Wow can you believe that 2016 is nearly over? What an exciting year for JBS – transferring to our own licence to allow greater control and flexibility within the business and also gaining some fantasic new additions to the JBS clan.

JBS Financial Strategists will be closing at 4pm on Thursday, 22 December and reopening on Wednesday, 4th January, 2017. During the holiday closure the business will be supported via email on strategies@jbsfinancial.com.au or Jen’s mobile phone on 0418 990 988 for urgent issues.

We would like to thank you for your ongoing support and commitment throughout 2016.

From all the team at JBS, we would like to wish you, your family and your friends a wonderful holiday break, a safe & prosperous New Year and we look forward to seeing you in 2017.

We hope you get a laugh from our video – we had plenty making it!!

Purchasing insurance is the most effective method to protect our families and ourselves, financially against unforeseen circumstances.  Often however, people make simple mistakes whilst purchasing personal insurance cover.  Here are some of the mistakes we find people make.

Purchasing insurance online or over the phone without professional advice

This point refers to all those commercials you see on TV about how you can buy insurance cover over the phone in 5 minutes without any medical and lifestyle questionnaires. When you buy insurance over the phone or online, the assessment process will seem to be very simple and fast.  This type of insurance is what we refer to as direct insurance.  Although simple to implement, direct insurance comes with more risks as direct insurance cover can mean assessment is carried out at the time of claim.

For example you might call up an insurer that you’ve seen on TV and get your insurance cover in place. 3 years later you suffer from a medical condition and need to claim. As the assessment wasn’t carried out during the application stage, it’ll be carried out during the claim stage. During assessment process, the insurer will assess you medically and financially for both the claim and from when you started the policy.  If the insurer discovers that you’ve had medical conditions prior to taking out the insurance policy, they could potentially void your claim altogether, meaning they cancel the policy as if you never held it.  This ultimately means you have been paying 3 years’ worth of premiums for an insurance policy which provided you with no cover at all.

Going through professionals such as a financial adviser, should mean you’re assessed at the time of application.  Although the process may take a little longer, it means you and your family have some certainty when you are accepted at application time, rather than be declined payment because of something you didn’t disclose during application stage.

Only considering price rather than value of the product(s) purchased

Price can often play an important part in your decision to buy personal insurance, but it should not be the only factor to consider. Find out about things like:

–  Additional benefits and definitions of the policy
–  What types of benefits are included and excluded
–  Claims payment procedures
–  What exclusions or limits exist on the cover
–  Ownership options

Price should not be the only consideration when purchasing insurance. That good old saying of ‘You get what you pay for’ applies here. Cheap generally means a lesser policy.

Implementing the wrong levels of cover required

We often find many people implement insufficient insurance covers in order to save money on premiums or they simply don’t know what to include when assessing their need for cover.  Whatever the case underinsurance could leave you and your family in financial strife.

These are just some of the questions you need ask yourself whilst implementing death cover.

If you were to die prematurely which option would you prefer for your partner?

–  Repay the home loan and never have to work again
–  Repay the home loan and not have to work for 5 years
–  They lose the house and have to return to work immediately
–  They can fend for themselves

Additionally would you also want the following expenses covered?

–  Funds for funeral expenses, medical expenses and legal expenses
–  Funds for the children’s education
–  Funds as an inheritance for kids and your partner
–  Purchasing insurance with premiums that increase as you get older

As you get older the chances of you suffering from a medical condition increases, therefore insurers tend to charge higher premiums for older Australians. This causes many people to cancel their cover simply because the premiums (costs) keep getting higher each year with their age.

You also have the option of purchasing your insurance with level premiums. This means the premium can be averaged over the lifetime of the policy and will not increase each year with your age (Cover and premiums can increase by CPI).

Another option is to reduce your sum insured which will reduce your premiums.  As you get older, your expenses and debts such as the mortgage tend to reduce.  Therefore you can reduce your level of insurance cover depending on your situation, which in turn will reduce the premiums payable.

