The six months that changed how I think about money
For nearly six months, I had no income.
The bills didn't pause. Rent, food, phone, insurance premiums, the small things you never notice until you're counting them. I remember doing the maths and realising how few months of runway I actually had, after years of thinking I was reasonably sensible with money.
Nothing catastrophic happened to me. That's the part that stuck. I wasn't hit by illness or an accident. Life just got quiet for a while, and it was still enough to shake me.
What I kept thinking about was: what if I'd had two young kids? A mortgage? A parent to support? What if it hadn't been temporary?
Why I moved into financial planning
When I started meeting people properly, I found the same thing again and again.
Almost everyone had something. A policy bought when they started work. A savings plan set up before marriage. An investment someone recommended once. Very few could tell me what those things actually did.
And almost nobody had gone back to check. Their salary had doubled. They'd had children. They'd started a business. But the plan was still the one they bought at 26, sized for a life they no longer lived.
That's the gap. Not that people don't care — but that nobody sat down with them again after the paperwork was signed.
How I work
I ask a lot of questions before I say anything.
I want to know what keeps you up at night, what you'd protect first, what you want your children to have, and what you'd never give up in the meantime. Then I look at what you already own and tell you the truth about it — including when the answer is "this is fine, leave it alone."
I want you to spend money on the life you're living now. Holidays, dinners, the piano lessons. That only feels good when you know the other part is handled.
Where I am
I've been advising for two years. I'm honest about that — some advisers have been at this since before I finished school.
What I can promise is that I'll do the work. I'll read your policies line by line. I'll come back to you when something changes. And I'll never recommend something I wouldn't put my own family into.
Most of my clients came to me because someone they trust sent them. I intend to keep it that way.
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