47. Peter Deane Aims High and Hits the Jackpot

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In this episode of Real Money Stories, I speak to Peter Deane, director at Lower My Charges.

Growing up in a modest family home, Peter learnt the importance of being careful with money. From stacking shelves in supermarkets to working in his uncle’s factory work, as a teenager he learnt money’s value.

What these early experiences also taught Peter was that he would rather run a business than just work in it. He moved through the finance industry from graduate trainee to better roles in order to satisfy his desire for more responsibility and the financial rewards that came with that.

A great episode which highlights the importance of pursuing what you are passionate about, with the money usually following right behind.

Episode Transcript

Jason Butler
Hello, and welcome to the Real Money Stories podcast. I'm Jason Butler. And I invite you to join me as I have intimate money conversations with people from all walks of life. Whether you're just starting out and your money journey, or well down the track, there's bound to be something you can learn from these stories about taking more control of your money, so you worry less and enjoy life more. Real Money Stories is sponsored by Vanguard, bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk for more details, and remember, the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested.

Jason Butler 0:03
Hello, and thanks for joining us on another edition of real money stories. I'm your host, Jason Butler. And today I'm joined by someone with it again, all my guests are interesting, but this guy's got a very interesting backstory. Mr. Peter Dean. Hello, Peter.

Peter Deane 0:16
Hello, Jason.

Jason Butler 0:18
Thanks for joining us on the show. Before we get to Yeah, before we go to your backstory, do you want to just tell everyone what you do now and what you get up to?

Peter Deane 0:28
Sure. Yeah, so I do a few things. And my main role is I help run a financial planning business, financial planning business with a difference. We're remote remote only. So we were remote before it became necessary for everybody to be remote. We've always been a remote business. We provide our service remotely using a combination of digital and telephony. And in doing that, we're able to keep our costs low. So and the benefits of that for our clients is that we pass the benefit of us of our low costs onto them in the form of low charges. So we allow our clients access to a hybrid. That is not just technology is technology used by our advanced prices, which means that they can have high quality financial advice at a low affordable cost. So, you know, we're about inclusion about giving people who perhaps haven't had the opportunity to, to access financial advice before because of the costs involved, and access to financial advice to help them secure a benefit future.

Jason Butler 1:34
And it is advice. It's not kinda like messing around on the computer to buy a product that, you know, without any help you actually help people you sort of work out their situation. Yes, look at this scenario, and you give a recommendation, which is very, very rare for these kind of online services. So that's why it's so short democratizing and making it more available. Proper regulatory advice from UK

Peter Deane 1:55
Yeah, great work, absolutely democratizing it inclusion, providing access to People who are for people who wouldn't have it before.

Jason Butler 2:02
All right, well, we'll touch on that just before you finish. We finished at the end just to bring around. But I know there's a reason why you got involved in this area because you, you you've got an interesting consumer background, which we'll come on to. But let's go right back to because you've been around a while a little bit longer than, yeah, yeah, everyone's younger than me. Tell us about where you know, when you grew up, and kind of your initial kind of how you related to money and what it meant to you and your family?

Peter Deane 2:30
Yeah, sure. So I guess my earliest memories of money are I like like many other pocket money. And we had pocket money. We needed to do jobs for that. And those weren't usually Well, you know, tidying your bedroom helping with the washing up all that sort of normal stuff. And we received our pocket money every weekend. And we were allowed to spend a small proportion of that pocket money on sweets. And the rest we saved. And so we would trickle off to the local news agents with a with a with a, you know, small amount of money in those days and make it last as long as we possibly could. So we'd spend a long time at the sweet counter, you know, frustrating the hell out of I'm sure the servers, picking one of those and two of those and three of those and for those, whatever, this was me and my two sisters and in terms of family background, my parents were, you know, pretty ordinary, very working class. Very, very good with money in that in that they managed to not scrimp and save but certainly make it go fast. So, for example, my my mother used to make lots of lots of clothes, and she was a qualified same tradition made a lot a lot of our clothes which you know, is looking back and it's a great skill to have but at the time when you were turning up, but sort of kids parties with some very dapper shirt and tie combination and you felt slightly slightly awkward, Imani Imani, Imani pleased social media wasn't around in those days to be honest with you some of the photographs that might may be around but um, so you know, they're very ordinary, very, very careful with money and didn't borrow anything other than they needed to borrow. So, you know, always kept a mortgage small, never never went around up debt on things and a real philosophy of, if you couldn't save for something, then you couldn't have it. And they made things last a long time as well. So you know, they wouldn't replace something until it was absolutely necessary to replace it. And even then they try and do some repairs before they replaced it. So I think that gave, I think that gave all of us a good background in how to be in how to and how to treat money, how to manage money, how to use it to our benefit rather than it rather than drive us in a different direction. And leading on from that I got jobs whilst at school. So the earliest one I remember having was a peg round, which I did for it for a year or two and then When I was old enough, I worked in Sainsbury's as a just like a really. And so and one evening, Thursday or Friday, late evening work and one Saturday, all throughout sort of start studying for GCSEs and a levels. And then also during that period would work in the holidays, both of those places. And also it's a place where my uncle had a factory, which my dad ended up working at for some time as well. So helping out there as well. So, yeah, you know, just I think my, my earliest memories are sight sort of formed what what became my attitude to money later in life?

