Having a secure future is one of the most important aspects of life. Living in the present is key to enjoying life, but preparing for what may come will give you the ease of mind of knowing that the years ahead are set and financially secure. You never know what might happen in the future, and that bit of extra cash in your bank account to make sure that you’re protected is always a comfort.
The recent years have been a testament to this. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen people financially weakened due to expenditures they had never experienced previously. For example, there were businesses that needed extra funding due to the unexpected shutdown and lack of business, employees who could not enjoy the benefits of a fully salary, which in turn led to certain people having to dip into their savings, and many people wound up with unexpected travel costs to go home and be safe with the family. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, more than ever, that nothing is set in stone, nothing should be taken for granted, and that life is full of unexpected twists and turns.
What can help in this regard is having a solid, stable, and consistent savings plan. Apart from providing some peace of mind for such unexpected events, at some points in your life you’ll probably need to use a chunk of your savings to pay for large purchases – buying a house, buying a car, or even paying for further education.
Here at IVALIFE, we want you to be safe and secure. We want you to be safely insured and to have a steady savings plan to make sure that you’re keeping your future in mind, protecting your own life, and protecting the lives of those around you.
What is a savings plan?
As the name suggests, a savings plan is a way for you to accumulate a sum of money over the years in which you are subscribed to this plan. You can choose how much you want to save and also the duration of the plan, thus having full control over what is being saved and when you want to have it released.
If you already have a sum of money accrued which you know you won’t need to touch, you can also opt for a single-premium savings plan, whereby you can invest a one-time premium for as long as you need – offering traditionally higher returns on your investment than keeping these funds stored in a bank account.
Choosing how much to save is a very tricky choice that requires a lot of reflection. You have to understand what type of spender and saver you are, understand where you spend your money and what you spend it on, and how much you actually afford to spend. It’s important to understand that you don’t need to save up with an end goal in mind of where and how you’ll be spending that money. Saving a portion of your income is smart for whatever unexpected situation you may come across – therefore, not knowing what you are going to spend the saved money on should not stop you from saving. That being said, be smart in your spending choices. Your savings are hard-earned and meticulously saved, so you shouldn’t just dip into them whenever and for whatever.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of having a savings plan, and go through different common scenarios that most people experience in their lives that would benefit from having had a savings plan in place.
Planning for marriage
If your plans for yourself are to get married at some point in your life, creating a savings plan is a smart step to secure your family’s future – whether your family is just you and your spouse, or whether it involves children.
By getting married, you are creating a whole new life for yourself with someone else, intertwining emotionally and financially with your spouse – and more often than not, this includes needing to spend a lot of money. Whether you save up to live a more comfortable life, to travel, to have children, or to be able to spend more on something you both enjoy, having a savings plan is an intelligent way of approaching a shared life with someone else that isn’t overly burdened by stressing about money.
Remember, you do not always need to know why you are saving up. The reason may come along the way – but it is better to be prepared and discover what you spend that money on, than discovering what you want to spend it on and have no money to do it. Some reasons might be urgent and some might not be, but there is no way of knowing.
Planning to have children
Children can be very expensive. Obviously, this is dependent on how many children you are planning to have, but even having one child can be very expensive and a financial strain on you. Whether you are planning to send your child to an expensive school, or you wish to be able to still do what you’re doing whilst having a child, or for whatever reason, saving is key! If you know you want a child, start planning from before. Even if you start saving up from just a year or two before, you know that you’ll have a good cushion for you to fall back on just in case you need it.
There are a lot of financially significant scenarios that can happen when having a child. Some scenarios you can predict happening, such as any injuries and medical fees that need to be paid, some hobby or sport your child may be into that’s a bit more expensive than others, not to mention childcare costs if there’s no one to stay home with them at a young age. Education is also a very important factor – maybe you’d want to send your child to extra lessons after school or you wish to give them a better education. All these are common situations across the majority of parents’ lives and they may happen to you. The best way to soften the blow on your wallet is the same for each situation, and that is to save.
