I have been really looking forward to bringing you my interview with our financial advisor. Or to use the correct terminology, Independent Financial Advisor, or IFA for short. IFAs rightly place great importance on their independent status in not being tied to a limited range of financial products and yet it is wider than that. I have already blogged about the importance of some kind of financial/life planning and here I talk to Jon Cobb, our very own IFA.
As an Independent Financial Advisor, what mistakes do you see people making as they approach retirement?
Well Doug, the biggest mistake is leaving it too late! And although it’s a cliché, but ‘failing to plan is panning to fail!’ and there are plenty of people who approach retirement with no idea whether the pension they have accumulated has any possibility of achieving the income they require or desire.
I think it’s a mistake not to sit down with a Financial planner who has the tools to produce cash flow projections and the expertise in the pension options available to be able to give you a clear picture of what retirement will look like for you. This is such a life changing decision, why would you not seek the help of a professional?
So you’re a Christian. How does this guide your work?
I wouldn’t go as far to say that God guides me to pick this investment over another, and as a mere mortal there are investment decisions which I have made which latterly I have regretted. We cannot get it right all the time. However, I think my faith helps me to see my clients (and hopefully everyone else) as God sees them and I know that he loves each and every one of us and wants the best for us. This is what I endeavour to do.
I am very fortunate that all eleven members of staff are Christians and that produces a very special working environment. In the past couple of years we have had some difficult personal health matters for some of the staff and I have been humbled the way the staff have rallied round each other.
In just a few lines, can you summarise your career?
I started work in the city at age 18 and my first wage was £2,424 p/a! If I had achieved three A levels it would have been £200 more! I worked for an insurance broker until I was aged 32 when my current business partner asked me if I would like to work with him in personal finance. He is a very prophetic individual and there’s quite a story that goes with the move but when you talk about my Christian faith, this career move was definitely a ‘calling.’ There have been times when I wished I had been deaf to it, but overall it’s been a great industry to work in.
That was 24 years ago. We set up Trinity Wealth Management together in 2001 and then in 2015 we bought into a wonderful business called SWOC in Ware, Hertfordshire. We decided to keep the two firms separate but they are both financial planning firms and I love working at both of them.
Are you planning to retire yourself? If so, what will you get up to?
I am still happy in my work so I still don’t plan to fully retire from working in financial services until 65 but I would want to still do something in the community which was making a difference in peoples lives. I haven’t decided what that will be but I think it is very important to remain active and retirees have so much experience to offer, that when I become one I don’t want that experience to be wasting away on a beach or by a pool.
Having said that, my one treat would be to go fishing once a week with my mate Paul!
What advice do you wish someone had given to you when you were much younger?
Hindsight’s a wonderful thing! There are things that I don’t necessarily believe would be good advice in 2019 but back in 1980 certainly would have been such as ‘commit every penny you can to getting on the property ladder and get the biggest house you can afford’
But other ones which spring to mind are:
‘Don’t fall in love with a football team, and waste countless amounts of money following them round the country, they will ultimately let you down’
‘Be honest with your compatriot when you drink your first pint and tell him if you don’t like the taste!’
‘Start running, because if you take it up when you are in your forties it’s going to be a lot harder to ever do a sub four hour marathon!
Jon is a Director in Trinity Wealth Management. Here’s their sitewebsite in case you’d like to know a little more about them. He might look a bit of a suave smoothie in the photo but actually he’s alright, honest he is. And no, there’s no commission or favours for me publishing this interview with our financial advisor and I hope it will be ‘food for thought’ for some.
I have also had the privilege of having been running with Jon; we once did the St Albans Half Marathon together and had quite a few training runs with each other. An all round ‘good egg’.