I considered the following questions:
- Who has the best understanding of my attitudes, aspirations and situation?
- Who cares most about the state of my finances?
- Who has the most to gain or lose from the state of my finances?
- Who will my finances be working for?
And finally, I considered this:
'Who is the best person to manage my financial affairs?'
My answer:
I AM BEST
I AM BEST is the embarrasingly twee mnemonic I came up with but I think it beautifully sums up the 'six strands of competence' involved in managing your own money effectively and efficiently.
I - Income
AM - Asset management
B - Budgetting
E - Expenditure
S - Saving
T - Time/ timing
Get these six strands right and, with time, you are pretty much assured 'financial success' - whatever that means to you. Lets face it, if you were confident and competent in all six strands, it would take an event of catastrophic proportions to wipe you out financially.
The only slight downfall of the mnemonic is that it isn't in the most logical order but that's nit picking and I can forgive that little transgression for the sake of a usefully memorable little mnemonic.
I can see myself filtering my decisions through the I AM BEST mnemonic to help me make choices in the future.
I know my current situation, attitudes and aspirations better than anyone else. And you know yours.
I think there is only one answer to my original question: 'Who is the best person to manage my financial affairs?'
