Money & film: A Complete Unknown

Dominic Thomas
Jan 2025  •  2 min read

Money & film: A Complete Unknown

The New Year is very much underway; my inbox has been full of emails from investment companies telling me what they expect from 2025. These days I’m rather more circumspect and much more defensive about your money than I was 25 years ago. It’s a year like any other; unknown. We know some things will almost certainly happen (they are in the diary); things we expect to happen and then a plethora of stuff we suspect might happen and then the things we will be surprised by. Sounding a little like Donald Rumsfeld – we don’t know what we don’t know.

What we do know is that your financial plan is best based around your own values, circumstances and expectations. We know that over the longer term, holding global equities provides the best chance of maintaining and improving the purchasing power of your money, but with this comes volatility.

There’s a new film A Complete Unknown; the story of Bob Dylan, a man whose name most people will know. It charts the start of his career in 1961, aged 20, meeting Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger, both successful musicians of their day who recognise his talent which provides the platform for his arrival on the scene. It’s a time of change, JFK is sworn in as Number 35, The Beatles are starting out, The Bay of Pigs invasion, civil rights protestors are harassed by Police, beaten by KKK. There are riots in Paris, a host of stand offs between Soviets and the US, the Cold War really starts and the year closes with JFK sending 18,000 special military advisers to Vietnam. Despite all the disasters and uncertainty, 1961 saw the US market up about 19%.

The film explores Dylan’s rise to fame as a folk singer, his relationship with Joan Baez and his need to continually change, adapt, leave and move on. Some, it would seem (like Seegers), wanted him to help restore folk, but Dylan found this suffocating and a tie to the past that was unhelpful. His transition to the electric guitar was unwelcome by most in the folk scene.

Dylan is now 83 and has his next birthday in May. He is undoubtedly a survivor, his career has been long in the making with over 125 million records sold world-wide making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has been the change and witnessed it, but often it has been a slow train coming…

Your planning is best viewed in the long-term. Whatever the world throws at us in 2025, take the long-term view. Change is constant.

Here is the trailer for the new film.

Money & film: A Complete Unknown2025-02-07T15:53:47+00:00

Ready for new peaks

Matt Loadwick 
Oct 2024  •  2 min read

Ready for new peaks

Joining a new business is always a significant life change; filled with anticipation and, of course, some anxiety. Having joined Solomon’s as a trainee financial planner, I’m looking to follow the path which Dan has successfully navigated, in switching professions for a career in financial planning.

A geography graduate from Newcastle University, my career to date has seen me specialise in transport and development planning, through which I sought to satisfy an innate desire to improve society; in this case by helping to make places and spaces better for the people who use them.

Undertaking what is a fairly sharp turn in my career, it would be fair to say that the levels of excitement, anticipation, and yes, anxiety, were amplified. However, my experience so far has been fantastic, thanks to the warm welcome I have received and the generous support provided daily by each of my new colleagues. From day one, the team at Solomon’s has ensured that I am integrated into the company culture; encouraging me to share my insights in team meetings, whilst always being there to help with any questions, of which there have been many at this stage!

A little about me; a proud northerner and good listener who likes to connect with people, my motivation for starting a new career in the financial services industry stems from seeking opportunity to make better use of my people skills; to help individuals realise their life goals through financial guidance, and to further increase my breadth of knowledge – all things I am really looking forward to.

I was born and raised in Poynton, a small town located just outside of Manchester, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. Growing up there inspired my love of hiking and cycling in the countryside; undoubtedly had some influence over my love of alternative rock and indie music (for which Manchester is a real wellspring); and is also reflected in my favourite sports teams – Sale Sharks RUFC, Stockport County and Manchester City (before the oil money made them “everyone’s favourite team to hate”).

Since joining the firm, I’ve had the chance to see first-hand the positive impact that good financial advice can have on the lives of our clients at a variety of key life stages. The initial learning curve has been steep, but rewarding, as I do my best to soak in as much as possible from the incredibly knowledgeable team here. It’s a process I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’m eager to build my knowledge and skills further to grow within this fantastic team, and ultimately contribute to helping our clients achieve their life goals.

Ready for new peaks2024-10-25T11:50:16+01:00

Who said ”watching paint dry is as dull as financial planning”?

Debbie Harris
May 2023  •  5 min read

Who said ”financial planning is as dull as watching paint dry”?

I’m sure lots of people have actually said/thought that … and in many ways, financial planning done well is indeed a lot like the painting process.

I spent most of last weekend with a paint brush in one hand and a roller in the other and I had a lot of time to bemoan my utter loathing of anything ‘DIY’ whilst I cracked on and did what was necessary.

