Life and Money Reflections Archives - Financial Planning in Surrey

The Ticket-Masterplan

Sam Harris
Sept 2024 • 3 min read

The Ticket-Masterplan

On the 27^th of August 2024, Oasis announced their reunion, along with dates and venues for their ‘Live 25’ tour. An event which sent shockwaves rippling through social media as people were desperate to get their hands on tickets. Fifteen years on from when the band split up rather volcanically in 2009, the Gallagher brothers have decided to give the fans what they want. Though I’m sure the response and extent of subsequent engagement to the news caught them off guard.

When tickets went on sale, hundreds of thousands of frenzied fans vied for the chance to see the band. Inevitably, many fans were left in despair as they failed to obtain tickets. Yet for the few who managed to get a ticket just before they sold out; the victory was bittersweet. Due to Ticketmaster’s use of ‘dynamic pricing’, some fans who purchased tickets when availability was running out ended up paying more than double the price that was advertised. Originally, standing tickets were available for around £150. However, as tickets were sold and the remaining availability decreased, prices for those very same standing tickets rose to over £350!

Understandably, many fans were not happy about this and have described Ticketmaster’s conduct as exploitative and unfair. The practice of dynamic pricing has previously caused controversy, and some artists (such as Ed Sheeran & Taylor Swift) have taken a firm stance against it.

Earlier this year, the United States Federal Government filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. As a consequence of the uproar, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has also launched its own investigation into Ticketmaster’s use of dynamic pricing.

The Financial Conduct Authority (our regulator) holds the financial services industry to higher standards and we are very pleased to confirm that we do not manipulate our fees in this way – it will cost the same to top up your ISA today for example as it would cost if you left it until the end of the tax year.

Let’s hope that the Oasis fans who fell victim to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing don’t look back in anger at the ticket chaos, and are able to enjoy the show.

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The Ticket-MasterplanJemima Thomas2024-09-13T17:05:42+01:00

In Your Dreams

Debbie Harris
August 2024 • 2 min read

In your dreams

There is a wealth of psychological and anecdotal research around the content of our dreams which I find really interesting. Back in the day I went to see the musical ‘Joseph’ and liked the fact that his dreams were so easy to interpret … in reality this isn’t generally the case!

Scientists and psychologists, old and new, tell us that dreams reveal critical aspects about ourselves. Dreams are supposedly a reflection of our recent state of mind and of future possibilities.

I am slightly curious therefore as to what those scientists and psychologists might read into a dream I had recently where I was attacked in my back garden by a peacock?!

Apparently these sorts of dreams tend to represent an internal battle that the dreamer is fighting (largely subconsciously) but more importantly is our reaction/response to those sorts of dreams. I didn’t wake up afraid and sweating; I was quite calm about it and even though I woke up in the middle of it – I didn’t have a fear response at all; I figured that had I stayed asleep and seen the dream through, I would have ‘won the fight’. So maybe those dream analysts are onto something!

Here at Solomon’s, we don’t peddle in dreams; but we do challenge our clients to consider carefully and mindfully what their ‘ideal’ looks like (so perhaps ‘dreams’ in another sense of the word?!). We never promise that we can turn those dreams into reality; but we work closely with you to give you the best possible chance.

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In Your DreamsJemima Thomas2024-08-30T11:07:06+01:00

New start

Dominic Thomas
August 2024 • 2 min read

New start?

Do I dare ‘get political’ and risk offending you? Assuming you have pretty thick skin and are not easily offended … I’m going to proceed. I’m rather glad to see the back of the last Government. I appreciate that many people believe the narrative that Conservative governments are good at managing the national finances and Labour governments are not, however I don’t see any evidence to support this over the last 14 years or so.

In practice we saw a Conservative government launch a half-baked referendum on leaving the EU and ending our working relationship. Sure the EU has its faults, but not a single proponent had any real idea or plan for non-membership other than some rather Victorian notions of empire. I’m not sure that anyone could be worse than the collection of PMs that we have had over the last 14 years, who largely seem to be self-serving and unable to convey any vision.

So we have a new PM and Chancellor, the first female Chancellor in English history. It’s probably fair to say that this Labour leadership are right-leaning centrists and appear eager to reassure the public that they can handle our finances wisely, with economic growth being obviously important. We will see how this shapes up in practice.

