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A Plan for Life

At the well-attended March meeting of the Burton Business Club at the Branston Golf Club, Derek Liddle Club Chairman reminded members that he would be standing down after his 2 year stint at the helm. Contrary to popular local media speculation, he expects to continue his involvement with the Club for the foreseeable future.  Also he announced that this was going to be the last meeting at Branston Golf Club.  From now on, the meetings will be held at the Newton Park Hotel.

Derek then introduced Steve Mason of Clear Solutions and Tax Management Ltd. He would be asking some perhaps uncomfortable questions about business planning, tax and retirement in his presentation entitle “A Plan For Life”.

Steve Mason started his presentation by expressing his amazement at the fact that whilst most business owners know where their business is going but they don’t ask themselves WHY it is going in that particular direction.  Many such people have clear personal goals when they start their business but then get wrapped up in running their business thereby effectively becoming like another employee instead of the business working for them.   Business owners like many in the room, should ask themselves questions such as: “When do I want to retire?”  What lifestyle do I want after retirement?”  and “How will the business carry on after I am retired?”

Steve then proceeded to outline how they could plan their retirement strategy to the members.  He quipped: “Having raised a pot of money throughout your working life, putting money in the bank is sure way of guaranteeing that your capital diminishes year on year in real terms”.  He went on to say that with retirement planning, the common misconception is that the pension plan is the most important part of retirement planning.  For many business owners, this is definitely not true.  For example, if you put £10,000 per year into cash ISA’s for 22 years, the magic of compound interest will likely make a savings pot of £1 million.  So the earlier you start saving in cash ISA’s, the more likely you are to achieve this landmark figure.  What’s more he said, it’s tax free!

Steve outlined the elements of a well balanced investment portfolio to give a tax efficient income at retirement.  He debunked one myth by saying: “I believe it is a mug’s game to try and time the market.  By far the biggest investors in the stock market are institutions.  I am humble enough to say that they know at least as much as I do about the economy and the other factors that drive the Market.  In order to gain from the stock market you need to do the opposite from what many people believe they should do (and go on to do)”.  To illustrate, he quoted the famous financial investment guru, Warren Buffett: “You need to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.” 

The Club chairman, Derek Liddle warmly thanked Steve for his excellent presentation on a very complicated subject and quipped that he wished that he still had time to go through his plan with such an expert IFA.  Derek then said that he hoped that Lorraine Holden will receive the same support as he has during his tenure as Chairma. He then rounded off the meeting by reminding members that this is the last meeting to be held at Branston Golf Club.  The next meeting is the AGM on 13th April and will be held at The Newton Park Hotel at Newton Solney.