Long-Term Financial Goals and Stress.
Are your long-term financial goals such as being able to retire comfortably and preparing for later life causing you stress? If so, you are not alone. According to the Fidelity’s Global Sentiment Survey only 29% of people feel confident about being able to retire comfortably and only 31% feel well prepared for later life.
Please see charts below from the survey:
Whilst the majority of people were confident in their ability to meet their short-term commitments, when it comes to longer term goals, they are far less confident.
How can these issues be addressed?
There are various ways in which these issues can be addressed such as employers providing wellness support and information. This may not be feasible for a lot of employers though, so perhaps the best way to improve outcomes, lower stress and achieve your long-term goals is through financial advice; The benefits of which are as follows:
- Personalised retirement income projections – Cashflow forecasting.
- Structured savings and investment strategies.
- Tax-efficient planning approaches.
- Regular reviews to ensure the best possible outcomes.
- Improved clarity and reduced financial stress so that you can enjoy your life without additional worries.
If you have any concerns or worry in this regard, please contact the office for further advice.
Darren Fuller – Clear Senior Paraplanner
The Olympic IPhone Strategy
 A friend decided to skip upgrading her iPhone to the15 two years ago. Last year she did the same with the 16. This year, however, bad battery life finally defeated her and so she switched to the 17.
Apple released its results last month, and the numbers were huge. The company made $85 billion from iPhones in October, November and December alone — and still had enough spare cash to hand $32 billion back to shareholders. That’s roughly the market value of Vodafone… or the total budget for yet another re‑imagined version of HS2! This leaves us wondering why this quarter was so profitable?
For years there has been a big behavioral shift that Apple has been fighting – everyone had stopped upgrading their phones regularly. In the early iPhone era, nobody really knew how long a smartphone should last. During the mid 2010’s turning up with an iPhone 5 while everyone else had an iPhone 7 was a serious source of social shame. But then society calmed down and decided 3 to 4 years was fine.
 Source: sellcell.com
Also in 2025, it seems enough people finally hit the “cracked screen + dying battery + emotional readiness” combination to lift Apple’s iPhone numbers again, Of course, some of this demand might be due to people becoming sophisticated photographers and needing the extra lens!
This trend seems an excellent way to bring investing to life:
So what would have happened if you’d bought Apple shares instead of an iPhone – bought the orchard, instead of the fruit.
| |
iPhone cost at launch |
Gain in shares to 31/12/2025 |
| 2013 |
£549 |
£10,527 |
| 2015 |
£619 |
£6,550 |
| 2017 |
£999 |
£6,055 |
| 2019 |
£1,049 |
£4,819 |
| 2021 |
£949 |
£1,767 |
| 2023 |
£999 |
£1,402 |
| 2025 |
£799 |
£878 |
Source: Apple/Factset/7IM, all in GBP
If you’d have bought an iPhone every two years since 2013, you’d have given £6,000 to Apple. And you’d have a nice shiny iPhone 17 to show for it today. –Source: x.com
If you’d invested the same amount in Apple shares, on the day the phone was released, you’d have £32,000, but you’d have had no phone for over a decade.
Middle ground? Going with a 4-year upgrade cycle – think upgrading in time for each Winter Olympics – and then investing the “missed” phone’s value in Apple shares? You’d have put £3,300 in Apple’s pocket and you’d have a shiny new iPhone 17 today. But you’d have invested the remaining £2,700 and have turned it into £12,700 today …
Source 7IM@7am
22nd Century Debt
Corporate bond markets are usually seen to be boring, but something noteworthy happened last month – Alphabet (Google) issued a 100-year bond denominated in pounds sterling, no less. Go Team GB!
 Source: Copilot
A 100-year bond is something to get your head round. Buying it means you’re lending money which you’ll get paid back in 2126 … no matter how well you look after yourself, exercise and diet, you certainly won’t be collecting!
Actually, it turns out that the UK is the perfect place to find a buyer. The rules and regulations here mean that insurance companies and pension funds have an almost insatiable appetite for long-term assets to meet their long-term liabilities. So, Alphabet has come to the right place.
Assuming you want to buy the bond, an important question crops up. Will the company you’re lending to be around in 100 years to pay you (or your descendants/pension firm) back? Predicting the future over any time period is difficult. We’re 37 years on from Back to the Future II and we still aren’t using hoverboards …
Source: Back to the Future II
A different and easier question to answer is who was the Google of 1926? Who might possibly have issued a 100-year bond, given what we knew about them at the time?
In 1926, some of America’s most dominant companies were the likes of Coca-Cola, IBM and Ford, who incidentally issued it’s own 100 year bond in 2021. Decent businesses, strong growth prospects, brand names. If you had lent them money for 100 years, you’d be happily collecting your investment this year.
On the other hand, what if you’d picked wrong and lent money to one of these?
- Radio Company of America. The original tech stock. At the cutting edge of communication for decades. But not ten decades – it was broken up in 1980.
- Woolworths. The original retailing giant, on high streets around the world. But the US original dissolved in 1997, and the UK arm failed in 2008.
- Sears, Roebuck & Co. Invented catalogue shopping and became one of America’s largest and most innovative employers for most of the twentieth century. It made it for 92 years after 1926, before going bust in 2018. “Almost a century” doesn’t get you paid though!
One hundred years is a long time. And nothing is certain.
Final fact – did you know that of the 195 countries in the world today, according to the United Nations definitions and dates 135 of them are less than 100 years old!
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