Morris La Spina
Financial Planner
Morris La Spina
Financial Planner
florandorder handy tips
- If you have important client meetings come up, make sure your digital calendar is colour coded. This lets you know straight away what is coming up in your week and if it’s work related or personal.
- If you have a lot of tasks to get done, take a moment and think about your space – are there too many distractions? How can you minimise the non-urgent distractions for the next hour?
- Money can be such a difficult topic to cover. And sometimes you just need to put your hand up and say “I need help!”. Whether it’s something like retirement or how to keep to a budget in organising your space, there’s hlep out there.
Morris La Spina helps you create a financially stable future.
Morris is the founder and CEO of Acquaint Private Wealth. He is a financial planner that helps busy Healthcare professionals and soon-to-be retirees improve their cash flow and clear their debts. He helps them structure their investments so they are positioned better for growth and tax advantage. He understands busy family-oriented people who need to financially protect their loved ones.
I asked him a few questions to see how he organises his business and what hot tips he has for financial planning.
What tools do you use to stay organised as a financial planner?
Microsoft Outlook for my appointments with clients and my personal schedule tasks. I often use Trello when I am working on projects or tasks in groups or with another individual. I also use Google Drive to share documents that I work on as collaborative with other peers.
I’d suggest that others:
- Enter in your follow-ups with your clients and set reminders in your calendar (Outlook)
- Focus on only 3 priority tasks at a time. Replace a task once you have completed. I find trying to complete too many tasks you lose focus and get distracted and most of the time the task takes longer to complete.
- Schedule in times in your calendar to plan your next month’s work and personal activities.
How do you organise yourself?
This is where most would call me ‘old school’. I still use pen and paper at the start of the day to write down my tasks. I then prioritise them and start working on the most urgent task first. I check in on the list before lunch and around 4:30 pm.
I do this check in case there has been any changes to the list that requires my attention. It’s also my last chance to complete them before finishing up for the day.
Any tasks that were not completed on the day that requires to be completed usually has a priority the next day.
Once I select one of the tasks, I only focus on that task and turn off all notifications (any distractions -Email, mobile, etc). Work for 50 mins straight, then have a 10-minute break (actually walk away from the desk). When I need to focus and complete a task, I put a “do not disturb” sign on my office door or put my headphones on when I am working in an open office.
In my break, I sometimes check any missed calls and emails that need attention then I get back into another 50 mins of the next task or complete the task I was working on.
What things could someone do so they stay on top of their finances?
Here are my Top 8 Strategies – which we even use for our high net wealth clients – to learn smarter, faster ways to produce even better results and get more money with less effort.
#1 Ensure Positive Cash Flow
#2 Face the Debt Music
#3 It’s a Bear Out there… (a marketing trend)
#4 Stop giving too much Money to the Taxman & Government
#5 Don’t Take Planning your Retirement Lightly
#6 Build a Strong Safety Net
#7 Right Money, Right Hands, Right Time, Get a WILL!
#8 Take Stock of Where You’re at Financially
Getting the right advice structure for your situation can be confusing. You might have been putting it off for too long, hoping you win the lottery. That might happen… but most likely not. You can schedule a FREE 15 minute ‘90 Day Financial Turnaround’ with Morris and get crystal clear about exactly where you are at, and what steps you need to be financially secure. After all, that’s what a financial planner does!