Life is a team sport

What do football World Cups, investment portfolios, the loss of a loved one and a Lucent hoedown have in common? More than you might think... read on for this month's words of wisdom from Steve Rowe.

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What can I say… well you’re about to read about 2000 words of what I can say! What can I say about July except that, it’s been eventful. The following will explain how in life, death, investing and world cups it is the teams that you are part of, that you support and that you play against that bring the success, the support and the resilience that you need to win the championship of your life.  

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Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

- Michael Jordan, basketball player

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Life is a team sport

July saw the culmination of the football World Cup, where for the first time 48 teams took part in the finals. What was memorable about this? Was it that England bottled it again in the closing minutes? Nope. Was it that Spain (almost inevitably) won it, or that despite interference from Trump and Infantino, that football was the real winner? (I love a cliché!) Nope!

No! It was the ‘small’ teams that probably wouldn’t have been there if it was a 32-team World Cup as usual. I’m thinking Scotland, Curaçao and most of all Cape Verde. Scotland were not so great at the football side, but their fans brought life and soul to Boston and were celebrated for what they brought in atmosphere to the tournament.

Curaçao was the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup. They drew against Ecuador and got their first World Cup goal against Germany! They eventually lost 7-1 but watching them equalise against Germany was a great feeling.

Cape Verde were the standouts though. They drew with Spain, the eventual winners, and were the smallest nation to get to the knockout stage of the World Cup ever. There are only 500,000 of them! That’s only double the population of Solihull! They were unlucky against Argentina when they were knocked out too.

Why does this matter, Steve? I’m here for some high-quality financial journalism! It matters because, with investing, the talk is always of the large teams. The Googles, Amazons, Nvidias and Apples. But what of the smaller company investments? You think they’re not important, don’t you. But they are. They are the excitement, the idea factories for larger companies to take advantage of, and for your Investments they are more likely to earn higher returns than the massive companies. They same is true of ‘Value’ companies (their price is relatively lower at purchase) and more profitable companies:

Source: Matrix Book 2026 (Historical Returns Data) - Dimensional

The trouble is, you don’t know which of these teams is going to produce these returns. So in the World Cup of investing, we recommend expanding from 48 teams to 12,000! This isn’t just investing in the main stock markets like the FTSE 350 or S&P 500. What of the 501st company? Is the 500th loads better? Of course not. So investing in the main markets and outside of them is vital to achieve maximum diversification. This way, you find the uncut gems that really kick on and add bite to your returns. Diversification reduces risk and helps increase returns, but so many are blinkered to the amount of companies it is possible to invest in. ‘Thousands’ is the answer.

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I’ve lost my team mate but I know in you, I have other teams that are awesome

- Steve’s wife, July 31st 2026.

Last week, my father-in-law died. He and my wife had a close relationship, based on humour and you might say mutual annoyance! They were certainly the best of buds, and she will miss him as more than just a father. She wrote the above on a text to our friends and after wiping the tears away, it struck a chord with me. Even more so as I reflected on this amidst the help we have both received since. It’s only been 4 days since he passed, but during that time we have:

• Received countless messages, cards and flowers from friends and associates. Thank you.
• Got a sponge cake!
• Hannah, from Lucent sent the most wonderful book to her – The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – by Charlie Mackesy. Get this book and read it’s simple messages over and over and especially when things are getting tough.
• My team - last week was a big week for us at Lucent Financial Planning. Thursday was the annual summer barbecue we do for all our clients. My father-in-law died the night before. Swiftly, upon telling them of what had happened they jumped onto action. I didn’t ask, they just acted. Luke contacted me and said he would do any speaking bits I had to do. I literally did nothing, I turned up late (I really wanted to see what it was like as everyone had worked so hard on it) and I went home early.
• Our team of clients – all were supportive of me on the night and since, and I'm meeting some this week for dinner.

Financial advisers and their clients are teams – one cannot do well without the other

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Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing it.

– Jesse Owens, track and field athlete

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Why teams are so important for investment and life

You can’t rely on one star player all the time. Great companies can go bust (Enron / Kodak). Your star family member will become ill or die.

