You’ve reached the summit. The final step of an exhausting 14-week long review of all of your Bermuda financial resources in order to improve your financial lifestyle.

Did you do it? Congratulations. You’ve run the course — gone through frustration, boredom, and lack of confidence, now you are just about at the end.

What was your outcome? Were you happy, was it fun, frustrating, or just plain depressing? Do you feel more in control of your financial life now?

Did you think it was a good idea, but then never go around to it?

Do it now. It is never too late to start.

The prevailing reception that ran throughout this almost four-month scrutiny was positively exhilarating for me, with more inquiries in personal finance for the Bermuda Budget Sheet (and related) than ever before, from as far away as New Zealand.

I hope those who struggled through the “I just don’t know what I bought that day” budget category got things sorted out. We all learn something from that classic exercise and it is this. It is not the big expenses. “We fritter away more money on little everyday treats, food, drink, and random purchases that we do not need.” It all adds up — to big numbers at the end of the month. If you have done nothing else but control this impulse spending, you have come a long way, readers.

Just a few financial housekeeping chores left to wrap up the final week of Bermuda’s 14-week plan to dramatically improve your financial lifestyle.

A fact. We always plan that we are going to live forever — until we don’t.

We never know when the Good Lord will call us home. You don’t want your left-behind relatives to start with the refrains of: “If only” he/she had been more careful; taken better care of her/himself; put together a simple will; asked a guardian to take of his/her little son and daughter; filed the papers for the Bermuda Primary Homestead Resident Certificate, changed the beneficiary on her pension account (instead of leaving it all to that rat of a first husband), he/she had put all the documents in one place.

And the painful, emotional ‘if onlys’ that make managing all legal and financial matters from the lost loved one, even tougher to do.

If only, I told him/her we loved him/her one more time;

If only, we hadn’t had that last argument;

If only, we had had the chance to say goodbye.

Truly, no one wants to talk about “the end” and this is reflected globally, where 45-50 per cent of people do not have wills. You have the courage to break this trend.

Estate planning and your legacy

If you are very young, single, with no dependents, very few assets, you may not need a will. You probably do have a small savings account, possibly a term life insurance policy benefit from your employer, and your Bermuda National Pension. Make sure that the beneficiaries named on these benefits are for people you care about.

If you are older, in a serious relationship, with children, other dependents, a mortgage, a home, and other assets, you need a will. Do you honestly want the Bermuda Government to decide who benefits from your assets, and who is assigned guardianship of your children, the residual of your life’s work and your plans with your loved ones for the future, you know “the things that built our dreams, yet slipped away from us?” *** Then, execute your will. Then, put it into place where it can be found! Your wishes regarding burial with your favourite bottle of champagne — in a high place overlooking the sea isn’t going to happen if no one can find your will and its directives.

Finally, continue to monitor your bank investment, pension, insurance accounts from your plan review for the next year and the next and the next. Set up a reminder schedule that you are comfortable with, particularly if you are on a savings binge:

1. Review your budget weekly.

2. Once you’ve successfully met your first savings goal, by controlling your expenses, you can back off to once a month. You know what to do now.

3. Set up another savings goal for the next new thing that you’d like in your life: a home, a new car, a vacation, a growing savings and investment fund(s).

4. Review your pension account immediately after receiving the statement. If the account is deficient, notify the Pension Commission immediately. The faster you react, the faster the contribution deficiencies can be rectified, or at least stopped. Waiting six months or a year to review your pensions statements is just too late to attempt to recoup those late, or delinquent contributions. If you only receive semi-annual statements, then open your pension account online for review, monthly.

5. Personal investment accounts and the investment component of your pension plan is a bit harder to do because you are looking at market performance, and a rate of return (net of all fees) against a benchmark.

But again, review these statements quickly once a month, or pull down the current fact sheets from the website of your investment firm or bank. We will be covering investments in a new series early next year, in the meantime, if you don’t understand what you have invested in, send me a current fact sheet. I will review and comment to you.

6. Assure that your life insurance policy(s), will, and pension have the right beneficiaries.

7. Repeat.

Stay the course, now. Don’t let things slip. Your financial future is in your hands.

Recap: The 14-week Bermuda financial review started on August 1, 2015 right after Cup Match and has continued every week since. You can find the whole series to download by typing into The Royal Gazette (www.royalgazette.com) search engine, Martha Myron. All of the rest of 750 articles are also there for your reading pleasure. Write to me — let me know how you are doing.

Future plans are to publish the series in electronic e-book and possibly paper book format with significant additional materials that could not be uploaded to The Royal Gazette due to space constraints. Are you interested?

*** Paraphrased from Who Wants To Live Forever by Queen.

Martha Harris Myron CPA PFS JSM Masters of Law: International Tax and Financial Services. Appointed to the Professional Tax Advisory Council, American Citizens Abroad. https://americansabroad.org/ Principal: The Pondstraddler Life™ Consultancy providing international financial planning for Bermuda residents, their multinational families and connections. Contact: martha@pondstraddler.com