Month: October 2015

As you can imagine, we’re asked a lot of questions by clients. We are, of course, here to answer them, but it pays to be prepared! Here then are the two questions we’re asked most often, so that, if you haven’t answered them already, you can start to think about how the answer might work for you.

When can I stop work?

Deciding on a retirement date can, initially, be mainly an emotional choice. You might just feel ready to stop working, or always have had an age in mind where you no longer wanted to have to go into the office every day.

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In our blog post last month, we talked about the need to look ‘beyond the numbers’, to look at what mattered to you and how financial planning is a different activity than merely organising your finances in the most appropriate and tax efficient way.

This month, we wanted to take those ideas forward a few steps and explore them a little further.

Take money as a starting point. Money is normally accepted as the driver of all things. Indeed, we are ‘financial’ planners and we help our clients with money matters.

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I am old enough to remember the first crop of state sell-offs under the Thatcher government in the early 1980s. Actually, I am sufficiently old to remember the de-nationalisation of the steel
industry, but that’s another story. Now, under the first proper Conservative administration for eighteen years, it seems we are returning to the age of “tell Sid”, for those who remember the campaign to encourage us to buy shares in British Gas. Lloyds Bank shares are to be made available to private investors, with smaller potential buyers being prioritised. Popular capitalism may be on its way back.

Market Comment 6th October

For current clients and partners of Brunel, you’re likely to already be well aware that financial planning is not all about the numbers. For anyone new to ourselves and financial planning, however, it’s always worthwhile to revisit just what we do and how it differs from merely being ‘money organisation’.

Financial planning is designed to go ‘beyond the numbers’ to discover what it really is that you want the numbers (and, of course, money) to do for you. The important thing for us (and you) is to know where you want your money to take you.
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