Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be done? Do you feel bogged down by all the different things you need to do to make sure that your business runs smoothly?

One of the dangers for the busy entrepreneur is that it is often difficult to find the time to devote to maintaining good family relationships. Many relationships break down as a result of the time devoted to working long hours in order to ensure business success. Here, at Planning for Life, we believe that devoting time to our spouses and families is an essential aspect of success. What’s the point in running a successful business if you no longer have your family to share the benefits with?

Last month we introduced the first Navigator step - “letting go” to clear space for thought and to engineer a blank sheet of paper on which to build the plan that will achieve our profound life goals. The second Navigator step is, unsurprisingly, to explore and discover ourselves.

The world of work and the way we work is undergoing radical change and entrepreneurs need to keep up with these changes in order for business to survive, thrive and grow. Many of these changes have been brought about by the internet, especially in the areas of the Three C’s: Communication, Community and Content.

What is happiness? How do we as a people define what makes us happy. More often than not when asked this question we think of money, a new car, a bigger house, etc. But we forget that these are transient things and do not truly impact on what touches our hearts and brings out true happiness. Based on information from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK ranks in the ninth place (together with Venezuela) in the happiness stakes. It seems that happiness is not all about material wealth and living with all mod cons – the people of the Philippines rank higher than the people of the United States! Read on to learn more about happiness in the UK and find out how you fare in the happiness stakes. We try to define what it is that makes us happy – how to achieve it and how to avoid the pitfalls of false happiness.

A recent study reported that the average modern mother gets just 26 minutes per day to devote to “me” time. It would be interesting to see a similar study done to determine just how much “me” time the modern entrepreneur manages to set aside! In this article, we look at the concept of “me” time and find ways of integrating the idea into our busy lives in order to make our “me” time work for us in a more meaningful way.

Following a test case brought by Belgian consumer group Test-Achats on sex discriminations in insurance premiums, the European Court of Justice (EJC) recently ruled that from December 21st, 2012, insurers may no longer price their products based on gender. The existing European Union Gender Directive Opt-out Clause (Article 5[2] of Directive 2004/113/EC) that permits insurers to discriminate on grounds of gender will cease to have effect from that date.

This is the decision that was expected following the ECJ Advocate General’s opinion statement in September, 2010. Juliane Kokott emphasised the importance of the principle of equal treatment of men and women under EU law.

Pension experts have described the ruling as a “seismic event” that will have far-reaching repercussions on the insurance industry and its consumers. The move means that insurance providers will need to radically change the way in which annuities, life insurance and health insurance are priced.

The end date for gender-based annuity purchases is likely to lead to a male annuity “closing-down sale” in the run-up to Christmas 2012. Women are likely to wait until after that date to buy an annuity.

As for Life Cover, unisex life assurance rates should lower the cost of cover for men and increase it for women. This may lead to the insurance industry experiencing a re-brokering bonanza in 2013.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has issued a statement to say that this news is “disappointing” and that “Each company will have to respond to the ban in the way they feel is in their customers’ interests”.

It’s expected that the ruling will have a knock-on effect on the rates at which men can take income from drawdown because they are intended to reflect annuity rates. This may prompt another review of the newly issued HMRC/GAD drawdown tables.

Planning for Life will be following any developments and we will provide more details on this situation when we have had a chance to assess the judgement.

The concept of Avatars has gained ground recently as a result of the success of the 2009 film directed by James Cameron. However, the Sanskrit word Avatar has been used since ancient times to refer to a manifestation or appearance of a Hindu deity.

In modern times, Avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, or a two-dimensional icon used on Internet forums and other communities. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.

The word Avatar has been gaining ground recently in marketing terminology as the “perfect client”. From a marketing point of view, when developing an avatar, we need to look at a number of different aspects when identifying our perfect client.

In this age where money talks louder than just about anything else, we need to take a step back and consider money and our attitudes towards it.

We may think that having large amounts of money will give us the freedom we would like to concentrate on the things we enjoy doing, but it’s not quite as simple as that.

At Planning for Life we encourage our client to develop plans for spending their money. It is a way of maintaining control over their money, but in a more positive way than “setting budgets”. Similarly, we also encourage our clients to set plans for spending their time, plans that are often more about what not to do than what to do. We start by looking at the concept of getting something for free by doing or making it ourselves. So what does “Free” really mean?