Living life to the full
Chris’s story
I first met Jon when I was working as a head teacher. He was speaking at Head’s conference and afterwards offered a free consultation. This came at a time when my wife Jane and I were considering our financial future, so the timing was perfect.
Jon ticked all the boxes: he was easy to talk to, he listened very carefully and didn’t impose himself in any way. We quickly developed a feeling of trust, which is absolutely critical when you’re talking about very personal things.
What had worried us previously about speaking to a financial adviser was that we aren’t money savvy, but Jon spoke to us in a language we understood. He immediately appreciated our situation, but he didn’t push us in one particular direction – he gently presented options and helped us make decisions for ourselves.
First of all, the financial planning was about making sure we could maximise what we had for the future. The first thing Jon did was encourage us to save regularly and we were amazed by how quickly that amount accrued. He introduced us to key phrases such as “If you need to borrow money, borrow it from yourself”, which I understand now because if you’re paying bank charges then you’re on a losing streak straight away, but if you can borrow from yourself, it’s a different matter altogether.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Jon was particularly helpful with retirement planning. He assured us, quite boldly, that by the time we were a year into our retirement, we’d be mortgage free. And he was absolutely right! We made sure that Jane’s pension was set up properly, and suddenly, after a relatively short period of time, we had a financial cushion, which was immensely comforting.
We also took his advice about when to retire and what would be the best way to use our pensions.
Jon also understands our family situation. We have three children and we were concerned about how much our daughter’s wedding would cost, but he showed us in layman’s terms what was, and what wasn’t possible, which gave us the confidence we needed to move forward.
HONEST AND TRUSTWORTHY
Some financial advisers give the whole profession a very bad name. In fact we’ve used advisers in the past who have been quite aggressive, pushy, and flashy. Jon was completely different to this.
He was very honest with us after we retired and said we didn’t need to pay him anymore, but that if we needed him, he’d be on the end of the phone and we could pay him on a one-off basis.
We’ve since contacted him half a dozen times, and offered to pay him, but he hasn’t charged us a penny, which is a further example of his honesty and generosity of spirit.
REALISING OUR DREAM
The last time we contacted Jon it was about whether we could achieve our dream of owning a VW camper van. We thought we were being extravagant, but he said we should do it! He said that we’d worked hard for so long, that we should enjoy the ‘fruits of our labours’! So we did and it’s brought us so much pleasure. Without Jon’s handholding, we wouldn’t have taken that particular step.
Jon is totally trustworthy, honest and very clear. He’s immensely knowledgeable but he’s fun as well. Smarter Financial Planning have helped us immensely over the years and we’re indebted to Jon and his sensitive advice.