It’s my birthday today!  When I was a kid the celebration of the day of my birth was about parties and presents (my favourite present over the years were the set of Tomytronic 3d games which were ‘state of the art’ at the time).  However I find nowadays my birthday provide me with an opportunity to both look back and review the previous year and look forward to an exciting year to come.

Looking back it’s been an incredible year with the main highlight being the birth of my second daughter Sophie in late November.  I didn’t know how as a family we were going to cope (after all it’s been 7 years since my eldest daughter Charlotte was born).  However like most families we did and Sophie is happy, healthy and developing well.  Whilst there have been challenges (including sleepless nights…and currently teething troubles!) they have seemed to make us both stronger and closer as a family.

From the businesses perspective, we’ve worked hard to ensure that we continue to improve the service we provide to our clients, built some great professional connections and developed both our knowledge and skills to ensure we can continue to provide a great service

We’ve also learnt a lot and the people I have engaged with both online and offline (including fellow financial planners and non-financial individuals and companies who have openly and generously provide us with the benefit of their experiences) has been invaluable in allowing us to develop our practice and provide an insight into the changes other companies and financial planning practices have made which we can learn from.  Whilst there are too many to list on this blog entry, I’m sure you know who you are…..thank you!

So, looking forward….what will next year hold?  Whilst I’ve got some ambitious plans both personally and professionally the most exciting aspect is the unknown!  However one thing I know for sure….I’ll continue to learn from the challenges and continue to enjoy the achievements!