Jason Butler 5:42
Yeah. Can you remember saying your parents used to say that growing up? Can you remember the like the top two or three sayings? It's interesting because I've been talking to people recently about this. The Saints like my mom used to say, Oh, you know, what do you think made her money, right? She used to say scarcity. mindset in me. Sure, young. I'm wondering if you heard those repeated messages whether they were done in human all done under stress or just said as a mantra. Can you remember it? Yeah.

Peter Deane 6:09
Yeah. The one thing that always the one saying that always comes back to mind is never a borrower or lender B. And that was the one that was the one saying that they always fed back to me that that sticks in the mind

Jason Butler 6:22
that that, but it wasn't just them saying it. You also saw them living it right. Yeah,

Peter Deane 6:27
yeah. No, they practice that. Absolutely. So. Absolutely. So and sometimes, you know, sometimes to the detriment I think one of the things they always regretted is that they stayed in one house for too long, because they didn't stretch themselves to have a slightly bigger mortgage, which they probably could have afforded at the time. But they chose not to,

Jason Butler 6:44
and they were happier if they were happy. I mean, do you think that was a failing? And did you did that influence how you then dealt with things?

Peter Deane 6:52
I don't think it was so much as failing. I think it was a missed opportunity that they look back on and say, well, we could have but you know, they were they weren't happy. They, you know, they managed to secure what was, you know, a great, a really good amount of wealth for the, for the income that that they jointly had as well. And, and I don't think they ever really knew how much that wealth was, if you know what I mean, so they never really realized how how, how much that wealth had compounded over time, and actually how well off they was they probably,

you know, managed to manage their money to the to,

to their own immediate detriment, if that makes sense.

Jason Butler 7:36
Well, it sounds to me that we're sort of just modest living a modest lifestyle and accumulated money by default. And she's, you know, as long as exactly so, I'm interested in when you were working in the factory. Yeah. And your dad was working there, I'm thinking about it. Because then your relative is your boss, and you're young and you're earning money for the first time. And you're studying and thinking about where I'm gonna go and we're not gonna be stuck here for Revit working in this factory kind of thing, not there's anything wrong, but you're not I mean, you are at that young age of what I can do this. I'm wondering how that what you learned about yourself and how that formed your, your subsequent sort of attitudes to money work spending and that kind of stuff.

Peter Deane 8:14
Yeah, okay. So I think the most immediate thing I learned about the most obvious thing I learned about was was that I wanted a career in business. So, I looked I looked up to my optimal good managed to establish his own his own business and it was a it was a manufacturing business. So it was a plastic injection molding business and basically so machinery used to melt plastic and shape it into various sizes that they then sell for for orders. So this was in the 70s and 80s 1970s and 80s. And I would go there early in the morning, either with, with with my, my dad in the car together, or I'd cycle nerd depending on whatever whatever shift I was working on. says four miles away. It wasn't a great distance. You know, we were due for more than three or four hours in the morning, little lunch break three or four hours in the afternoon and and back home. And I think one of the things it taught me was that I, I'd rather I'd rather run the business than work in it. And although my uncle was a, you know, a grafter, you know, he did, he did all the hard work as well, it wasn't it wasn't a case of him sitting in an office and instructing everybody else what to do. He did all the hard work, he took all the risks. He made some big financial mistakes during that time as well. And I remember one of the times that one of the things that in particular was when and computers were just becoming more work widespread at work, and he it was always one for the latest thing you'd like to you'd like to be on top of the latest latest thing and he's always he's still got to this day a very active and interested in interest in mind and things and, and he was absolutely sure that the business needed a computer for its for its stock and ordering and invoicing. And all those things that were being done by me secretarial team and I remember he had a consultant and at the time can't remember which business they were let us assume it's something like IBM or something something like that. And they came in and you know, sort of sodium this great, relatively expensive at the time computer system and package and consultancy service. And frankly, it was no better than what they were doing manually and it frustrates the hell out of him. But he had this great investments and stuff and they would always be looking to invest even if it didn't realize what what what the you know, what the possibilities of that word whether whether you actually need it or not. And and that and but I but I did have my his entrepreneurship and did my his spirit in that sense. And so yeah, it was an interesting family dynamic. And I you know, I got on really well with with my uncle Stuart still do to this day, actually. And, but he was our boss. Yeah, you're right at the time. I've gotten it in fact it was him who persuaded my parents to to move and join him. And so he was, he was based in in Sussex. And we at the time were living in London, Northwest London. And my dad was a store's manager for a car manufacturer parts parts of Canada catch cold called routes, who became Chrysler, I think took over where Chrysler and he over a period of a couple of years or so persuaded my dad to move down to Sussex and and join him in the business. It was a big, big move for us. We were I was about I was about 1011. At the time, two younger sisters. He was well established in his in his role it was a secure role. And joining a small business was a was a big move at the time but they took took the plunge and moved out to London moved down to Dumpster Diver graded that move. And so you know and that showed so show some faith in the in the family and family business.

