Sit tight

Dominic Thomas
April 2025  •  2 min read

Sit Tight

What the global markets are currently experiencing is not new. It is only different in the sense that it’s utterly pointless and caused by one particular individual. That in itself suggests that ‘the system’ is very flawed and if I could change it I would – but I can’t and neither can you.

Our regulator would want you to know that a 10% fall has happened – it hasn’t yet, but frankly by the time you read this, it may have done. Knowing that doesn’t help. In fact, I would argue that you are better off switching off the news and social media and not looking at your portfolio at all. It’s not good for your mental health or any sense of wellbeing.

Your financial plan is designed for the long-term – the rest of your life. It is not designed for the next year, but for every year. We believe, because of the wealth of evidence from history, that markets rise and fall very suddenly, often for poor or misguided reasons. However, they always recover, given enough time (which is key). I do not like seeing the valuation of funds drop any more than you do – I can assure you. In fact, I am pretty certain I’m far more fed up with it, as it is so needless.

“Sit tight” is very easy for me to say, but it’s very hard to do, I know that. However, we have been through similar events before, lots of them. It’s never comfortable and often feels like “this time it’s different”.  It is certainly different having an idiot as a President, but there are lots of similarly foolish and vile men (and some women) running countries around the world. It’s part of our lives and something we each contend with. Yes; Trump is unpredictable (other than in his capacity to lie) but even so, there is a limit to his real power.  You are invested in companies around the world, many of them trade with each other and are interconnected, something that Trump will never understand. No economy is an island of penguins.

Yes, this is concerning, anyone who has invested in the last month has taken a hit on value, but it will recover. You still own and hold the same ‘stuff’, it’s just that the perceived value is lower than it was at the start of January. Attempting to ‘time the market’ is only ever easy in hindsight and requires at least two decisions, to exit and to re-enter. Neither are easy and from experience most fail to get even close (and if they do, to be honest it’s nothing more than luck as they can never repeat their achievement).

Your portfolio is global, hugely diversified and very low cost. Values will rise again once we have got through this period of self-inflicted insanity. Sadly, I have nothing good to say about the current President of the United States, or his cabinet and supporters. To me they look, speak, sound and smell very much like a fascist dictatorship, certainly it shows all the signs and actions of one in its infancy. I can only hope that his premiership and his regime ends very suddenly before the allotted time. He has no sense of decency and no understanding of history. The sooner he is gone the better.

Sit tight2025-04-11T15:47:25+01:00

Worrying about money?

Dominic Thomas
March 2025  •  2 min read

Worrying about money?

Admittedly, all of us respond differently to pressure and some of us (if not all of us) create our own. I say this as a slight caveat to the statement I will now make. More than half of those aged over 55 are worried that they will run out of money.

This is the finding of research conducted by Oxford Risk, a rather bright bunch that offer services for modelling, measuring, managing and explaining risk to you our clients. As ever, the sample size of the survey wasn’t vast at just a touch over 1,000 people (all over the age of 55). Only 27% of them were not worried about running out of money in retirement.

It won’t please Gen X, Z or Y that around 12% are worried that they will likely be dependent on their children for financial support in their retirement, which when some reports laud the age of an enormous wealth transfer, clearly this will not be everyone’s experience and I suspect the hoped-for inheritance to finally enable joining the property market may be short-lived. It won’t help if your estate suffers a lot of inheritance tax.

Of course, some of this may be merely a reflection of the current cost of living crisis and inflation which at checkouts and cash registers seems to stubbornly ignore ONS official data. It may have something to do with a growing awareness of the exorbitant cost of care or maybe the apparent fragility of the state of the world.

I would love to be able to tell you that we can provide complete reassurance about the future, but it is of course unknown. What we can do is work with your real spending patterns and plans in conjunction with your existing resources and create a plan to avoid running out of money. This relies on regular reviews and sense-checking of our assumptions and your objectives. The intention is obviously to empower you to make informed decisions and have a high degree of confidence about the future, but no one can actually guarantee this, despite what they may be willing to tell you.

