"I wanted an easy answer, a magic way of making money that I didn’t have to work for or wait ten years for compound interest to deliver. I wanted a fast buck.” Stuart (not his real name) described the feelings that led him to nearly losing thousands of pounds to scammers. “It all sounded so plausible. I don’t understand cryptocurrency, but these guys sounded as if they did, so best to let them do their thing. Everyone knows someone who’s made a fortune out of BITCOIN, so why be left out? You just need the right platform and a bit of know-how and you’re away. Of course, it’s risky but that’s okay, I wasn’t planning on betting the house or anything daft like that, just a few... read more

Grace Groner1 was a hundred years old when she died leaving an estate of seven million dollars. A humble secretary, she never married and lived modestly, investing some of her income into the stock market for eighty years. She never sold a stock, re-invested all dividends, never worried about booms and crashes, she just kept investing, consistently. She had no particular interest in stocks and shares, she just knew they went up in the long term. And that was her secret: by investing consistently and leaving her money alone, no matter what, she became a millionaire. She understood the power of compound interest and resisted any temptation to interfere with its beneficence2. Unlike Richard Fuscone3, a bond trader with Merrill Lynch, who... read more

The investment industry has done a brilliant job of convincing us that investment is difficult and requires unique (and expensive) expertise. The evidence does not support this view. “We know that 88% of global equity funds over the last fifteen years did not beat their benchmark” Sean Hagerty, MD of Vanguard Europe, speaking on Radio 4’s The Bottom Line. This is a fact, not an opinion. Investors had only a slim chance of putting money into a fund that would produce a better return than linking it to an index and leaving it alone. Doing nothing. No ‘investment management’. No mystery… just plain old fashioned patience. read more

How retire two years earlier…   A fifty year old has built up a pension pot of £200,000. The fund is doing well and generating an average return of 6%pa compound. Having done his arithmetic he reckons he needs £400,000 to have a peaceful retirement, so he needs the fund to double. At 6%pa it will take 12 years.   How 1%pa can change your life   But he is not getting 6%pa. The fund may be generating 6%pa , but after adviser charges this is reduced to 5%pa. An annual charge of 1%pa over fifteen years will eat up 63,526 of his growth!   This is compound interest working against you.   It will take him another 2.4 years to double his pension pot, nearly 15 years instead of 12.   He... read more

What if, with a little consistent effort, you could: Know how much you can spend each day without guilt Eliminate short term debt Know you are saving money for your future Know you can handle a financial emergency without resorting to credit cards Have money ready to pay for holidays, Christmas, birthdays, treats Plan for special events and know you won’t run out of money And finally have peace of mind around your finances All of this is possible. But there are no quick fixes. It takes time and some effort, but principally time. And, in my experience, it’s very difficult to do without guidance. Someone to hold your hand, provide some know-how and accountability.   That’s what a financial coac... read more

Can't watch the video today? Read the blog below! Let's discuss the common problem of talking about money and the communication difficulties this creates between men and women. Lots of clients say to me "we have a great relationship but when we start talking about money things just seem to go wrong. We start arguing and end up not talking about it". I really understand this because I have a great relationship with my wife Wendy, but the same sort of thing still has tended to happen between us as well.   There are two big issues here - communication and information.   Did you know that only two in five couples actually treat their finances jointly, the other three couples go their own way? Or that... read more

Sassy, hard working, thirty and living in Manchester Thea, my brilliant daughter, is doing very well in IT Recruitment. So well in fact that she pays a lot of income tax and has ‘spare’ income in inverse proportion to the extravagance of her social life. And she is feeling annoyed, even a little guilty, about the sheer amount of cash that is slipping through her fingers. Dad is called in for a consultation. “You need a budget.” “Oh, Daaaaaad….” eyes rolling. Thirty has become thirteen..I persist. “The only way you will get control of your money is by allocating each pound and consciously making a decision about how you want to spend it.” For quick readers may I... read more

This week Spring has been in the air. Each morning I open the kitchen window and smell fresh air and the bouquet from the huge bunch of daffodils on the window sill. The smell of daffodils is Spring! I feel a sense of hope, renewal, of having come through.. there are lighter, softer days stretching ahead. Joy is bubbling in my heart...   Then I read the key points of George Osborne's Budget and my mood crashed. I shouldn't let it bother me, it's only a Budget, moving money around, taxing this and giving away that. It doesn't really matter to us real people... But it does, it really does. It affects every aspect of our lives, how we spend our money, who gets help and who pays for it. It is an expression of our value... read more