Jason Butler 12:09
So tell us about you did this job when you were studying at levels How did we were managing your money as a teenager because I was great

Peter Deane 12:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah though those those were the wasted years in terms of management, any management discipline or money and I managed to save up a reasonable amount of money so that as a as a I managed to be reasonably good at saving some money to go to university so I sort of spend half of what I earns and but as only you know, as I was working sort of all through summer holidays and Christmas, things like that, so I was only getting you know, reasonable amount of money I'd gone You know, like everybody else I can spend on a Friday and Saturday night in there in the pub or you know, going to watch football or go to concerts or buy clothes and all that sort of stuff. So did all of that but I managed to save up some money. When I before I went to University and that's when it all when it all disappeared during during the university is where, you know, cost costs were higher you were fully living away from home, you know, the opportunity to spend whatever you wanted to spend, you know, banks were very keen to to give you overdrafts as well. And so, you know, did all of that and got it got a got a, I suppose I left University with a reasonably sized overdraft not not not not unmanageable. But but but a reasonably sized overdraft, you know, lucky enough to go to university when tuition was free. So that was that was that was a great bonus.

Jason Butler 13:34
It reflected both your you know, the the non Union, the non learning part of uni, right, but also Yeah, exactly. But also you, how did you approach budgeting? because very few, it seems to be the real wide range that people just sort of sent off to uni with no real sort of training as to how to manage a budget or what they've got to spend or any kind of, you know, Was that it? Was that you?

Peter Deane 13:56
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally like that. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't Approach budgeting, I think really was the was the is the easy answer to that. I think you know, when you run out of money when you went to the bank and got another overdraft, or an extension of overdraft, it was literally literally like that. Yeah.

Jason Butler 14:14
A young adult sweet shot, really? You said? Yeah, it's very much. So

Peter Deane 14:18
you're very much No. And it was it was it was so easy. And because, you know, banks were obviously very keen to maintain, you know, relationships with students who they foresaw over the course of the next 1020 3040 years would earn reasonable money and compound that money into the bank in terms of salary. I suspect things are a little tighter now. I hope things a little tighter now. And certainly we help way as a family sort of joins in, you know, try and educate our our two boys who are ones that university was just about to go to university about about but managing a budget, although although I think that my eldest boy made all of all the same mistakes that I did in his first term, it completely blew it. struggle to manage your sense, but it's actually just about on top of it.

Jason Butler 15:03
But here's it here's a point, right? So we got one of the things about being better with money or having it in line with you is this idea of, it's okay to make some mistakes as long as they're mistakes you can come back from because sometimes you've got to touch the hot pan right? In order to learn. So, so you came through uni, how did you then when you finished uni with this, this this overdraft that reflected the social scene and going out? No more than that. How did you did you just believe you're going to walk into a job and everything was gonna be okay in the Sunny Sunny lanes were there in front of you. What What happened? Did you go straight into the job market? Were you worried? Yes, it did.

Peter Deane 15:47
Yes, I went straight into the job market and and and the phrase you use there, whatever, everything will be fine. I you know, I genuinely believe that everything was fine. I was looking, I was looking at, you know, the sort of salaries that were being were being offered for the you know, for the for the jobs that are being That you were going for as a as a as a student as a as a qualified to unite. We did a degree in hands and but wow, that's that's a lot of money and you know so you know what as you're leaving from sort of your learning you know 1020 pounds a day whatever doing doing your own to you know you're getting sort of a salary of I think at the time it's about 10,000 pounds or something like that. And that felt like a huge amount of money to me. I thought yeah, easy. That is everything, everything we

Jason Butler 16:27
need. Yeah. Give everyone context. I'm trying to think iron 5000 pounds a year when I was about 18, right. I was doing well. But you you're a bit older than me, aren't you? So you were earning 10,000 pounds. That's like, that's like going into a job on 35 grand right?

Peter Deane 16:46
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And today's equivalent. Yeah. would be Yeah,

Jason Butler 16:49
yeah. believable. Yeah. Okay, so So tell us about how you then transition transitioned into the work earning What did you do? Were you renting digs? What were we

Peter Deane 16:58
sure sure. So So initially I move back to home from from university. In fact, I had a year in between that I had a third year, my third year of university was it was a placement year year out. So I worked for a business called term license fertilizers in, in, in Suffolk in near near Ipswich. And I worked there for a year. But again with that because it was literally pretty much a student lifestyle. There are a few of us who went went on the placement year we've rented some digs there together, we just completely acted as students, but with the with the benefit of having some money. And so but then when when I finished university, I got a job straightaway as a graduate trainee at sunlights life and pensions at the time, they subsequently became rah, rah sunline. So I joined the graduate trainee program. And that that funnily enough, was was was in was in Sussex, I got I got the opportunity to do that because My dad knew the chief actuary there. And he had a chat with me about their graduate training program and and wondered whether I'd be interested in applying for it. And this was this was at a time. This was at a time this was the mid 80s, around about the mid 80s. And, you know, looking back it was it. I think we just been through

at least one of the recessions around that time early 1879.

Jason Butler 18:24
Yeah.

