David & Elaine – The Case of ‘Mr & Mrs Do It Yourself’

David and Elaine were retired and struggling to live off the income from their capital.

After allowing for various pension incomes, they felt very dependent on the income from their savings and investments. If interest rates went up they spent more. If interest rates went down they spent less.

Over the years they had accumulated various managed funds and a few shares. Mostly bought off the money pages of the Sunday papers and mainly from leading investment houses who tempted them with promises of high returns. So they invested more money every year.

The trouble was, knowing when to buy investments is one thing, but knowing when to sell is another.  So David & Elaine had gradually built for themselves a portfolio that they didn’t really understand – but of course they were too proud to admit it.

Worse. Every weekend saw both David and Elaine stressing over the immense amount of direct mail received from their various investment providers – and all the time worrying over the money articles in the Sunday papers.

Then the markets went down.

David & Elaine were worried.

So a close friend referred them to Endorphin Wealth.

We met with David and Elaine, and after spending some time getting to know them; their interests, their hobbies and their lifestyle requirements we then analysed their position. We looked at all of their various investments and their income situation.

More important, by talking to David and Elaine about what they enjoyed, we got David & Elaine to stop thinking about their ‘income’ for a while and instead really thinking about their expenditure requirements and how much they would LIKE to spend to give them the life they wanted.

We then ‘crunched their Number’.

Here’s what we found.

 

 

Option 1:

David & Elaine could keep doing what they were doing.  Living off interest and dividends, forever fearful of market movements over which they had no control, forever afraid to dip into their savings, just in case. Forever going without. Forever cutting back.

Or they could consider: –

Option 2:

They could ask themselves “What’s most important?”  To constantly worry about such matters, or to consider the option of looking at their assets in a different way, and instead planning to live their life with the INTENTION of spending their liquid capital in their lifetime, leaving their home and personal effects to their children when they eventually died.  After all, even their children were saying that they “wish Mum and Dad would spend it!”

We helped David & Elaine understand what their financial future really looked like, and just how little return they needed on their investments to ensure their money lasted their lifetime.  David & Elaine then understood they could actually spend more, yet take LESS risk with their investments – and in the process consolidate and simplify their portfolio to reduce fees, not to mention relieve themselves of immense complexity.

For David & Elaine, their money suddenly made sense.

More important, David & Elaine got their life back.  No more stressing over the money pages in newspapers.  Instead more fun!  More eating out, more holidays, more treats for the grandchildren.

Five years on, they continue to meet with us where we continue to help them monitor their Number and manage their wealth to give them the life they want.

For David & Elaine it was a very rewarding experience, providing them with a better lifestyle, less risk, more security and a lot more peace of mind.