Gibson

Met a new client last week.

Thirty years at the same factory. Same desk, same commute, same chat with the same workmates in the break room.

For most of those thirty years, he drip-fed into his company’s employee share purchase scheme. Over 4,000 shares in Seagate Technologies, accumulated a few pounds at a time.

Last year, the holding was worth $300,000.

Today, it’s worth over $3,000,000.

Life-changing money.

The plan had always been to retire in a few years. But his employer won’t entertain part-time, so he’s pulling the pin now.

Affordability isn’t in question. His lifestyle is modest. The numbers work, comfortably.

His real concern is the concentration. One stock. One company. Seagate could march on to $1,000 a share – and another couple of million wouldn’t change a single thing in his life. It could equally fall back to $80 – and that would change everything.

So the coming weeks will be spent liquidating tax-efficiently and diversifying. That’s the technical bit.

The harder bit is:

What are you actually going to do with your time?

He’ll miss the banter. He’ll miss having a reason to set an alarm. He’ll miss a Tuesday feeling different from a Thursday.

Picture a random Wednesday, twelve months from now. The alarm goes off (if you’ve even set one). What are you doing? Who are you seeing? What are you looking forward to?

That’s the hardest part to think through…

Enough money in the bank to sleep at night. Enough purpose in the diary to get up in the morning.

The first is what people hire us for. The second is what they actually need.