Peter Deane 18:26
Yeah. Yeah. So so the I Yeah, exactly. So I funnily enough I remember I was at University of Birmingham and I remember going traveling on the top top of the bus through through areas that literally over writes in the night before and that was quite that was quite an interesting experience at one thing Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So but but coming back to starting work so so I initially I moved in back back home with my parents, and paid them lodgings for for both living there and also you know, food and all the other things that That your mother kindly does for you. So washing and ironing that sort of stuff. And, you know, I paid them at a reasonable rate but still managed them to save up some money for a deposit. So my aim was to secure a house as quickly as I or a house or a flat or some sort of some sort of place that I would live in rather than rather than rent as quickly as I could. But prices were recovering from recession then and getting away from the all the time they just continued when we're going over me so you know, to the point where I had just look at moving slight buying somewhere but maybe slightly outside of the town center. So I ended up and this was around about 1989. I ended up managing to save enough money for deposits on a what was a Mason, Mason, a one bedroom, flat and a block of four with their own little garden, your own stairs up so in a reasonable size, good, good, good size place. managed to save enough money to get the deposit on that And then get on prints, do all the other stuff about saving some furniture and fittings and all that sort of stuff and furnished out. But then we had a another I think in the late 80s, early 90s, another financial Shopkins. house prices quickly went down. So I bought I think I made the mistake of buying that house at sort of peak prices. I mean, at least at peak prices. Yeah, yeah. and ended up staying there for Let me see probably about five or six years and probably lost at that time, probably in there in the order of about 20,000 pounds and the value of that property

Jason Butler 20:42
over the course of that time. That's interesting. So so your your property only dream became a bit of a nightmare. Do you want to how do you want to move out that earlier than the five or six years that you were forced to stay there in an idea? No.

Peter Deane 20:56
Luckily, I didn't need to have one too. And the reason why The reason why I went I and we ended up moving out was that I, during that period, started seeing going out with my wife. And now, we weren't married at the time. So we, we collectively, she was living somewhere else in staying, renting somewhere from it from a landlord. And we've decided, well, let's drop that expenditure. Move in here, save hard for a couple of years, save up a deposit to be able to move out. So we ended up moving out of that place and managed to get a deal where we can carry over our negative equity onto a new property purchase and without a new property purchase. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what, I think that was that was good at the time. I probably still vital that didn't exist. This was just before battlenet existed, and I would probably still have been better off many To get a buy to let mortgage on that property not as secure that's a good point because if we are into difficult times now we've set you know who knows what's gonna happen properties but you know, Brian yeah

Jason Butler 22:10
isn't it great but if you are stuck with a property and you do want to move on because if your family situation if you can let it out and you're prepared to do the work, but it's necessary for it, that might be the better option than been doing what you and I did, which is having to pay back the negative equity in order to be able to move

Peter Deane 22:25
absolutely so absolutely. So you know, you know, lenders now are really looking at this sort of you know, affordability of the of the mortgage in terms of does it cover the rent properly and

Jason Butler 22:37
not a one way street? You know, it's a job yeah,

Peter Deane 22:40
yeah. Yes.

Jason Butler 22:41
So tell me about when you when you met your your now wife, and you kind of started to you realized it was more than just a date dating thing. did you how did the merge refinances happen? I mean, did you have to sit before more sit down talking interview? Did you just saw gradually more often you dealt with this. she dealt with that and how did you get Aligning priorities

Peter Deane 23:02
so I think the one but so what what what what it seems like looking back on it maybe we should have done that it seemed to seem to work out in her favor actually. She she had a she had a much larger student debt than I did and was sort of much more I probably didn't work as much. Probably enjoyed us more. And so she had a much larger debt so but but and and i but i think the sense of us, but our joint earnings would have enabled us to have a access to a bigger mortgage. So I think there's sort of unwritten deal was, you know, you you come in and live with me and the flat that I owned, you don't need to sort of you don't don't then need to, you know, pay pay rent or unassertive somewhere that's just money down the drain. You can use that savings to clear off debt. And then the joint earnings capability about joint salaries would enabled us to purchase a property that probably neither of us would have been able to do so on our own. So In the round, it probably made financial sense. We didn't do anything formal, like, you know, structure outs who and what and who was bringing what, what what, you know, it's sort of, it's more fluid than that, I guess, really, you know, over the course of over the course of our marriage, and Lindsay has worked, not worked. But you know, when I'm really really conscious of the fact that even when she wasn't worth, she was taking care of the children, enabling me to go away, work long hours and do what I needed to do. Because that was the sort of, you know, that that was the way that was the way it panned out. I don't think we necessarily plan like that. And, you know, I like to think of things that have been different if I was the higher earner. And I've done the same, but I'm sure I wouldn't been as good as bringing up a house or distance

as Lindsay has turned out to.

Jason Butler 24:45
So I'm just trying to think to tell me about the early years of the joining the graduate scheme, how to navigate the whole earnings, identity spending priorities, you know, that whole thing investing in yourself, how did you manifest that because there are lots of we're finding out about ourselves as young people aren't we a lot of things sometimes equate earnings to self worth right?