Not reviewing your situation and your cover as life events take place

Certain events that occur in our lives can make a massive impact on our financial needs. Events can range from the birth of a baby to repaying the mortgage, receiving a promotion or re-entering the work force.

Every time there are certain changes to your life, you need to review your insurance cover. Picking up that phone and having a chat to your adviser, could mean you and your family receive the much needed additional cover. Or it could even mean savings in premiums as the existing cover you have may be too high and needs to be reduced.  Whatever the case it’s important to review your insurance needs every time a certain life event occurs.

If you want to know more or thinking about putting in place personal insurance cover, please contact JBS Financial Strategists.

For a while now, I have heard a few finance graduate friends in their early 20s say “I want to start investing, but don’t know how and where to start’’. When a finance student raises such queries, it’s comparable to a medical student entering an operation theatre and asking which instruments to use.

When us youngins hear about investing in stock markets, a mental image of men in dapper suits throwing out technical jargon (DRPs, Options, Hybrids, etc.) that many don’t understand comes to mind. All we know is they are talking money! So what do young investors really want?

Sharemarket Perception and what the young investors want

As per the ASX 2014 Share Ownership Study, in Australia 15% of the total youth aged 18-24 and just 25% aged 25-34 own sharemarket listed investments. One of the biggest reasons identified for not investing is that they don’t know much about the sharemarket. Another misconception is that a huge amount of money is required to enter the sharemarket. Post GFC, the inclination towards investing in managed funds has also reduced as the older investors suffered losses in those types of investments. So for the young investors it is a dilemma as to where to start and how to diversify.

Youth needs

Broadly, after graduation, there are 3 types of youth;

–  those who know exactly what they want to do in life

–  those who haven’t decided yet

–  those who ‘kind of’ know what they want to pursue

All of them have one thing in common, everyone wants to be financially stable or at least have regular cash flow to live the dream, be it travelling, paying off student loans, savings for a home, etc.

Today’s Gen Y, we want to have it all. Yes it may be wrong to stereotype all Gen Ys as one, but for argument’s sake let’s consider this assumption. We want fast results, we are go-getters and not afraid to take risks. However when it comes to investing and financial independence, our risk appetite stumbles a bit and I feel it should. These are not easy decisions to make but with the correct attitude, information and expert’s help, the risk level can be reduced.

So ideally, we want to save for the future, while enjoying the present and we want all of this, fast! All these wants contradict each other at some level. To save for the future, you have to sacrifice a part of your present income which means sacrificing a part of your present living unless you’re born with a silver spoon or have a billion dollar start-up idea!

Need for mixing it up

Historically, Australians love dividend paying shares and there has been a tradition of dividend payouts by the big companies. This is because of the tag of being a safer company and investing in them provides an income. However this does not mean you adopt a defensive strategy by investing in dividend paying stocks. The past few weeks of the reporting season saw 65% of companies increase their dividend by a small amount whereas 14% of the companies cut dividends by a large amount (The SMH, August 29, 2016).

Even if a person starts investing at the age of 25, there remains another 30-35 years of working life to save, invest and spend as well. A rough calculation of risk taking in investing is the ‘100 – Age’ formula. Say if you are 25, 75% of your investments should be stocks. Conversely, if you are aged 45, then you should have 55% in the share market. This is because when you are young and you lose money on your investments, you have less responsibilities to worry about and more time to build your wealth back up.

I recently read a book “Financial Passages” – by Mercantile Mutual Funds Management which truly said that ‘any money you set aside now has plenty of time to work hard for you’. The earlier you learn by taking risks, the better you will get at investing with time.

If you are thinking about investing however not sure where to start, contact the team at JBS today to discuss your personal circumstances.

On Tuesday night I had the honour of joining Aakash at Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellors Professional Excellency Program Inaugural Dinner.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Academic and International Excellence Scholarships are awarded to Australian and International students whose exceptional academic and extra-curricular achievements truly sets them apart.

