Smart Moves

For Deb and Lyn, early retirement seemed a long shot. Then they spoke to a financial adviser who devised a plan to achieve their dream – and has been helping ever since

Deb Rowles and Lyn Barrell say they don’t know how they coped before they had their own financial adviser.

The couple have worked with Fotis Joannou from financial advice firm Sentient Wealth in Kent for a number of years to ensure that their money is always working hard.

Advice was initially centred on mortgages and investments but in 2016, Deb, 60, and Lyn, 58, decided they wanted to take early retirement.

They worked with Fotis to create the right amount of capital along with a budget that allowed them to retire confident in the knowledge they had enough money to stop working.

“It was a huge step for us to come out of a comfortable place of earning well and having a certain lifestyle to quitting work and living off pensions and investments,” says Deb, who was a headteacher at the time.

“We made some big changes, moving from a house on the outskirts of London to a smaller property in the Broadland district of Norfolk.

“The profit we made on our London home and buying a smaller property freed up capital that Fotis helped us to invest to generate an income.”

Fotis assisted the pair in investing their capital in a mix of ISAs and general investment accounts using a low-cost, multi-asset, globally diversified portfolio.

Lyn, who worked as a graphic designer, says: “Thanks to Fotis’s knowledge, reassurance and support, we were able to take a big leap and we are now very happily retired. He’s been a marvellous support for us.”

Fotis stands by his mantra that the most important thing an adviser can do is to listen. “I mean, really listen,” he says. “It is not all about dishing out advice on products. A key part of my role is to hear what is on a client’s mind, and to help them figure out what they truly want their life to look like, now and in the future.

“Deb and Lyn’s dream was to live in Norfolk, to have a better balance in their lives and a better quality of life. They didn’t think it was possible but, when we looked at the cost of this ‘lifestyle’, we were able to formulate a plan.”

Life doesn’t always follow the route we might expect it to, though, as the couple discovered in 2016 when Lyn was diagnosed with cancer – from which she has now fully recovered.

“Having Fotis make provisions on the financial side in case things