Public spending can only really happen with public money, which is of course taxation and loans (Government debt). It is of course divisive political opinion about whether Government debt used to fund public spending creates wealth. On the one hand, better infrastructure and a healthy, educated workforce generate the conditions for growth and therefore more tax collected; on the other hand, debt needs to be repaid and the matter of how much and how quickly is of course the domain of spin doctors to suit your chosen narrative. Practically, we know on a personal level that spending more than you earn and building debt isn’t a great idea, but then this is public money – personal overspending is generally about consumption not investment into the hardwiring of our system (which is quite a different matter).

The truth is that life and politics are nuanced. Rarely is anything simple or either/or. All of us now have a refreshed understanding of inflation and for me, this is probably the more important element of the economics. Every year brings new challenges and we are undoubtedly at a watershed moment in technological advancement, perhaps the degree of change is as it ever was – overestimated in the short term with its impact underestimated in the long term.

We shall see how Mr Starmer handles the pressure compared to his predecessors.

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New startJemima Thomas2024-08-02T17:28:14+01:00

Game, (Re)Set & Match?

Debbie Harris
July 2024 • 2 min read

Game, (Re)Set & Match?

It seemed rather fitting that on the day Solomon’s bid farewell to our office in SW20, Andy Murray bid a tearful farewell to the green grass of SW19 (not to mention it was also the day we had a changing of the guard in parliament … but that’s a blog for Dominic to write!)

I met Andy well over a decade ago (before he won the coveted Wimbledon championship trophy) and he was a really down to earth guy. I was relieved to see that despite fame and fortune, during his post match interview after his foray into the doubles tournament with his brother Jamie, he seems to have retained that ‘average Joe’ attitude to life.

I wish him well for the future and I feel confident that he will remain in the public eye in the sport that he loves, but I actually wanted to talk to you about our office move to the leafy village of Cobham in Surrey.

As much as we loved our office in Raynes Park (it was the firm’s home for 17 years), we had started to outgrow it. And growth is a good thing! Our new space in Cobham is a wonderful place surrounded by nature and shrouded in the history of the area. You can read about ‘The Old Mill’ here.

Just like Mr Murray, it will take us a little time to adapt to new routines and arrange things so that the new office feels like ours, but it opens up new opportunities for us as a firm providing a more flexible space for us to be creative and productive.

As with all change – there is a feeling of having a ‘reset’ … it’s why I love Mondays so much (and the first page of a new notebook!). The team here don’t all necessarily agree with me about ‘the Monday thing’ but there is a freshness about starting something new – the novelty factor – that gives us an extra spring in our step and a little more focus.

We are hopeful that as we move forward in our new ‘home’, we will continue to do better and to challenge ourselves as we aim for excellence in everything we do for you.

We would love to welcome you to our new offices in the coming months – whether it’s for a meeting with one of our advisers or just for a coffee and a chat!

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Game, (Re)Set & Match?Jemima Thomas2024-08-02T09:59:43+01:00

What is a bias when you have an ology?

Dominic Thomas
July 2024 • 3 min read

What is bias when you have an ology?

As ever, there are reminders and new lessons to be learned from any relocation. One of those that stays with me is our telecoms story. As you will appreciate, our business is heavily reliant upon the internet, or more accurately a fast broadband connection. This was a feature of the initial requirements for any new premises and in truth is probably true of most residential requirements as well.

Initial confirmation from the estate agent suggested that the broadband at The Old Mill was “fine”, after all the previous tenants had run their business successfully. When we checked this with the provider formerly known as Buzby or Beatie, I was rather alarmed to see pretty much the slowest speed available, the equivalent of a carrier pigeon in the modern age. This was verified online and over the phone. After numerous attempts, Debbie managed to track down someone a little more helpful who suggested that we read the serial number on the existing box. This suggested, rather contradictorily that we would be able to have a fast fibre connection.

Anyway, as you will likely have experienced, we were sent a boxed box with too many cables, which we dutifully plugged in and hey presto… nada! Not a thing. The lights were on but nobody home (yes, we did follow the instructions properly). So a somewhat exasperated Debbie calls our contact and after some trials and tests, concludes that there is a fault and an engineer is sent to investigate and hopefully resolve.

