Before I jump into London…

For the past nine years I’ve been running Wanderer Financial, along with my business partner Lorin. We’ve had well over 1,000 subscribers through the years and one thing I have come to learn is that while just about everybody can use some help with their finances and investments, not everyone has the time, energy, or the background necessary to really maximize those things.

About two years ago I started to think about going one step further and start a wealth management firm. I studied like a college student, took the necessary exams to get licensed, and finally, a few months ago went live with Rudder Financial.

Back in March I started onboarding clients. One of the things that’s always been important to me is managing my work/life balance, so I’ve been easing into this, taking on clients purposefully and ensuring that we’re a good fit with similar outlooks on life and goals for the future that go beyond just a typical run-of-the-mill retirement. If you’ve followed us for a little while, you know that the traditional path is not the one we generally take and it’s not the one we encourage.

There are a million financial planners/wealth managers out there who live a normal life, commuting to the office day after day, on track for a comfortable retirement at 65. If you want to tie your future to that person, great. If, however, your goals for the future align more with the life that I’ve led, then let’s talk. My focus is on helping people figure out how to make big dreams (sailing around the world, full-time RV life, etc.) a reality long before a typical retirement age. Fully half of my current clients are actively looking at boat listings with near-term plans to sail away. I want to make sure they do it with a solid plan in place to not only fund the adventure today, but be secure in the future.

Anyway, I won’t go on and on here, but if any of this resonates with you, please go on over to Rudder Financial and look around to get some more information. Book an intro call with me if you’d just like to talk, or you can shoot me an email if you’d rather.

Got a group of five, plus luggage? Nothing better than a Black Cab. We’d quickly come to love these things. With seating for six and easy handicap access, it’s hard to imagine why we’re still climbing in and out of typical cars everywhere else. Score one for England right off the bat from Heathrow.

Our home in the King’s Cross neighborhood. Fun fact shared by our cabbie, London is classified as the world’s largest urban forest. I can’t dispute him. There are indeed a lot of trees.

For our first morning in London we decided a nice easy way to take in a handful of sights would be with a boat tour along the River Thames. We had tickets ahead of time and thought we’d arrived in time, despite the traffic, but no…

Ali and the kids ran ahead and boarded the boat and let them know we were right behind. But the boat was actually quite a walk from the road and Grammy does not have a second gear. It was actually comical watching them waving to us from the boat’s top deck, urging us to hurry, while we slowly approached. We were finally getting close when the captain had to give up and go. Bye family.

The tour company had no issues putting us on the next boat.

Our arrival in London perfectly coincided with a record heatwave that was killing hundreds across Europe and sparking renewed debates about, of all things, air-conditioning. America is one giant ice box, but for most of Europe (especially in historical buildings) air-conditioning isn’t a thing. Grammy and I wisely chose to sit inside out of the sun for our boat tour.

Cool looking bollards probably don’t get used much these days, but back in the 1800s they sure would have been. And they were so well placed that they even inspired the saying, “When the lions drink, London will sink. When it’s up to their manes, we’ll go down the drains. When the water is sucked, you can be sure we’re all…”

In classic tourist fashion, our next stop was the London Eye for the birds-eye view of the city. This is when we realized just how valuable having Grammy with us would be on this trip. The line snaked around and around and everyone in it looked ready to melt. But walking up with a grandmother and a cane we were immediately ushered straight through to the front. This would go for every place we’d visit on this trip, and not a single person would bat an eyelash over it.

Here in England they have special schemes intended to help those with disabilities that go far beyond anything else I’ve ever seen. Or perhaps I was just unaware. The big one is the essential companion passes. I had learned about this a few weeks earlier when I called a theater to inquire about the best seats for someone with a vision impairment. When I called about that I was asked, “Would your mother be able to go to this show alone?” Definitely not. “Then what I can do is give you her seat for half price, give you a free companion ticket, and I can discount your other three seats as well.” I was blown away. After that I searched up companion tickets and learned all about how hard England works to make everything accessible. It would prove to be an amazing benefit for Grammy, as there is just no way she could have done all the things we would do over the next couple of weeks without this sort of care. Certainly, on day one in that heat we would not have been able to manage the line for the London Eye (despite having timed tickets booked ahead of time).

I shouldn’t give England all the credit, though. Worth mentioning here is that I had actually thought to call the theater because of an experience a couple of years ago in Portland. We had taken Grammy to a play and as soon as we walked into the lobby, with her using a walker at the time, an usher had asked us if they could help. They went over to the box office window and a minute later had come back to us with far better seats that didn’t require managing any stairs. So, if you have someone in your life that has a hard time getting around, has vision problems, or whatever the case may be, don’t be afraid to ask businesses for help. We’re learning that people will go out of their way to make sure that people like Grammy can still get out and enjoy the same things, despite a bit of age-related difficulty.

We saw these two get on the capsule behind us and the guy act surprised as they closed the door with only the two of them in it. Ali immediately said, “He’s gonna propose.” A few minutes later…

Ali went up to them afterwards and got their email to send them some pictures.

Ouest and I were the only two with a bit of energy left that night and decided to hop on the bus and go check out Big Ben. It was not an original idea.

I’m finding that London is a really fun place for anyone who enjoys small random historical stories and factoids. Look up the Westminster Bridge Lion if you like that sort of thing.