It’s official. I have completed the Diploma in Financial Planning and can now legally give financial advice. However it’ll take some time until that actually happens as I need to transition into that role. Most people who jump into advising after getting the diploma sink and drown. Nobody knows for sure how the process will look like but I’m sure I’ll get there.
Another bonus was getting a raise which is always a good thing. During my appraisal this Wednesday I found out a few things about how I’ve grown as a person at work. That came as news to me because I don’t think I’m any different from when I first started. I was told that my attitude in the beginning was very different – I just wanted to get the work done and never think of it again but now I’m more concerned about doing things right and making sure our clients are happy. I think to a large extent it’s because I’ve moved from a purely admin role (answering the phone, booking client meetings, scanning stuff etc) to a more technical and interesting paraplanning position.
I’m looking forward to the future, things are starting to look good.
That’s it for now.
Ivar
Author Archives: Ivar the Salacious
Every time
0After my zouk classes and social dancing I feel like the world is a little better or a bit less shitty or even almost good. Maybe this is just me trying to be British – polite and humble and all that.
Going on the tube, you start noticing good things all around you. The singing or guitar music of some weird street artist, a girl giving up her seat for an old woman, people giving money to the homeless beggars. On the inside it feels a lot like running a half marathon and noticing that at the 18th kilometer you’re likely to finish in less than 100 minutes. Somehow running becomes so easy and you effortlessly speedup and it feels good to run. And no, you’re not running at that point, you’re flying, nothing can stop you from clocking that sub 100 half.
I go through the same sensations after my zouk classes, every single time – no running required. You’ll also have the added benefits of good music, beautiful and happy people. Based on my experience, the happiest people I know are zouk dancers. Salsa and bachata people are a close second.
I might be too kind with my words, considering that I’ve been deprived of zouk for the last 2 months because of my exams.
I realized that I didn’t mention in my previous post that my R06 (Financial Planning Practice) exam re-mark came back as a fail which was very disappointing. I’ll take it again in July.
There’s some good news. I had 3 exams this week (multiple choice questions, much easier than the R06 or AF papers) and managed to pass them all. I figured out there are two paths to getting my diploma and if I understood the completion requirements correctly, it means that I should be a diploma qualified financial planner now. I’m waiting for my Level 4 diploma to pop in in the post. It’ll take up to a month to get it, and there’s also the risk of me misinterpreting the diploma completion requirements. So at this point I don’t have a definitive answer whether I’ve made it or not. Stay tuned.
There are more exams planned (AF exams), to progress towards the Advanced Diploma (which is needed for Chartered Status) but these can only be taken in April and October. I’ll have more free time now and can focus on other things.
Ivar
Back to normal
0I’ve been studying. A lot. I recently had my advanced diploma exam in pensions planning (AF3). I’ve got a feeling I might actually get a pass… but then again, you can never be too sure. I’ll find out in 2 months. Now I’m slowly getting back into my old routine.
I started running again and did a half marathon today (1:41:50, slow but I was out of the game for a while). I only planned on running 16km but I underestimated today’s new route. I was too lazy to measure my route in the morning, so I just guesstimated it. That’s how I roll! It was actually about 22.5 km but I walked the last 1.4 km because I didn’t want to get too fit and make all the other runners in the park look bad.
They also had the London marathon today. About 35,000 people I think it was. I hope I get to be one of them next year. I’ll register for the public ballot (the registration opens 4th May and will probably only last a few hours until all slots are signed up for, just like was the case last year), but even then it’s a 1/3 chance of actually getting entry into the race. It’s a very popular race you see. Congratulations to all the runners today! No matter what time you finished in or if you didn’t cross the finish line. I am jealous of you all.
I also started dancing again. Oh boy how I missed it. The last two Latin nights were very entertaining – dancing with Germany was awesome! I also noticed a few people from the lower levels moved up a level or two and now I’ve got several more friendly faces in my class as well. Well done kids! 😛
Work used to be very busy due to the end of the tax year (it ends 5th April) but now it’s alright again. Did I mention that our company was supposed to merge with another one? Maybe I did, but that doesn’t matter because the merger was cancelled. The office is still moving but instead of the town centre we’re moving to the building next door, therefore making my strategic houseshare move closer to the town centre look utterly stupid. If something good pops up I’ll move closer to work, I think. I never stay in one place for too long…
I made history at work. I’ve stayed at the same company for more than a year. My previous record was exactly 1 year. Now it’s a solid 14 months. My promotion to a paraplanner position had lots to do with this. I plan that some time this year I can start advising clients (but I need my diploma first).
