a little bit of sunshine
June 16th 2017
Fellow Brits, Graeme and Julie Davey feel extremely lucky to have found one another here in Australia. Even after 53 years of marriage, Julie says, they surprise ‘the young ones’ with their hand-holding. The couple are certainly content in life; they’re incredibly proud of their family and feel they have all they need financially too.
The Davey’s are happy living simply, as they’ve always done. And so, when they made some money upon selling the family home several years ago, they sat down with long-term adviser, Steve Fort to discuss ways to share some of the proceeds from the sale with family. With Steve’s help, Graeme and Julie created a financial portfolio for each of their six grandchildren. And in December last year, upon reaching his 21st birthday, grandson Liam was the first to benefit from Graeme and Julie’s generosity.
For these two, now in their 70s, paths first crossed as teenagers when Graeme came to Australia from Jersey in the Channel Islands through the youth migration organisation, the Big Brother Movement. Upon arriving in Australia, he worked for Julie’s brother in dairy farming (Julie’s family had migrated from England several years earlier) and the lovely young Julie caught his eye!
As newlyweds, the couple had little money and from time to time, Julie’s father would help them with what he termed, ‘a little bit of sunshine’. Rather than spend the extra money, the couple put it aside in a term deposit account. All these years later, it brings them tremendous joy to follow in the footsteps of Julie’s father by bringing that same kind of ‘sunshine’ to their grandkids.
Graeme and Julie have been seeking financial advice from Steve Fort for over 20 years. Much has changed in that time; the couple have seen Steve raise a family of his own, the Davey clan has grown with the addition of grandchildren and Graeme and Julie have wound up their careers, retiring about ten years ago. What has remained the same though is the great rapport between them all.
As Graeme says, “I’ve always liked Steve’s manner, honesty and conservative advice. He’s very trustworthy and knows what kind of investments we’re comfortable with. Steve is humble and professional and has never let us down – he’s always done the right thing by us. Our catch ups are pretty low key which is terrific. We have a laugh and talk about family and our lives.”
When Graeme and Julie mentioned their wishes to financially assist their grandchildren, Steve was on board right away. Rather than leave money behind in their wills for the grandkids, the couple wanted to be there in person to see the joy in those young faces as they read their 21st birthday card and looked upon the cheque in their name. Julie describes how wonderful it was to see that look of wonder and amazement on Liam’s face at a family dinner late last year when he reached that all-important milestone.
Julie reckons being a grandparent is “the bees’ knees” and says, “It’s lovely seeing their different personalities develop as they grow. We both feel so privileged to have been there to celebrate Liam’s 21st birthday recently.” Naturally, the couple hope to be part of that same milestone for all six grandchildren (Fiona, the youngest is now 10 years of age).
Looking ahead, these two have other great goals too – continued good health, spending time with family, short trips up the coast in the caravan, a little gardening and lunching with friends and most importantly, at the top of that bucket list, “is not to kick the bucket!”
The loveliest part is that however Graeme and Julie will be spending their time, they’ll be happy simply being together, most likely hand in hand. To Julie, Graeme is “just tops”. “I couldn’t have found anyone nicer if I tried” she says. The six Davey grandchildren are very fortunate to have a ‘little bit of sunshine’ heading their way as they reach their 21st birthday but it’s not hard to imagine that there was also something magic in the air the day Graeme and Julie met some 60 years ago on that dairy farm west of Sydney.
Do you hope to share the ‘sunshine’ with your family? We can help you map out a plan. Get in touch.
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