Aakash was one of three inaugural scholars honoured on the night and it was a privilege for me to represent JBS as one of the inaugural employers involved in the program.

To be part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Professional Excellence Program, the scholars are required to participate in academic mentoring, career and personal development coaching, as well as challenges focused on providing them with professional and personal awareness and growth.  Not to mention that they have to achieve an extremely high level of academic performance.

Well done Aakash on your achievement, you are a great asset to the JBS team!

Recently I was fortunate enough to go to the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) 2016 conference in Canberra. The 3 day event was kicked off by JBS’s own Jenny Brown as conference chair and current AFA Vice President. JB launched the theme of “Adaptive Change, Taking Advice Beyond The Horizon”. The theme was very appropriate as our profession continues to go through change, not only with legislation, but also with other factors such as technology and an ever changing political and economic environment.

For me, it was a great chance to be able to come together with other professional advisers, practice owners and thought leaders to discuss ways to take advantage of these changes. The highlight for me, and no doubt the majority of the other delegates, was to hear from the Honourable John Howard.  It was fantastic how he spoke about where he sees Australia, lessons he has learnt from his time in politics, leadership and what we, as a nation, need in the current political environment. He talked about the current focus on the Australian banks as “strange” given the number of inquiries into them since the GFC, and the fact that they held Australia in such a strong position during this time. He spoke about leadership and how if you get into a leadership position you are going to make mistakes, the important thing is to get the “big things” right. But the final, and in my view, most important point was that as a leader, not everyone is going to agree with your decisions and thoughts but if you are passionate and decisive, the majority of people will respect you and your decisions.

Day 2 kicked off with Dr Ric Charlesworth, one of Australia’s most highly regarded sporting minds. He spoke about one of the biggest lessons business people can learn from elite sports people, is the emphasis on training and learning. He spoke about the amount of time that athletes spend training and preparing for their sports, rather than competing and how we, as a professionals, need to ensure that we are spending the time required to train to improve.

As previously mentioned, one of the great features of the AFA conference is the networking and peer learning. The “Meet the Professionals and Innovators” session was an intimate session where advisors are allocated to a table with one of 40 leaders in our industry. At JBS, our honour board and awards list shows that we are clearly cutting edge and industry leaders in our own rights, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to learn from others. I used this as a great opportunity to pick the brain of the 2015 AFA Adviser of the year about his approach to business. There is no doubt much of what we do at JBS is cutting edge, but I was able to identify some small ideas that we can use to enable us to provide a more valuable service for our clients.

Day 2 finished with one of the most inspirational speakers I have ever heard, Brian Freeman, Founder of Walking Wounded. Brian’s story was amazing and I have recounted it to many people since the conference. Walking Wounded exists to reduce the incidence of suicide in our Veteran Australian Soldiers and service men and women returning from conflicts such as East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. Brian started the foundation in 2014 for the reason that since 1999, 239 soldiers have taken their own lives once they have returned home, not because 46 soldiers have been killed in combat. To raise awareness of the issue, Brian took it upon himself to carry the Roll of Honour containing the 41 Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, signed by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and sealed in a metal canister on an epic journey. Over 7 months, beginning on Remembrance Day in 2014, Brian commenced with Mount Everest in April, prior to running 4,805km from the Tip of Cape York to the bottom of Tasmania, including kayaking unassisted across Bass Strait, all in 85 days. He then traversed the Kokoda Trail prior to ascending Mount Kilimanjaro, all to raise awareness.  Fittingly at the end of this amazing story, Brian was asked to join the MC for the day, and the audience, to complete 22 push ups as part of another awareness challenge, #22pups22days4ourmiltary, a campaign you may have seen on social media.

