MONEY OFFERS OPPORTUNITY

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

MONEY OFFERS OPPORTUNITY

For some people the answer to almost any question is money. Whilst I would not underestimate its power, money is simply a method of exchange. In the most part having money means having choices and more opportunities. This doesn’t mean that those without it have no choices or no opportunities, but quite obviously they are much more limited.

Money is the oil in a system to get things done. However as is also pretty evident, possessing a lot of wealth does not really mean that more opportunities are taken, indeed choices might appear to become more limited, falling into social expectations about what to buy, possess, retain whilst protecting with ever more complex security.

SOLOMONS IFA REVIEW BLOG BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

CRIMINAL INTENT

There are always those that are willing to extract your money from you. This week I had yet another person confide in me that they were victims of a financial scam and felt too ashamed or embarrassed to admit it to others. Most of us, of course, work hard for our earnings, we don’t steel of kill for it. That said, one of the myths that I grew up with was that hard work pays. This is quite obviously not true. Plenty of people work hard or long hours and are not well paid, existing just above the bread-line, hence the need to work long hours. There are others that simply work in a way that by no measure appears “hard” yet are rewarded or remunerated very handsomely. This is of course simply another of life’s “welcome to adulthood” lessons.

DESPERATE TIMES AND DESPERATE MEASURES

Those with very few opportunities, that possess the right skills at the right time can have their lives improved enormously by some helpful cash. One of the few common agreements about the Chancellor’s Budget is an unsaid one… we all would like to keep or get a bit more.

Take Darlene Sweet, a singer is living hand to mouth, gig-to-gig, struggling to get by and desperate for a moment, a lucky break. It’s all about the books you read, the places you visit and the people you meet… right? Well for Darlene, she happened to check into a hotel (the El Royale) near Lake Tahoe, on the border with Nevada and California… but the other guests, staff and hotel are not all that they appear to be.

The latest movie “Bad Times at the El Royale” by director Drew Goddard plays with our sense of security, individuality and ability to adapt to new information. What people will do to protect their own interests, how they respond to extortion and how easily manipulated most of us are. A bad night for the guests, made worse with the arrival of Billy Lee, a knock off of Charles Manson, duping followers with half-truths about money, power and corruption, explaining choice whilst amassing greater wealth and abusing the power he has over those that trust him. The proverbial thief in the night…

Here’s the trailer for the new movie. There was a fair bit of disagreement within my family about whether the movie is any good, I found it quite gripping and delightfully shot – with scenes reminiscent of Nighthawks by Hopper. My daughter however felt it dragged, the acting was poor and the entire thing overly simplistic…

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

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Planning Beneath The Surface

Planning beneath the surface

I am delighted that the blog has now reached over 30,000 hits this week. In a world where social media is a full-time job, it is satisfying that even a small company can achieve some fairly large results. Thank you for making the time to have a look at my blog. As you will have gathered I use is as a way of keeping clients up to date with things that I think are of relevance, as well as using it as a reminder, prompt or source to those that are not yet clients, but recognise that financial planning has got to have rather more to it than simply picking funds and products.

As readers and clients will appreciate, financial planning is all about identifying the lifestyle that you really want and then putting into action a series of steps to ensure that you get there. For some these steps and actions are easier than they are for others. In particular, for those that are able to control their income either be being a business owner, entrepreneur, artist or freelancer, it is considerably easier than for those living as employees, who are on set salaries. By way of a reminder, to my mind, there are only really three possible types of client, those that don’t have enough, those that do and those that do but don’t know.

The main purpose of financial planning is to reveal what is required and then determine what, if any actions need to be taken. I hope that this blog is a pointer to some of the processes that we take our clients though and also a reminder that it isn’t always about big numbers, sometimes the numbers can be surprisingly small and very achievable.

If you have any suggestions about how to improve the content, or indeed topics that you would value being covered, please send me an email with your request. The way this works best is with your interaction, which means, retweeting, “liking” and adding comments.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA