Smart Money Strategy

CHAPTER 8Strategy Stacking Scenarios

Strategy stacking is the process of putting together different financial planning strategies to create a financial plan. The strategies you decide to stack (or don't stack) will have an impact on your financial life. It might be tempting to think that you need to use every strategy in the stack at every point in your life. If you're thinking that, I'd like to temper those thoughts somewhat, as not every financial planning strategy will be useful and productive for you, all of the time. It's great though that you're thinking about strategies that can help you achieve your own ‘why’ and that you have the motivation to stack the odds in your favour.

Before I look at any of the financial planning strategies in detail and how they might be useful for your stack, I want to share with you some strategy stacking scenarios. I think these examples will be useful as they are practical and are based on typical life events that many people share in their own lives. But before we start, let me summarise the key takeaway messages to keep in mind when it comes to strategy stacking:

• How you strategy stack is determined by your ‘why’ — your short-, medium- and long-term goals.
• How you strategy stack will change as your life changes.
• There are some rules around how to strategy stack, including set strong foundations, start with the Basic Stack (Chapter 4) and use the Framing Strategies (Chapter 9) for all the stacks you build. The Basic Stack (budgeting) ...