Do you wish you had met me 10 years ago?

Hindsight is a beautiful thing.  Clients often say “I wish I had met you 10 years ago - my life would be completely different.” No, they didn’t mean it from a romantic perspective but instead, they come to realise how different their financial health would be compared to present day. Looking back over the last 30 or so years, I too would have made changes knowing what I know now. I’m certainly not perfect and I’ve used mistakes made in the past as learning points to take myself forward for self improvement. 

Here are some of my learnings along the way:

Understanding what money can let you do - My mum and dad have always encouraged me to save and not spend recklessly but I never quite understood why and what it was all for.  When they said “David, make sure you save for your future”, the future seemed like a distant destination and I didn’t quite get why they kept reminding me, other than I kind of knew it is better to have money than no money. Nevertheless, I was diligent and saved a portion of my earnings.

Money has different meanings to different people; it could be a goal for them to hit for personal satisfaction, the chance to explore new avenues or perhaps a sense of security and independence.  Personally speaking, I find it provides options in life; and my financial awareness has ultimately allowed me to follow what I love doing for a living; helping others with their finances and futures.  This is something I truly value. Despite being relatively comfortable (financially speaking) knowing this, I would have evaluated my spending with a bit more care as the earlier I started saving, the more options it opens for me later in life. 

Not saving more earlier in life - This is probably the thing I hear the most from clients and friends alike and I’d say 95% of us are guilty of this.  I certainly am. Saving early just makes your life so much easier and stress free later on. If you were asked to scale a mountain would you rather climb a sheer rock face with no experience or walk a slow and steady incline?

We all have a goal of wanting to retire with no financial worries but it can take time to really recognise this.  The more money we have when we are older, the less financial stress we have but living for now and spending money when you have it is so easy to do.  So why waste your 20’s and 30’s not saving and end up stressing yourself out in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and possibly your 90’s worrying about it?  Now I look back at it, it’s a no brainer to save when I was young - whilst I did manage to save I know in my heart of hearts that it’s not enough so I wish I had done more.  

Meaningless spending - Whilst I have managed to avoid the draw of Instagram and the “picture perfect” lives portrayed on it with luxuries and lavish lifestyles, I was still a victim of wanting to look “cool” in my youth.  As a result, I spent a significant amount of money on a flashy car, fancy watches and clothes all too early. When I look back, I just don’t see the value that it brought to my life.  

The sports car that I bought not only cost me thousands of pounds in initial outlay, but maintenance, servicing, increased fuel and insurance costs and thousands of pounds in depreciation.  Financially, I could afford it, but it brought no meaningful value to my life so it’s a purchase I regret. This also applies to the designer clothes, electronic equipment other junk I’ve bought. 

I look back and think “what if I had put all that money aside and put it towards buying a property, or maybe my own future”. The opportunity cost of meaningless spending is much bigger than I thought - it could have been an additional property in my portfolio, or perhaps a travel fund for my retirement. 

Not being patient enough - Everyone loves the idea of making a 10% gain over the weekend or perhaps a 50% return over 3 months.  However, investing in shares that I didn’t set my stop losses on and didn’t monitor closely enough cost me a lot of money.  Getting greedy and not taking profits when I had them has also cost me dearly. I got sucked into day trading and got a high from making quick profits but in reality wasn’t anything more than gambling - I ended up losing a fair amount as a result.

Taking a longer term view would have saved and made me a lot of money instead of trying to get the thrills and returns from short term trading.

Looking back, I should have been more patient with my investments.  Buy and hold instead of buy and sell for a quick profit. However, the silver lining is that losing money has helped build the stability I have today - the bitter taste of losses gave me the real understanding of my risk appetite and why.  

Not insuring myself earlier - I never really understood and appreciated how important insurance was until my early 30s.  Little did I know that I was, in effect, gambling with my health and future by not getting myself protected.  Getting married and realising that I was not just responsible for myself anymore really brought that to light and everything changed.  

Rolling the dice on not buying insurance is gambling with not only your finances, but the finances of your loved ones.

I rolled the dice and I was fortunate that nothing serious happened to me in my younger years.  Whilst getting married was a trigger point for me, there was no reason to wait for this. However, age, experience and hearing people’s stories of how they have been impacted by the unexpected makes me appreciate how lucky I was.  If I had started earlier, not only would I have been protected earlier and not run the risk, financially speaking I would have saved myself thousands on premiums in the long run; money which could have been put towards building my other goals.