It occurred to me after I stepped back and examined the end result of my frustrating (and frankly downright painful at my age) labours, that financial planning is A LOT like painting a room …

You first have to admit the need to make a change; then you have to make some decisions about what you want to do and when you want to do it; then it’s time for organising your equipment (I have discovered that a telescopic pole to extend one’s roller is a MUST); and then it’s the big one … pick a day and just ‘start’ – the preparation is the slog … I was taught well by my father though – sugar soap the walls, fill any blemishes, do the cutting in – and most importantly (like a mantra!) “let the roller do the work”.

There are obstacles in the way, literally and metaphorically – the family dog kept wanting to ‘help’ and I slightly under-estimated my paint quantity requirements (spotting this before it became a problem; meant I only had to make a small adjustment to my plan and simply ended up using a slightly different shade on one wall).

The bulk of the time you are painting ceilings and walls, it is dull, unglamorous, tedious, painstaking and seems to go on forever.  But … that moment when you know you are loading the roller for the last time … pure joy!  Until you look back at what you’ve done and it looks patchy because it’s wet – which is totally normal but gut wrenchingly soul-destroying.

So you shuffle off to spend what feels like another lifetime cleaning paint out of the brushes, rollers, trays etc; you remove stray paint from your hair, your glasses and your elbow and you get cleaned up.

You avoid looking at the room for a good hour or two (read what it says on the paint tin) – and then you tentatively go back in and check … and lo and behold – it’s glorious.  It’s a thing of beauty – you send pictures of it to your friends and tell them how wonderful it looks (they say the right things in response of course – but how excited can you get about a ceiling and four walls?!).

And you pat yourself on the back (rightly so – but gently because that aches too) – the preparation, the planning, the hard graft, the mental effort, the tedium, the waiting – all absolutely worth it.

Who said ”watching paint dry is as dull as financial planning”?2023-12-01T12:12:32+00:00

Christmas is no laughing matter

Sam Harris
Dec 2022  •  4 min read

Christmas is no laughing matter

Christmas is a time that is often quite stressful for many, but nothing worth doing ever came easy. Between untangling the mangled monstrosity of tree lights and the pure mayhem of Christmas dinner, there are moments of joyous magic that keep us looking forward to it every year. So here are a few ‘festive funnies’ to get you into the Christmas spirit!

What do you call Santa if he goes bankrupt?

Saint Nickel-less

Why can nobody buy Rudolph and Blitzen from Santa?

They’re two deer

What do fish sing during the holidays?

Christmas corals

Why did the Grinch go to the bar?

He was looking for some Christmas spirit

Why do Christmas trees live in the past?

Because the present’s beneath them

Why can’t you eat Christmas decorations?

They cause Tinsel-itis

Why is it getting more difficult to buy advent calendars?

Because their days are numbered

I apologise if some of these jokes are a tad corny, but that’s just how eye roll!

Merry Christmas one and all!

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

Christmas is no laughing matter2023-12-01T12:12:40+00:00

Purpose – how to plan…

Purpose – how to plan…

I have shelves of books about financial planning, investing and anything that helps me to improve how I do what I do and how to simplify, explain and address issues that actually matter to you our clients.

One of the lessons that I have learned over the last three decades is that planning for the future is often too far into the future to be meaningful. We all hope to have a rewarding, purposeful and enjoyable life, but thinking about the next thirty years (2052) often feels too distant from the present.

TIME TRAVEL

As I write, it is November 2022, and looking backwards is easier.  Three decades ago (November 1992) is the same distance backwards as it is forwards to 2052. Back in 1992 we had just had the ERM crisis, unemployment was 2.7m, Charles & Diana were still unhappily married. The same time traveller distance back to November 1962 and 007 premiered Dr No and Z-Cars was first aired. The Cuban Missile Crisis had just happened, and The Beatles had just released their first single ‘Love Me Do’.

Suffice to say thirty years is a long time and much changes, though most of it is barely noticed on a day-to-day basis. As humans we tend to have short memories, often having to relearn the same lessons.

The cashflow modelling that we have been using with you since it was available, suffers from the same problem, projecting decades out into the future. Of course, I remind you that “this is a version of the future that almost certainly will not happen, as life is not linear and stuff happens” or something along those lines.

On the one hand I need to extol the rationale, logic and purpose of having a long-term mindset, and on the other I am aware that we really cannot predict anything. The last five years were probably unthinkable to most of us decade ago.

So we focus on the gradual accumulation of small changes that all add up to a better future. Taking advantage of improvements in technology, lower charges and efficiencies. Yet I still find the daily use of pad and paper something that I am unlikely to give up easily. Even holding a printed document is better than a pdf.