Welcome to Episode 1 of my Baby Boomer series. Not able to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below instead:   We are going to be starting right at the end by looking at ‘Death’.  Essentially, this is a subject that I talk a great deal about with clients because it is a key to the way in which we plan our finances.   Benjamin Franklin said “The only thing that’s certain in life is death and taxes” and of course, to an extent, he is right!    Death is an emotional subject - I have my own experiences around this and all I can offer you is just some very simple basic ideas on what you should be thinking about around death.   Remember, by looking at th... read more

Eighteen years ago today, on April 9th , my father died. My brother Simon, my mother and myself stood at his bedside in Intensive Care as his breathing faded. I remember the moment clearly.   I have talked about my father's death before and how it has helped me to understand why my work as a financial planner matters so much. Earlier today walking down a street on paving slabs made shiny by April showers, I remember he used to make concrete slabs at a yard in Walsall. This was a man in his late fifties with a heart condition who spent his working days lifting concrete slabs on and off a truck. On and off. Over and over.   I have a black and white photograph of him on my office wall standing in his yard. Looking straight... read more

Everyone knows that money can't buy you happiness... right? Obvious! The evidence is overwhelming – lottery winners who end up in a dreadful mess despite their millions, successful businessmen and women with divorces and strained relationships despite their wealth and success... the list goes on.   In my experience the opposite is also true. Lack of money is equally debilitating – too much month at the end of the money, rising credit card debt, a mortgage that never seems to diminish. This leads to a corrosive sense of hopelessness which looks and feels very much like despair. Most of us have had an experience of this at some time in our lives – and none of us want to go back there.   Where is the bala... read more

The British have a unique and deeply neurotic relationship with property, houses especially, places we call home. We are a nation of homeowners. When house prices are rising we feel good. We feel successful. Even if our incomes do not quite meet our expectations, we comfort ourselves with the thought that we've always got 'the house' to fall back on.   Enabled by the massive expansion of funding from the banks and building societies in the eighties and nineties, millions of us have played snakes and ladders with the property market. For many of us it has been a saviour – rising prices have allowed us to move up the ladder and create wealth for ourselves and our children.   Consider these facts:  ... read more

Being a child of the fifties I pretty much missed the 'Summer of Love'. I was twelve at the time (1967) and 'free love' was a vague (although appealing) concept to me. Reading that question right now I am embarrassed, I'd prefer not to get into that question. Let me re-phrase that: I'm not going to get into that discussion.   Turns out I am in the minority. Research conducted by University College London with 15,000 men and women found them SEVEN more times likely to discuss whether or not they'd had an affair (I'm cringing) than discuss their income. Three per cent refused to answer intimate questions (that would be me) whereas twenty per cent refused to reveal their salary.   We really don&... read more

When was the last time you sat down and methodically went through your finances? Do you know what you are worth? What you owe? How much tax you pay? Do you know how much your pension is worth? Do you have a pension? When did you last check how much life assurance you own? If you were ill how would you pay your bills? Have you made a will? If the answer to any of those questions was a slightly sheepish 'No.' Don't worry, don't beat yourself up, you're in good company... but DO something! Take action! Gather your information together and go and speak to a financial planner – somebody who is qualified to help you get a grip on your financial situation and provide you with objective and independent guidance. T... read more

Yes. They are completely different.  Financial advice is about recommending a course of action, usually investing in a financial product such as an ISA, a pension plan or a life assurance policy. There are around 30,000 'Financial Advisors' in the UK authorised to give advice by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Their authorisation ranges from mortgage and protection advice to more complex pensions, investments and specialist fields such as equity release and pension transfers. The FCA keeps a register of each individual and requires them to apply each year for a Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) confirming they have kept their knowledge up to date. Always check that any adviser you are dealing with has... read more

I love being a grandparent. The joy of children without the 24/7 responsibility of being a parent. Or as one of my clients so eloquently put it, “You can hand them back at the end of the day...” Children copy their parents and the 'elders' in their family. That's how they learn. This is never more the case than with money and attitudes towards money. Much of what we learn from our parents about money is unconscious – it just seeps into us and gradually becomes our way of doing things too. My children are in their thirties I recognise some of their behaviour around money. I know where they learnt it. Some, not all alas, is good. I realise of course that my relationship with money has been directly affec... read more

