I am a creature of habit. Sorry that is simply a fact and there is no escaping it, you can set your watch by me and I am probably the most boring individual you could ever meet.
Over the last few months, however, my life has been hell and I was even on tablets to calm me down, actually my beloved has just admitted they were mints, but they worked well for her as one of my many boring habits is eating too much garlic!
How can I begin to tell you just how my Pavlov world has been shaken? Well, here we go, I woke early and switched on the TV and my morning friend, Eamon Holmes of Sky News, had gone on holiday I couldn’t cope. I go downstairs and switch on the radio, 94.7 of course, and Nick has gone, I can’t cope. I open the kitchen door and the two new GIANT Black Russian Terrier puppies attack me, it’s a bad day!
Cleaning up after puppies in the kitchen, each morning, is obviously my new calling, the beloved one says it’s good for me. Why, I dare not ask, she is an Aussie and attacks on command.
I drive to the gate and the extremely reliable remote now takes at least two minutes to get its act together, despite some highly technical slamming against the steering wheel, well it works for the TV remote!
With four children, two puppies, one cat and four fish, no Eamon or Nick and a dodgy remote you can see that I need my drugs, sorry breath fresheners!
Weekends are a blur of crying, tantrums, accidents in the garden and fights over the remote, but less about me, the kids are even worse. Someone once asked me, do you love children? I said of course, But I couldn’t finish a whole one in a single sitting!
Seriously though I love the children and all the creatures in my house, even at times the antipodeans and Red Army Dogs, but I need my boring mundane normality, I am a creature of habit!
But I digress, what I am trying to tell you, in my own illiterate way, is that things are not always what people think they are. Boring is best, check the small print before you buy, you would never buy a house without visiting it, so don’t make any other major investment without reading the contract, or application form, front to back at least three times!
You see I would find that interesting, I keep insurance company application forms in the loo and next to my bed for light reading, but many people hate forms and therefore don’t read them properly. Consequently they lose money in things they never intended to buy in the first place.
Being as boring as me can help, you must always check out the people you are investing with and read all the small print. If that is not your thing then get and advisor who will do it for you!
Finally, the FSP (Financial Services Provider) numbers, now being issued by the FSB, are pushing through 40,000. It is good to know that there are so many of us out there, but what is not so great to know is that our average age is apparently now 59 and climbing!
The biggest issue being faced in the advisory business today is succession planning, well with an average age of 59 that is not surprising is it? When the new regulations allow the institutions to cut off brokers without a pension, after giving anything up to 40 years of hard work, that is seriously bad news for the public as well as the brokers.
The industry needs advisors and it needs independent advisors more than any other variety. They offer choice to the public and they challenge the industry in many positive ways. We must protect the right of the investor to receive independent advice and at the risk of sounding even more boring than ever, we need to fight to ensure any future legislation acknowledges that!