We aren’t afraid to wrestle with reality and construct a viable, sustainable plan for your future that will deliver successful outcomes, albeit within the context of a changing and imperfect world.

You don’t need to be worrying, we have a plan that will alleviate this, this is what we do and have done with great success.

Worrying about money?2025-03-21T15:43:07+00:00

How are you spending your time?

Jemima Thomas
April 2023  •  3 min read

How are you spending your time?

We always want our clients to be able to prioritise what enriches them in life. We hone your financial plan to suit your needs, with an eye on making sure that your spare time is spent doing what you love with ‘financial comfort’ making that possible.  With a fair few bank holidays on the horizon, we hope that you have been able to set some time aside to spend it doing the things that bring you joy.

We’d love to hear how you are spending your long weekends in May. Will you be surrounded by loved ones? Engaging in a favourite hobby? Travelling somewhere? Or simply taking time to relax and breathe? Whatever you have planned we hope it’s thoroughly enjoyable and gives you the opportunity to rest and recharge.

Spotlight (our client magazine) is due to be in your hands very soon, and as usual we’ve had a number of clients who have contributed. It’s always lovely to be able to present real examples in Spotlight of lives well lived – which is why we do what we do here at Solomon’s; Time well spent deserves to be celebrated and your story shared.

How are you spending your time?2025-01-23T10:50:57+00:00

Planning – Christmas is coming

Debbie Harris 
Dec 2022  •  6 min read

The goose is getting fat, Christmas is coming

As I write, it is the middle of November, but we are galloping towards the festive season at a pace – bombarded by supermarket adverts, neighbours putting their fairy lights up (already!), and the internet promising fantastic bargains if you are willing to part with your money on one particular day of the year.

It all seems so frenetic (and it is), but this year I have decided to slow things down a little; get my priorities in order; and be mindful during the planning process (there it is … the P word!).

As a financial planning firm – these are three things that are crucial to a job well done and a job done well.

1. SLOW DOWN

Hit the ‘pause’ button; take a break; stop – you cannot see the wood for the trees if you are running around the forest like a headless chicken

2. PRIORITISE

Figure out what is important; what you really care about; what matters – only in reflection and introspection do these things become clear

3. BE MINDFUL IN THE PLANNING

It’s all very well to have grand plans and ‘big goals’; but we HAVE to be realistic around what can be achieved with what we have.  That visit to Lapland to race red-nosed reindeer will have to be put on hold! We must also remember that time is a finite source – things can be done with all the time in the World; but we don’t have the luxury of that – our tomorrow is never guaranteed

PLANNING – ENJOY THE FRUITS…

All that in mind, I have booked tickets to see a pantomime with my daughter this year (Cinderella ON ICE!); I will be attending a choral performance at a theatre (on my own – I couldn’t convince any of my lot to join me!); I have a ‘Christmas Jumper Evening’ at a pub scheduled next month and I have arranged a shopping-followed-by-dinner date with my siblings.  All things that bring me joy; all things that I have carefully selected to do with my time; all things that I will be able to look back on with a smile.

I’m not so worried about ‘the big day’ itself (although I have ordered my turkey … who knows whether I’ll actually get it … bird flu has wiped out huge swathes of the turkey population across the UK this year) – there’s always a slightly anti-climatical feel to the day for me – I enjoy the build up; the anticipation; the socialising – but once the turkey and trimmings have been devoured; it’s all over and there is a sadness to that – the tinsel doesn’t look so shiny; the leftover orange creams in the Quality Street Tin look resigned to their fate; and the tree is a dry, droopy version of its former glory.

I always enjoy the post-Christmas clean-up to be honest … it always feels good to clear away the (admittedly pretty) clutter and start the New Year with a clean, fresh slate (one of the reasons why I love Mondays too I think!)

So whatever your Christmas will look and feel like; whatever your preferred ways are to spend your time; whatever your beliefs about gifting and celebrating; I hope that you are able to plan your festive season mindfully and to execute your plan beautifully.

