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What is your name?
Sam Binstead
What is your occupation?
Chartered Financial Planner and Director at Chilvester Financial
Where do you live?
Swindon, Wiltshire
When did you start your career in finance? How did you get into it?
I took a temporary role with Zurich when I left college in 2004, expecting it to only be a stopgap until I found a job in IT like everyone else my age was doing at the time. Seven years later I was still there.
Disillusioned with corporate life and with my first daughter on the way, I took what I’d learned about financial services and decided to move to the other side of the fence and joined Chilvester as a trainee paraplanner to try and forge a career for myself.
If you could start your business again, what would you do differently?
A difficult question to answer because I joined an existing business which has great foundations, but I think if I could I’d have sought help and support for my own personal development as a business owner/leader at an earlier stage.
What would be your biggest piece of advice to someone coming into the financial planning profession?
Be curious and never stop learning.
How would you define your personal mission?
To live life for the journey, have adventures and make lots of memories. It’s important to me personally and something I hope to help clients with too.
How would you define your personal vision?
To stay humble and just be the best version of me that I possibly can.
How would you define your personal values?
We’ve got one of these life manifesto posters hanging in our dining room which I saw Chris Broome post about some time ago. It’s full of values and has become our family manifesto.
What is your greatest achievement outside of work?
My family. They are my everything and the reason I do what I do every single day. I’m immensely proud of my two wonderful daughters.
I also consider the fact that my wife didn’t kill me when I bought (another) motorbike without telling her to be quite an achievement!
What is the greatest book you have ever read that helped you in your career?
I read a lot, so there are many contenders, but if I have to choose just one then I’d say the book that I value the most and often re-read is The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday.
What is your most valuable asset of being a NextGen Planners member?
The community of like-minded people who share a collective sense of positivity, growth and camaraderie.
(Only answer this one if you truly want to…) Who is your favourite NextGen Planners member?
I honestly can’t single out anyone in particular, but I owe thanks to many NextGen members for their help and support in recent times.