Peter Deane 25:09
Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. I've got Yeah, I mean, you know, yeah, yeah we do sometimes not I was ambitious. I was very ambitious and I guess I guess an easy manifestation of that is your is your earnings. So I was on a graduate excuse me and graduate training scheme that's um, that was two years. But I I was impatient. So I just kept nagging away and telling them Can I come off this earnings graduate scheme because I've sort of been a pretty much done what I needed to do here Can I just have a job so I ended up coming off it six months early and and got placed in in a row and then got another promotion quickly after that. And then things stagnated slightly. there and I ended up moving companies. So got offered a role at Prudential and moved across To do to run a bigger, slightly bigger team, whether, you know, moving up work working in London now commuting to London and, and my my whole career has been a has been a series of moves for bigger, bigger jobs and I think of course bigger salaries comes with bigger jobs but but uh for me it was a combination of the two really it was a combination of more interesting bigger jobs because I'm, I'm pretty, I'm quite high tensity in terms of high tension in terms of working I like to do things relatively quickly. I get hold of things really quickly. But at the same token, I get bored quite quickly so I can understand the job in a year. Do it better in the next year. And then after that, I'm times I'm ready to move on. Yeah. And that's what I've done.

Jason Butler 26:50
Yeah, but I'm interested just to explore this thing as a young person, your whole thing of work identity and the definition of success versus so You said you were very ambitious. ambitious, for what?

Peter Deane 27:03
record more responsibility? responsibility? Yeah, more responsibility. Which, which? Which? Which? Yeah. So more responsibility which came with earnings. Now Now, it's a good question. I'm not sure entirely sure. Which, which drove which? And

Jason Butler 27:17
I suppose the issue is, is this money the way you defined it? Or was that just marking the score, you really are interested in doing great work and you just happen to earn good money or you wanted the money and but you happen to be lucky to do great work? Because some people do think it's one or the other. Right? And, and it doesn't always have to be right.

Peter Deane 27:35
So for me, it wasn't really one or the other. I'm fortunate enough to be an eight to be an A to be in an industry or career, that, you know, the good work comes with good money. And, having said that, if I if I if I were, if I let's say let's say for example, I were an artist, and I was producing fantastic art, which I really, really thought was, you know, reflective of what I wanted to do is really proud of But I didn't earn any money from it. I don't think I'd be satisfied. So I think money is definitely a driver for me. But I don't but I but but I there is a lot that you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't do anything for money I guess is it guess where draw the line?

Jason Butler 28:14
It's an interesting one, isn't it? Because obviously we we evolve our thoughts about value and compensation and status all the time. So you went to Prudential for this big sort of this big step up? Yeah. And then tell us how you evolve your situation. I mean, at that stage, had you moved out of the you'd moved into a new home and got rid of the thing on

Peter Deane 28:33
that stage? No, no, not at that stage. And at that stage, we hadn't met I was still I was sort of single led commuting to London for for what turned out to be a year or two. And that was a you know that that was a that was a bit of a shock to the financials as well because you know, work work working in London comes it comes at a cost, as I'm sure you all nations, yeah, not to temptation around so no

Jason Butler 29:00
There's plenty of temptations, right.

Peter Deane 29:01
Yeah, now. Exactly, exactly. So So, you know, there's lots of temptations, it was a little bit more. And of course, yeah, you got the basic cost of a rail fare, you know, a season ticket, which which was which was pretty substantial amount of money in those days. And it also it also meant it also meant a shorter day of your own time. So longer working day and putting it the other way. Which, which I was fine to do for a year or two. I really did enjoy working and I'm actually not sure I'm not sure I'd move back there in terms of in terms of living there but but but but working there was great at those those days. And, but then Prudential moved out to move the part that wasn't based in London out to Redding, to where they've got a bigger headquarters. And I didn't want to do that. So I told them, I wasn't, I wasn't I wasn't making the move. So it was an opportunity to leave and I and I went through Another decision making process about what I wanted to do. And and I Funny enough, I went back to back to seminars but a completely different division of the business because I'd kept in touch with some people there. And one of the managers who I'd worked for really, really admired and really good working relationship had moved over to a different division and was interested in me coming back to to work there in a completed role. So so that's that that's what I did. And, and I think that helped me get a grip of the money that I was earning during that period and frittering, not frittering away having to spend quite a lot of it on commuting in London and the you know, the people to go out and buy expensive sandwiches and all that sort of stuff so much more expensive to live or work in London, but managed to sort of get to grips with that and and set that aside and put that into what became the deposit for the house that we eventually bought. And so I think I think that the the lesson I learned there was was was was a case of

just because you earn more doesn't mean say you're better off

Unknown Speaker 31:10
but I doubt

Jason Butler 31:11
Yeah, so so as you were working in this situation what you obviously met your wife and then what you bought a house and then how did you navigate the whole thing of kind of starting a family and and this meteoric rise of your career, where there were lots of pressures on you at the time and lots of things you needed your money to go to, or was it easy? Um,

Peter Deane 31:34
no, thankfully, no. And there were there were obviously priorities. So, you know, we were we were, we were able to have, you know, two or 300 days a year at the time, and still save for for things we were able to, you know, eat out when we want to eat. So that it was it was a question really about sort of understanding. I mean, I think you know, we always we always wanted to have a family size family. And we didn't really go into the, into the financial equations on that, because we kind of, we kind of knew that there was there was sufficient buffer in terms of what we what we were earning to be able to afford to do that. I don't think we probably realized quite how much money it does cost to raise a family. And I think sometimes if you look at that equation, you think, geez, maybe you'd think twice. And maybe that's a good thing that you don't think too much too much about that, because maybe I put some people off. Well,

Jason Butler 32:30
here's the thing. There's a recent study about a year ago, this estimated the average cost of bringing up a child from birth to 21, excluding uni costs is about 241,000. And again, very, very, very modest lifestyle. It's about 98. So yeah, 100 and a quarter million quid is a lot of money, right?

