If you are fortunate to have a personal assistant whom you heavily rely on to assist you, in most instances you would find yourself run ragged if they were absent for longer than a day.

This week I spoke with two clients who were in situation where their p.a.'s had been on holiday and these clients' lives were super-stressed as a result. Although they had other people in their organisation helping out, it wasn't same as having an assistant who knows you very well and can get things done without you having to even ask.

If you are fortunate to have a great p.a. then I hope you appreciate and look after them. Often they are undervalued, yet are key people who keep wheels turning in your organisation.

I know there are many p.a.'s out there who love what they do and have great bosses, however there are heaps of others who don't.

These women (and there is odd male p.a.) do their utmost best , start early, stay in at lunchtime, work late and yet are undervalued, unappreciated and underpaid.

Marion's Story

Marion is a hardworking, reliable and competent p.a. She had worked for same company for 8 years. That's a long time in today's work environment. I bumped into Marion this week, when she attended a presentation I gave for Victorian Office Professionals, a network for p.a.'s.

I asked her if she was still at same company and this is what she said…"I was beginning to tire of my job. My recent boss was not easy to get on with. He was quite uncommunicative and did not fill me in on issues that affected my work for him. Information was only forthcoming if I prompted for it. Then I had to guess right questions to ask. He never made me feel accepted or supported. It made it really difficult to come to work. I arrived at work one morning recently, and he informed me that my services were no longer required. Within two hours I had packed up my belongings, said goodbye to several close associates and drove home in a state of shock…and that's what I got for all hard work, extra hours and loyalty."

That's fine if you want to live from week to week and are not concerned about your financial future. However if you want to increase your wealth and have more options, action needs to be taken by you otherwise you could end up like most people further down track, totally dependant on a pension.

Karen's Story

Karen is Marketing Manager for a well-known organisation. She's 39 yrs old, single and earns over $80k a year. She is paying off a mortgage and that's all debt she has.

Karen buys whatever she likes and says she has more than enough money for her lifestyle…or so she thought. And that's a very important point - Karen 'thought' she had plenty of money to splash around yet she had no real idea of where it went.

She was at stage where she wanted to achieve more in her life including taking charge of her financial future.

One of exercises I gave her to do was to sort all her financial statements - visa card, bank accounts and any cash receipts and list her income and expenditure under specific headings ie: loans, clothing, utilities, food etc. Karen recorded everything that occurred for past 6 months . She nearly fainted when she saw how much money she had wasted and how much she was overspending! She was going backwards fast and only realised it by doing this simple exercise.

In past Karen hadn't put a high priority on her financial well-being as it was just too hard. Being a marketing manager, her life was busy at work and she had a hectic social life. She didn't want to bother doing something that wasn't exciting like working on her financial future. After all, she had a well-paid job, didn't she?

Karen has now come to her senses and knows her true financial situation. If she lost her job, financially she couldn't afford to be off work for more than a month. She realises that she is responsible for her future.

The area of wealth creation hadn't been of great interest to Karen in past. Now that she was undertaking coaching, she was serious to making a change. Prior to writing down where her money was going, Karen was completely closed to any suggestion to read more about how she can accelerate her wealth (or lack of it), so I didn't pursue this with her. Her attitude had now changed so she was ready and willing to move to next step.

The next move…I referred Karen to an organisation who would look at her total financial picture and be able to recommend what she could do. The reason I chose these people is because they take a holistic approach to wealth creation. They look at every aspect and provide an on-going education as well as a hand-holding service.