Neil Pennington has always held a passion for numbers and so it was somewhat inevitable his career would take him along a financial path. He attended SGS until 2006 and initially pursued a career in teaching Maths, where he taught for some years in an international school in Thailand. His entrepreneurial spirit however, meant he always had the ambition to one day pursue his own venture and apply the skillsets he acquired throughout his time at SGS and beyond.

Having completed his training and exam qualifications through St James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy, Neil is now a Certified Financial Planner and has recently launched his own partner practice, Pennington Wealth Planning. 

When asked what motivated him to become a Financial Adviser, Neil explained:

“I have always been someone who thinks about budgeting whether that be saving pocket money or birthday spends when I was younger or, more recently, planning my upcoming wedding and honeymoon”.

Pennington Wealth Planning offers a range of services with the aim of helping people to reach their goals and targets across life, family and finance. Their approach is to create a bespoke financial plan that will place clients in the best possible position towards achieving financial freedom and providing them with the luxury of choice. More specifically, services offered include advice on Personal and Family Protections, Investment Planning and Pensions.

Unlike many young people, Neil has always been aware of the benefits of making financial plans thanks to his parents who he says have always been financially astute and demonstrated that planning with advice from experts can be hugely beneficial.

"I live by the notion that to save for a superior version of something is better than to spend immediately on something I do not really want, just because it may be the only thing I can afford at the time.”

He is very aware that many people do not enjoy numbers, data, and calculations and in turn, this makes things like budgeting and financial planning extremely difficult. He hopes to remove the stresses of the financial planning process through applying his skills and love of all things numbers!

Financial Education in schools is something Neil is also particularly passionate about, which he sees as invaluable for preparing young people for adulthood. This is something Pennington Wealth Planning are committed to developing.

“With the huge increase in things like house prices compared to starting salaries, helping young people set financial goals from an early age and putting in place a long-term financial plan is more likely to allow them to achieve their dreams and aspirations in adulthood”.  

During his time at SGS, Neil enjoyed immersing himself fully into all that school life had to offer and particularly relished the many co-curricular activities on offer. In fact, he credits his busy activity calendar for teaching him the ability to plan impeccably from a young age! Alongside a love for music, he was also Cricket Captain throughout junior and senior school and some Old Stops may recall he held the record for the highest number of runs scored in a match (153* in 25 overs). Neil spoke about his particular enjoyment of the Wasdale Camping trips he attended which gave him a lust for the great outdoors. In fact, the photo for his business webpage was taken in the Lake District inspired by his many school camping trips.

We wish Neil the best of luck with his new business and more information about the services Pennington Wealth Planning offers can be found here.