Peter Deane 32:48
Absolutely. So

Jason Butler 32:51
thinking back to that time, what would you have done differently, as in the lead up to starting your family? Is there anything you'd have done differently

Peter Deane 32:59
um, In terms of finances, we probably have, we probably would have set aside a specific pot or budget or account and invested the money rather than just purely put it in, we kind of left it in the bank account.

Jason Butler 33:17
And to this day savings savings for the kitchen. Yeah,

Peter Deane 33:20
yeah, exactly. Well, either a bit of savings for the kids are a bit of savings for us to deploy on the kids in terms of education or other aspects rather than just taking it out of necessarily, you know, each month's earned income and salary because we probably didn't. We probably didn't sit down and realize that, you know, this is this is money we have at the moment is what we don't necessarily need, we are going to need the money in the future. Why don't we Why don't we invest that money? And we probably didn't, you know, to this to it. So I'll give you an example. We put every month or every weeks however it is paid on show exactly. child benefit allowance. way, we never touched it for anything at all, yet we kept it in our offset account. So it's doing a job. It's offsetting against the mortgage. But realistically, if we thought harder about it and planned better, we could probably put that into some some, you know, some AI system, some cash system stocks and shares ISIS awesome children's accounts and probably got a better, better financial return on it.

Jason Butler 34:25
So, okay, so in terms of when you're working at this job, then how did you was that you were there a long time? Did you sort of make use of all the financial benefits that they had? Because that's a big company, right? Sure. So yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, it's all there. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 34:43
Yeah.

Jason Butler 34:44
Yes, I did all of that. hurt you did it having all that stuff. And how did your your sort of a relationship evolve over those years? You were there because you've been there quite a long time.

Peter Deane 34:54
I was there. Yes. I was there until. So my second stint I was there. About 12 years. And and yeah, I was lucky enough to, to have a defined benefit pension scheme. And yeah, I'm very fortunate in terms of in terms of pensions I've got, I've got for defined benefit pension schemes and a couple of different contribution ones. So at that period, I was like, I was like, I was really, really lucky. In that respect, I also took out Save as your own share options. And, and because of, and because of my role I was, I was I was entitled to executive share options and stuff like that. So, you know, I, I made sure that we, you know, as far as we were able to maxed out on on all of that, knowing that it was a great benefit and remains a great benefit and it's been really now, I think during the period of that that as well as a few of the roles I had after that the bedrock of our of our of our financial plan. Now,

Jason Butler 35:58
it's giving you a good foundation is just Two points there to make if you work in a big company, if anyone's listening, and they've got Save As you earn scheme, these are no brainers because there's no risk to them. You can save for three to five years up to 500 quid a month. It's just an it's brilliant, you know, if you were to size the shares, you get the upside if you don't you get your money back plus interest. That's that's exactly, exactly. You get the most out of your employer's pension scheme. So there's whatever you've got to put in to get their contribution is generally a good idea. And the earliest contributions make the most money as Peter's pointing out with his bang there. So that was great. So okay, so you you did 12 years there, you you, you had your family, you did you did you wipe them go back to work? And then how did you navigate the family finances going down to one income? Was it just that you were doing so well at your job? You could cover it all?

Peter Deane 36:48
simplistically, yes, I didn't believe that at the time, but um, we managed to cover it all with my salary for for a couple of years. And so so the history was that when I went First, when I first reached six months or so, he went to nursery. So he went to nursery, which basically meant that Linda was able to go back to work but but on a sort of part time basis, so realistically, she was working to cover nursery fees and then maybe a little bit more. So really she was working to keep it handy. And then when our son came along couple years later again, nursery

but then we had that

Jason Butler 37:28
just close the door. Sorry, hang on. Yeah.

It's Sorry, my editor cut that out. Yes. So nursery Come on, girl. Yeah.

Peter Deane 37:45
Yeah, so we have nursery you know, nursery fees for two kids pretty much full time over the course of a year and are not unsubstantial. And so at that time, I think she literally was working just to cover cover nursery fees with two kids and then then one of them They came out of school. So they started school which which, which on the one hand seems like great, you're not got nursery fees, because we were really lucky. We've got some really nice good schools locally that are state schools, which is great. But the flexibility of nursery where you could drop someone off at seven, eight in the morning and pick them up at five, six in the morning when you can do a work day you don't have that with school. So then we came to a decision around because lenses hours again, reduce them, he came to see us now what actually, is this working? You know, you're rushing around, you're not really earning that much money doing what you're doing, because your hours are so reduced. Would it be better if he took a step back and took a break away from work for a few years until until such time as that boat settled in school and in you know, reestablish What, what, what, what our drivers are in terms of in terms of both, you know, the real desire to make sure that we saw as much of them during the early years and provide them with sort of you know, The education work both another support as well as the other the other direction as well that they provide for us. And I think we it was an easy decision really witness sillim Lindsay sort of pretty much stopped work for a period of four to five years, and then gradually worked her way back into into the workspace when when, when it became a little easier to manage the work home life balance that that's required when bringing up two boys in terms of schooling as well.

