For 27-year-old Daniel Beddoes, life is about finding balance between enjoying his time now and giving himself options for the future. With the support of his financial adviser, he bought his first home in Ramsgate, Kent, in 2022 – and is still hoping to have the chance to retire early.

Dan

Meet Daniel Beddoes

Daniel has always been a good saver. “When I was about 9 or 10, I really wanted a PlayStation Portable,” he reflects. “It was a new thing; all my friends had one. I’m pretty sure it cost £130.”

He diligently saved his pocket money – £1 per week – plus money he received for his birthday. “I think [my parents] watched me save up to about £100. Then they said, ‘OK, Dan, we’ll help you with the rest.’ And they treated me to an extra game, as well.”

The habits built in childhood have stayed with him. Daniel has been putting money aside since he started his career – in operations within the pharmaceutical industry – after leaving school; he estimates that he now saves between a quarter and a third of his salary each month.

“I take after my dad and my grandad – we’re quite risk averse and we like to save money,” he says.

“The way I see it, the more money you have, the more options you have to do what you want in life”

Daniel Beddoes,
Client
bike

When he got his current job, which doubled his salary from his previous employer, his aversion to risk was evident. Daniel loves to cycle, riding his bike – a mountain bike that he bought from a friend of a friend for £80 – along the Kent coastline and the area surrounding his home in Ramsgate.

“I thought, ’I’ve just got this new job, I’m going to be earning more money, I’m going to treat myself.’ I bought this expensive carbon-fibre bike. I rode it and it was great. But I was afraid to use it.”

When riding the expensive bike, he worried about clipping a rock and denting the rim, or about it getting stolen if he stopped for some lunch and locked it up outside a café. “In the end, I used the £80 one more,” he says.

Planning ahead

After moving to his better-paying job, and with his savings beginning to grow, Daniel became conscious that his money could be working harder for him.

“I could only save a certain amount into my Help to Buy ISA every month. And putting £100 into Premium Bonds as an emergency fund makes sense, but putting in more [than that] didn’t sit quite right.”

Researching different options online didn’t feel particularly fruitful. “I came to the conclusion that it would be like a full-time job to do the best thing that I could with my money. And I already had a full-time job,” he says.

On the recommendation of a family member, Daniel met Paul, a St. James’s Place Partner. He liked being able to have a frank discussion about his money with an expert.

Daniel’s ambition was to have the option to retire at 50, and Paul modelled a few different scenarios to show him how he might be able to reach that goal.

“It was like, ‘If you save this much, you can see on the graph here how your money goes up and you’ll be able to retire at this age.’ It was so helpful to have it in a picture like that,” says Daniel.

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In those early meetings, Paul also showed Daniel how the projections for his savings might change if he were to buy a house. “This was prescient of Paul. At the time, I was in my early 20s and I was reasonably content living at home,” explains Daniel.

After a while, he began to feel that he would like his own space. With the help of Paul and his colleague Michael, Daniel bought his home in 2022. “When I bought the house, I was so grateful that I did save; I knew that [the house] needed work and I’d saved up enough to do that.”

As well as brokering his mortgage, Paul and Michael provided a reassuring voice of support to Daniel during the stressful experience of buying and renovating his first home.

“Regular people don’t buy houses that often, right? So generally, if you try to lean on family and friends, there’s not a lot of up-to-date advice about what you’re trying to do,” says Daniel. “Whereas if you speak to a financial adviser, [they have] more recent experience, even if it isn’t strictly financial advice. I asked about solicitors, [I said:] ‘This feels like it’s taking a while, Michael,” and he said: ‘Yeah, that’s normal, I hear that from a lot of clients. Don’t worry.’”

“Buying a house and getting it shipshape was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done. It was really nice to have someone who had visibility of my finances to talk to and have practical conversations about, ‘OK, so I’m paying this to this person.’ And even just to have that sounding board.”

Tracking down the right mortgage for you, especially if you’re a first-time buyer, can be bewildering.

You’ll need to work out whether to go for a fixed rate, a tracker or another option, and also choose the optimum term. Then it’s a question of finding the best rates available from the myriad providers out there. And, as if all that wasn’t stressful enough, there’s usually a lot of paperwork to complete, too.

That’s why it often pays to seek help from an expert, such as your financial adviser or a mortgage broker. They can survey the market for you and recommend the best deals to suit your circumstances – while also helping with all the red tape.

"Buying a house was the most stressful thing I've ever done and it was really nice to have someone who had visibility of my finances to talk to”

Daniel Beddoes,
Client

Finding balance

daniel dog

With age, Daniel’s early-retirement ambitions have softened slightly. Although building a healthy nest egg for his future is still a priority, so is feeling happy and engaged at work. “What’s important is that I go to work, there are people who I get on with and it’s challenging for me – I need to be able to apply my mind to a problem.”

“Five years ago, I turned down a reasonable pay rise because the job just sounded incredibly dull. I thought I would be miserable. I really did put my money where my mouth was on that one.”

And he appreciates the importance of enjoying life outside of work. “I’m not a clothes guy. If I meet up with my friends, I’m not a huge drinker. The biggest thing for me is I go on quite a lot of holidays. I think I’ve got seven booked in for this year, including five or six hiking holidays.”

Daniel recognises the enviable position he’s in, at just 27. “I’m more fortunate than my mum and dad were at my age. I do feel like I value money,” he says. “And I’m fortunate enough to be able [to save] and also feel like I never really want for anything.

“I feel like the people at SJP – stock market notwithstanding – have made good on my investment money just by these sorts of bits of advice. The things that I didn’t know, the reframing, have been really valuable on their own.”

This is just one client’s story and each situation is unique. The advice given to Daniel was provided after a full evaluation of specific needs, circumstances and requirements, and was correct at the time it was given. The solutions provided may not be suitable for everyone, and the information provided here does not constitute advice.

Please note that Help to Buy ISAs are not available through St. James’s Place.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Past performance is not indicative of future performance. The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

The SJP view: investing is for everyone

You don’t have to be wealthy to be an investor. You just need to be able to put aside a small amount every month, once you’ve ensured you’ve got enough cash in the bank to cover emergencies (usually three to six months of your essential outgoings)

Paying into a pension is a great way to get started. And the earlier you do this in life, the longer your money will have the opportunity to grow.

Planning for specific goals in the short, medium and long term can really help with budgeting and motivation, too.

A financial adviser can give you the confidence to go for it, then stay the course over the decades ahead – for example, if markets become volatile in the short term, as over longer periods they tend to rise.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place is directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.

 

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SJP Approved 07/05/2025