Do you want more money? Daft question. We immediately say yes, without thinking. Of course.   If we are asked what we want to do with this money we'll probably say: go on holiday, buy a newer/ bigger car, build a conservatory, get some clothes. Tick the one that applies to you or add your own.   Our perspective then is to look out into the world and want more. More money to get more stuff, to feel safer because the more we have the better off we are. Easy.   And yet we have so much.   It's a fair assumption if you're reading this that you have probably got some money. You will probably have more than enough to eat as well as access to unlimited supplies of clean water. You will live in a house w... read more

Most people don't, alas. There are three big life changes when people usually think about speaking to a financial professional: 1. When they need a mortgage to buy a house 2. When they retire or take benefits from a pension 3. When they inherit some money. The rest of the time we steer clear of financial advisers. It's tempting to believe that this is primarily because people don't trust financial advisers. To be fair our image is down there with estate agents and journalists... That said I believe that many people avoid talking to a financial adviser because they don't want to talk about the mistakes they have made. This is very understandable and, after all, denial is a good strategy... for a while. But it g... read more

In my work as a financial planner I invite people to engage in a simple three part process. To Create a Budget – so that they know what is coming in, where it is being spent and what, if anything, is left over. This process includes a complete review of their assets, income, expenditure, investments and debts. It allows them to see a financial summary of where they are. They can then begin to determine their financial priorities. To Protect what they Have – their income, assets and wellbeing – from the financial consequences of premature death or unexpected disability and illness. The information on the financial summary enables us to quantify this accurately. To Save and Invest – once we have protected wh... read more

If you don't want to watch the video today, why not read the transcription below instead?: It's 2015, I am sixty this year and I thought it would be fun to do a series of short blogs in which I talk to my younger self in the four decades since my twentieth birthday. It's the stuff I would have told myself if I'd had the sense to listen!   Thinking back to my twenties I know I made plenty of mistakes which is probably what our twenties are about. The scenario is likely to look something like this: you've been to college and therefore have some debt, especially if you had a Gap Year. You are in your first or second job so have some idea where you are headed at least for the next ten years or so. By the way... read more

I ask the question because the NHS has launched a controversial calculator which predicts when you will have a heart attack or stroke – and compares a person’s heart age with their biological age. The issue is significant because coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the UK and in 2013, more than 18,000 people died prematurely this way. Most deaths from coronary heart disease are caused by heart attacks with an average of 90,000 attacks in England per year.  The rationale behind the calculator is simple. By showing people their heart age and detailing their risk factors – smoking , weight, family history, diet – the hope is that they will make changes and give themselves a chance... read more

Unable to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below: Our thirties are all about getting the balance right. Very often this is an intense period of our lives. Most of us have made long term decisions: we are in a committed relationship, we have or are intending to have children, we've bought a house and we are building a career or a business. The pace of life is fast, we are constantly busy as we move between child care, work, a social life and even (some of us) hobbies. There's no time to think and plan our finances – what we do is react and cope.   Where this goes wrong, or perhaps I should be more specific and say where this went wrong for me, is simply that I got the balance wrong. We... read more

Don't want to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript instead:  Now that I am sixty I have decided to send a little note to myself in my twenties, thirties, forties and fifties. This is my forties – it seems a lifetime ago and yet it's only fifteen years or so.   Let's set the scene – you've probably got some grey hair, you're well established in your career, your children are teenagers and there are thoughts about college education and the costs that could involve. For me, my eldest daughter was off to train as a nurse, my son was tackling GCSEs and 'A' levels and my youngest daughters were getting ready for secondary school.   Notice how our lives in our for... read more

As part of my Lenten journey this year I spent five days living in a Benedictine Monastery at Worth Abbey.  I have always been drawn to the simplicity of a monastic way of life and this was an opportunity to experience it. The rhythm of the day is determined by ‘offices’ or services beginning with Vigil at 6.20am, progressing through the day with Lauds (Morning Prayer) Midday Prayers, Vespers (Evening Prayer)  and finally Compline (Night Prayer) at 9.00pm. Breakfast, lunch and supper are eaten in silence. It occurred to me that the rhythm of the monastic day is a perfect metaphor for our lives. At the dawn of our lives, we emerge reluctantly from the darkness of the womb into the world. And so it is for the mo... read more