Yellowtail

18/06/2024

🤔 When did you last review your financial contracts? 🤔

Well, most of us don’t like overpaying, or feeling under protected, or being in the dark about our finances.

So why don’t we pay more attention?

This is a question Sarah puts to Dennis Hall on our latest episode of The Century Plan.

With over 35 years in financial services, Dennis has all too often come across people seeking his help with finances that are detrimentally affected due to lack of review.

🔺 Old with-profits bonds set up in good faith delivering shockingly poor returns.

🔺 Life assurance contracts with overly high premiums.

🔺 Pension plans invested in sub-optimal default funds

🔺 Investments subject to charges which significantly reduce their long-term growth.

Each time we finish recording an episode, I think, wow, people really need to listen to this. There’s an important message here. And this episode is no exception.

We receive annual alerts from our car and home insurance providers when the plan is due for renewal, but our life assurances and savings plans tend to run in the background. The direct debit leaving our account each month, quietly minding its own business.

But what if you’re paying £50pm more than you need to? Over a 10 year period that’s £6,000 which could have been used elsewhere.

We won’t go into all the details here as you can listen to the podcast for that. And we hope it raises some awareness on the importance of regular reviews.

Listen to the podcast here: https://link.chtbl.com/XQMSr_VZ

17/06/2024

😊 Thank you Tommy Perkins at Medics Money 😊

To receive feedback like this from a podcast professional is humbling, and it makes the hard work worthwhile.

And our aim IS to bring high quality financial education to as many listeners as we can.

As Dennis Hall says, we are just getting into our stride.

Link to our podcast, The Century Plan here: https://link.chtbl.com/XQMSr_VZ

15/06/2024

🔮 How can we tell if you'll achieve your retirement goals? 🔮

Well, what we don’t have is a crystal ball.

But we do use a set of tools to determine whether or not you're on track to achieve the outcomes you want.

One of these is cashflow modelling.

This is a sophisticated piece of software our planners use (alongside years of experience) to look at where you are now, where you want to be, and how your wealth may change over time.

At Yellowtail we use cashflow modelling to plot a line from now until age 100 (and if you listen to our podcast The Century Plan you’ll know why we use that number) to work out whether you're on track.

Along the way we can plot planned life changes like:

➡ Moving home

➡ Children going to university

➡ Career changes

➡ Anticipated retirement dates

We can also produce iterations which account for more impactful unexpected events. The "what-if" scenarios:

🔴 Loss of a job

🔴 Long-term illness

🔴 Death of a partner

🔴 Market downturns

And if you’re not on course now, we can discuss what levers we need to pull to improve your outlook.

And then we use other tools like evidence based investing to bring the plan to life.

In season 2, episode 1 of The Century Plan, Dennis Hall and Sarah Steele cover cashflow modelling in more detail. And as one listener told us, it does a great job of explaining how financial planning works and why it is so important.

Scan the QR code for the podcast, otherwise you can find it here: https://link.chtbl.com/XQMSr_VZ

Yellowtail Financial Planning is an award winning firm of financial planners, with specific experien

19/10/2023

🔥 Burning question 🔥

Should we be holding our nerve?

Sarah asks Dennis for his thoughts on the latest episode of The Century Plan.

In times of economic downturn, it can be hard to keep the faith and stick to a long-term financial plan.

High interest rates, even higher inflation, geopolitical issues and media doom-mongering can test the steadiest of nerves. Why wouldn’t we rush to move our money into a guaranteed rate savings account until things look better?

Dennis delves into our current economic situation and explains how data, history, and his personal experience of previous crashes, continue to support the long term view.

Link to listen in the comments below 🎧

Yellowtail Financial Planning is an award-winning independent firm looking after the financial affairs of individuals and families.

26/06/2023

This👇 from a valued listener really sums up what we're trying to achieve on The Century Plan.

Provoking thought about retirement planning. And provoking action.

It's never too late to start, and Yellowtail Financial Planning's Dennis Hall does a great job at explaining how.

There's a link in the comments to listen to the podcast 🎧

22/05/2023

Far be it from us to criticise anyone for burying their heads in the sand!

We're guilty of it on many levels. We can always find something more important to do than the slightly scary, pressing grown-up matters we ought to be dealing with.

But it never leads to better outcomes. It's hard to think of a time where ignoring something or putting it off improved the situation.

So, the same applies with our financial planning. The clue is in the title. It doesn't work if we don't plan ahead. The longer we leave it, the harder it is to achieve our financial goals.

Much of our problem, with any of these things, is not knowing where to start. Which is why we took things back to basics on our latest episode of The Century Plan and discussed just that. Where do I start? Who do I speak to? What do I need to do?

And it turns out it's all relatively simple, and not scary at all 😌

10/05/2023

Where do I start??? 🤔

Thinking about financial planning can make some of us feel like sticking our heads in the sand. But the longer we leave it the bigger the challenge becomes.

On The Century Plan, we’ve talked about the philosophy, the history and the science behind why we need to focus on our financial future, but in episode 8 we’ve taken things back to basics.

In what Dennis Hall likens to a job interview, I question him on the value of planning, when's the best time to start, if it's ever too late and, which has the edge, ISAs or pensions?

We found the answers incredibly helpful. We hope you do too.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/73nCqUkY2L5fCWElwGvW9y?si=ntBOVSbNTju7UJL2SJ2ckQ

04/05/2023

Imagine you’re sitting down with a financial planner...

How do you feel?

Curious? Anxious? Comfortable? Uncomfortable?

Not all of us feel happy talking about our finances - being clear about what we want to achieve, our dreams for the future and any worries we may have along the way.

But we do need to be open to get the best from our time with a financial planner. To provide the background on what shapes our visions and values.

In episode 7 of The Century Plan, Dennis Hall opens up about his own vulnerabilities and illustrates how admitting to them can help his clients achieve better outcomes.

If you'd like to know what those vulnerabilities are you'll find a link in the comments below 👇

24/04/2023

Episode 6 is here 🎧

In this one, we talk about economic forecasting, and why Dennis Hall thinks it's all a load of tosh. (Using some very compelling facts and statistics to explain why).

Mystic Meg comes up during out chat, and we name check one of our regular listeners. Could it be you???

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HROE9Pg5ximB7sEk7hQSo?si=rjppYmMuSEuaZhVL2ftcPA

11/04/2023

Scams (and scammers) are becoming ever more sophisticated.

In episode 5 of The Century Plan, Dennis Hall, takes us through some real-life examples to help us all be more scam-aware.

We may think it won't happen to us, but we live in a world where we're spinning plates, and reacting quickly. We have so much to do.

And this creates the perfect environment for the scammers to succeed.

Find out more by listening. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1eaVnfAHTzVONaqVK4yZeF

02/04/2023

Travelling this Easter holiday?

Need something enlightening, entertaining and educational to listen to?

Look no further than The Century Plan podcast.

Chartered Financial Planner, Dennis Hall, covers longevity, risk, simplicity, scams and more.

https://open.spotify.com/show/6EGgVVkvCKlAinGv5DsRpI

01/04/2023

Episode 5 of our podcast, The Century Plan, has been released.

Scams, phishing, spoofing. The many ways we are at risk of losing our money. As fraudsters become more and more sophisticated we need to be aware of the tricks.

If scam-aware Dennis Hall can be fooled (entertaining and revealing anecdote in the podcast) it really does highlight how careful we need to be.

Listen in for some helpful advice and real-life examples to strengthen your scam-antenna!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1eaVnfAHTzVONaqVK4yZeF