Experience of a Lifetime

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Experience of a lifetime

Well, here we are in December. The world remains in a state of anxiety about a plethora of challenges and even here in Britain, many are suffering from the weather conditions which make for a difficult Christmas.

Christmas reminds me of many things, the nagging feeling that Christmas seems to have arrived quickly and that time is moving along all too rapidly. Whilst many are struggling simply to find shelter this Christmas, much like the central characters in the nativity story, I am reminded how harsh life can be for many people and how quickly circumstances can change. 2015 has certainly had more than its share of crisis and disaster.

Whilst our media and deep mid-Winter are full of bleakness, I remain thankful that I live in the relative safety of Britain, despite all our problems. Yet I am also reminded that life is indeed short and there are still many places that I’d like to see and things I wish to “witness”. Apart from the usual trappings, the Christmas break is also an opportunity to reflect on the coming year, for many this will include planning your next holiday, perhaps one from your bucket list?

Trip of a Lifetime

One of my clients runs a boutique travel business and it occurred to me that there are a number of similarities in what we do. There are certainly lots of questions about where you want to go and importantly an independent mindset that is able to put together suitable great experience. What I had not appreciated was that it actually costs the same amount whether you use the expertise or not. I have certainly used the web to book holidays in the past, spending hours, trawling through endless options, but simply had not appreciated that someone else could do this for me, an expert, and it wouldn’t cost any more!

Mercator Travel have several brands which they use to focus their expertise on specific regions of the world. For example, south or central America is currently a great destination for those seeking something memorable and rather different. If you are anything like me, I have forgotten what I gave and received last Christmas, yet I never forget holiday experiences.

As a boutique business, they place great emphasis on creating a wonderful experience and getting all the little details right. Apart from ensuring that your trip is planned perfectly, the business is built around providing a top drawer service, with the aim, like every good business of creating a great reputation and clients that return. So if you are considering a great trip in 2016 may I suggest that you check out a couple of their websites.

Just in case you think there’s something in it for me – there isn’t. I am interested in helping all of our clients, profiling those that run small independent businesses and of course those wishing to get more from life with a lot less hassle. Do give them a call on 01932 424252.

Postcards from the Edge…

Financial planning isn’t meant to be dull, its about your life and helping you to figure out what you want from it. This is often difficult for most people to verbalise, there’s something within our British-ness that makes most of us reluctant to express this. How you spend and give your money is one of our freedoms and invariably for the vast majority there is often an unspoken connection of shared experiences and a sense of purpose just beneath the surface. There is little point in building up wealth if you don’t get to use it.

One of my peers shared an idea with me that he finds works well with his clients. He asks them to send him a postcard from wherever they have been. He displays these in a book in his reception. The idea being that there is a huge variety of clients and the places they visit yet all share the freedom to enjoy some of the money that they have worked hard to save. He gets lots saying “enjoying spending the inheritance… pension” or whatever. The point being that financial planning when done well brings the freedom to make empowered financial decisions – many of them are a lot of fun. So perhaps I will ask you to do this in 2016 as well.

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 [email protected]

Experience of a LifetimeDominic2025-01-28T14:35:49+00:00

Where does the time go?

Where does all the time go?

It’s the holiday season. All being well in a couple of days I will be poolside, reflecting on the year so far and what I still need to do, (being a couple of things that readily come to mind) and no doubt I will wonder, yet again “where does all the time go?”

Holidays are a little like landmarks in time. My daughters often use holidays as a reminder for helping us recall when other things happened, for example, a recent question about our aging cat (who went to move in with the neighbours when the dog arrived) was answered by recalling where we were and what else was going on when we picked him up… all referenced by our family holiday of that year.

So this week I will be reflecting on the a small milestone. It will be 16 years since I formally received permission from the regulator to open the doors at Solomons. Sixteen years. It seems that I have endured rather longer than the regulator, which is in its third revision or Doctor Who like regeneration in the same period.

