rockwealth Cheltenham’s growing team explains why success in finance and fitness starts with knowing where you are heading.
On the climbs above Cheltenham, progress is hard to spot. The hill that left you breathless a month ago simply feels a little easier. Nothing dramatic happens; the work just quietly pays off.
The team at rockwealth in Cheltenham believe financial progress looks much the same. And two of the people making that case have the fitness credentials to back it up.
Jordan Kontarines spent 21 years teaching PE before becoming rockwealth’s head of advisory growth. To him, the parallel is obvious: a realistic goal, a workable plan and the patience to see it through, whether the aim is a lower resting heart rate or a comfortable retirement. The people who chase quick results, he adds, tend to be the ones who get injured.
Jordan Kontarines (Image: rockwealth)
rockwealth is a UK network of financial planners, now 20 offices strong and advising on around £1bn of clients’ money. Jordan says the growth is being driven by clients themselves. ‘More and more people want planning built around their lives, not around products,’ he says. Each office is run locally by advisers who know the area, with the expertise of the whole network behind them.
The approach rests on three ideas. Every plan begins with cashflow forecasting, mapping where a client wants to get to before a penny is invested. Fees are fixed, so clients know exactly what they will pay. And investing is low cost and evidence-based, grounded in decades of academic research rather than predictions.
On the investing side, Jordan reaches for language any athlete would recognise. Diversify, and hold your nerve. ‘Don’t put all your financial olives in one bowl,’ he says, a nod to his Greek heritage. And when markets wobble and the urge to bail-out takes over? ‘Your adviser is there to coach you, to stop you doing silly things at silly times.’
He offers one more piece of coaching wisdom, and it applies equally in the gym and in a portfolio: don’t test yourself every day. Check your fitness daily and you will be disappointed; there are a hundred reasons why any single session goes badly. Check your investments daily and the same is true. ‘Day to day you will see dips,’ Jordan says. ‘Over the long term, you see returns. Trust the process.’
Rob Barnett (Image: rockwealth)
In Cheltenham, the network’s growth has a local face. Rob Barnett, recently appointed as an associate financial planner as the office expands, was born in the town and grew up in nearby Tewkesbury. He has been back in the area since his early twenties and has no plans to leave. He knows more than most about training, dedication and patience: Rob has run the London Marathon in 2:35:54, a time that puts him among the fastest amateur runners in the country. Mountain biking is a close second. ‘I do sometimes run up Leckhampton Hill and Cleeve Hill,’ he says. ‘I ride up there as well, and over to the cycle tracks in the Forest of Dean. Living in the Cotswolds gives me plenty of variation.’
His route into advice was not a straight line. He retrained in his mid-thirties, moving from a risk role at a building society into paraplanning and then into advice. He had followed rockwealth for years, drawn to its investment philosophy and its fixed fees, before a speculative email eventually led to a call from head office. ‘It seems an old school approach still works,’ he says.
The work he does now turns on the questions that keep people awake: whether the pension is on track, when retirement might realistically start, whether the sums add up for the house move or for helping the children through university. Different lives, same underlying need: a goal, and a route to it.
(Image: Mindy Sabiston)
‘I want people to have a goal and a clear idea of how to reach it,’ Rob says. ‘Talking about money can be difficult. I want clients to feel confident that the plan set out for them is the right one to achieve the lifestyle they want.’
That confidence is the point. Not beating the market, finding next year’s winning fund or chasing the latest financial trend, but understanding where you are today, where you want to get to and what needs to happen in between. In that respect, financial planning has far more in common with training for a marathon than most people realise.
Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to run 26.2 miles that afternoon. Progress comes from setting a goal, following a plan, making sensible adjustments along the way and staying committed when results are not immediately visible.
The same principles apply to money. Building financial security rarely comes from dramatic decisions or perfect market timing. More often, it comes from consistent habits, disciplined investing and the patience to let a well-constructed plan do its job. Just as a runner trusts their training programme and a coach helps them stay focused when motivation dips, a financial planner provides guidance through the inevitable ups and downs.
Whether the goal is retirement, helping children onto the property ladder or simply having more confidence about the future, success is usually the result of steady progress rather than sudden breakthroughs. Getting financially fit, it turns out, works much the same way as getting physically fit.
If you would like a conversation about your financial future, the rockwealth team would be glad to hear from you.
rockwealth
3 Imperial Square, Cheltenham, GL50 1QB
01242 505505
rock-wealth.co.uk