Financial Planner Martin says
Date: Tue, 01/08/2008 - 04:30
[url=http://www.informedchoice.ltd.uk/martin_bamford.htm]
[/url]Martin Bamford,is a Chartered Financial Planner and is responsible for the day to day running of Informed Choice.He also ensures technical services to clients.He is an Associate of the Personal Finance Society.
Please tell our readers something about yourself?
I'm a 28 year old financial adviser living and working in a village in Surrey. I recently became a Chartered Financial Planner and Certified Financial Planner certificant, so I take my profession very seriously. In addition to advising clients on all aspects of their Financial Planning, I am a personal finance author. My first book, The Money Tree, was published in 2006 by Pearson Prentice Hall. I had two more books published at the end of last year – Brilliant Investing and How to Retire 10 Years Early. I love writing books because it means I can reach a much wider audience than I can when working with clients on a 1:1 basis.
Do you have any email id on which our readers can reach you?
The best way to reach me is to leave a comment on my blogs or through one of the social networks like Ecademy.com, LinkedIn or Facebook. My email ID has a tendency of getting snowed under with client contacts, media requests and more general updates, so my over zealous spam filters sometimes eliminate messages from new contacts.
Since when are you Blogging?
I started blogging back in August 2003 through the business networking site Ecademy.com. Shortly after this I started our own personal finance blog using Blogger. This made me one of the first personal finance bloggers in the UK, although it was already a popular topic for bloggers in the US and overseas. I do have the accolade of being the creator of the first podcast from a Financial Adviser, all the way back in September 2004 when podcasting was still very much a new technology.
What is your motivation behind this blog?
Blogging is a great way to reach a wider audience, a bit like being a published author. I love the fact that it is so instant and works in real time. Waiting to discuss a story or idea in the printed media, which I also write quite a lot for, takes too long. I guess that I am quite an impatient person, but blogging means that I can connect instantly with a community to be able to share ideas or news.
What topics do you explore in this blog?
Almost anything and everything in the world of personal finance! My main areas of expertise are investments, retirement planning and Financial Planning. That said, we have covered topics as diverse as the price of parking at the local train station (to discuss price inflation) to
What are your future-plans with this blog?
I plan to keep on blogging and growing the readership base. I think that the secret to this is keeping the contents fresh and engaging. Simply blogging about news stories is of little interest to the typical blog visitor because they can get this information from other sources. What our readers like is opinions and fresh angles on a particular topic. I hope that I manage to achieve this and will keep doing so in the future. It would be great to start integrating some short video clips or audio content, in the same fashion as a podcast, in the future, but the biggest challenge with this sort of thing is finding the available time.
What are the sites and blogs you browse often?
I'm a bit of a social networking addict, so you will often find me surfing the likes of Facebook, Ecademy and LinkedIn. In terms of blogs, you will find my reading the collection of blog sites at LifeRemix.net, which includes Zen Habits and The Four Hour Work Week. I am a sucker for anything to do with productivity, time management and innovation. As you can imagine I also read a lot of personal finance blogs and spend a lot of my time digesting news. I use the IFA Life forum to interact with other financial advisers and the Citywire site to keep up to speed with developments in the world of investing.
Would you please share something for people who are in debt?
The hardest part of debt management is initially facing up to the problem. Too many people these days like to stick their heads in the sand and hope their money troubles will somehow evaporate. Dealing with debt, in the first instance, is a bit like removing a sticking plaster – you can either do it slowly (and painfully) or get it over and done with very quickly.
The social stigma associated with debt appears to be reducing, but I see this as both a positive and negative thing. It means that getting help with debt becomes easier (which is a good thing) but it also removes some of the incentives to avoid debt in the first place.
Would you like to say something to our community members?
Please avoid commercial debt management firms who might look like they have your best interests at heart, but are really looking to profit from your financial difficulties. On the rare occasions that I have seen daytime television I know how persistent the advertising can be from these firms. The reality is that there are some very good free sources of debt management advice out there, particularly from the likes of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline or the Citizens Advice Bureau. Use these first before thinking about getting into bed with a commercial organisation.
Please share with our readers about your first book, The Money Tree.
The Money Tree was my first book, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to share my accumulated knowledge and experience of Financial Planning with a wider audience. I wrote it in a very different style from most of the personal finance books that had already been published, which I hope reflects my own style and approach to the subject. In the first month of publication it was selected as the WHSmith Business Book of the Month, which was amazing for me as a first time author. It just missed out on appearing in the top 50 bestsellers list that first week as well – I think I was pushed out of 50th place by the fiction author Dan Brown!