On day 3 we heard more from our industry leaders, once again with Jenny on the stage leading the way. We heard presentations about the benefits of taking time to work on the business, as well as in the business, a concept called the dance floor and balcony. The theory is based on a nightclub scenario whereby everyone gets the excitement of the day to day work of the dance floor, but often it is good to take a break from the day to day business to spend some time on the nightclub balcony and look at things from a different point of view. This is a theory that we spoke about at length at our JBS retreat, and this was a good opportunity for me to reflect and confirm that I spend enough time looking at how we do things rather than just getting caught up in the businesses of the ‘dancefloor’.

The afternoon included another great session on “Cool Sexy Tech for your Financial Advice Business”. This session prompted us to think about how we see ourselves from a technological point of view in 5 year’s time. The presenters had recently completed a tour of the Silicon Valley where they talked about the 800 plus start-up companies that are looking to shake up the financial services industry across the world. We ran through a futuristic scenario of how our clients will potentially be relating with their finances in the future and how we need to be able to adapt our businesses and services accordingly. I was excited to hear of the technology that is potentially on the horizon, and will enable me to have more relevant, meaningful and time critical conversations with our clients about their goals, dreams and their ability to achieve them.

Dr Adam Fraser concluded the conference, presenting on ‘Peak Performance without the Collateral Damage’. He spoke about the importance of the “third space”. The third space is the transition gap between each task we do, not just at work but also at home. He talked about this as the new competitive advantage in business and life. It is the time that you take to get over what you have just been through and show up to the next meeting or challenge with the right frame of mind, to allow you to get the most out of what is coming next. He talked about how this separates elite athletes from the rest of the pack. For example in tennis, the 3^rd space is the time between points, and the best players reflect quickly on the past point, put in behind them and move onto the next point. He spoke about it not being what the best players do during the point it is what they do between the points that makes them elite. For me, I found this really helpful as my third space is often the drive home from work. Up until recently, I had used the drive home to listen to work related podcasts or make telephone calls, but often this meant that I took my work home with me and wasn’t able to shut off to spend time with my children before bed. About a month ago, I decided to listen to podcasts that make me laugh or call mates to catch up. Without realising it, I was using it as my third space and it was meaning that I was coming home in a better frame of mind. This session really re-enforced the importance of this time for “me” and how it makes me a better father as a result. This is something I really want to ensure becomes ingrained in my daily routine.

I often get the feeling that people criticize conferences as junkets or don’t feel that they have time to attend however, for me, the right conference is a fantastic time to step out of the day to day routine, look at things with a fresh set of eyes and take the required “balcony” time to ensure that we, as a business, and me, as an individual, are doing things as best as we can to not only provide a great service to our existing clients, but also provide an offer that is appealing to potential new clients.

What if you only invested at market peaks?

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you buy an investment it tends to drop in value? Whilst this doesn’t really always happen, it just tends to be the investments we remember, what if it did happen? Even worse, what if it dropped by epic proportions?

Meet Tim who is the worst market timer that has ever existed. What follows is Tim’s tale of terrible timing of his stock purchases.

Tim, fresh out of school, begins his career in 1970 at age 18. He understands the importance of investing and saving for the future and therefore decides to start allocating $2,000 per year into a savings account. It’s now the end of 1972 and he has saved up $6,000. Into the stock market it goes. Unfortunately for Tim, after watching the stock market go up and up over the last two years, over the next two years it drops 48%. Tim loses a bit of confidence in the market and while he doesn’t sell, he continues to save up his money in a bank account waiting for things to improve.

15 years later and Tim decides that now is the right time to put more money into the market. It has been going up for years and he sees no reason why it won’t continue. He invests his entire $46,000 into the market. After a small decrease the market then drops suddenly on the 19th of October dropping a whopping 27% in one day. Tim’s had enough, no more putting money into the market. He leaves what is already in there as what’s the point in selling now and goes back to saving in his bank account.

