“We call it the sleep at night factor – that’s what good financial planning delivers.”
I spent my first 20 years as an accountant – doing the books that, as I used to say, only the tax man ever looked at. It paid well, but it wasn’t rewarding. Two early clients changed that. The first was a colleague I’d known as an accountant, who was deeply unhappy in her job following a company takeover. When I looked at her finances, I realised she could afford to retire at 58. When I visited her a year later as her adviser, she looked a decade younger – she’d joined a choir, an art club, a book club, and was back on her mountain bike. The second was a low earner paying well over £200 a month on insurance policies he simply didn’t need. I cancelled them, replaced them with £37 of essential cover, and more than doubled his monthly spending money. Those two moments showed me the profound difference this work can make and I’ve never looked back.
I came into finance through accountancy, securing a sponsored degree in Sheffield at 17 and going on to work in the City of London. It was there I first encountered financial advice as a profession – and realised it would suit me far better than a back-office accounting role. I’ve since built a career spanning pensions, investments and property, and I joined Mattioli Woods earlier this year, bringing that breadth of experience to a 100% client-facing role.
My approach is straightforward: find out what people want, find out what they need, and help them get there. Not just financial goals – life goals. We can’t help someone trek the Pyrenees for six weeks, but we can put them in a position where they’re financially capable of doing it. I believe in the long-term view and I work hard to help clients hold their nerve when markets move – because the graph, historically, is always upwards. I also work at both ends of the age spectrum, from helping younger clients get a foothold on the housing ladder to making sure those approaching or in retirement have nothing to fear from whatever life brings next. We call that the sleep at night factor. It’s what I’m working towards for every client I advise.
Outside of work, I’ve always been driven by active sport – it’s kept me going since the age of five. These days, I fit in tennis and squash when I can, and once a year I manage a week’s skiing with cousins and friends. I also play guitar, though I’ll be honest and say my ambition to progress beyond three chords has been on hold for some time. Retirement, perhaps. I grew up on sport, classic films and music, and I’m content with that.
If you’d like to work with an adviser who genuinely measures success by the difference he makes to people’s lives, I’d be very happy to have a conversation.