Education
This does not strictly apply to children and young adults. If you wish for a better future for yourself but fear how costly investing in your education can be, or you are just scared that you won’t be able to keep up with studying and working at the same time, saving is a very good way to mitigate this worry. Prior to embarking on your studies, be smart and take a few months to think about what you want to do, where you want to do it, and while doing so, start saving immediately. Once you know that you want to invest in your future to sit down and study, start saving without hesitation. A savings plan can help you keep a consistent saving pattern so you certainly won’t go off-track.
As mentioned previously, your children’s education can also be very costly. Having to spend money on books, uniforms, stationery, transportation, school events, private lessons, and more can be very expensive, especially if you have more than one child. Planning for this before your child is of school-age can really help you to get a head start on these likely foreseen expenses.
Health
Keeping yourself and your family safe is essential in today’s world, a world where COVID-19 has ravaged the world leaving hospital’s emergency units full to bursting to the point where patients were being denied treatment. It’s also a world where a disease like cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020.
Injuries and diseases can come out of nowhere and you might need your savings to urgently pay for treatment, medication, or surgery. You might also want to spend some of your savings on a non-essential treatment, such as laser eye surgery. Having that extra money on the side will help you keep yourself and your family safe, and allow you to reach your target health goals.
Buying a house
This is a particularly critical scenario. Many people want to own property- they want to own their own space that they can call home, but a lot of people find this hurdle particularly hard to vault over. That is because property prices are very expensive, coupled with the fact that their savings might not be enough to secure a loan or a deposit. This can prove to be particularly challenging since you’ll need to provide 10% of the value of the property upfront, without the aid of a loan.
Buying a new house can be stressful, and saving up will help immensely in reaching your goal. Starting a savings plan from early on will help you to accrue the money you need for the house you want.
Investing
Building generational wealth is key for a safer future – it can be either your future or it can be for your children’s future. Putting your money in smart, long-term investments will create wealth that will pay off in the future. Generational wealth may take time to accumulate, but one of the most important things is to have enough capital to make an initial investment that will eventually make a difference.
Travelling
The love and want to travel is instilled in a lot of people. Protecting your future also means protecting the people you love the most and also the activities you love the most. Travelling can be very costly depending on what type of traveller you are, and the lifestyle choices you make whilst travelling can vary between trips.. It could be the case that you will want to rent an apartment on one holiday, and on another, you will want to book a hotel room. Often, the determining factor is one of cost. If travelling is truly your passion, you will find that saving up for it will be worth the time.
Protecting your passions will ensure that you will live a fulfilling and eventful life. This is something that IVALIFEstands by, and we want to ensure that all our clients are satisfied with how they save and how their futures pan out.
Hobbies
As previously mentioned, helping you realise your excitement for a better and more fulfilling tomorrow is one of the core values for us at IVALIFE. We want you to experience the best of what life has to offer, and more often than not, this is found in the activities that you love to spend time on. Maintaining a hobby or a vast number of them can really spice up your life, but ending up without any money to spend on these hobbies can really dampen your spirits. It goes without saying that your savings should first be used on essentials, but there is no harm in having some money saved up to enjoy for yourself. Like travelling, investing in a hobby will be worth the time and money if you are truly passionate about what you are doing.
That being said, if you are planning to have any children, then as a parent, you would want the best for them and would want them to experience all that life has to offer. Usually, children are always undecided on what hobby they want to start and pursue, so as a parent you will find that your children hop from one thing to another. You would want your child to excel and have a taste of what he or she can do when they have the time, prior to life’s responsibilities weighing down on them. Creating a savings plan can really help you keep up with your child’s wants and ambitions.
Final Words
Here we have given you a few examples of how a savings plan can protect your future and the future of your loved ones. A savings plan can help deter any problems and worries that might come up in the future, you can predict a lot of these problems, but some come out of nowhere so it is best to stay ready and prepared.
Here at IVALIFE, we have two savings plans: IVAsave and IVAinvest. You can find out more information about the plans here. If you’re unsure about which savings plans are right for you, get in touch with us and one of our representatives will be happy to answer any queries you may have. You can contact us at [email protected] or call us on (+356) 2226 9500.