A wider pool leads to better results - more underdogs to root for in world cups. Greater chance of owning the next super star company in investing. More people with talents you need to call on when you’re in need.

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Captains and Teams

He was my captain, he still is and always will be.

Rob Burrow on Kevin Sinfield, who raised £11 million for MND research that Rob suffered with.

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You won’t get the teams you need in life if you’re not prepared to be a captain or in other people’s teams. At the event, Lucent's captains introduced themselves. You’ll recognise them as being dressed as a Cowgirl (Rachel) and a Cactus (Hannah)

During their speech, they explained how:

• We are moving towards becoming an employee-owned company - everyone is a captain! This is better for our clients because it ensures we will be around forever! The business won’t be subsumed into another larger company or private-equity based consolidator. You won’t be shoe-horned into some investment that suits the need of the buyer either. It ensures we retain our independence.
• We are trying to do better for the world by becoming a B-Corp.
• We are doing better for clients by doing those things, plus keeping charges a third lower than the average advised portfolio (1.2% compared to 1.8%) and putting on arugably the best client experience in the business! How many other advisers put on a hoedown?!

Thank you to our clients for being on our team, and especially big thanks to all the people that did testimonials on video for us at the event: Geraldine, Baidaa, Chris & Anne, Suzie, Kirsty, Michael, Hazel, Gary & Tracy (and other two!). We appreciate your support!

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What can you do for your team mates?

There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.

– Mandy Hale, American author and speaker

Firstly, find your teammates. These may be people close to you or more distant, indeed you may have never even met! You will need help from your teams and so you must help your teammates.

What can you do that others in those teams can’t? You may think of Jordan Henderson here. Selected for the England squad, with very small chance of playing many minutes, he was there to support, to cajole, to provide warm words of encouragement. His footballing skills didn’t get him there. It was because he was a great teammate. Also, despite not playing in one game, he managed to get a yellow card and break an arm celebrating!

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No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.

– H.E. Luccock, American minister and professor

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With investing, some assets are there to provide down-side risk protection. Some are there to dampen the falls when there is a market crash. Some are there for short-term spending and some for long-term, high-risk titillation!

The chart below from the Dimensional Matrix Book 2026 shows the performance of a 60/40 portfolio vs the S&P 500 index in four market declines.

Holding bonds can help ease the impact of stock market volatility. For example, in the 4 most severe bear markets since the 1970s, a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio would have experienced a lower drawdown relative to a 100% stock portfolio, and recovered faster.

In our team at Lucent Financial Planning, we have the social organisers in Luke, Keely and Jamie. They bring people together to enjoy themselves and nurture the sense of camaraderie we have.

Jamie, Jasmine, Joe and Mel are the sporty ones! Just last week Jasmine and Mel tried to drag Keely and I around a Park Run course in under 30 minutes! They failed… but we did manage our best yet!

Ellie makes me want to learn new stuff and Hasna keeps Joe in check. I could go on about the team dynamics at Lucent for a long time!

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‍_{We need to build a life and financial plan that can survive when one player leaves the pitch.}

_‍We can’t predict the future and when changes will happen, but we can prepare for it. We do this in your investment portfolios. And if you prepare thoroughly, EVERYTHING is better psychologically for you, and also actual financial outcomes should be too. You might not want to face up to it but, let me tell you, it’s infinitely better to get things in place beforehand when it’s not happening than when it is shoved right in your face and actually happening there and then.

There are so many circumstances where you will need a team. You will need at least these ones and probably more:

Financial plan for your life - what you want, where you’re going and how to get there more quickly.

Retirement plan - everyone is going to make this transition and it’s one of the hardest to make as it’s all on you and it’s definitely going to happen. You need a plan to replace the things work gave you- purpose / structure to the week / social side of work etc.

Care plan - when you get too old and knackered to look after yourself, what are you going to do? This is always left until it’s too late. People go into or get care too late and it’s masses of stress for you and your family. Make a staged plan. When you get to certain levels of health, you move. For example, when you start to find it hard to get up / walk about. That’s when you move to sheltered accommodation that is more convenient. We can help you with this. When you get a team with a plan behind you, the uncertainty, stress and danger dissipates. Easy to say, hard to do.