After ignoring the market for 12 more years Tim can’t avoid people talking about the internet. Everyone is making money from the internet. Unfortunately Tim knows very little about the internet but the media informs him that there are plenty of companies on the stock market that do. He takes his $68,000 that he has in the bank and jumps in but this time decides to not even look at the market for the next two years. 2 years later he checks his investment and it have once again decreased by 50%.

It’s 2007 and Tim is now 55. He’s looking to retire in 2013 and decides he’s going to have one last dig at this share market thing. He’s managed to save up $64,000 and into the market it goes. Little does Tim know that once again he’s picked a terrible time to invest, the GFC is about to commence with losses of over 50%.

That’s it, no more investing for Tim…..ever! Once again he leaves the funds in the market but saves up another $40,000 in cash before he retires. So what did he end up with at retirement?

Over his working life Tim has managed to invest $184,000 saving an additional $40,000 over the last few years in cash giving a total investment amount of $224,000. Sure he picked the absolute worst times to invest including the bear market in the early 70’s, the infamous one day crash in 87, the technology bust in 2000 and the GFC in 2007. But he never went back on his investment decisions; he never sold any investments.

Tim ended up with a total retirement balance of $1.1 million. While Tim was a terrible market timer, he was a good investor. He saved a regular amount on a regular basis no matter what. He didn’t panic when the market went down and sold his investment. Instead he maintained his investments until he needed the money. Finally, he invested for the long term and even though he pretty much picked the top of the market each time to put the money in, over time the market continued to go up in value, even if he had to wait a little while after the big falls for it to recover, it always did recover and then go on to meet a new high.

We are not recommending anyone follow Tim’s strategy. He didn’t include diversification in his investment product options and if he would have implemented a dollar cost averaging strategy where he contributed his savings amount each year no matter what, he would have ended up with over twice as much.

This is based on a study in the US, given US market investments however Australian markets felt the same crashes and still illustrates the importance of standing strong with your investment decisions. Time in the market is more important than timing the market.

So what can we take out of Tim’s fictional experience?

1.    Losses happen and are part of the deal when investing in the share market. It’s how you react to those losses that will determine your investment performance over time.
2.    Invest for the long term and let compound interest work for you.
3.    The biggest factors when determining growing your wealth are time, and savings amount. The effect of the actual returns the investments generate on your portfolio pale in comparison to how much money you contribute and how long you invest. Get these two things right, and the rest will follow.

If you are thinking about investing or want to learn more about how you can start your investment portfolio, contact one of the advisers at JBS.

I am a Member of the Ithacan Philanthropic Society. This club has played an important role in the lives of my ancestors and distant relatives from the moment The Club was established in 1916 and continues to do so today. This year The Club celebrates a milestone. The Club is turning 100 years old in October. This makes The Club the oldest Greek Club of its kind in Australia.

Ithaca is a Greek Island in the Ionian Sea. To gain membership to The Club you must either be from Ithaca or a direct descendant of someone who was born there. I fall into the latter category. Both of my paternal sets of Great Grandparents migrated to Melbourne from Ithaca in the early 1920s.

Moving out here back then would have been incredibly difficult, leaving everything and everyone you knew behind and never returning. The sacrifices that my Great Grandparents gladly made to fit into British Australian society are actions that I greatly admire. In a lot of ways to become British Australian my family ‘let go’ of our Greek roots. Both of my Great Grandfathers decided to Anglicise their surnames. My surname used to be Lekatsas, my Granny’s Maiden name is Scott, this used to Siciotis. This was a common practice with migrants who came here in the early part of last century. So it must have been a great comfort to have The Club in Melbourne, being able to speak Greek with people who were familiar.

Every year The Club holds special social events for members and their families, starting the year with a picnic (as pictured) and ending with a Christmas Party at The Club’s headquarters ‘Ithaca House’ on Elizabeth Street in the City. These social events have helped to create a tight knit sense of community amongst the members and their families.

