How robust is your pension planning for retirement? Have you ever had an independent specialist provide a thorough overview? Are there any holes in your plans?
A lot of the phrases we use nowadays have their roots in history and Achilles Heel is associated with a weakness in a plan or a business and so on.
If you recall, Achilles‘ mum popped down to Hades to dip the baby Achilles in the River Styx, but she held him by the ankle and so his heel did not get wet. He acquired invulnerability (with exception of his heel of course)
Later on in the Trojan Wars he thought he was indestructible and therefore immortal. Legend has it that Paris shot an arrow and the Greek God Apollo guided it into Achilles heel and that was the end of Achilles.
If we draw parallels with pension planning, a false sense of security could be your Achilles Heel. Don’t leave your fate in the ‘’ Lap of the Gods ( Apollo in this case)’’ as Achilles did, take professional fee based advice. Remember that doing something on the cheap, or not correctly in the case of Achilles' mum, can lead to problems later. Too many advisers offer free financial advice- such advice is often riddled with Achilles Heels.
Remember the words of John Ruskin:
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting alot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”