Jason Butler 39:29
Man, it is a problem that everyone suffers to a greater or lesser degree, we're bringing up children this challenge of if you've got to have you childcare, does it make sense? But also, if you are the primary carer, you're you're the woman, this is where the gender balance problem happens, doesn't it? Because because they losing skills, you're losing contact, you're losing that participation in the workplace and it's a challenge for lots of people. Oh, I don't know what the answer to everything. If you can think that through when you're younger and trying to be Got a bit of a buffer. It might enable you as a as a woman to preserve more of your career but still balance having connection with your family. So interesting. So tell us about you. You left them role satellites, didn't you and do what? What made you decide to change because career decisions are so important to your financial? Yeah, sure. Because it's sure it's your status. It's your your enjoyment. It's your valuation plus earnings. So what made you change? Yeah, absolutely. It's what you headhunted? Did you? Look what did you get restless? I mean, 12 years is a long time.

Peter Deane 40:31
Yeah, it was a long time. And yeah,

the reason? Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm, you know, what, I during that time, I could pretty much I it got to the stage where I can see myself separate from life there.

Because it was it was you know, it was easy. It was it was

Jason Butler 40:45
did you keep moving on to different projects within the company?

Peter Deane 40:47
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I never did the same job within within that business for more than two years. Three years max. So So yeah, I was always looking for new opportunities. And the reason why So and this is part of Part of the reason why I left. So the reason why I eventually left is that is that my last opportunity there was to launch the direct brand which which which is more than so I launched and more than insurance brand. And that really was the combination of what I wanted to do there for the for the preceding four or five years, given the opportunity to partner the team that did that. Did they did the branding and the advertising and the dodgeball, and it was and it was, it was both the most frustrating, and exhilarating, and also exciting time over the course of sort of two, three years when we were planning and launching and implementing that and seeing the success that is today. And for me that was like, you know, it's like it's like the football manager that wants to go out on a on a high. There was no other job there that that would that would that would satisfy the order or that was in my or that was within my reach. Yeah. So the only other jobs were sort of serious because of jobs that I was wasn't ready for that at that time. So so I left to join AXA another insurance business to run the direct marketing department. Again, so moved once again moved to London. So did that did the commuting up to London again for it turned out to be a short period of time because whilst I was at AXA, they asked me to pretty quickly to to go away and, and and head up their joint venture that had with rec which was called rec financial services where actually provided the the insurance expertise and rec provided the the brand and the customer base. So that that was that was that was an easy decision to make because obviously it's such a story makes a great brand and and eventually I moved my team out of London and around to Heathrow and we, we established our business there. Greg really, really really enjoyed it and then and then that then rec got taken over by Aviva. So my my career that's been a periods of cyber that turns out to be a period of opportunity. But also ones that I was ready to take advantage of at the time. So some of it was serendipity some of it was continually pushing for for opportunities. And I you know, I would encourage anybody who's got you know, ambition to do that be be ready, be ready for the next for the next opportunity as it comes along even if even if even if you can't force it yourself just be ready.

Jason Butler 43:22
The point I'm picking up from you here is that you were always ready to go beyond your comfort zone. And we don't mean I mean obviously got nowhere your ladders leading because you get to the top might be not where you want to be but you're sure to go beyond where you were you were always prepared to push yourself beyond your comfort zone you only grow when you're beyond your comfort zone. We don't mean like putting yourself under an enormous stress that you can't live but just going beyond what feels comfortable and that's how how sort of career progression and enjoyment and and your ability to add value which is ultimately what you get paid for and what you earn increases right so that's seems to be what your careers really personify gritty they're always going a bit beyond where you Your once you start feeling comfortable you start making a little bit less comfortable right?

Peter Deane 44:03
yeah absolutely absolutely right if you're right you only grow outside your comfort zone it will it will becomes a little bit too complacent I get restless and I know that I'm not I'm not happy then I know I need to stretch myself I need to learn and you know I've had I've had I've had a couple of other roles in financial services then before I took a little bit of a detour and got head hunted for a job in automotive so I ended up doing a marketing director job an automated retailing business for for three or four years as well and it was that it was that it was that ability to desire to continually stretch myself so you know at that time I was I was running the Churchill insurance brand in RBS and and really loved that job fantastic brand really, really good. But the high up you got an RBS The more you ended up not actually doing stuff. You ended up just managing and processing and leading teams doing lots of governance and committees and board and I kind of got a bit bored of that and just wanted to To sort of stretch myself and do some stuff that I could look and feel and you know, have some sort of tactile ness about it and get some sort of immediate satisfaction about it as well. So I again, I stretched myself and moved out to do automotive for a while.