One of the main goals of establishing The Club was to provide financial aid to loved ones back on Ithaca, as the tiny Island was hit hard during World War 1. The philanthropic aid has continued through to today, now The Club supports children’s soccer clubs on Ithaca and philanthropic causes closer to home. Every year The Club proudly gathers for an event to raise funds for The RHC Good Friday Appeal in Melbourne, you might even see them presenting a cheque on TV! The Club and its Members are very proud of this aspect of the club. Many members will donate funds to the club in honour of loved ones.

I am proud of what the Club has achieved over the last 100 years and how The Club has contributed to the Melbourne Community and the Ithacan Community. I am proud of the way The Club created a sense of community for Migrants and their Australian born descendants. Today The Club is a connection to our heritage, a legacy of hard work and Philanthropy.

In our last CPE article we talked about the recent changes the government has made to the previously proposed non-concessional contribution life-time cap of $500,000.  To re-cap, the Government has back tracked on this proposal and has instead changed it to an annual cap of $100,000, with the ability to bring-forward 3 years’ worth of contributions from 1 July 2017. Your super balance must also be below $1.6 million to be able to make the contributions.

Since then the government has provided further direction on how the proposed bring forward rule and the $1.6 million cap will work.

Under current rules you can make a total of $180,000 in one year or $540,000 if you bring-forward 3 years’ worth of contributions. If you as an individual have triggered the bring-forward rule in FY16 and FY17, but you have not used it fully by 30 June 2017, transitional rules will apply.

If you trigger the bring-forward provisions in FY17, the transitional cap will be $380,000 (which is the current $180,000 cap plus the new $100,000 annual cap for FY18 and FY19). If you triggered the bring-forward rule in FY16, the transitional cap is $460,000 (current annual cap of $180,000 for FY16 and FY17, plus the $100,000 for FY18).

The below table provides an example of how this may work in specific situations, with example one and two outlining how the $380,000 bring-forward cap may work, and example three highlighting how the $460,000 cap works with the example contributions:

In relation to the $1.6 million eligibility threshold, you are unable to make further non-concessional contributions if your super account is above $1.6 million.  Your balance will be determined as at the 30th of June in the previous financial year.  If your balance is close to $1.6 million, you can only make a contribution or use the bring-forward rule to bring your balance up to $1.6 million without going over, this is summarised below.

As always these measures are not yet legislated and therefore could change yet again.  The draft legislation is expected in the next few weeks.

If you have made any non-concessional contributions in the previous three financial years and are concerned how this may affect you and your future contributions, feel free to contact any of the team here at JBS.

Last week, the Government made further announcements in relation to proposed changes to the superannuation system. From Budget night, we had a list of changes that they sort to bring in, however, after industry and community consultation, the Government have made changes to these proposed changes….confused yet?

Ok, well some of the main changes include:

–  The $500,000 lifetime cap on Non-Concessional (NCC) (after tax) Contributions has effectively been scrapped.

–  The $100,000 annual cap replaces the existing $180,000 annual cap for Non-Concessional (after tax) Contributions from 1 July 2017

–  The bring forward rules still apply, so an individual under age 65 can contribute up to $300,000 over a 3-year period

–  The current work test rules still apply for those over 65. This means they cannot contribute, unless working at least 40 hours in a 30 consecutive day period. The removal of the work test proposal has been scrapped until future notice

–  It is expected that the current $180,000 NCC cap still applies until 30 June 2017, meaning that you can trigger a bring forward provision in the current financial year and be able to contribute a maximum of $540,000 over the three (3) financial year period

–  From 1 July 2017, those with a superannuation balance of more than $1.6 million will not be able to make non-concessional (after tax) contributions to their super

–  The 5 year catch-up concessional contribution proposal, that would see those with a balance less than $500,000 able to access their unused concessional contribution cap to make additional before tax contributions to super, has been delayed until 1 July 2018.

