Tom Stevenson
We all make big choices all the time, some people love to research a subject and come to a decision. Others can be put off by too many options and they need a helping hand to point them in the right direction.
Lloyd
I think one of the big turning points for me was to make a choice to change careers and it was about enjoyment, it was about fulfilment from that I wasn't getting in my, my current work. So I had to make the sacrifice of going back to university for a year and having made that, that choice, that sacrifice, I entered what turned out to be a very lucrative career. So it was a, a very happy one.
Abbie
The most recent uh choice, big choice has been me not going back to work, um but I definitely think it's right choice, I think it's the right thing to do um ...
Sam
I think it's definitely the right choice
Abbie
Yeah, right at the moment.
Sam
Yeah.
Abbie
And we know, we've worked it out, we worked out that we could live with me not going back to work.
Sam
We do sit down and we assess absolutely everything, don't we?
Abbie
Yeah though we, we have a spreadsheet. [LAUGHS]
Sam
Yeah we do, yes we have a spreadsheet but the point of that is though, it's to know that we're being sensible with our money, but also to know that we have this amount of money to do with what we want and to go on a holiday or Una's grown another three inches and we need to go and buy a whole new wardrobe for her.
Susan
Life is definitely about choices it doesn't have to be big decisions, every single day we make choices in life.
Susan
What money comes to being in a family and making that kind of choice, I've only had to come to it in my 40s because my husband made most of those decisions. You have to be very proactive when you find yourself in the situation I find myself.
Kristina
I'm quite a decisive person you can see this in my everyday job, I'm a project manager, I have to make these snap judgments to ensure that my clients have the best experience possible. When it comes to my money I can be decisive but that's based on the research that I've done and the knowledge that I have. There are a lot of choices out there when it comes to investing, so I understand it can be quite daunting to people who are new to investing. There are tools that I used um at the start of my investment journey such as the risk calculator, so that helped me figure out how risky do I want to go with my investment products.
Lloyd
When I retired I realized that I did need to invest in order to get a good return but I know nothing or very little about stock markets, so I never uh felt that was going to take control purely personally and pick stocks and shares, but luckily there are companies out there that will guide you through the process of investing. I don't have to spend any time ... actively managing my investments, I do make choices, there are tools online which guide me in, in making those choices, and once made I, I'm quite happy to leave that side of my finances well alone.
Jeremy
Personally I, I simply don't have time to manage my savings myself, I want to place my savings with a company who has my confident and I feel happy that they're going to do a decent job for me. That's all I want.
Amber
And I think both of us have tried to limit the choice we make about saving by setting up direct debits because it sort of..., it removes the choice and you know you don't even notice it going out.
Jamie
It's as if you never had the money in the first place, so you can't miss what you've never had.
Amber
But I suppose we try and get information about investments from the news, reading the FT and reading sort of fund literature on platform websites.
Jamie
Yeah and from one another when one of us has read something that we think, oh that's a..., that's an interesting opportunity we'll, we'll have a chat about it and then probably do some more research together, look online, speak to other friends.
Kristina
The way that I decide what fund that I invest in is primarily based on what is the fund manager investing in, and also how they invest it. So if their method makes sense to me and it's simple, it's straightforward and I can understand it, I'm more comfortable using their products over other funds where it's not necessarily explained very well or I just don't understand it. I try to make sure that it's spread across different industries and countries as well, not too thinly across different areas because otherwise you don't see enough of the return because you've got too many pots of money going. But then not too focused in certain areas because that means if there was a problem in that country or in that industry it means you've got all your eggs in one basket.
Lloyd
Looking back at, at choices we've made over lives, I guess early on the choices were guided by financial concerns very much. So changing careers for example and by making those choices earlier on, later in life we find that we have more flexibility ab..., about the choices we make, they're not so much focused on the finance, it's more about what we're enjoying in life.
Jeremy
Yeah so sensible prudent choices earlier on uh mean that we're able to make um slightly more fun choices now.
Susan
Making choices for me I find most times daunting, but there's a positive because definitely you feel empowered that you could actually make good choices that you see flourish.
Tom Stevenson
On the face of it investing is full of choices, which assets, which countries to invest in, which ways to invest. However, it's up to you how involved you want to be. You can pick your own investments, but you don't have to. A good fund will split your money across a range of companies, assets and regions, so that you can leave the specific choices to an expert.
But don't think that making lots of decisions is what it takes to be a good investor, you can be just as successful by creating a simple plan and sticking to it.
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