Rather than answer one specific question this month, I thought I would write about a broader issue that underpins almost all of the ones we have previously tackled here.

The subject? Our financial destinies. It is an amazing fact that there are about 300,000 millionaires in the UK. And the number keeps rising – all of that despite the fact that we are in a multi-year recession in the UK – or are we?

Most millionaires are self-made, over 85 per cent according to one survey. Do you have aspirations to be a member of this club one day? Or do you perhaps have more modest aspirations?

Whatever your goal, the fact is, at least you have set yourself a target. Unfortunately, most people never ‘get around to’ establishing any clear goals or objectives; and I’d suggest that those people should not be too disappointed to find that they arrive at a destination that they did not plan. After all, “If you don’t know where you are going, all roads will lead you there.”

The reason that most people end up in a mess financially is that they do not take any time to set themselves any goals and from that create a compelling plan.

Successful people will tell you that they all had a captivating vision of how their life would be in the future. They will tell you that the vision they had for the future was so vivid and bright and all-encompassing that they could almost feel it.

This is a really crucial notion and one that everyone, in my opinion, should take on board. Get good at imagining yourself in the place you want to be, living the lifestyle you want to live. You will be amazed at where you end up.

However, creating this vision of the future requires some imagination and a whole lot of desire. These are not things that we get taught at school but there is lots of great material on this at your fingertips on the internet, particularly on video-sharing websites, such as YouTube.

Don’t waste a moment, go and set yourself some exciting and vivid goals about where you want to be in, say three, five, or ten years’ time. Then you need to work on implementing these goals, little by little, every day, using your plan. It takes discipline but if the reward is financial freedom, surely, it has got to be worth it.

  • Mitch Hopkinson is a managing partner of deVere United Kingdom, part of the deVere Group, the world’s largest independent financial advisory firm.