For informational purposes only
Not a substitute for professional advice

Our Financial Planning Process

A structured, transparent approach that takes you from financial uncertainty to a clear, actionable plan.

Good financial planning is not a single conversation — it is a structured process that builds understanding, identifies priorities, and produces a plan you can act on. Our Assess-Plan-Act methodology ensures that every recommendation is grounded in your actual financial data and aligned with your real goals. Here is how it works.

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The Nonattezehi Financial Planning Process: Step by Step

From your first contact with our team to your completed financial action plan, every stage of our process is designed to build your financial clarity and confidence.
1

Initial Consultation and Discovery

Your financial planning journey begins with a discovery call — a thirty-minute conversation where we learn about your current financial situation, your immediate concerns, and what you are hoping to achieve. This call is free of charge and obligation-free. It helps us understand whether our service is the right fit for you, and it gives you a chance to ask questions about how we work before committing to a full consultation. Most clients find that this first conversation alone provides useful clarity about their financial priorities.

2

Financial Health Assessment

The first full session is your financial health assessment. We review your income sources, monthly expenses, existing savings and debt obligations, and any upcoming financial commitments. We use a structured data-gathering framework to ensure that nothing significant is missed. By the end of this session, both you and your consultant will have a complete, accurate picture of your current financial position — the honest baseline from which all planning begins. Many clients discover patterns in this step that they had not previously noticed.
3

Goal Mapping and Priority Setting

Once we understand your financial reality, we work with you to define your goals. Short-term goals — such as building an emergency fund or paying off a specific debt — sit alongside medium-term goals like saving for a home deposit or funding a child's education, and longer-term goals like retirement. We help you prioritise these goals in a way that is realistic given your current income and obligations, and we identify the trade-offs involved in each choice. This session often involves difficult but productive conversations about what matters most.
4

Financial Action Plan Development

The third session produces your written financial action plan. This document includes a monthly budget framework built from your actual income and expenses, a savings allocation structure that addresses your emergency fund, short-term savings goals, and retirement contributions, a debt prioritisation plan if applicable, and a retirement pathway with projections based on your current savings rate and target retirement age. The plan is written in plain language and designed to be used — not filed away.

5

Implementation Support and Review

Leaving a consultation with a good plan is only half the work. The other half is implementing it consistently over time. We offer implementation support through quarterly check-in sessions for clients who want regular guidance, and annual comprehensive reviews for those who prefer a lighter touch. These review sessions update your financial projections, assess your progress against your goals, and make adjustments to your plan as your circumstances change. The goal is a financial plan that remains relevant and actionable throughout your life.

Your Financial Planning Journey: A Typical Timeline

From initial discovery call to ongoing review, here is what a typical client journey looks like over the first year.

01
[Week 1]

Discovery Call and Onboarding

You book a free thirty-minute discovery call with one of our consultants. We discuss your current financial situation, your primary concerns, and what you are hoping to achieve from financial planning. If we are a good fit, we schedule your financial health assessment and send you a short preparation checklist — a list of the documents and information to gather before your first full session.

02
[Week 2]

Financial Health Assessment Session

Your first full consultation session focuses entirely on understanding your current financial position. We review your income, expenses, savings, and debt in detail. By the end of this session, you will have a clear, complete picture of your financial health — presented honestly and without judgment. We also begin to surface the financial patterns and priorities that will shape your plan.

03
[Week 3]

Goal Mapping and Priority Setting

In your second full session, we work through your financial goals — short, medium, and long-term. We help you prioritise these goals in the context of your current income and obligations, and we begin to sketch the outlines of your financial action plan. This session often includes a preliminary retirement projection so you can see the connection between your current savings behaviour and your future retirement income.

04
[Week 4]

Financial Action Plan Delivery

Your written financial action plan is delivered in your third full session. We walk through every element of the plan together — the monthly budget framework, savings allocation structure, debt prioritisation approach, and retirement pathway. You leave with a document you understand and can act on immediately. We also schedule your first quarterly review at this stage.

05
[Month 4]

First Quarterly Review

Three months after your plan delivery, we meet for your first quarterly review. We assess how the plan has been working in practice, identify any areas where adjustments are needed, and update your financial projections to reflect any changes in your income or expenses. This session typically takes sixty minutes and produces an updated version of your action plan.

06
[Month 12]

Annual Comprehensive Review

At the twelve-month mark, we conduct a comprehensive annual review. This is a full re-assessment of your financial position, a review of progress against your goals, and an update of your retirement projection. We also revisit your financial priorities to ensure the plan still reflects where you want to go. Clients who complete a full year of structured planning consistently report significantly greater financial confidence and clarity than when they started.

How to Prepare for Your First Financial Planning Consultation

The more information you bring to your first session, the more useful it will be.

Gather Your Recent Bank and Credit Statements

Bring three months of bank statements and any credit card or loan statements. These give your consultant an accurate picture of your actual spending patterns — not what you think you spend, but what you actually spend. This is often the most revealing part of the assessment process.

Write Down Your Monthly Income and Fixed Expenses

Before your session, list all sources of monthly income — salary, freelance income, rental income, or any other regular inflows. Also list your fixed monthly obligations — rent or bond repayments, insurance premiums, vehicle finance, and any other regular commitments. Having this information ready saves time and ensures the assessment is comprehensive.

Come With Your Three Most Important Financial Questions

Think about the financial questions that keep you up at night. Am I saving enough for retirement? Should I be paying off debt faster? How much should my emergency fund be? Bringing your three most pressing questions helps your consultant focus the session on what matters most to you and ensures you leave with answers that are directly relevant to your situation.

Process FAQs

Common questions about how our financial planning process works.

The three-session Assess-Plan-Act process typically spans three to four weeks, with sessions spaced about a week apart. Each session runs sixty to ninety minutes. Your written action plan is delivered at the end of session three.

Bring three months of bank statements, any loan or credit card statements, your most recent payslip, and a rough list of your monthly fixed expenses. We will send you a preparation checklist after your discovery call.

We offer both in-person and online consultations via video call. Many of our clients prefer the convenience of online sessions, and the quality of the consultation is equally high in either format.

You implement the plan at your own pace, with the option of quarterly check-in sessions for ongoing support. We also provide written resources and budget templates to help you stay on track between sessions.

We recommend a quarterly check-in for clients in active plan implementation, and an annual comprehensive review for all clients. Major life changes — a new job, a marriage, a new child — warrant an additional review outside the regular schedule.

Absolutely. All client information is held in strict confidence and handled in accordance with our privacy policy and applicable South African data protection legislation. We do not share client data with third parties.

We work with clients across a wide range of financial situations, including those in financial difficulty. Our consultants approach every situation without judgment. An honest assessment of a difficult financial position is the first step toward improving it.

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Ready to Start Your Financial Planning Journey?

Book your discovery call today and take the first step toward financial clarity.
The financial planning process begins with a single conversation. Our discovery call is free, obligation-free, and designed to help you understand what financial planning can do for your specific situation. Whether you are starting from scratch or looking to improve a plan that is not working, the Nonattezehi team is ready to help.
The Nonattezehi Team
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