If you’re a client of Barnaby Cecil, you’ll already be familiar with one phrase that anchors our work together: “your WealthMap”.
The Barnaby Cecil WealthMap is not a document you file away—it’s a living, evolving tool, a strategic map for your financial life that’s updated as life itself changes.
Some clients are now on their 10th WealthMap and beyond.
Having so many versions isn’t a sign of failure or indecision. Quite the opposite: it’s a marker of success, adaptability, and how seriously you take control of your future.
Why does your WealthMap change? And why is that change not only expected, but essential?
Our initial planning process follows three simple but powerful stages:
From these critical questions, we create Version 1 of your Wealth Map.
But by the time 12 months pass, your life has likely moved on—and we build Version 2 using a new snapshot of your position.
Rinse and repeat. But not robotically. Iteratively. Intelligently. And always with reflection on those initial objectives and the purpose of your WealthMap.
Life doesn’t follow a straight line.
Some changes are predictable: a salary increase, a house move, an education expense.
Other changes are sudden or surprising—an unexpected inheritance, a business windfall, or a shift in values that makes a four-day week more appealing than the corporate ladder.
Clients often tell us things like:
“We were going to buy a townhouse in Fowey, but now it’s a cottage in the Cotswolds.”
OR
“With my new hobbies and interests, I don't know how I ever had time to work full-time.”
Plans and priorities evolve, and so must your WealthMap.
Here’s something we see often but talk about too little: sometimes your WealthMap changes because things have gone better than expected.
Returns might outpace projections, company shares soar, the inheritance you once thought modest turns out to be significant, you’re promoted early, or a business exit materialises.
These aren’t just lucky breaks. Often, they’re a result of building in what we call “margin for safety”—small, cautious buffers built in throughout your plan.
Not over-cautious, just sensible.
These margins mean that more often than not, the plan exceeds expectations, and that creates a powerful force in financial planning: flexibility.
With flexibility comes options, which is where the true richness of financial planning lives:
This isn’t fantasy—these are real outcomes we’ve seen play out, and they happen because we revisit, revise and never lock you into a static path.
As we move into our seventh year at Barnaby Cecil, one of the most satisfying parts of the job is seeing how far clients have come.
It’s often humbling to look back at Version 1 of your WealthMap and hold it up against Version 5 or 10.
We always see progress, resilience, growth and life-changing outcomes.
Most of all, we see how life changes—sometimes slowly, sometimes in a moment—and how good planning isn’t about resisting that change, it’s about designing a system that embraces it.
Thank you for allowing us to build those systems with you, it remains an absolute privilege.
Here’s to the next version of your WealthMap and beyond.
Copy here introducing the client stories section and examples of testimonials
