I’m going to ask you a very powerful question. What would you do if your doctor told you that you only had 5 to 10 years left to live?

You won’t ever feel ill, but you also won’t have any notice of the moment of your death. What would you do in the time you have remaining? Would you carry on as you are now or make the most of your time? How would you change it and realistically, would you have the financial power to change it?

Makes you think doesn’t it? How often do we work too long hours and get wrapped up in the unimportant day to day stuff, putting the things that really matter to us on the back burner? People say that ‘life just gets in the way’ or ‘one day…’. Isn’t now the time to make time to do things you want to do? To share experiences with loved ones? To create memories?

In childhood we probably all wished, at some point, that we were older – wanting to be a teenager, then a young adult, and basically wishing our lives away. Now as grown-ups we wish we could put the brakes on a little as life is happening all too fast and it’s scary; the months and years zip by and precious time is flying. One day we may just be too old to start enjoying ourselves in the way we had envisaged and regret not doing what we wanted sooner.

It doesn’t always have to be material; you could spend more time with the people who matter, tend to your garden, do what is important to you and makes you happy. We all have different lifestyles and they come in different shapes and sizes.

But what if you want more? The lifestyle you want could be sailing a yacht around the world, leaving a legacy, retiring earlier than you thought possible or simply being able to live a ‘comfortable life’. So what does this mean in relation to money?

The power and purpose of proper financial planning is to match people’s money to achieve and maintain the life they want. It’s not about products or investments, but having peace of mind and security of knowing where you are heading financially and knowing whether your desired lifestyle is affordable and what you need to do to secure it. Most people today don’t know for certain if there’s enough money available to deliver the future they want, and for some they may already have enough but don’t know it and are wasting precious time!

There’s a very poignant sign hanging on our office wall that simply says ‘Life is not a rehearsal, make every day count’. It’s a constant reminder to focus on the important things that can be controlled rather than the things that can’t; and to concentrate on achieving a desired lifestyle because when time has caught up with us all, it’s better to be able to say ‘I’m glad I did’, rather than ‘I wish I had’.

Media and political scaremongering around the vote to ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ and predictions of potential market falls are rife, but it’s important to ignore the media hype and not to be tempted to make knee-jerk adjustments to your investments. It’s an anxious time of course, but focusing on the short term impact and making panic-driven decisions isn’t wise. It is instead much smarter to focus on the long game.

I believe most non-advised investors do not understand the consequences of their investment decisions and are therefore much more likely to bail out when markets (and their portfolios) are falling. The advised client, who is likely to have a greater awareness of how their portfolio could perform in such circumstances, is far more likely to panic less, stay the course and achieve a positive outcome.

We simply cannot second guess the market and smart investors will ignore the current headlines and resist the temptation to react to bad market news. For instance, by the time you’re even aware of good or bad news, the rest of the market already knows and has included the impact into existing prices. It is the ‘unexpected’ news that alters future pricing and by definition the unexpected is absolutely impossible to predict. Also, any buy or sell trades, whether they work or not, ultimately cost money.

Many investment houses will be making tactical changes to portfolios by increasing their client’s allocation to cash but this flight to safety in itself creates the issue of when to get back in, with the likelihood of missing any potential upside if we vote to remain.

Our financial confidence as a nation is wavering following sensationalised news headlines reporting steep market declines in the event of Brexit; and it’s important to put this into perspective. The key investment fundamentals around all of this is to ‘super’ diversify globally to dampen market risks with an allocation to both risk and defensive assets and to hold tight. It is essential that when investment decisions are made due consideration is given to the following:

The level of risk that can be realistically and emotionally tolerated.
The investment returns that are required, and
The financial ability to absorb falls when they occur.

I mentioned before about playing the long game and ‘time horizon’ is a key factor here as the longer the investment term (minimum 5 years as a guide) there is greater probability of riding out the ups and downs of the markets and achieving a positive return and successful investment outcome. So whether we leave or remain, if we fast forward 5 years, it’s more likely those investors who have held their nerve and withstood this current turbulence, will come through it with a positive outcome.

I therefore believe the best course of action we can take right now is to embrace the turbulence we are currently experiencing. Market falls illustrate just what risk feels like when it happens and it can be very bumpy and not much fun. However, if these sorts of risks never occurred, the market would not be expected to deliver long term premium returns to those who are willing to ride out the pain.

So ignore the scaremongers, sit tight and don’t let the gloom and doom news drag you down or cause you to make potentially damaging financial choices. Instead, stay invested and focus on the things that you can control and that really matter to you in order to achieve your longer range plans.