For this adviser, the need for greater flexibility alongside his desire to help under-50s led him to open up his own firm.
In discussion with Money Management, Mike Miller explained how the need for more flexibility in his own life led him to starting up his own business, Emerging Wealth.
“I’ve got a two-year-old daughter, a wife that works full-time, and I needed a role that enabled me to see clients from 10am to 4pm and I could do admin out of hours,” he said.
Despite garnering over 10 years of experience as an adviser, Miller had to quickly adapt to the business side of founding his own firm.
He partnered with The Wealth Network, a service which provided Miller and those in the financial advice industry with personalised coaching sessions.
The adviser additionally decided to focus on under-50s as his target clientbase. This was due to previous clients who would commonly tell him: “Do you know how different our finances would be if we started this 20 years ago?”
There was a crucial difference between managing wealth and building wealth, Miller identified.
“When I would ask my wealthiest clients how they got where they are, they would say: ‘we took small steps and did the right actions, and it compounded over the years’.”
The ages between 25 and 45-years-old was when most major life events tend to occur, including getting married, buying a home and having children.
“Everything happens in that time,” Miller said, “and because people are so focused on those things, they leave building their wealth until their 50s.”
If Australians were to focus on implementing small steps towards their wealth around their 30s, they would reach their 50s with a significant compounding effect, the adviser noted.
“My wealthiest clients would take small steps that seemed like nothing in the day-to-day, whether it was putting a bit extra into their super or a little bit into a savings bond, and by the time they got to their 50s, it was huge.”
Alongside the need for flexibility, it was also this desire to get in early and motivate younger Australians to prioritise wealth creation which led Miller to start up his own firm.
“After health, being the most important thing in your life, finances are the second most important thing. People float through life unconscious about their finances,” he recognised.
“If they were at least conscious of what they were doing and taking small steps, that would have a huge impact on them later in life.”
For those aged in their 30s to 40s, major life events coupled with external economic pressures such as rising interest rates were preventing many Australians from receiving the advice they needed.
“You could be extremely switched on when it comes to finances, but do you want to get home at 6pm and look at your share portfolio? It doesn’t always have to be where your weaknesses are. It’s more about what you actually want to be spending your time doing,” Miller added.
