Argus Financial Ltd. (AFL) has designated October 6-12 as the first Financial Planning Week in Bermuda. The company is joining organisations in the US, the UK, Australia and elsewhere in celebrating this event every year. In the first of a series of articles to run this week, composed by AFL financial planning experts, meet the Couples.

Those who fail to plan, will only plan to fail.

All this week, AFL will follow a composite family as they work through the challenges in managing their finances and their lives.

The following family example is a composite case derived from more than 20 years experience in the financial planning profession.

It is not intended to resemble any one living individual or family group, but you may recognise familiar patterns in your own family. In four stages with a segment each day, we will analyse their current financial situation, track them through a serious of significant life changes, while making financial planning recommendations to assist them in keeping their lives focused on their goals, attaining their dreams, and achieving future financial security.

Meet Mr. Couple (33) and Mrs. Couple (30) and their two children, Missy (four) and Junior (eight). They have been married ten years. They still talk fondly about their ultra-special elaborate wedding that they funded themselves. It depleted their entire savings.

She works two jobs, one as a book-keeper full-time, augmented with restaurant work at night. He manages an electronics store. There has been enough income, although they haven't saved much. Regular retail therapy trips abroad consume their extra cash, but it is a good life.

He is an only child and for a wedding gift, his parents gave them a small two-bedroom apartment, rent-free, in the family home. The situation has been incredibly convenient, but the children are getting older. They would like to own their own home.

Mrs. Couple is the oldest and the most responsible of the four girls in her family. With her Dad long passed away, her depressed mother still refuses to cope financially. She routinely needs 'family loans' to tide her over until next payday.

Since Mrs. Couple is viewed as the most successful, she is expected to fulfil this obligation. There have been rumours of redundancies in her office and she is quite concerned about how long she can continue this 'unofficial support' without having a mother-daughter confrontation.

Suddenly, at age 58, Mr. Couple's father passes away — worn out from a life of physical labour and onset diabetes. There are few estate assets: a small pension, a passbook account, a debt-free house to his mother and the small family business.

His father was proud of him, and in a great surprise left him a small life insurance policy. His mother, with no employable skills, is slowly diminishing before their eyes. She insists they now pay rent as she can no longer make ends meet. Mr. Couple is forced to leave his electronics job to manage the family business.

So here they are, feeling bewildered and overwhelmed: little savings, facing their first tragic life crisis, the challenge of operating a possibly marginal-return business, no place to call their own, and one (possibly two) dependent mothers-in-law. This family needs a financial plan.

Opportunities can be derived from tragedy. How you play the cards you are dealt, will determine your character and success in life.

Look for Financial Planning for a Family in Bermuda Part 2 tomorrow as the Couples learn how to put together attainable goals, control spending and ramp up their income earning power.