Planning ahead for me means considering the year, quarters, weeks and days. I use a planner and despite all the workflows and tech, the planner is really my personal account and guide. This is really a place for my values and aspirations or goals both personally and for the business. The self-accounting enables me to not simply get things done, but to get the important things done… or at least progressed.

Quarterly planning is nothing to do with investment valuations or market conditions, but ensuring you are taking action to progress towards your goals whilst living out your own values consistently and authentically.  Planning with purpose.

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

Purpose – how to plan…2023-12-01T12:12:42+00:00

STORIES IN DISASTERS

TODAY’S BLOG

DISASTERS…

At the risk of sounding a little odd, I admit that I have been interested in the stories of natural and manmade disasters since I was a youngster. It wasn’t a morbid fascination for me; it was a genuine curiosity about the causes of tragic accidents and incidents. I wanted to understand how these catastrophes occurred. I wanted to learn about the ‘anatomy of disaster’

As I got a little older, other aspects of these types of events started to reveal to me how important they are in our collective history.  Time and again we see humanity triumphing over adversity and becoming stronger, better and wiser for it.

In more recent years, I have found that individual stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances have really resonated with me and inspired me. I have read many autobiographies from the survivors of these disasters and often the small details they remember serve to preserve not just the factual history of the event, but the human perception of the experience (it’s always about suffering but often accompanied by hope and joy).

My interest ranges from natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami) through to engineering and technological incidents (so-called ‘manmade’ disasters) – aircraft crashes, bridge collapses, mining cave-ins, explosions on oil rigs.

Very recently I visited the Titanic exhibition at Dock X, Canada Water and was overwhelmed by some of the artefacts on display. Not the big pieces of furniture or the heavy watertight doors from Titanic’s sister ship Olympic (impressive as they were to see!); but the tiny trinket of a victim; the shoes of a small child who had survived; the cuff links of one of the crew; the postcards that had been sent by passengers (such poignancy in the fact that the postcards arrived home, but some of the authors didn’t); the simple jewellery of a third-class woman who had ended up in the water but had been hauled into a lifeboat – she sadly died of hypothermia before the Carpathia was able to reach them.

As excited as I had been to see the exhibits, I was hit by a very illuminating thought as we made our way around the displays … it wasn’t the ‘things’ that fascinated me. It was the ‘stories’.

The personal effects preserved in this and various other exhibitions and museums around the globe are all simple symbols of lived lives and they stand alone – each piece a part of ‘the humanity of disaster’

I continue to read autobiographical work – Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame, Chesley Sullenberger – the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 (the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’) and Violet Jessop (a stewardess on the Titanic) to name a few.

The stories of these lived lives never fail to inspire me and the ‘stories’ of our clients often have the same impact. I love reading the articles written by our clients and showcased in Spotlight (our client magazine) as we learn a little more about what matters to them and the things they care about. Their stories. (By the way – if Jemima has been in contact with you asking you to contribute to our next edition, I would encourage you to share ‘your story’ … each one of us has our own and they are all unique and precious).

As for the Titanic exhibition – it’s running until 20th March 2022 and is well worth a visit.

Debbie Harris
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on our blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to us 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

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The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

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The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

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STORIES IN DISASTERS2023-12-01T12:12:55+00:00

THE CHERRY TREE

TODAY’S BLOG

THE CHERRY TREE

I think it is a Chinese proverb that ask:

When is the best time to plant a cherry tree? Ten Years ago.

When is the second best time to plant a cherry tree? Now

I love proverbs (and old adages … and frankly the odd cliché or two!), but I have often struggled with this particular one.

In my spectacularly naive early twenties, I supposed the proverb to be all about starting young and getting on with it; having goals and taking steps to achieve my objectives and ambitions.  And throughout my twenties I worked incredibly hard at ‘living this truth’.

Following the arrival of my son in my mid-twenties, my career nose-dived; before my beautiful boy was even six months old, I was made redundant. Self-employment followed before taking on a job I loathed (but stuck at for 12 months before acknowledging defeat) and finally ending in a short period of unemployment.

I learned some pretty tough lessons the hard way during those years.  I also learned some pretty awesome things about myself too – that I was up for the challenge; that I was resilient; that I was resourceful – and most importantly that I could reinvent myself and simply start over.

I could plant a cherry tree…

Proverbs to live by

CONSCIOUS THOUGHTFULNESS

It wasn’t so much about the fact that I would have to wait 10 years to taste its fruit; it was that I had actively and consciously with thoughtfulness and determination, set in motion a chain of events that I would relish, savour and enjoy over the coming years (it’s about the journey as much as the destination – well … I did warn you that I like a cliché!).

