Gibson

Last night I was at the Ulster Hall in Belfast for Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom event.   Plenty of what he said resonated, but one quote in particular has stayed with me.   “I have led a toothless life, he thought. A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was […]

“I used my full pension allowance and paid in £60,000,” said no one, ever. Not down the pub. Not at a dinner party. Not in the golf club. Nobody tops up their ISA and waits for a nod of approval. The things that build wealth and the things people talk about are often two very […]

Sometimes a crap financial decision is worth it. It was 2018 and Lynda wanted an old VW campervan. When I went to collect it, every sensible instinct told me to walk away. I drove home in “Winnie”. Not long afterwards, I took Benjy, our newly adopted scruffy terrier, to Ballycastle for fish and chips. Winnie’s […]

A Tale of Two Couples Two conversations, a fortnight apart, about essentially the same thing. A lady got in touch about her retirement planning. As we talked, it became clear that the household bills, the holidays and the lifestyle they’d built together depended on both her income and her husband’s. But she didn’t want him […]

Never Count Another Man’s Money A new client sat down across from me a few weeks ago. First question: “How do I compare to my peers?” I hear some version of this a lot. We all want to know we’re keeping pace – maybe even a little ahead. There’s an old joke about it: A […]

A story my dad told me early in my career has stayed with me ever since. A woman was standing in a supermarket, looking at two fillet steaks. She picked them up, then put them back. They felt too extravagant. The woman beside her said, quietly: “Buy the steaks. My husband died last month, and […]