Four financial life stages and how to plan for them If the laundry list of “things to do” puts you off financial planning, then here is a way to make it easier. The elements that form part of the financial planning exercise include budgeting to generate savings, investing for goals, securing , protecting income through life and general insurance, managing debt and planning for the transfer of wealth. While each element plays an important part in securing your finances, not all of them are equally significant at every stage in the life-cycle. Categorise the activities as critical, important, urgent and optional in each phase of your life. Focus your resources on those activities that are identified as critical and important that need immediate attention. Consider activities that are labelled as urgent only if they are also seen as essential. For example, while you may consider holding off increasing contribution to the retirement corpus in favour of paying life insurance premium, y...