Our preparations were made in advance of moving in, thanks to what I hope is a good landlord relationship. On the Saturday morning that the engineer arrived, (promptly to his credit) my assumptions about what keys were needed we found wanting and I apologised for my faux pas and for wasting his time. In conversation he asked about the problem and suggested that it may be as simple as having the connecting cable in the wrong (cancelled) port (socket). I asked if it were that simple, why wouldn’t the team on the phone have suggested that to us. Rightly or wrongly, he told me that due to regulation from OFCOM, his company formerly known as BT Openreach were thought to be biased towards BT customers and that was why they are now known as Openreach. He said that he suspects that due to concerns about being construed as biased towards any of the different tech providers that make the boxes, handsets and hubs they steer clear of resolving specific problems to do with the hardware or expressing a view, for fear of being deemed biased.

I have no idea if this is really the case, but on the one hand it doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t accurate, as this is the perceived experience. As a result, an engineer will be dispatched to resolve a problem that could probably be fixed much more quickly over the phone, or at least, if not fixed, attempted and ruled out.

When I regained access to the new office, I did as he had instructed me and lo, there was light… purple light and a high-speed connection. In fact, our IT guy says that it’s the fastest he has seen.

The irony is that privatisation of Beatie was meant to usher in competition. Whilst at home you might have a few choices about your broadband, in practice a bloke with a typewriter could have tendered for our new office telecoms as BT were the only practical option for a high-speed connection. Has privatisation of telecoms really worked? I know we are all spending a lot on mobile phones and broadband along with all the associated apps and subscriptions, but there are many times when I am not convinced that we have a more competitive market are you?

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What is a bias when you have an ology?Jemima Thomas2024-07-14T13:50:01+01:00

New client surge?

Dominic Thomas
June 2024 • 3 min read

New client surge?

We are expecting and ready to meet with lots of new clients. Our premises in Cobham are perfect for quiet, confidential and tranquil client meetings. There is ample parking and decent coffee!

This is perhaps just as well since a recent report by Investec Wealth has revealed that nearly 60% of investors are looking to get advice. This is for a variety of reasons, but nearly 30% are expecting to do so within the next 12 months and a significant proportion have over £250,000 of investments.

By and large, most are seeking advice about retirement, but a not-so-insignificant 20% reported that they simply don’t have time to manage their own investments. Whilst I welcome the opportunity to meet with them, I fear that many will be expecting to find a magician rather than a financial adviser as they may have left good planning somewhat late in the day.

Of late, I have growing experience and awareness of the problems that many face as they age. Memory isn’t quite what it was and we are seeing more people with concerns about Alzheimer’s. Many of us will have some experience of this already and sadly many will do so in the future. There are considerable issues for your finances and ensuring that you have your ‘ducks in a row’ is of key importance. As is having the right team around you; providing what you need.

As we age, we invariably become increasingly aware of the importance of relationships, much more so than anything else; but these are loaded with a lifetime of baggage. Spending time on the things that are important (what you actually want and value) rather than attempting to impress people with your brilliance at managing your own money; is something that I would actively encourage. Managing investments, tax and regulations is a time-consuming exercise and not one that most people would want to waste their most valuable resource on (time). I suspect and believe that you have better things to do with yours.

We are here, ready to begin your journey with us and towards financial freedom – or maintaining it.

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New client surge?Jemima Thomas2024-06-30T18:48:30+01:00

Massaoke

Debbie Harris
June 2024 • 2 min read

Massaoke

In a concerted effort for 2024, I am trying to ‘do things’ that are outside of my comfort zone (or at least … things I’ve never done before).

I am aiming to try one new thing each month and last month’s adventure was a trip to the Rose Theatre in Kingston for an event called ‘Massaoke’. The concept is basically ‘group karaoke’. I didn’t really know what to expect (although I had an inkling), but I rather enjoyed it!

There was a live band, a big screen (for the lyrics) and 1,000+ people all in fine voice and high spirits!

As is the way of the majority of sound technicians (in my experience), the music was a smidgen too loud and I was sadly unable to tell whether I was sitting next to the next Ariana Grande or whether the man behind me was the next Luther Vandross (which was a shame – I was rather looking forward to that aspect of it).

