received these personally myself - is gifts that people have made themselves. I've always found those to be quite thoughtful, very personalised and, an added bonus, often quite cost effective,” Mr Hare concluded.