Mid-to-late-30s

Luke and Natalia were married and had highly paid jobs in the City. Luke was a 39-year-old Australian and was employed as a technology manager; Natalia, who was 35 and originally from Poland, worked in marketing.

The couple had recently had their first child and Natalia was returning to work after nine months’ maternity leave. They hoped to have three more children over the next few years and wanted to have a financial plan for their growing family.

Both Luke and Natalia were developing professional interest outside of their main employment. Luke was also a tennis coach and had started a sideline business with a friend to deliver a fitness app for the National Health Service. Natalia was keen to build her own consultancy firm.

Their aim was to buy properties in London, Poland and Australia so they could share the experience of bringing up their children with their families.

The challenge

Luke and Natalia were looking for a greater sense of clarity about the lives they were planning to build together, and the reassurance of knowing that their objectives were realistic.

They wanted to pay for their children to go to private school and university. Luke wanted his side business to become his main business and needed an idea of what profits he it would have post to achieve their preferred lifestyle. His aim was to retire at 50.

Natalia wanted to know if she could leave her salaried job and become a self-employed event organiser and marketing consultant.

They had £1.6m of assets net of liabilities and a gross annual income of £270,000. They had in mind a budget for property purchases around £1.9 m million — £1 million in London, £400,000 in Poland and £500,000 in Australia. 

Luke and Natalia wanted to put a timeline against all of this, and if they needed to stay in their current jobs for now, they were willing to do so.

The approach

The first step was to clarify Like and Natalia’s aims and to prepare for a range of “what-if” scenarios through lifetime cash flow modelling.

This enabled them, with the help of their planner, to develop an appropriate financial strategy to sustain their chosen lifestyle. 

When they first looked at the plan, there was a high probability that they would not achieve their goals. However, after producing business plans for the health tech and consultancy businesses, things looked much more achievable with modest revenue and growth assumptions. 

This gave Luke and Natalia a high degree of confidence that the lives they wished for were indeed realistic.

The result

As a result of working with their planner, Luke and Natalia each had a workable business plan. They also had a project plan for building their property portfolio, albeit with a longer time-scale than they had originally envisaged.

The clarity and peace of mind this gave them enable them to plan for the future with purpose and confidence.

IMPORTANT

Please note, Second Life Financial Planning provides expert financial guidance, not regulated financial advice. We refer clients requiring advice on specific financial products to firms, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, that share our evidence-based investment philosophy.