“Money should open doors in your life, not become a door you’re locked behind.”
At 13, I was up early six days a week delivering 30 newspapers per day for £5 per week. That paper round didn’t just teach me the value of money – it taught me that you earn it, you respect it, and you make it work for the life you want. Sixteen years into a career in financial planning, that belief hasn’t changed a bit.
I came into financial planning in 2010, initially as administrative support, and then a paraplanner before qualifying as an adviser in 2016. What drew me in and keeps me here is straightforward: the heart of the job is helping people. Whether it’s retirement planning, investment strategy, or Inheritance Tax planning, my role is to understand what genuinely matters to you – your family, your goals, your peace of mind – and build a plan that serves those things.
Two moments have stayed with me. A woman in her early 60s who’d lost her husband to a terminal illness and found herself on her own for the first time in 40 years. Getting her to a place of genuine security and calm was one of the most meaningful things I’ve done in this job. And then there’s the man who hated his daily commute to London and didn’t believe he could afford to retire – until we showed him he could. A few months later, he sent us a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo with a gorilla in the background – a lifelong dream of his. That’s what financial planning should look like.
I put listening at the top of my list of skills. Not everyone finds it easy to share what’s really going on – their worries, their health, their family pressures. Good financial advice depends on getting the full picture, even the bits that are hard to talk about.
Early in my career, I worked somewhere that didn’t always encourage the right thing. When I was asked to recommend an insurance product that paid us more commission but cost the client more, I didn’t do it. That felt straightforward to me – but it also shaped the kind of adviser I’ve become.
Outside of work, I’m a professionally qualified chef and I love cooking for friends and family. I live near the sea in Hampshire with my fiancée, follow football, and spend as much time as I can outdoors.