[/url]Martin Bamford,is a Chartered Financial Planner and is responsible for the day to day running of Informed Choice.He also ensures technical services to clients.He is an Associate of the Personal Finance Society.Please tell our readers something about yourself?
I'm a 28 year old financial adviser living and working in a village in Surrey. I recently became a Chartered Financial Planner and Certified Financial Planner certificant, so I take my profession very seriously. In addition to advising clients on all aspects of their Financial Planning, I am a personal finance author. My first book, The Money Tree, was published in 2006 by Pearson Prentice Hall. I had two more books published at the end of last year – Brilliant Investing and How to Retire 10 Years Early. I love writing books because it means I can reach a much wider audience than I can when working with clients on a 1:1 basis.
Do you have any email id on which our readers can reach you?
The best way to reach me is to leave a comment on my blogs or through one of the social networks like Ecademy.com, LinkedIn or Facebook. My email ID has a tendency of getting snowed under with client contacts, media requests and more general updates, so my over zealous spam filters sometimes eliminate messages from new contacts.
Since when are you Blogging?
I started blogging back in August 2003 through the business networking site Ecademy.com. Shortly after this I started our own personal finance blog using Blogger. This made me one of the first personal finance bloggers in the UK, although it was already a popular topic for bloggers in the US and overseas. I do have the accolade of being the creator of the first podcast from a Financial Adviser, all the way back in September 2004 when podcasting was still very much a new technology.
What is your motivation behind this blog?
Blogging is a great way to reach a wider audience, a bit like being a published author. I love the fact that it is so instant and works in real time. Waiting to discuss a story or idea in the printed media, which I also write quite a lot for, takes too long. I guess that I am quite an impatient person, but blogging means that I can connect instantly with a community to be able to share ideas or news.
What topics do you explore in this blog?
Almost anything and everything in the world of personal finance! My main areas of expertise are investments, retirement planning and Financial Planning. That said, we have covered topics as diverse as the price of parking at the local train station (to discuss price inflation) to
What are your future-plans with this blog?
I plan to keep on blogging and growing the readership base. I think that the secret to this is keeping the contents fresh and engaging. Simply blogging about news stories is of little interest to the typical blog visitor because they can get this information from other sources. What our readers like is opinions and fresh angles on a particular topic. I hope that I manage to achieve this and will keep doing so in the future. It would be great to start integrating some short video clips or audio content, in the same fashion as a podcast, in the future, but the biggest challenge with this sort of thing is finding the available time.
What are the sites and blogs you browse often?
I'm a bit of a social networking addict, so you will often find me surfing the likes of Facebook, Ecademy and LinkedIn. In terms of blogs, you will find my reading the collection of blog sites at LifeRemix.net, which includes Zen Habits and The Four Hour Work Week. I am a sucker for anything to do with productivity, time management and innovation. As you can imagine I also read a lot of personal finance blogs and spend a lot of my time digesting news. I use the IFA Life forum to interact with other financial advisers and the Citywire site to keep up to speed with developments in the world of investing.
Would you please share something for people who are in debt?
The hardest part of debt management is initially facing up to the problem. Too many people these days like to stick their heads in the sand and hope their money troubles will somehow evaporate. Dealing with debt, in the first instance, is a bit like removing a sticking plaster – you can either do it slowly (and painfully) or get it over and done with very quickly.
The social stigma associated with debt appears to be reducing, but I see this as both a positive and negative thing. It means that getting help with debt becomes easier (which is a good thing) but it also removes some of the incentives to avoid debt in the first place.
Would you like to say something to our community members?
Please avoid commercial debt management firms who might look like they have your best interests at heart, but are really looking to profit from your financial difficulties. On the rare occasions that I have seen daytime television I know how persistent the advertising can be from these firms. The reality is that there are some very good free sources of debt management advice out there, particularly from the likes of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline or the Citizens Advice Bureau. Use these first before thinking about getting into bed with a commercial organisation.
Please share with our readers about your first book, The Money Tree.
The Money Tree was my first book, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to share my accumulated knowledge and experience of Financial Planning with a wider audience. I wrote it in a very different style from most of the personal finance books that had already been published, which I hope reflects my own style and approach to the subject. In the first month of publication it was selected as the WHSmith Business Book of the Month, which was amazing for me as a first time author. It just missed out on appearing in the top 50 bestsellers list that first week as well – I think I was pushed out of 50th place by the fiction author Dan Brown!