Taking Stock

I hope that this doesn’t sound twee, but I really enjoy helping my clients. I love real stories and helping clients plot new ones – or rather the life that they want in the future. Of course I don’t make it happen – they (you) do that. However I have the opportunity to prompt thought, vision and help clarify it, occasionally acting as a type of permission-giver due to being able to demonstrate what would happen if…

That’s what I love about financial planning. Like most people, I find financial products rather dull and invariably remain sceptical and suspicious of the wider workings of the financial services industry, which resulted in the formation of the company and the business model of transparent charges and a “level playing-field” approach.

It is with some degree of surprise that I read my trade press suggesting a further 22% of advisers will close within the next year because more changes to commission are coming or feared. The change being that it will be turned off…. yet this is what we did 16 years ago.

Woodstock …. or out in the Wilderness

At the weekend I attended “Wilderness” a festival held in Oxfordshire. It was my first visit (its fifth year) and having been to quite a number of different festivals over the years, it was interesting to experience the evidently more affluent middle-class approach. I was struck by the irony of it being located near Woodstock and connotations with the east-coast American hippy counter-culture festival started in 1969 of the same name. What was once counter-cultural has become both “fashionable” and highly commoditized over the last 46 years. Sadly I missed the V&A museum’s take on this observation, which is true of many, if not all festivals, not simply Wilderness, who have by far the best on-site food (I admit to indulging in a superb banquet fit for a King at the Hix on-site restaurant and the odd glass of champagne at the Lauren-Perrier orangery) all of which you won’t find at your typical summer festival. Nobody dared mention the phrase champagne socialism too loudly.

Anyway, one of the talks/seminars I attended was called “State of the Nation” hosted by Jolyon Rubinstein which raised questions about business, stock markets and economics. Despite festival attire, many of those attending are probably the sort of people (of all ages) that seek out financial advice, yet few seemed to really appreciate how much financial services eeks out of their wealth in charges…. something that I hope is evidently clear to our clients and why I set out 16 years ago to be transparent and use low-cost investing techniques. I guess it is good that finally others are waking up to better understanding of economics, wealth and planning. As many festival revellers seemed to come from the London area, perhaps rethinking or dare I say even re-imagining financial planning resides within striking distance of Wimbledon…. and we’ve been walking the talk – living it for some time.

What Wilderness has done is to break into the imagination of those more right of centre, higher earners, who are also desperately aware of the unfairness of the “system” and have found some comfort in various, albeit expensive forms of alternative…. a sure sign for hope.

Do share this with your friends..

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

Where does the time go?Dominic2025-01-28T14:35:50+00:00

A Matter of Life and Death

A matter of life and death

It is one of the strangest aspects of conversations that I have with clients. It gets stranger and perhaps more difficult the older they become. We have to talk about a matter of life and death.

In essence, when all is said and done, financial planning is about trying to ensure that your money does not run out before you die. So we need to have a conversation about when that might be. We don’t know the answer. Death is a daily part of life, yet something that most of us manage to avoid talking about.

The motivation behind the question is obviously to attempt to make money last long enough, however it is also designed to prompt thoughts about what is life about, what do you want from it during this brief sojourn on this wonderful planet?

Thoughts may turn too quickly to estate planning and reducing inheritance tax, rather than considering the true inheritance that is being left…. the memory and impact of .. well…you!

I might (will) point to the financial impact of your loss to those dependant upon you, be they family or your business, but we all know that its much bigger and deeper than that don’t we. So good financial planning can take care of financial loss, but great financial planning will hopefully remind and inspire you to ensure that you make the most of the life you have now.

Another way to view death – acceptance

A dear friend of mine, who has had more than her fair share of grief drew my attention to this short video about death (and life). It combines images from various films and words of Alan Watts. It is worth taking the 3 minutes to watch it.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

A Matter of Life and DeathDominic2025-01-28T09:57:00+00:00

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