Nigel & Helen Hudson

Helen:

My name is Helen Hudson and I live in Nottingham with my husband, Nigel. We’ve been working with Lena for just over two years now.

Nigel:

We first started working with Lena because we had a different financial adviser but we lost trust in them. We were looking around for somebody who could provide us with some really sound and reliable financial advice. I asked a friend of mine for some recommendations, and he recommended Lena.

Helen:

Over these last two years, I have to say that Lena has transformed our outlook and our life. It’s led us to make decisions that have been a huge benefit to ourselves and our family. But also, we’re now in a position where we really understand our financial position. I thought I was going to be in my 60’s before I was able to retire, but this is not actually the case. I’m looking at retiring in the next year or so.

Nigel:

Moving to Lena was definitely the right decision. As I say, we wanted some reliable and trustworthy advice. Lena has provided that, and she’s made us realise we can do an awful lot of things with our lifestyle we thought we couldn’t do before.

Helen:

Lena has really helped us with financial planning for our retirement. We really understand our financial position and where we are, as she’s given us a model of our income and our expenditure for the next 3, 5, 10 and 20 years. So, we’re really able to see what money we’ve got, when that money’s coming in, how we can use that capital, and how we can use our income to do all the things that we want to.

One of the really big things that she enabled us to do was to fulfil our dream to buy a VW camper van. We didn’t think we’d be able to do that till we were in our 60s, when our pension money came in, but we actually did that about a year and a half ago.

Buying the camper van has been life-changing for us, as it’s opened up a whole other world of travel and adventure. But more than that, it was the first step towards realising that we could use our money and make it work for us. Now we’re able to plan more effectively for our retirement.

It was also the first step towards understanding that we did have the money there to pay for the rest of our girls’ education. They’re both studying in America at the moment, and are student athletes playing football. My big concern was: “how long do I have to work in order to pay for them and support them while they’re over there?” Lena has made us realise that we have got the money there. She understands our priorities, how we want to use our money, and what we want to do. One of those things was buying the camper van, travelling, and spending more time with family and friends.

Nigel:

If I had to describe Nina in three words, they would be: trustworthy, reliable, and very friendly.

Helen & Nigel:

I’d happily recommend Lena and, in fact, we have. We’ve already recommended her to both our mums, to my brother and two sets of friends. We don’t do this normally, but as soon as anyone starts talking about finances, we recommend Lena. I have absolute confidence in Lena and the advice that she’s given us.