Why is it some doctors are unhealthy, despite their expertise in health?
It’s a question I recently considered when visiting A&E with my son. I saw doctors eating meal deals on their breaks, drinking cans of fizzy drinks and smoking. It seems strange, doesn’t it? They are doing exactly the opposite of the advice they give us.
Why is that?
It seems a toxic combination of factors plays into the overall outcome – long hours, time constraints, stress and burnout. Of course, there is also personal choice. Doctors are human and may simply make personal lifestyle choices not aligned with the health advice they give to patients.
What about our profession? Do we always follow the advice we provide to clients?
First-hand experience suggests not. When I was first starting out, I was kindly mentored by an older, more experienced adviser for a brief period. I will never forget him asking me sarcastically, “Do you have income protection then?”
At the time, I didn’t. I had done countless exams and knew all about the benefits of securing protection but I hadn’t yet done so myself. He rightly told me I couldn’t expect to command credibility with my own clients if I couldn’t practice what I preached. I quickly set about sorting it.
Fast-forward to now, having been in the profession for several years, and I would say success for my business has mostly come down to trust and credibility with my clients. It was the best advice he had given me.
There have been countless times I have needed to reassure clients and explain to them that “This is how I plan my own finances” or “I have experienced the recent market volatility too.” Knowing you are on the same journey with them offers a lot of comfort.
Here, it is also important we do not prioritise everyone else’s needs over our own.
I have had this conversation with other advisers, so I know for a fact we can all be a bit guilty of neglecting our own finances in favour of helping clients with their objectives.
We must take time to sort our own affairs. I have seen suggestions before of advisers having their own advisers. While at first that might seem strange, I can really understand how it could benefit us.
It is not something I have at the moment; however, I am very open with a trusted circle of adviser friends and we discuss our finances to support each other.
Being a self-employed business owner, I am the only one in charge of making sure I secure my own future. I do not have an employer auto-enrolling me or providing staff benefits.
While it was tempting at first to pay myself as much as possible, I had to ensure I was following my own financial plan. I needed to have my protection policies in place and set up my regular pension contributions, being aware of what future they were funding for me and my family. I needed to make regular investments and ensure I had my own emergency fund. These are all basics we tell every client but we must follow it ourselves.
I hope, if anything, this has been a reminder for you to take your own financial planning seriously and revisit it if it has been a while.
We are all a bit of a ‘work in progress’ – that’s how I would describe my life and journey – but we must follow our advice ourselves as closely as possible, not only to show our clients we are credible but to plan our own futures well.
Let’s be the doctors that take our own advice.
Taylor Beavis is director of Universe Financial Advice
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