Our big questions answered.

“With the demands of my job, as well as family life and the occasional game of golf at the weekend, I never seemed to have any time to review or organise my finances in a meaningful way. And information overload from the newspapers and TV was causing me to worry about making mistakes with our savings.

Pensions seemed extremely complex, I had no real idea how much risk I was taking with my investments, and I was concerned that I was paying too much tax. I also realised that my hectic schedule wasn’t likely to slow down any time soon! 

After my 50th birthday, Maggie suggested now was an ideal time to get to grips with our finances. Over a bottle of wine, we sat down and drew up a list of issues that need tackling. Things like:

• Could we afford the holiday home in France we’d always talked about?
• What’s the best way to help our eldest son through university?
• How should we manage our share portfolio to get the most from it? 
• What would be the cost of long-term care for my mother?
• How well would the family be looked after if I got ill or worse?
• And the big one! When would I be able to retire, and could we afford to do all the things we’d like to do in retirement? 

While it was good to see our concerns down on paper, we still didn’t know how to go about dealing with them in the best way. Then a colleague in the office recommended I speak with the team at Capital Asset Management.

I met with Charles and he explained their planning process. It was different to what I had imagined financial advice to be like. There were no discussions about pensions or investment policies, but rather we discussed the things that mattered most to me and my family. 

He also introduced me to their FutureMap^TM service, which really brought my financial situation to life. A computer simulation even helped me visualise our future in different scenarios. Wow! That was very empowering. 

The analysis showed that I could afford to retire by 58, earlier if I did some paid consulting work for a few years. We could buy the holiday home in a couple of years, and would plan to downsize our main house when the kids left home.

Charles built the strategy, developed a sensible investment approach aligned with our goals, and considered all the ‘what ifs?’ An added bonus was that he was able to reduce our portfolio management costs significantly. 

Now we meet up regularly to update the plan and ensure that we keep on track. It’s a great sense of relief knowing that we have someone we trust looking after our affairs.”