In financial and life planning, there are three primary phases: accumulation, consolidation, and spending, so financial goals and needs change with the phases. Strategies must also be dynamic, given the changes in the environment.

Here are some of the changes: low interest rates have become entrenched; there has been a marked shift from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution plans, and individual pension plans have been added to the range of pension arrangements; there is a growing diversity of financial instruments; the cost of tertiary-level education especially is spiralling; contributors to the National Insurance Scheme are required to contribute longer; people are living longer; and how people earn a living is changing as employment is not as guaranteed as it used to be.

The accumulation phase itself encompasses two major periods – the early career period and the mid-career phase spanning the time from the first day of work up to the beginning of the late career, or pre-retirement phase, which generally covers the 10 years just before retirement. The late career phase is the period of consolidation and the retirement period is the net spending phase during which final plans must be put in place for the transfer of assets to loved ones and cherished causes.

The phase we do not seem to put at the front of our minds is the foundation period – when our children are ‘children’ by law, being under the age of majority. To a great extent, they depend on their parents or others to provide for them. This is the time when they should learn basic money skills, begin to develop their money values, and begin to make their first major financial decisions. This is the period during which they learn financial behaviours from their parents, other significant persons in their lives, and institutions like schools and churches.

http://jamaicagleaner.com/article/business/20210307/oran-hall-keeping-changing-financial-needs