Estate plan for your death - we are going big on this for the next 2 years. This isn’t just about inheritance tax, it’s about dying tidily and not leaving hassle for those left behind during highly emotional periods. Also, about leaving a positive legacy of good feeling, not just money. Finally, for when death occurs knowing exactly what to do for your family members e.g.

• Which undertaker to call
• Funeral arrangements - songs to be sung, speeches to be read, flowers to be picked
• Where the money is
• Who is the executor of the will
• Who will administrate the estate and obtain grant of probate

This is easy to organise. Very easy.

It’s hard to talk about.

It’s really hard to sort it all out if nothing has been done and you’re dead.

We can’t help you create all of your teams, you need family, friends and other support. But we can certainly help! Love is what binds them all so get out there and get lovin’!

Hoedown

We love our summer event! We moved away from Hogarths this year to Newlands Bishop Farm - they are a charity and so was great to help them help us. These are TEAMS!!!

Lucent Financial Planning's Leadership Team. The pony in the middle is particularly effective!

Lucent’s Financial Adviser Team – yeehaw!

The whole posse!

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Over to you...

We would love to hear your thoughts on what the theme should be for next year's bash...

2025 – German Oompah night

2026 – Yeehaw Hoedown

2027 – what do YOU think?... answers on a postcard please!

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We get some stick from some quarters for our events as there is a view that people would prefer lower fees, but it’s important to understand:

• We can spend money on adverts, or we can raise awareness through you having a great time and bringing your friends!
• We can spend our time making these fun nights or we can go to cruddy networking events that most financial advisers do. It’s a better investment of our time to do this.
• There is almost 10% higher referral rate for people that attend our events than those that don’t.
• Fun and professional outcomes in our work are not mutually exclusive. We are intelligent enough to do the best financial plans and creative enough to explain them so you understand. Here’s the proof, straight from one of our clients:

This is TEAMS in action. We’re your team and you’re our team. Together, with this kind of thinking, we can all do better!

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Our next event is evening of Thursday 29th of October – Lucent's Variety night!

We are excited to announce that Lucent will be hosting a variety night this October, featuring our very own:

Hazel Carter - telling her poignant story “Adventures of a widow with one kidney”

Kieran Hearty - our client who, when we were discussing his retirement plan I asked how we could create purpose on retirement. Most people say ‘travel’, ‘looking after grand children’ etc. instead, he said ‘I’m going to try to become a comedian’ and he has!

Ben Hanlin - he’s a magician off the telly! He will make us smile and laugh, as well as tell us some stories and introduce the real stars – Kieran and Hazel. He’s a local lad and will bring some professionalism to the presentation that Hannah in her cactus suit can only dream of!!

TEAMS in action! We’re supporting our clients to get their message out. They are supporting us by spreading it at this event for all of you.

Ben isn’t a client. He will probably want to be after meeting you lot though!

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Monthly Walk

The word on the street, or should I say the word on St Bernard’s Road, Solihull, is that Mrs History has been seen trudging up and down doing some research... and its for us!!

This, again, is TEAMS in action! My sister in law, our client, my favourite historical impresario, coming up with a new talk for me and thee.

Keep your eyes on our Eventbrite page for our next Mrs History walk later this year (and in the meantime, check out our next walk on 5th August... Can't make that one? Details for 8th September will be loaded to Eventbrite soon!)

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Podcast

Last week in Episode 44 of Juggling Mind and Money.... I did an episode all on my own! It was about goal and objective setting.

It would be great if you could give it a listen and left me know what you think. It’s more serious than usual (it’s hard doing jokes on your own!) but definitely worth a listen if I say so myself!

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So, until next month, in the wise words of Jerry Springer... look after yourselves, and each other.

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‍Disclaimer: This article does not constitute financial advice. We recommend that you speak to a qualified financial planner for advice tailored to your individual circumstances and goals. Financial markets may go up or down, and you are not guaranteed a return on your investment. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. Financial details including benefits to the treatment of tax will depend on your individual circumstances and, while checked at the time of publication, may be subject to change in future.

*When clicking a link to an external website, Lucent Financial Planning Ltd cannot be held responsible for the content of the external website.

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