The ultimate aim of the Government’s changes are two fold; (1) to avoid superannuation being used as an estate planning vehicle where people are saving their wealth in a tax free environment to pass to children rather than for retirement funding, and (2) to strengthen the idea of superannuation being a mechanism to provide an income in retirement, which includes supplementing the Age Pension.

We must note again, however, these proposals are not legislation and therefore could again change before they are enshrined into our super system, however it can assist us to forward plan your contributions and superannuation options better by providing a strong indication of what the Government is wanting to achieve.

If you are considering any large contributions to super or would like to discuss your personal situation and what these changes could mean for you, please contact us here at JBS.

Whenever you start anything new there is always a little bit of anxiety that comes with it.  For me, my new beginning was joining the JBS team in early July.  I’ve been in this industry for over 12 years. I know how to do my job, what could I possibly be worried about?

I was fortunate enough to be able to choose when I left my previous position before coming to JBS which meant that I had 4 ½ weeks for some doubts to build in my mind.  Had I done the right thing? Would I be able to handle the work? Would I fit in with the team? How are their processes different to my own?  As a father of 2 and a wife on maternity leave, it was imperative that I had made the right decision not just for myself but also for them as they were and will continue to rely on me.

A few days before I was due to commence work at JBS, we celebrated my daughter’s 3rd birthday. A big Frozen fan, after her Frozen themed party on the Saturday, we took her to Disney on Ice on the Tuesday. It was her first time and to see the joy on her face as she watched her favourite life-sized Disney Princesses and other characters skate around in front of her put things in perspective. The skaters were professionals, like myself they had been doing the same thing for years honing their skills. Their ‘work’ became 2nd nature, they could do the routine with their eyes shut. What was I even worried about?

The first thing that happens when you join a new company is they introduce you to everybody else in the firm. So I’m greeted by a bunch of smiling faces who all tell me their name and within 30 seconds I’ve forgotten most of them. That’s alright, I’ve done this before, I’ll simply draw up a seating map of the office and whenever I hear anyone’s name I’ll simply write their name on the map at the place they sit. Problem solved.

The next thing that happens is they teach you the software. I’d used plenty of financial planning software programs before (including the JBS one years ago) so everything made sense and was easy to follow. Coincidently, after 2 days it just so happened to be our end of financial year drinks. So my first week in the job consisted of meeting new people, running through the software and eating a parma and chips while drinking beer and chatting about everything and anything. I was lucky in that this social environment allowed me to talk to everyone at the firm and get to know all about them, learn what their interests were, understand how they think, and after a few drinks find out what they really think of JBS. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the staff have all been here for a long time. The firm had a low turnover of staff, a great thing to hear. The staff are all happy and it’s a great place to work.

Week 2 and the real work began. Working with the other guys in my team, Glenn & Andy, has been great. Glenn has the skill of being able to trust those around him. If he asks you to do something, he trusts you’ll be able to do it and do it well. This gives you a sense of worth, makes you feel valued and gives you a sense of responsibility. I am being trusted to complete this task. Not everyone is like this. There is nothing worse than being asked a question, providing an answer, and then the person ignores your answer and asks someone else. If you weren’t going to listen to me, why did you bother asking me in the first place?

Andy is great in that he is always ready to drop what he is doing and help you out. If I’m struggling with some abnormality in the software, or I need some client data that I can’t find, he’s always happy to help, smiling the whole time. He’s also the first to throw you under the bus if the Friday lunch order isn’t correct even though he didn’t order anything himself.

It’s now been two months, and I’ve been able to settle in nicely with the team at JBS. They are a great bunch of people always willing to help with anything. I have even been able to pick up some good Pokémon Go tips that I can use with my daughter, and with plenty of banter flying round the office, I feel very comfortable as part of the JBS team. New beginnings can be daunting, it’s the fear of the unknown that worries us all. However worry about what you can control, prepare yourself as best you can, and with the right attitude there is no need to be afraid of the dark.