Repeat, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat?



2011: The Iron Lady - Phyllida Lloyd



There's a touch of deja-vu about at the moment. I'm struck by the posters of the new "Iron Lady" film starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and the general 1980's fashion look on the streets of London. Add to this a couple of days of football "legends" returning to help their old teams progress in the FA Cup (a competition that has lost significant shine over the years). Throw in a few Unions threatening industrial action over a dispute about pensions, mining companies taking centre stage in the business news,a Labour party in opposition with an apparently unpopular leader and there is a general sense of... haven't we seen all this before? Well yes we have... and no we haven't (its still panto season).

Yes we have, in the sense that invariably we see the same repeating patterns in history, repeating because the basic human condition has altered very little. Of course, things are different - we don't know what will happen, what the outcome will be is open to hours of discussion and phone-in (why?). We do know that people and nations are essentially self-serving, hence the repetition. Politicians may be talking about new capitalism, but talk is cheap (as are words on a blog). We are in new territory with the Euro in a mess and Europe on the brink of significant financial chaos. Britain in "splendid isolation"? only time will tell, but rest assured that I am reviewing portfolios in light of a current climate that looks bleak... though a glance back at the stock markets in the 1980's may provide some reassurance in the big picture sense.

As we begin another new year and I meet with clients to plan for the future, there is often a sense of familiarity and comfort drawn from the fact that values don't change and are embedded within a good financial plan. Goals may alter a little, sometimes a lot, due to changes that none of us can control, but the values that underpin a strategy do not. It is helpful to reclarify what these are and why they are important, uniquely to the client in question. A review meeting may at first glance appear to be a repeat, but in practice is a deeper refining of an outward looking plan.