But the lasting memory of this event for me is the sound of a 1,000 voices singing the chorus of Phantom of the Opera one minute and those same voices singing songs the next minute from the musical Oliver – complete with full cockney twang!

It was a reminder that Aristotle was right … “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

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MassaokeJemima Thomas2024-06-21T14:00:16+01:00

What’s the most visible legacy of Covid in everyday life?

Ben Hutton (Business Development Manager for 7IM)
June 2024 • 5 min read

What’s the most visible legacy of Covid in everyday life?

The odd mask still being worn on public transport? A faded sign explaining, in intense detail, how to wash your hands? A Perspex screen somewhere it really doesn’t need to be?

I think it’s something else. Office fashion.

In fact, in the UK, men’s suits were taken out of the ‘representative’ inflation basket in 2022* – if no one’s buying them, they aren’t representative!

Loaded question: imagine I’d given you perfect foresight on this trend towards casual and away from formal back in 2022. Armed with this information, if you had to buy the shares in athleisure super-brand Lululemon or ‘stuffy’ Marks & Spencer, who would you have backed?

Prepare to be as shocked as someone seeing the price tag of a pair of premium-brand leggings for the first time.

In the past couple of years, Lululemon’s stock has basically gone sideways, while M&S’s share price has doubled.

The thing is, even if you know exactly what the world is going to look like, it doesn’t always translate to share price performance.

There are lots of specific reasons Lululemon has struggled – there’s only so much money you can spend on tracksuit bottoms, clothes wear out less quickly at home, other brands have emerged to grab a slice of the market.

But the more interesting case is why M&S has thrived. As a business, it does something we think investors can learn from. It diversifies.

From food to clothing, to homeware, and even finance. So as their formalwear struggled, the rest of the business kept going, giving the fashion side time to adjust, ditch the formalwear, and evolve.

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What’s the most visible legacy of Covid in everyday life?Jemima Thomas2024-06-20T12:22:12+01:00

Rainy Days

Debbie Harris
May 2024 • 2 min read

Can anything good come of the cost of living crisis?

Writers block hit me hard today.

Any of you who have ever communicated with me will know, I rarely struggle with this!

So I did what any self-respecting chatterbox would do … I took to the internet!

My working title for this blog post was ‘has anything positive come out of the cost of living crisis?’ and despite a very specific search, ‘the Google’ had nothing positive to say about the cost of living crisis whatsoever.

As an aside – I got distracted and went down the proverbial rabbit hole and happened upon ‘the 100 most googled questions’ – THAT deserves a blog post all of its own to be perfectly honest; but for now, the answer to the question “why were chainsaws invented?” will have to wait. (FYI – more than 200,000 people a month on average google that question worldwide!)

So anyway … I had to return to my own thoughts and reflections about the cost of living crisis and (as an eternal optimist who can find a silver lining in most grey clouds) try to figure out why I even thought this working title would give me ‘stuff’ to talk about!

And after much deliberation I am pleased to tell you that from my own personal experience of the cost of living crisis (which I do realise isn’t quite over just yet); there are indeed some positives (if you look hard enough for them!)

So here goes – my list:

An increased awareness of my own spending (and waste)
Re-evaluation of my priorities and those things I class as ‘essential’ (fewer ‘things’ than you might think … although ‘coffee’ stays!)
Finding creative ways to save a few pennies – ‘rainy days’ is my latest exercise … I shift £5 to my savings account every day it rains … since the beginning of this year alone, I have set aside more than £200 (which says more about climate change than my saving-savviness I think!)
Being resourceful in finding costs to cut and ways to cut them
Fixing things rather than replacing them – less waste; better for the planet; a little self-righteousness (how clever I am to glue/stitch/tape this xyz back together!)
An appreciation for all the things we DO have
An attitude of gratitude to be in gainful honest employment (doing a job I love by the way!)
A genuine mindfulness and concern for others who have been hit much harder than me by the cost of living crisis and a commitment to help friends and family whenever I can
A sense of community and connection with others in a shared experience.

If you can think of any others, we’d love to hear from you!

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Rainy DaysJemima Thomas2024-05-24T15:40:51+01:00

Anti social media

Dominic Thomas
April 2024 • 4 min read

Anti-social media

Confession, I am a hypocrite. As with most things, nuance is often lost in the polarity of opinion. My ability to pontificate is at least as good as yours, so I start with an apology and an admission … that I am far from perfect.

