This blog and Fairhaven Wealth are on indefinite hiatus.
One of the central themes of my writing is making decisions that are based on your circumstances and objectives, and that align with your values and priorities.
I have other things in my life right now that are more important to me and my direct loved ones. For the past year or so I’ve tried to focus on these things by deprioritising this blog and not taking on new clients with Fairhaven Wealth.
However, these things have still taken quite a lot of my mental bandwidth.
This needs to end.
I need to free up my bandwidth to focus on the things that are truly important to me.
To be clear, writing the articles on this blog has been a pleasure, and the people I’ve got to know as a result of writing this blog, have made it a really rewarding experience.
However, there comes a time when you need to recognise that when you’re saying “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to other things. And to the extent that I’m saying “no” to certain other things (not explicitly, but implicitly), that has to end.
For the time being, I am taking an indefinite hiatus from even thinking about this blog. I will keep it up and running, but I don’t intend to update it at all. I’ll send one final “monthly” newsletter to subscribers, but expect to go radio silent.
From my end, I don’t intend to even look at any of the dozens or hundreds of drafts I’ve written for this blog. Think of it as a form of “digital bankruptcy”.
With Fairhaven Wealth, it’s a little more complicated. I’ve always worked on the basis of one-off engagements with clients. My goal when working with clients has always been to make myself redundant – ie, get to the point where they don’t feel like they need to engage me. Which means that I don’t strictly have any ongoing service/fee arrangements. I could probably wind up Fairhaven Wealth and leave that be that.
Having said this, I feel an enormous sense of affection for all of the clients I’ve worked with, plus some small sense of obligation. For this reason, I’ll keep Fairhaven Wealth operating for the foreseeable future. I’ll remain authorised to provide financial advice services, continue covering ongoing costs such as professional indemnity insurance, and keep up to date with professional development and other ongoing tasks to ensure I maintain my authorisation.
Clients who’ve worked with Fairhaven Wealth are still welcome to contact me. There may be constraints regarding how I can help. I’ve worked on a few “formal” reviews lately and the amount of time it has taken me to complete these reviews has been humiliating. To the extent possible, I won’t be offering these services, and will provide the “minimum viable scope” service, or refer you to someone who I believe will be a good fit for your needs.
By all means, if you’re a previous client, you’re welcome to call and have a quick conversation. I’ve never charged for these conversations and find them rewarding. As always, I’ll try to be as candid, useful, and engaging as possible. But even then, there might be some limitations as to what I’ll be able to discuss. I won’t be keeping track of the latest news in the financial world. So I’ll be able to talk at a high level, but perhaps not to specifics.
Is this the end of the NZ Wealth & Risk blog?
I don’t know.
I’m in a chapter of my life where I need to put more focus and energy on other things. I don’t know how long this chapter will be.
As time goes on, our interests, circumstances, goals, values, and priorities can change. I don’t know where I’ll stand when this chapter finishes and the next one begins.
It’s quite possible that with some distance, I’ll return to what I’ve been doing with a whole new level of vigour.
But it’s just as possible that I’ll find something else I want to focus on. If you’ve gathered anything from reading this blog, you can probably tell that there are many more things that I’d like to do than I have time on this planet for.
(For example, I’m really interested in artificial intelligence at the moment – if I could create, or be involved in creating a product/service that enabled people to receive high quality financial (or other) support at scale, then that would be amazing. But who knows.)
… & Risk
There’s quite a bit of risk associated with taking an indefinite hiatus. I already feel quite rusty when it comes to providing financial planning services. That will continue. And to the extent I’ve built up any momentum with the business and this blog, then that will halt.
But every decision has risks. And the risk of not giving my energy and attention to other priorities weighs higher than any professional or monetary concern I could have.
Some final thoughts
Thank you!!! It has been a pleasure and privilege to write for this blog. I’ve loved hearing from all the people who have been in touch. Thank you.
If you’ve enjoyed reading, something has especially resonated with you, you want to touch base, etc – feel free to email me. I might not respond immediately, but I will eventually respond.
If you’ve been in touch and have been waiting for a response – apologies for not responding! I’ve had to triage emails recently, and even emails that are personally “urgent” or “extremely important” sometimes struggle to get the attention they deserve. I don’t intend to declare “email bankruptcy” and delete everything in my inbox, however, so I will probably eventually reply.
Finally, I’d like this article to be a prompt for you. I want you to give some thought to your values and priorities as they stand right now. Not as they might have been a year ago, or five years ago. But right now.
Are there some things in your life that you’re saying “yes” to, that are resulting in you saying “no” to more important things?
Can my example be a push for you to make the change you need to make?
Take care of yourself. And if you can, take care of someone else as well.