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

Planning – Christmas is coming2023-12-01T12:12:41+00:00

If Carlsberg made politicians

If Carlsberg made politicians

… they wouldn’t look much like the current bunch. As I write, it’s Monday morning, a new day, new week, new Chancellor and the continued conversation around whether the current Prime Minister is (or ever was) fit for purpose. The new Chancellor was handed the ultimate hospital pass and elected to pretty much shred his predecessor’s “mini budget”. Most people have an opinion on this and I’m going to make the wild assumption that you will have yours already.

So what has changed? The underlying problems that all countries have is income versus spending, this sounds familiar to anyone who has a financial plan. The only real difference is that a country doesn’t have an expiry date … at least in the normal course of life, and barring the ultimate catastrophe, we expect our nation to continue into the future, well beyond ourselves. As a result, money needs to last and debts ultimately need to be repaid or at least sustained.

So where are we in terms of your tax … essentially where we were a few months ago. Some rising taxes (full details yet to be released) and rising inflation, though hopefully this will begin to abate due to the recent interest rate rises, but we aren’t through the woods yet.

The supply chain problems caused by Brexit, the pandemic and a war in Ukraine have all pushed prices up and delayed delivery of many goods. The knock-on effects are significant and particularly to Britain, who deliberately decided to end global trade agreements and still do not have one with the United States.

Price rises lead to pressure on personal spending, savings levels tend to fall (hence interest rates are increased to encourage saving and reduce spending). Businesses face a cycle of holding off rises whilst trying to remain competitive but facing serious challenges on most fronts, from the very basic ‘heating the building’ to agreeing international contracts where the pound is ‘precarious’. We have been here before and there are always casualties. What has vexed (and angered) markets recently in particular has been the unwillingness to state assumptions in the plan.

Your financial plan always needs to be adaptable. We review this together every year. Perhaps some changes need to be made, but remember that your portfolio is global and not UK centric. The UK stock market is about 6% of the global market. So, let’s keep things in proportion. The problems are not unique to the UK (except Brexit).  Facing problems is always better than ignoring them.

It would seem likely that 2022 will be one of those negative years for markets. The brave see this as an opportunity to buy cheaply; the nervous panic and sell. Those with a long-term mindset know this truth but how it is felt is always a challenge to our nervous system. Those with the best financial planning are those that adapt in the short term but stick to the long-term plan, for probably the best planning in the world …

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

If Carlsberg made politicians2025-01-28T10:05:26+00:00

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

TODAY’S BLOG

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

When things around us begin to collapse, there is an undeniable sense that screams within us to “do something!” (I’m sure it’s not just me). The global stock markets taking a battering are not good for our nerves (we were not designed for this). The temptation to do something, anything! is palpable… but you have me and all proper financial planners telling you that selling in a crisis is just about the worst thing you could do. These things happen, they come they go, they happen again. This does not placate any of our feelings, but it may help remind us of truths.

However, we are still left with the feeling about wanting to do something, even if that is not to mess with your portfolio. So here I have compiled a list of things to do. It is not exhaustive, some are more important than others, but I would urge you to consider them, particularly if you are feeling reasonably well, but having to self-isolate, or have chosen to do so.