To me this proverb (as with most of them) means more than just one thing – it can have different meanings for different people and even different meanings for the same person over time.  The cherry tree proverb addresses procrastination, regret, hindsight, patience, a long-term mindset … but most importantly it makes a clear declaration that it is never too late to start!

NEVER TOO LATE

We had the honour recently of welcoming some new clients to the Solomon’s community who were well into their retirement, but recognised that they wanted to plant their cherry tree and it didn’t matter that they may or may not be around to see it bear fruit – just knowing that it will is enough.

We would always encourage people to get financial planning as ‘early’ as possible – so long as ‘leaving it late’ doesn’t become ‘leaving it’.  I will leave you with a final thought – financial planning is not the cherry tree itself – financial planning is the soil …

Debbie Harris
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?

THE CHERRY TREE2023-12-01T12:13:04+00:00

EROTICISM AND FANTASY IN YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN

TODAY’S BLOG

EROTICISM & FANTASY? IS THIS ANOTHER CLICKBAIT TITLE?

Whilst some of you are new to the blog and proper financial planning, many of you are aware that financial planning, when done well, is not really about money. Its about you. Your values, your hopes and your lifestyle.

In 2020 most of us took a battering, a year unlike any we had known. Whilst we greeted 2021 with the relief that 2020 was over, we have come to realise that things are far from normal and that there is much that keeps us living with a deep sense of frustration and perhaps fear. As the UK passed 100,000 covid deaths, we recognise another rather depressing landmark.

The restrictions of the pandemic have not been easy, exposing the pressures in our lives and creating new ones. Whether you are married or single, many have found relationships and normal aspects of life to be under pressures that they never imagined. Working from home has its benefits, but the confinement isn’t always helpful. Perhaps your home is empty, perhaps it is rammed full of people, attention and connection has been ruptured. Not being able to hug or kiss friends and family, to enjoy the normality of human interactions has reminded us of who and what is important.

Eroticism and fantasy

THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN

In February and March we all paid the price of investing with exaggerated market volatility, this was mercifully short-lived. It was also within our financial expectations, these things happen, regularly. The cause may be different, but the impact is not. The Government has been spending and it would seem handing out large sums of money to friends, this will have to be repaid by you and me, but what about the price our relationships have paid?

You may now be thinking to yourself, hang on, a financial planner has nothing to do with my relationships, where is this going? Let me cut to the chase. Money is often cited as a major cause of relationship breakdown. I don’t really believe it is. Not having enough or using it how you would like to can be. However, its deeper and more than that – it’s about your expectations which are a concoction of past experiences (“good” and “bad”) and your hopes for the future fused in the present.

Our hopes have been challenged and many have struggled with a sense of the future, particularly for young people. The magnitude of the stress on our wellbeing is significant. We have had many delights and joys removed and we have had to do the work of imagining, finding, creating and trying new ones. The loss of hope can be overwhelming, devastating, flattening and in many cases final.

REGAINING “EROTICISM AND FANTASY” 

So, I am going to offer you another real challenge. In our culture, we have little or no education about relationships – in all forms. That’s not to say that we aren’t blasted with messages about them, that is constant, but rarely does intimacy in its broadest sense get discussed. Irrespective of whether you are in a relationship or not, have a look at some of the work by Esther Perel (an expert!).Yes, I am even going to suggest you do pay attention to her work on the erotic, (a word neither of us expected me to use in a financial blog!) a term that she uses broadly. In fact I am going to suggest that you invest (I use the word quite deliberately) all of 46 minutes watching her webcast on YouTube “How Eroticism and Fantasy Can Help You Embrace A New Year”. Now there is a title to frighten you right? …

Perhaps to put your mind at ease, Esther playfully uses the term erotic when “creativity” is the word that resonates. Her talk is about life, not about sex. I appreciate that this may evoke mixed feelings within you, but my intention is simply to offer some access to meaningful hope. Hope and optimism are the oxygen of investors and financial planning.

Don’t worry, I am not going to go any further with this, other than to say that if a financial plan is simply about money, it isn’t really your plan, its probably someone else’s. Your plans are unique to you and I know that at the heart of them is relationship and a sense of connectedness. Remember the redemption of Mr Scrooge just a month ago?

With my very best intentions, I challenge/encourage you to watch… If I have overstepped the mark, accept my apologies, if it’s helpful let me know. You need to start the video at 1:30 – it was a livestream broadcast.

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?

