When you think of a Royal Marine, you might imagine someone crawling through mud, abseiling off a cliff or patrolling the desert. Someone who’s dealing with emergencies all over the world, pushing themselves to the limit and putting themselves in harm’s way.
A far cry from a career in finance, you might say. So it may seem strange to swap such an action-packed life for something much more sedate.
But that’s exactly what I did. So why did I make the transition and does this background make me a good planner?!
How did I find my way into the profession?
After almost a decade in the Royal Marines, I joined Devon-based practice Medical & General in April 2020, but my love for finance began back in 2017 when I started listening to finance podcasts during my daily commute.
Initially, I hoped the podcasts would inspire me to get my own finances sorted. I was leaving the Royal Marines due to a hip injury and wanted to know how to manage my pension and protection needs going forward. But two years and hundreds of podcasts later, I decided to make a career move towards helping others on their financial journeys too.
What sparked this? Well, there was one particular podcast interview where the host asked the adviser what the most rewarding moment of his job was for him.
He said it was when he put the correct financial protection in place for someone and they needed to claim it not long after because their spouse had suffered from a critical illness. The difference it made to their family was clear. I thought ‘That’s quite a rewarding thing to have done,’ it really moved me.
What makes a Royal Marine well suited to financial advice?
It’s common for Royal Marines to bounce around from job to job every couple of years. I covered several high-profile roles, from commanding a troop in Afghanistan, to leading a team patrolling the Gulf to prevent piracy.
I think the diverse nature of my former profession is helping me in my new career.
There are a lot of transferable skills. In my previous role I spent a lot of time listening to and managing people to help them reach their potential. This can come in useful when you’re trying to support people along their financial journey.
Listening skills aren’t just about what people are telling you – you have to identify the things they aren’t being said too.
Money is a very emotionally driven tool. It can affect people’s wellbeing, health and happiness. Many people turn to advisers not because they want to think about money more, but rather they want to think about it less.
It’s about picking up subtle clues and piecing seemingly unrelated elements together to create a picture of their wealth, challenges and aspirations for life in general.
Finding the perfect balance
As a financial adviser, there’s of course a need to find the perfect balance between helping clients in an emotional sense versus focusing primarily on the numbers.
I’ve spoken to people who have complex emotional attitudes to money. For example, someone whose been given an inheritance from their grandmother, but they don’t want to spend it frivolously - they feel like it’s still her money. They want to make it work and have nice retirement or buy a nice house.
But what I’ve found is that some clients benefit from a numbers-focused approach.
By talking purely about the facts and figures, you can show people how worthwhile a certain financial decision can be. Someone might be cautious about investing, but when you compare how their savings are likely to perform in the long term, versus how investments are likely to perform, it becomes easier for them to make that decision.
For me it’s about responding to each client in a highly personalised way and helping to create peace of mind for them, whether they’re looking for a mortgage, financial plan or have protection needs.
Any adviser can tell people where to put their money, but for me it’s about so much more – it’s about finding out what the person wants to do with it, whether it’s for their retirement, for school fees or for a year-long cruise.
And contrary to what many people think, it’s not all about telling people to save money – it’s about helping them to spend it in a way they feel comfortable with. That’s the bit I love most.