Interview with Justin Urquhart Stewart

This week, we return to the second instalment of our interview with Co-founder of Seven Investment Management (7IM), Justin Urquhart Stewart.

Last week, Justin reflected on how his family experiences shaped his understanding and appreciation of the world of finance. Read on to find out his concerns, celebrations and views on the challenges modern families face when it comes to collateral.

What has been your most joyful financial experience?

Seeing the face of enthusiasm on some of the students from financially deprived families that we have been able to help, reasoning that they can now afford to be the first in their family to go to university.

What is your worst fear concerning money?

Ignorance. Fear of something happening that I don’t understand, appreciate or expect. I think it partially stems from the situation that I found my mother facing in later life had I not been able to help her.

 

I also fear debt – having got into a spiralling situation with credit cards at university, and which took me six years to get out of. I now make sure that paying off any such bills are my first priority given how punitive the charges can be.

What challenges in partnerships / families do you think people face when managing their money? Do you think it should be one person’s role?

We live as a family. We have family planning, we have family housing, we have family holidays, but we, very rarely, have family financing and plan finances as a family.

 

We all need to sit down and consider our individual and often complicated families. Given the divorces, civil (or otherwise) partnerships, variations of children from steps to halves, and then where you and your aspirations fit into all that, we need to do some proper planning. I believe we should all find a proper planner. You wouldn’t run a family business without professional financial help so why do we run our lives as such?

 

You cannot and should not do it all. But you can be the one to have your planner manage or gather the expertise you need from all the right sources.

 

It’s also worth remembering that today many families will not have the nuclear 2.4 children. Very often there are five generations involved and all, no doubt, have the wrong financial structure for their various needs…and what they want to achieve in life.

We’d like to thank Justin for speaking to us about the highs and lows of his money history and sharing his thoughts.

If you and your family would like to have a ‘money’ discussion and would like help in facilitating this, to enable you to move forward with some proper family and inter-generational  financial planning, then please do get in touch.