YOUR TO DO LIST

  1. DON’T PANIC: The first thing is not to panic, whilst this version of calamity has not happened before, something very similar has. Disasters have a lot in common, they are fairly regular and prone to repeat without much warning.
  2. TAKE STOCK: This is a good opportunity to review your cash savings. You will remember that we have talked about having reserve cash funds of anything between 3-12 months of typical spending, more in some instances. See our video. Well this is the moment that those reserves may need to be called upon. Also remember that you should try to limit cash savings at any one bank to £85,000 for full FSCS protection. Let me know if you want more about this.
  3. CHECK YOUR PRIORITIES: We all know that plans are well intended, but life has a habit of getting in the way. That doesn’t mean that the plan is wrong or doomed, merely that some flexibility is probably required. So your plans may need to be adjusted, reconsidered, reviewed, postponed, delayed or cancelled, depending on your circumstances and what is wise for you.
  4. REVIEW YOUR BUDGET: You should also take this opportunity to review your regular outgoings. Have another look at your spending plan. What is important and essential, what is nice to have and what is superfluous. Let me be clear, with some luck and good leadership, the current crisis may be over within a few weeks or months, but it could drag on for a bit longer. Stopping your subscriptions to things you enjoy and use may not be sensible, unless you don’t benefit from having them.
  5. LIVE GENEROUSLY: I am a great believer in small businesses, so think about the impact of your financial choices on those within your local community and our wider one. If you have booked and paid for something and now plan to cancel, yes that might be sensible, but you have a choice about whether you simply treat the money as gone, perhaps to someone that needs it more. I’m not suggesting you should, but to merely raise the fact that you have a choice.
  6. HOPE FOR THE BEST, PLAN FOR THE WORST: The current coronavirus is not going to be a “walk in the park”. If statistics are correct the fatality rate is higher than the normal flu, particularly for those with pre-existing serious health and respiratory problems, but we expect the vast majority of people to survive.  We all hope that we will all survive whatever is coming down the road, but some will not. Yes, this is very morbid. However, I am assuming that one of the reasons that I am in your life is so that I do not ignore the difficult challenges to do with money and your financial wellbeing. My job is not to sweet talk you with nice words, but to provide a responsible truthful voice, at least as far as I see it. You need to ensure that your Will is up to date, that your Executors know what their responsibilities are, that protection policies provide ample cover. You should also consider Power of Attorney so that someone you trust can take financial decisions on your behalf if you cannot. Need help? get in touch.
  7. COMMUNICATE – GET IN TOUCH: You also need to ensure that the relevant people know where your important documents are. Why not put a copy on our portal too – see www.solomonsifa.co.uk/pfp for more.
  8. REFLECT & REMEMBER: If you find yourself having to “self-isolate” why not take the time to finally get around to writing up a brief version of your life-story. I hope that this will have the effect of reminding you of many good experiences in life and happy memories and provide space to reflect on who and what is important. Add photographs, then get to work on creating a book using a bit of software within Apple or Vistaprint or something similar, get it printed, get it done. If you would like a useful template email me.
  9. CHECK IN ABOUT YOUR LONG-TERM PLANS: In terms of your financial planning – I’m working on the assumption that your plans have not altered. If they have get in touch. It is possible that some may need to be adjusted, but I doubt that this is a wise time to do that. Your investments remain globally diversified, across various asset classes and low cost where possible. We have seen the value fall sharply before and we will see it again, but there is no need to panic. In the same way that you didn’t sell your home during the last property crash, you sat it out.
  10. REVIEW YOUR BUCKET LIST: Appreciating the precarious and fragility of life will hopefully bring to mind some things that you would like to experience – have a think and let me know if anything new should be added to your bucket list, they dont have to have a financial price tag, but at least when we next review your plans together we can check to see how you are getting along…

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

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW2025-02-03T10:37:19+00:00

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

The myth, fantasy or religion of the superhero or saviour is pretty much embedded in every culture in the world. For those of us that grew up watching Spock, Kirk and Bones boldly go where no man had gone before, the idea of a mixed crew facing new existential threats in new frontiers is nothing new. The global melting pot that is post-modern America, is represented in contemporary superhero saviours.

Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the many branches of Marvel comic superheroes. Unlike many of the more two-dimensional superheroes that are “good” and fight “bad”, the Guardians are a more eclectic mix of pirates with a conscience, out to save life-kind. Any reading of most myths would likely suggest that subtlety is an unlikely prerequisite for the role of hero, saviour or guardian and this motley crew are as subtle as the obligatory movie soundtrack sale (ker-ching!).

Sadly, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is a rather more obvious copy of previous attempts of the same story, almost a direct copy of “Return to the Forbidden Planet” which is derived from “The Tempest” by Shakespeare. The CGI is obviously better, but essentially, it’s the same.

Superhero your financial plan?

