Gibson Financial Planning

17/06/2026

A story my dad told me early in my career has stayed with me ever since.

A woman was standing in a supermarket, looking at two fillet steaks. She picked them up, then put them back. They felt too extravagant.

The woman beside her said, quietly:
"Buy the steaks. My husband died last month, and I'd give anything to share one more meal with him."

I found myself thinking about that story again recently after meeting with Josie.

Josie's husband had passed away almost a year earlier. Understandably, she hadn't felt ready to deal with the financial side of things until now. When she finally came to see me, we were able to get everything organised fairly quickly.

As she was leaving she told me she wished they had spent more of their money making memories together while they still had the chance.

Not long afterwards, Josie decided to cash in her investments. Her plan wasn't to buy more possessions or leave the money sitting in a bank account. She wanted to spend it on experiences with her daughter and grandchildren while she could enjoy them together.

It's a sentiment I hear a lot from clients in their seventies and beyond.

Very few people look back and wish they'd spent more time waiting for the perfect moment. Many wish they'd taken the trip, booked the meal, celebrated the occasion, or simply made more time for the people they love.

The reality is that none of us knows how much time we have.

That's why good financial planning isn't just about preparing for the future - it's equally important to make sure you're enjoying life today.

Because sometimes, the memories you make with the people you love are worth more than the money sitting in an account.

Buy the steaks.

And on that note, I’m off to Spain tomorrow with the family and my bicycle 😊

11/06/2026

Remember Bill from a few weeks ago with the stock windfall?

We met again a few days ago to run through his financial plan. I started by confirming his net worth - £4.8 million.

He couldn't believe it. He'd never added it all up before.

His chosen lifestyle costs £60,000 a year. All but £200k of his net worth is investable - liquid, accessible, no hassle. A tax return once a year, easily handled by an accountant for a few hundred pounds.

I showed him on the screen that he was never going to run out of money.

He took it in for a moment. Then the questions started.

✅ What if I doubled the gifts to my brothers and sister? Done. Instantly modelled. No material impact on his lifetime cash flow.

✅ What if my house is destroyed and insurance doesn't cover it? No problem.

✅ What if I spend the last 30 years of my life in an expensive care home? Modelled. Still fine.

✅ What if I lose the head in a couple of years and buy a Ferrari? Added. Easily covered.

✅ What if I need emergency surgery and have to pay for it privately? There's £100k set aside for exactly that.

One by one, he threw his worst fears at the plan. One by one, they bounced off.

That's someone stress-testing his own freedom for the first time. He needed to break it before he could trust it.

He sat back.

"That's my head sorted. I'm going to be ok. Let's go."

Then, on his way out, he said something that summed it all up.

"I can head back into work now knowing I can jack it in any time I want."

That's not a number on a screen. He’s not retired but he’s free.

That's what financial planning is for.

03/06/2026

18/05/2026

Client story: Early retirement after stock windfall

Met a new client last week.

Thirty years at the same factory. Same desk, same commute, same chat with the same workmates in the break room.
For most of those thirty years, he drip-fed into his company's employee share purchase scheme. Over 4,000 shares in Seagate Technologies, accumulated a few pounds at a time.

Last year, the holding was worth $300,000.

Today, it's worth over $3,000,000.

Life-changing money.

The plan had always been to retire in a few years. But his employer won't entertain part-time, so he's pulling the pin now.

Affordability isn't in question. His lifestyle is modest. The numbers work, comfortably.
His real concern is the concentration. One stock. One company. Seagate could march on to $1,000 a share - and another couple of million wouldn't change a single thing in his life. It could equally fall back to $80 - and that would change everything.
So the coming weeks will be spent liquidating tax-efficiently and diversifying. That's the technical bit.

The harder bit is:

What are you actually going to do with your time?

He'll miss the banter. He'll miss having a reason to set an alarm. He'll miss a Tuesday feeling different from a Thursday.

Picture a random Wednesday, twelve months from now. The alarm goes off (if you've even set one). What are you doing? Who are you seeing? What are you looking forward to?

That's the hardest part to think through...

Enough money in the bank to sleep at night. Enough purpose in the diary to get up in the morning.

The first is what people hire us for. The second is what they actually need.

30/04/2026

Sorting Nails Into Boxes

At the weekend I took my first motorbike trip since 2018. I caught the boat to Scotland, then rode along the Queensway through the Galloway Forest, over towards Hexham, and then followed the Pennines down into the Lake District to meet an old friend. Gorgeous roads, great weather - time to explore and take in the scenery.

On the crossing over, though, I ended up sat near two retired couples, clearly old pals heading off for a long weekend together. At one point the wives went up to fetch coffee. The moment they were out of earshot, one of the husbands leaned across to the other and said, "I'm so bored."

He used to read the papers every morning, he said. He doesn't anymore. He couldn't tell his friend a single thing he'd done with his day, only that somehow he'd had no time to do it. Then he mentioned that the previous evening he'd gone out to his old work van and spent it sorting his tools and his nails into separate boxes.

That was Saturday.

By Sunday I'd heard that another good friend, recently retired and six months into a world trip, had decided to cut the travel short and take on a full-time role. He told me he was hugely excited about it - couldn't wait to start.

And last week, a client I'd been with - retired from his main career - told me about the part-time job he’d taken on. Not for the money. He tapped the side of his head: it was good for his mental health to be around people, and to feel he was contributing something of value.

Three different men. Three very different decisions. One thread running through them.
We tend to talk about retirement as a destination - the moment the work stops and the freedom begins. For some clients, that's exactly how it plays out. For many others, it's more complicated. The money side can be solved on a spreadsheet. The harder question is what fills the days, who you spend them with, and where your sense of purpose is going to come from.

It's the question I find myself asking more and more in client meetings, because I think it's the one that matters most. Financial independence gives you the option not to work. It doesn't tell you what to do instead.

If you're approaching that transition - or you're in it and finding it less straightforward than you'd hoped - it's worth talking through. A good plan should account for the life you actually want to live, not just the income that funds it.

22/04/2026

Two meetings last week stood out for me.

The first was with a couple we've worked with for 13 years.

When he first walked into our office, he had his sleeves rolled up, tie loose and looking utterly stressed. He hated his job. But it was cushy. Fantastic pension. Hard to walk away from.

We ran the numbers. Worked out what needed to happen to give him a safety net - the freedom to change career without the fear.

He did it.

He's just turned 60. Loves what he does. Has no desire to retire, although contractually he'll have to step back in five years. That's a good problem to have.

The second meeting was with a couple who are five years out from retirement. Last year, cancer arrived…

Yesterday's meeting was one of the most rewarding I've had in a long time. Not because of anything clever we'd done with their money. But because financial worry wasn't part of the conversation. She's in no rush to go back to work. There's no pressure. They can put her health first - he said, “we don’t need the money, she can take her time easing back into work”.

That's what good financial planning looks like.

Not just spreadsheets and returns.

It's the man who gets to leave a job that's slowly killing him.

It's the woman who gets to focus on getting well.

It's choices. Made possible long before you need them.

15/04/2026

We are usually better off when we prioritise experiences over stuff