Fiscal Thought

The best decisions I have ever made were emotional ones, not logical. That’s not to say they didn’t have other hidden costs, mind you. As a financial planner, I can’t deny that I work with money for money. It motivates me. Excites me. Why else would I do this? The capitalist, selfish part of me unashamedly wants to make more money, yet the altruistic part of me simultaneously wants to make my clients wealthier for their own personal reasons. But why – and more importantly, what – is your why?

Where is your ‘here’? How did you get here and where, realistically, can I help you propel your future self to? Roughly how much money are you going to require for that intrepid journey? Equally important, what are your values, your goals and ambitions, and what sort of legacy do you want to leave behind for your beneficiaries?

​Funnily enough, what drives your motivation is the same old emotions that drive the markets: ​greed and fear, carrot and stick. They either repel you away from bitter suffering or attract you towards some kind of sweet prize. Risk is a dangerous blade that carves your appetite's boundaries, defining the very limits of your comfort zones. Get it wrong and she is a cruel, sadistic teacher.

I have no right to tell you what to do with your money if I don’t understand you and your journey. I grew up in a generally comfortable middle class family in the 80s and 90s and was blessed to dine at a Beefeater restaurant a couple of times a year for special occasions. I was handed down my mother’s Ford Fiesta as my first car, circa 1994. Mum was a primary school teacher, and dad was a structural engineer who built superstores.

One of the few times I have ever seen him weep was during the early 90s recession, when I came down to breakfast one school morning and he announced that he had been made redundant and that this would affect our lifestyle for the foreseeable future. Desire and an innate ambition gave me a hunger for freedom and tasting the finer experiences in life, forging my own attitude to money.

How did you make your wealth? Are you ‘old money or self-made? What was your first meaningful encounter with money? What does money really mean to you? What if your family home was repossessed when you were a teenager because your father’s business failed? How could that person’s relationship with money ever be a normal one? Financial damage can inflict deep emotional wounds.  

That type of pain and humiliation can create a subsequent need to impress, that is the  best example of the drive inside the most  motivated and some of the wealthiest self-made individuals I have ever worked with. It is, however, an itch that it seems can never properly be scratched.

what drives your motivation is the same old emotions that drive the markets: greed and fear, carrot and stick."

On one level, money is a megaphone; an amplifier of one's ego. The higher you climb and the wealthier you become, the greater the obstacles that you will manifest. Mo' money,  mo’ problems… life will always test you like that. You make plans, God laughs. If you were a rotter before you were rich then a leopard doesn’t change its’ spots now that you have made a few quid. Maybe you will have to lose it all and rebuild yourself from scratch to humble and purify yourself. I won’t pretend I  know how the universe works, but curveballs are guaranteed.

Money is both a tool and an energy - it will increase your options beyond just shiny materialistic stuff. It opens doors and will get you recognition, upgrades, nicer shoes, a slicker motor, a bigger house, a different social group, private education, free gifts (ironically), even a more attractive partner if that’s what you feel you need. But however wealthy you are, there will always be someone richer than you: fact. You won’t even have heard of the richest families because they don’t want you to know about them. True wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants. Who is the rich man? He who is content.

So, what’s the takeaway? Our strapline is ‘Create, grow and preserve your wealth'. Save for the future, but also live in the now because, more than ever, we never know what the future holds. Discipline: ensure that you are insured, protected and invested appropriately for your preferred future self for your own personal reasons. Tax sucks, but it's not always an expensive problem to resolve. I do a lot of tax planning by accident almost. Work smart, but rather than working yourself to exhaustion, make your money do  the hard work for you. 

​The only people that understand what money can’t do are people who have it. People who don’t have it believe that it can do things that it cannot. The most rewarding thing I do is show you how to best use the money you have accumulated to live the life you want. I explain how you can make the logical decisions so that you can make those important emotional ones yourself.

Crystal Wealth Management Limited is an appointed representative of The On-Line Partnership Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The value of units can fall as well as rise, and you may not get back all of your original investment. Tax Planning Advice is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.