This article, by Justin Baiocchi, was originally published in The Northern Daily Leader on 27 August 2016.

Our eldest son, Jack, recently started playing soccer for the Red Pandas Under 6 team. Jack doesn’t know it yet of course, but this is all part of my plan for him to turn professional, play for a top-ranked European club and earn millions of dollars, all so his parents can retire young and in style. My wife thinks it’s about making friends and having a good time. How naive! As you would expect at this age however, skill levels are pretty low. There’s just a knot of bodies pushing, shouting and aimlessly kicking each other without any real discernible purpose. And that’s just the mums and dads on the sidelines – on the field it’s even worse. Half the time the kids have forgotten in which direction they’re playing, with own goals a regular occurrence, although they’re still celebrated with the same exuberance as a normal goal. Sometimes a team member will simply decide that he or she doesn’t want to play anymore, just like in real life, only without the fake injury, although the forced tears and histrionics are apparently a feature at both the Under 6’s and professional level. Eventually however, a bunch of aimless kicks ultimately leads to the ball ricocheting off a knee, head and bum and into the back of the net and everyone cheers and goes home happy.

Unfortunately for some people, their approach to managing their finances is about as organised as two teams of five-year olds on a soccer pitch. The lack of structure is the same: put some money here; buy this property; invest in this share; open that superannuation account; sign up for this credit card….a bunch of seemingly random decisions, made in the faint hope that out of the chaos a goal gets scored, money gets made and everyone gets to retire happy. In reality, the chances of that happening are about as likely as Jack scoring a goal on purpose, and in the right direction. Just like a winning team never takes to the field without a plan and a strategy, so should you have a documented approach to your finances. Will you favour superannuation over your mortgage? Should you salary sacrifice or focus on paying off your non-deductible debt? Is money in the bank appropriate for your goals and objectives, or would a diversified share portfolio suit you better? Only around 1 in 10 Australians use the help of a financial adviser in drafting and implementing a financial strategy. For the other 9 out of 10 people out there, a comfortable financial future is sadly about as unlikely as Jack making the team at Manchester United.