The Salt Path – lost and found

There is a new film The Salt Path based on the book by Raynor Winn about her own story. In essence, it’s a couple that loses everything, and I really mean everything, and decide rather impulsively to go hiking as a way to clear their heads. In an interview, Ray talks of the walk being a line and a map for them to follow step-by-step, having lost everything and recognising that the way through had to be one which was a planned route.

We quickly discover that this is an impulsive decision, not well thought through; in fact it’s hard to think it even vaguely wise given the physical shape that her husband Moth is in – walking with great difficulty due to a condition diagnosed (in the same week as being made homeless) as corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which I understand to be a Parkinsons-related illness impacting movement and cognition. Not ideal when walking a coastal path with unforgiving sheer, steep drops.

To call it a walk isn’t really accurate, it’s a 630 mile hike, with all their meagre worldly possessions carried in rucksacks or worn. It’s an endurance, though I am pleased to say that the story is not.  Rather, it’s uplifting and revels in the human spirit and our ability to endure hardship. Set in the familiar beautiful scenery of the West Coast, they walk along the coastline from Minehead to Poole, funded only by a few pounds in benefits that they receive.

Together we face some of the reactions to them as a homeless couple, often with a great deal of kindness exposed. I haven’t read the book, and the film is naturally an adaptation with heightened dramatic impact, but it seems as though they also lack any friends willing to help, which may not be accurate (I don’t know).

I wondered why and how they managed to lose everything (their home, money and possessions) and it would appear that they invested in a friend’s business which failed and their assets were seized by creditors. Clearly there is another story there, but it is something that I have been asked about numerous times … “I have a friend who has asked me to invest in their business, what do you think?”.

As a business owner myself, I can assure you that it looks easier than it is. The failure rate is exceedingly high and whilst there may be a sense of ‘self determination’, there is an awful lot that is simply beyond your control. Geopolitics, pandemics, recessions, technology, competition, legislation, climate crisis, social trends, economic reality all batter the best of businesses. Perhaps investing in a friend or family member’s business is a great idea, maybe they are the next Bill Gates (hopefully not the next Elon Musk). So perhaps some pointers…

1. Can you afford to lose all the investment?
2. How much of your overall wealth would be exposed? Would this scupper your own security if it fails?
3. How would your relationship cope with ongoing involvement, failure or success?
4. Are you an active investor (regularly involved with the operational decisions) or passive? And if the latter, is that really code for “I don’t know what I’m doing”?
5. What experience do you bring that can assist, beyond capital?
6. Have you understood the risk? Have you checked past and current performance of the business? Do you really believe in the future projections or are these hopeful guesses wrapped in a spreadsheet?

Most of us are not venture capitalists, which is what investing in your friend’s business means. However, a professional VC looks at hundreds of businesses each year and considers the risk/reward very carefully indeed. The Government must incentivise most of us to consider any form of VC investment – with 30% or 50% tax relief and the promise of tax-free gains (in controlled investment solutions like VCTs, EIS and SEIS). These are regarded as suitable investments for probably no more than 1% of investors (according to our regulator, the FCA).

Whatever Ray and Moth invested in, I am confident that it would not have passed muster with any decent financial planner, and a compliance person somewhere would be screaming that they hadn’t had their appetite for risk or capacity for loss properly tested and explored. I understand these concerns, but of course the irony being that even having lost everything, their capacity for loss was not exhausted, they found a way through, it was not ‘the end’. Today, they would be classified as ‘vulnerable clients’ due to illness and experience, yet vulnerability as humans is how we learn most about ourselves and each other.

Ray and Moth rediscover a purpose and the value of life and their relationship. I don’t know if they learned any lessons about investment, other than to avoid it. The film is charming and life-affirming with a couple of familiar good actors – Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.

Financial planning is meant to be about helping you verbalise and clarify your values and goals, setting out the life that you want in your remaining years. We provide the pathway to help you assess the viability of them and how we might make things easier, less arduous and less taxing; minimising risks whilst ensuring you never suffer total financial loss.

Should you feel inspired to buy her books with a link here to Penguin, and here is the new film from Black Bear.