Cassie looked at me over her desk and smiled…

“I’ve had an email from Ruth” she said.

“Okay” I said confused…clearly an email from a client isn’t anything particularly notable so I was surprised by Cassie’s wry smile as she told me what the email said.

You see we’d worked for Ruth for some time. 

When we first started working with Ruth we worked out (using the tools we use as financial planners) that, based on her lifestyle and using a bunch of assumptions, she’d never run out of money again.

Ruth trusts us to manage her portfolio effectively, highlighting where we could utilise tax allowances and reviewing her circumstances regularly. 

However part of the conversation I’ve been having with Ruth since the day she started to work with us, and the question I ask every time we get together is…

“Why don’t you spend more?”

You see as Ruth is single with no dependents there’s not going to be anyone reliant on the wealth she built throughout her working life. She always saved and has the peace of mind (in part through our partnership with Ruth) of knowing she’ll never run out of money.

However there’s a few goals Ruth wants to achieve. A few things on her ‘bucket list’ she’d love to tick off, and I believe part of my job is to support Ruth with the confidence and peace of mind to tick some of the goals she’d like to achieve.

Now, interestingly Ruth, having saved all her life, would probably admit that by nature she’s quite frugal and there’s clearly nothing wrong with managing money carefully.

However if we agree that money doesn’t make us happy, but can be a tool to both provide security and achieve the goals you want in your life…then it’s also important to ensure that we use the wealth we built to live the lives we want. 

It’s why it’s so important to me to provide reassurance to our clients that they can actually spend more money than they’re used to…which brings me back to Ruth’s email. It started like this…

“I know that Chris has been talking to me for a few years now about how I could potentially spend more money if I wanted to. I’m ready to do that…and want to talk this through with Chris.

There’s a few trips I want to make, a few things I’d like to do and a few improvements I want to make to my home a little more comfortable.

Can I book a meeting please?”

Cassie told me about the email…and my response was “absolutely…I’d love to help Ruth with this”.

For me one of the greatest privileges of my role as a financial planner is not only that people trust me to help them to make these decisions but also when with my support I’m able to help people to achieve goals important to them. It’s a responsibility and a privilege I take seriously.

So, is there ever a right time for clients to spend money as part of a financial plan. Absolutely! I look forward to helping Ruth and my clients like her to do this in the right way for a long time to come.