Jason Butler 45:14
That's interesting thing as people promotion doesn't always mean continue to love your job, you can get promoted to Peter Principle, you get promoted out of love and competence. Yeah. Okay, after the dark side of leaving and going out to automotive. What brought you back to financial services?

Peter Deane 45:34
Um, so I think, I think my heart's always been in financial services, and I really enjoyed the experience of working in automotive. I've got an interest in cars. I probably grew more whilst I was there than than other than I realized, you know.

But I had an opportunity to, to get back into into financial services but in a completely different way. So I I would have not gone back into To a big corporate financial services business and I've done that I've done ticked a lot of boxes there I've had great great experiences really liked it, but just didn't want to do that anymore. But I but I, you know, was given presented with an opportunity to come into come into a business that's trying to do things slightly differently, that's got real financial inclusion about it's that and it's looking to, you know, provide much needed financial advice, even more so now to a whole group of people who have not been able to access it. So it was that it was that I'm not going to say altruistic, but it was that slightly and used a really good word earlier, you know, democratizing financial advice and, and and that's, that's exactly what I see what I see me wanting to do now for the for the for the next phase of my my career careers.

Jason Butler 46:46
So So, let's just think about where we are now. The where you are with the business what what is it that motivates you about this ability to help give sort of mass market financial advice Given what you your own personal journey with money what is it that motivates you about that? Why you apart from obviously hoping it to be financially successful? What is it that that motivates you? because now you've been involved in this for two or three years now and you speak to you're always excited and do so what is it about him? It's, it's really getting under your skin because because it's not just money, is it?

Peter Deane 47:19
No, no, it's just definitely not just money. It's, it's, it's it's the it's the excitement of creating something new. So that that's definitely the motivation that you're trying to make a difference. And then when I when I see and hear the you know, the service that our our advisors are giving to, to some of the clients I see the stories and the difference that we've made to their lives for you know, some relatively simple things that we know we can do, but it's hugely life changing difference for some some of that some of our clients in terms of what we're able to provide for them. And it's that that gives me the immediate you know, seeing some of the reviews, we get hearing some of them stories and seeing some of the innovative ways in which our advisors try to help people as well. Is, is great.

Jason Butler 48:09
So how do you think if you look back at your years of experience of life of earning spending, investing, borrowing etc, buy houses and bringing up children? What are your sort of top tips you want to share with people?

Peter Deane 48:24
I think that the good question I I would, I would recommend that don't chase money, chase, chase chase jobs that give you satisfaction, be good at those jobs. And money will come? Yeah, normally money will come to that. So that's my first thing. I like to think I've never chase money. I think it's going hand in hand with with job satisfaction. So I would never do something just just for money in terms of in terms of managing money and sort of, you know, having a good relationship with it. And it really is In case of unique, you need to think you need to think short and long. You need to sort out some stuff and get yourself you know, all of your immediate, you know, your foundations built, as you're saying, and all of the things that surround money. So it's not just it's not just savings rather, it's making sure that you've got the right protection in terms of, you know, use of life insurance is absolutely critical. That takes up some financial pressure, in terms of earnings, critical insurance, all those other sorts of products that sometimes I haven't always taken a bunch of, but I've been lucky enough to be employed in businesses that provide all of that all of that cover. So I know that when I'm not in those businesses, I do set those foundations well, so make sure you've got a good foundation and the good protection, both for yourself and your family. And set antennas you know try not try and easy thing to say. Hugely easy thing to say. Try not to spend everything you earn. Always, always, always try and get into the habit of setting something aside, initially a savings and then looking at looking at two investments and in the long term. We've touched on it before, put your put some money in a pension. You know, I know, I know, it's got some sort of it's got some sort of bad press. I know it's a boring word. I know it's around. It's around sort of 10 2030 4050 years waiting some people. I know it's complex in terms of legislation, but fundamentally, it's a good thing. You know, you put a pound in your employer puts a pound in and the government tops up. Why wouldn't you do that?

Jason Butler 50:25
Good. Okay. Well, thank you for that. Peter. It's been it's been great talking to you. I really like the the honesty that you show. I mean, obviously, you've had some very good jobs there. You've had some luck, and that's an important thing is that you've made Yeah, you've made some of your own luck you've embraced has come along to you, but also, you've just tried to live a reasonable life and make sure that money wasn't the only thing that's motivating you. So that's what I'm taking from that. That's a great one. So if people find out about your your, your affordable advice business, what's the website?

Peter Deane 50:52
Yeah, sure. It's a lower my charges.co.uk. So that's what's not to like.

Jason Butler 50:57
like. I love it. Peter Dean, leader of lower my charges code at UK fantastic business, I wish you all the very best of luck with business and hope it's a great success if it helps people make smart decisions about money.

Peter Deane 51:14
Thank you.

Jason Butler 51:15
Thank you everyone for joining us. I've been your host, Jason Butler. Until next time, see you then.

Jason Butler Thanks for listening to Real Money Stories with me Jason Butler. If you like what you hear, please do tell your friends. And more importantly, please rate us on your preferred podcast app, because it really does help us get the message out there. So until next time, good luck with your money journey. Real Money Stories is sponsored by Vanguard bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk For more details, the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai