The Truth About Money!
When I meet people for the first time, I genuinely don't care about their money. 'But, Marco, you're a financial adviser... surely the ONLY thing you're interested in is the money?'. You might think so…There might be some people in my line of work who hang around client's money like a vulture but that's not me. If a client wants to work with us, great, but if they don't, that's fine by me too.You see, without understanding what you're about and what drives you, how can I possibly help you with your money? I want to understand you, your dreams, your ideas, your fears. It can be complex, and it does you no service if I don't take the time to understand YOU first.
So, What's The Truth?
This isn't always an easy conversation. Say you come in to see us with a bunch of pensions. You've been thinking about finishing work and you're not sure if you've got enough to be able to do so.I find, very often, that people assume they're going to be OK, just because they've been paying in to pensions for ages. The reality is, most people don’t pay much attention to their pensions until they start thinking about calling on them and then reality hits!By understanding what sort of a person you are and what sort of a retirement you want, we can help you put it in to a money context. If you do this, it will cost '£X'… If you do that, it will cost '£Y'… If you do the other, it will cost '£Z'. Before you know it, you’re seeing the financial side of your goals and dreams… THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR MONEY!As I said, it's not always an easy conversation. What if you DON'T have enough but you thought you did? What do you do then? Well, I think it's better that you know NOW so you can do something about it, rather than find out later on. Sure, it can be a blow but there it is. Life has a habit of screwing our plans up!
The Problem with Financial Advisers
One of the problems with my line of work is that it's a new profession. Go back 5 or 10 years and, when you engaged with a financial adviser, you made sure you kept your arms firmly gripped to your wallet. You'd never be quite sure about their motivations and whether they're out to help YOU or THEMSELVES.What a poor way to start a relationship. To think, before you've even started engaging, there are trust issues. It's not your fault at all. It's just the way things seemed to work back then (and how they still work now with in some cases).We're different (I'm bound to say aren’t I?). As I've already said, we want to know YOU and not YOUR MONEY. The money side of things can come later once we know we’re the right firm for you and once we've developed some trust with you. In other words, demonstrated that it's YOU we care about.
Think About It
Take some time out of your busy life. Take some time to contemplate what you want life after retirement to look like. Are there things you'd like to do with your time? Places you'd like to see? People you'd like to spend more time with? Thinking about this sort of stuff doesn't come easily to us but it's important.Consider the financial side of these ideas. Sure, you need to do the boring stuff (pay for the gas, electric, running the car, etc.) but think also about the costs of the other things, the things that will get you out of bed in the morning and feel 'I'M SO PLEASED I DON'T HAVE TO WORK ANYMORE'. We can help with this, but it needs to come from inside you first.
Have Fun & Be Sensible
Contradictory, perhaps but, if you do the sensible things first, the fun will follow because you'll be doing the things you WANT TO without being handcuffed to the worry of whether you've got enough money or not.Life's a wonderful thing but life, when you don't need to worry about work or money, is an even more wonderful thing!See you soon...
