Plant & nurture your ‘financial seeds’ for a fruitful reward

DURING an all-female virtual ‘Gardening and Finance’ event hosted by JMMB Ocho Rios branch, Shane Warren, financial solutions manager at JMMB, encouraged clients to plant seeds in their gardens towards financial success.

Here are some of the ‘financial gardening’ pointers shared by the financial solutions manager that will also help to get you on your journey to a fruitful financial reward.

Plant the right financial seeds

The financial advisor noted that, like gardening, you will need to determine what ‘seeds’ to plant based on your unique landscape; that is, your goals, vision for your life and your resources, including your cash flow. Noting as a gardener for your financial success, you may need to prioritise based on the ‘fruits’ you hope to reap, as typically you will have limited resources such as time and money. She further underscored the need to have ‘cash crops’, likening this to one’s emergency fund, so that you can have cash on hand in the event of unexpected circumstances without going into debt or sacrificing your ‘harvest’.

Prepare the land

Having determined what ‘seeds’ you hope to plant, individuals will need to prepare the ‘land’, which is usually the hardest part. This process requires you to cultivate discipline, hard work and dedication to your goal/s, as well as a mindset of the possibilities of an abundant harvest. A key component of preparing your ‘financial soil’ is examining your financial position, through budgeting. You will better understand and rid yourself of any ‘weeds’ that may choke your financial success and nurture your financial nutrients.

The financial expert recommends that in order to preserve ones ‘financial nutrients’ in the soil, a diversified approach is best, with a mix of seeds consisting of assets, namely bonds, unit trusts, cash and money market instruments such as repos, stocks and real estate.

“As you plant your financial seeds, it is important to cultivate it in the right environment; therefore, as you prepare the land you will need to continually examine the financial landscape, paying attention to the macroeconomic environment for opportunities, being clear to choose investments that align with your risk appetite and goals,” she noted.

Nurture your seed

Like the plant cycle, your financial journey may require assistance and nurturing to reap financial success. Warren outlined that individuals may need the help of experts – ‘financial fertilisers’ – and the necessary tools to nurture your financial fruit from a seed to a blossom.

“You have to be patient and committed to your goals, watering and nurturing your investment, to harvesting,” Warren shared.

In nurturing your financial ‘seed’, you will need to understand the stages of growth. In using the gardening analogy, Warren noted at the early stage or the wealth accumulation phase, individuals will need to be careful to do the necessary risk assessment and pay keen attention to their investments to ensure that their financial seeds have a solid foundation. With continued nurturing, investors will begin to see the fruits of their labour in the form of returns from their financial seeds, so that they can accumulate assets.

At the consolidation phase, your financial seeds should continue to show promise of a fruitful harvest. At this phase, however, it is important that you begin to prune your finances of outstanding debt and “preserve your financial blossoms” until harvest, at which stage you can begin gifting the rewards of your harvest to friends and family.

Invest towards a harvest

In the process of growing plants, maintenance is key. Warren outlined that individuals will need to also maintain their financial gardens, so that it does not become overgrown with “weeds of inflation, depreciation, devaluation and taxes”. To see healthy growth and a bountiful harvest of success, individuals should, therefore, revise their investment strategy periodically and protect their investment.

Adrian Masters, acting extension officer, Rural Agricultural Development Authority Parish Office, St Ann’s Bay, during his demonstration of the planting process, reiterated the need to pay keen attention to the plant and its needs at each phase of its life cycle and varying the conditions at each stage.

In giving a tip for maintaining healthy plants, Masters shared that, “adding mulch helps to retain moisture and water in soil and suppresses weeds”. This could be likened to good financial habits that helps investors to keep on their financial journey, with systems such as monthly budgeting and automatic savings.

Reap the rewards

Reaping the harvest is cause for celebration and the best part of the process. As you achieve your goals, congratulate yourself for your discipline and begin planning for your other goals.

JMMB client Andrea Davidson, who is an avid plant lover, welcomed the event, noting, “I enjoyed the creativity of the event as it combined my two passions — gardening and finance. The analogy was useful and made the event more practical and served as a great reminder of some key financial principles which will help me to concretise my financial approach.”

During the event, investment opportunities were also shared with clients to help them to get started, planting the right financial seeds and diversifying their financial gardens.