EROTICISM AND FANTASY IN YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN2023-12-01T12:13:10+00:00

WE ARE GROWING

TODAY’S BLOG

WE ARE GROWING

Despite the problems with the pandemic, we are continuing with our strategy to grow. It is my ambition to ensure that Solomons can continue to provide insight and advice well past my intended retirement date (which is still many years off). However, I need to grow the business to do so. I look at this as a way of securing our future and yours.

As of this month we have a new trainee – Daniel Liddicott. Dan will be introducing himself to you in due course and we are all being cajoled into providing a helpful bio each for the website. It is my hope that Dan will not simply enjoy a career in financial services but come to love it. To my mind this is all about helping people find some peace of mind and security that is enough to ensure that they have the lifestyle that they want, whilst protecting all that they hold dear from ruin.

Dan is hopefully the first trainee adviser of many more to join us, but once qualified (which will take around 2 years) he will need some clients to work with.

IAN HORNE CITYWIRE

Understanding the value of advice

As a client you are hopefully familiar with what we do, how and why but today I was challenged to share a video by one of our industry media outlets – Citywire. This is a short (well 22 minutes – gulp!) video of Ian Horne traversing the UK, attempting to understand the value of financial advice – talking about money is perhaps one of our last taboos. The challenge from the editor of Cirywire was to share the video – so challenge accepted. Here’s the video

So what can you do?

The truthful answer is that I would really like more clients like you, so if you have any bright ideas about how we might achieve that, I’d love to talk with you. If you have any questions about the video or anything we do or any financial topic, just get in touch – email me (that’s the easiest approach). If you have a friend of colleague that wants or needs some financial advice, well why not start with this video. It’s a bit long, but it’s a start, alternatively just share your own experience.

Some Context

In the video Ian talks about RDR, this came into effect in 2013. However I set up and started Solomons in 1999 on this basis – some time ahead of the majority of advisers, who moved to a transparent system because they had to. Next week we celebrate our 21st birthday – some clients have been with us since the beginning (and in fact before).

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?

WE ARE GROWING2025-01-28T10:08:45+00:00

A TRANSFORMED INVESTOR

TODAY’S BLOG

A TRANSFORMED INVESTOR

I came across this article which may be of some help to you. Dave Goetsch one of the executive producers of the hugely successful “Big Bang Theory”, who wrote a piece for Dimensional, one of our investment partners. This is his experience…

Seeing all the recent headlines about the sudden downturn in the stock market has transported me back to February of 2009, when I was close to despair. It’s striking how different I feel now.

In February 2009, the stock market was down around 50% from its high, and everyone seemed to feel like the sky was falling. I was familiar with this state of panic because my relationship to the financial markets was that I didn’t trust them.

They were always going up and down in ways no one could predict, and I couldn’t trust those folks who said that they could anticipate what was going to happen. So when the market went down, I went down with it—sinking into a depression, knowing there was nothing I could do. What a difference nine years make. I haven’t changed because the stock market rebounded. I changed because I learned that there was a different way to think about investing. I was right not to trust those people who thought they could predict what was going to happen in the markets, but I was wrong in thinking that there was nothing to do. I’ve learned that I can have a great investment experience if I just accept a few simple truths.

DAVE GOETSCH

I have to understand the uncertainty of the market. The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, has returned about 10% per year over the last 90 years, but there are very few individual years in which it has ever actually returned that amount. In fact, how many of those 90 years do you think the S&P 500 was up more than 20% or down more than 20% for that year? The answer is 40. Astounding, right? I wish somebody had explained that to me decades ago. Then I would have known to look at stock market returns in terms of decades—not years, months, days, or hours. I would understand that so many of those articles and cable news pieces are just noise, designed to keep an audience obsessed and unsettled.

I haven’t changed because the stock market rebounded. I changed because I learned that there was a different way to think about investing.

In order to be a long-term investor, you have to have a long time horizon. This can be hard to remember when you’re being assaulted by noise, but if you can stay strong, the results are stunning. By results, I don’t mean the investment returns, which hopefully are good. The return I’m talking about is how I feel every day. I worry less—not just about the future, but also about the present. Of course, I know that there are no guarantees when it comes to investing, but I feel like I’m going to be okay. I have a plan.

There’s no way I could’ve done this without a financial advisor. I needed someone who could not just talk me through what my asset allocation should be, but also help me work through how I felt about investing and what exactly I could do to change my perspective.

I was a mess nine years ago. Now, my outlook is totally different. The markets haven’t changed; they still go up and down. The difference is, I don’t anymore.

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?

A TRANSFORMED INVESTOR2023-12-01T12:13:21+00:00
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