Social media is something I enjoy and loathe. In reality, it is designed for precisely this experience, to push your buttons of joy and despair. I used to be a regular Twitter user but as it became increasingly incendiary, I gave up the habit. Some things lost, but mainly time gained. I kept my Facebook and Instagram accounts open, which I largely use to share images that are born from a love of photography, you can see these if you wish.

Judging by most people’s terrible profile pictures, it would seem that many people use their phone’s camera much like they used their film camera, apparently unaware of the tools to edit or help. In short, the art of re-presentation. We are all aware of this idealisation towards perfection, it’s nothing new and whilst many think of glossy magazines and advertising, perhaps the foundations lie in early religious art, the Renaissance and the hundreds of portraits of the ruling classes.

In many respects, social media is nothing new. Ancient frescos are the Facebook of their day. More time was spent in their crafting, so arguably more deliberate with their nuanced messaging.

Scroll forward to the present day and we have opinion offered as fact by people who have little (if any) training or qualification in their chosen subject. ‘Finfluencers’ are the group that garner my attention. Those who talk about money whilst evidently unqualified to do so. We can of course pass this off with a “so what, I’m not mug enough” which may be true; maybe. To my mind it’s the speed of the message and lack of processing that is done; accepting as true without challenge. Life is too short, but I wonder what the long-term impact is on those less able to distinguish … after all, the impact is already a problem in politics.

By way of example, recently I saw a video post about building a deposit for a house and how saving £40 a day would enable you to buy a house in the north-east of England after 12 months. This is aimed at those aged under 35. £40 a day saved over a year is £14,600. If we assume this is for a 10% deposit for a house. That would imply a 90% mortgage of £131,400 and an income of £37,542 to borrow that amount.

Someone earning £37,542 (which is above the national full time median wage £35,464*) should have a personal allowance of £12,570 but would pay income tax, national insurance and pension payments. At best, opting out of the workplace pension and having no student loan, the net (after tax and NI) take home monthly income would be £2,504 (£2,323 if you have a student loan and 5% auto-enrolment pension). If you save £40 a day that’s £1,216 a month, leaving £1,288 (or £1,107) to live on each month.

Of course to earn £37,542 you need to work (and get to work) which means to retain your employed position, be healthy, rested and clothed and for any sense of a balanced life you probably have a holiday, buy presents for loved ones and perhaps attend a celebratory event, maybe the wedding of a friend. I am sure that it is possible to do all this on £297 a week, but it isn’t easy and if you happen to live in the South East it’s probably impossible unless you are living rent-free somewhere.

It’s also a challenge to find a home, flat or garage to buy for £131,400 but more possible in the North East. I ran a search on property for sale in Surrey, excluding buying schemes (which are a false economy at best, scam at worst, don’t get me started on leasehold v freehold) these started with listing a £175,000 which is basically a static home (shed). The cheapest listed terraced house £400,000, bungalow £315,000 and semi-detached £395,000. As ever, location is all and context is everything.

Even if you can buy for say £350,000 you would need a £35,000 deposit and a mortgage of £315,000 requiring an income of £90,000. Heck let’s try £200,000, you would still need a mortgage of £180,000 and income of £51,428. The deposit is only part of the problem, the other is your income to justify (qualify for) the loan. A smaller deposit simply means a larger mortgage, which needs a higher income to justify it. Of course this is much easier for a couple who both earn than someone who’s single. The entire housing market then relies on properties rising in value (as well as increased incomes) to ‘move up the ladder’, making it even harder for the next tranche of first time buyers.

Money provides choices, the lack of it limits options considerably. Yes it is possible to save £40 a day and build a deposit of £14,600 over 12 months or £29,200 over 24. Short-term pain can be bearable, but is it realistic when we all know that food and energy inflation are much higher than stated by Government figures. This requires the sort of discipline that few of us actually possess (even fewer in Government!). Spending money is easy, saving it is really quite hard.

*Median UK wage April 2023 data, based on earned income ages 16-State Pension Age – reference HERE

You can follow me on Instagram here

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Anti social mediaJemima Thomas2024-04-13T15:18:01+01:00

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