So what on earth can a financial planner gain from a Superhero film? Well, perhaps a reminder that relationship is at the heart of everything and those that are obsessed with their own ego, the narcissists, are just about the worst people to hang out with. However, perhaps allowing for the more nuanced subtlety that real people (and real clients) require, there is one particularly vital lesson for investors. It is this. The perfect world does not exist…. life is brief.

The real world is as complex and as messy as the people that inhabit it. Investors seeking illusory risk-free bumper returns, yet despite regulation, your inbox or “newspaper” is probably crammed with offers of them. Investing in property because you believe equities are “risky” is a misunderstanding of both. We might want jargon free, easy to understand financial products (most could be substantially improved) yet we live in an imperfect world where often all is not as it appears and our own desires may not necessarily be the best path for us to take. Simple is not always better.

The Perfect Life?… good luck with that

We live in a world of fairly immediate gratification, yet there are consequences to every decision. What we require, all of us, is wise and good counsel, that is designed for our best interest, not necessarily the convenience of “perfection”, which is invariably disguised as more earthy, pithy virtues such as redemption or restoration of broken relationships… or perhaps simply finally attaining the approval of a parental figure, through the acquisition of “stuff” that is the equivalent of those unnoticed (or noticed) gold stars.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on: and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest, Prospero Act 4, Scene 1.

As for Guardians, well it’s a bit of fun and in a world where distraction from the trials of life is the invisible drug that keeps most of us going, it will doubtless make a fortune. I hear that the third film is already commissioned. Here is the trailer for the latest movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2… and no it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, however Guardians is all about the ordinary doing the extraordinary when sharing a common cause together as a family, tribe or group of misfits.

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

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 22023-12-01T12:18:34+00:00

Talking Money – July 2016

Talking Money – July 2016

The latest online version of Talking Money is now available. In the issue there is a piece on alternative assets – all well and good, but please remember that for most people this is unnecessary, focus on getting the basics right before trying to take additional risk with a more sophisticated range of options.

For example, we have just watched Andy Murray and Serena Williams become champions of Wimbledon again. Frankly they make tennis look pretty easy, and often make their opponents look like a poor match. The truth is rather different, as it is with investing. Focus first on getting the basics right (something that our Government fails to do).

So what are the basics…

  • Have a plan
  • Spend less than you earn
  • Build reserves
  • Avoid debt wherever possible
  • Remember the impact of inflation
  • Take a long-term perspective
  • Diversify risk
  • Automate your saving – reduce your proscrastination
  • Ensure you have a Will
  • Have adequate financial protection
  • Take advantage of tax allowances
  • Live your life and dreams, not someone else’s
  • Someone will always have more than you, success is not a bank balance
  • Review, review, review….

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

Talking Money – July 20162025-01-28T14:35:47+00:00

Saying what needs to be said?

Saying what needs to be said?

I’m told that to appeal to potential new clients, I need to differentiate myself from every other financial adviser out there. So I was wondering if I’m saying what needs to be said? I’m aware that our culture often appears to be one of noise rather than content. I imagine that most of you will know the names of several media hungry pop stars, but probably have never bought any of their music (or could identify it). This we are told is all well and good as we aren’t the target audience.

OK. Like everyone else, I’m acutely aware that reading the entire contents of my inbox would be more than enough to see out my lifetime, probably more than once! So attempting to get your attention (or mine) is an increasingly difficult task. It seems that saying anything is better than saying nothing, but saying something inflammatory will get attention – depending on the reception, sometimes excused as “being ironic”.

In a nutshell…

However, what we at Solomons offer is simple to explain. We help people to think about the future that they want and try to help make it happen, by helping you to understand what it takes and then to build financial architecture around your specific, individual, unique plan. We coach, encourage, educate, implement, review, check and learn. It’s a partnership into the unknown with a great deal of uncertainty. We cannot work miracles, have no magic powers and make a stack of assumptions based upon experience and data from the past. Being human, we will probably make mistakes, but none deliberately. We will try to correct those that we make.

So, just to check we’re on the same page… is that what you are looking for? If not, what do you need to hear? (so that I can figure out if it’s something that I am not saying loudly enough).

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

Saying what needs to be said?2025-01-28T14:35:48+00:00
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