The UK has elections this year as well. 7th May is election day and it turns out I can vote as well even though I’m not a UK citizen. So I voted for the Green Party. Sustainability and green energy etc are things I value and the world needs a bit more of that.
Oh… did I mention my passport expired. 😀 I’m stuck in England. This isn’t a bad thing, it forces me to travel and explore the UK. I’ve been here for more than a year and all I know is Chelmsford and London. I haven’t done anything touristy. So this morning (as I procrastinated my studies) I made myself a list of places to visit. It’s still a work in progress and in all honesty it’s a boring list when I compare it to my Australian roadtrips. Hey, maybe if I give it a chance, the UK might prove me wrong. If you’re reading this and want to go roadtrippin’ on this island some time this summer, get in touch. I’m also open to suggestions. Let me know of your highlights if you’ve travelled here.
Ivar
The Theory of Everything
0You know that feeling… the one which tells you that you’ve done something really well. That feeling when you congratulate yourself on a job well done because you know it was a masterpiece. Not the word ‘masterpiece’ which I use as a catchall for everything I create, but a genuine success. That’s how I felt after taking my Financial Planning Practice (R06) exam. This was the last exam I needed for my diploma.
I knew I passed that shit like a pro. The questions were easy, predictable and my preparation was good. I answered all the questions in detail and didn’t have any trouble with 90% of the exam.
However, 6 weeks later I got my results. It was a fail. In
Big.
Fucking.
Uppercase.
Letters.
FAIL
I scored 80 points, but needed 82 to pass. I was surprised. I don’t understand how it’s possible that I only scored 50% of the points.
I googled around to find out what I could do and requested a re-mark. It’s worth doing if it was a narrow fail (failed by 1-3 points) so they might change it to a narrow pass. I paid £82 for that lottery and need to wait for up to 5 weeks to find out if my result will change or not. If it’s still a fail, I’ll re-sit the exam in July. I’ll pass it eventually.
The next day I had plans to go to a salsa party in South-End. Unfortunately my ride was cancelled because they got sick. No car, no party. I didn’t feel like dancing anyway so I was relieved.
I spent some time procrastinating on Facebook, one thing led to another and I made new plans for the night and headed out to the movies to meet up with Blue Eyes and Vamos-A-La-Playa. 😀
There once was a uni student who was very late to his lecture. He quickly wrote down two assignments from the blackboard just before the class ended. Two weeks later he went to the professor and gave him the answers. The professor asked what he was giving him because he never tasked the students with any homework. The professor looked at the solutions and realized that the student had solved two impossible problems – two questions which were perceived to be impossible to solve. That kid’s name was Stephen Hawking.
That’s a story I remembered as I was in the cinema watching the opening credits of The Theory of Everything. I heard the above story about 8 years ago in Nashville, TN. It was some pep-talk about overcoming adversity and doing the impossible. In this case doing something because you were never told it was impossible.
My mind wandered and I thought of the summer of 2007 and all the wonderful people I met in the States.
The movie was really good. I highly recommend it. It was sadiful – sad and beautiful at the same time. The sad part was the way the disease was taking away so much from Mr Hawking’s life, the beauty was what the man accomplished despite his disability. In a way it was empowering. The world needs a bit more of that.
I was in a fairly good mood after the movie. My exam failure seemed like such a first world problem in contrast. Let’s face it, things don’t always go my way. And if they did, life would be so boring.
J10 and a glimpse of Hollywood
0I was doing a mock exam (J10 – Discretionary investment management) at work during my lunch break. It was a 90 question multiple choice test. And it was piss easy. Half way through it I booked the exam for next week. I gave myself 9 days to study. The exam was already booked before I asked my manager for her blessing to get the exam day off from work. That’s just how I roll.
Fast forward to exam day, I took the wrong tube line from Liverpool Street station and had some logistic difficulties finding my way to the Whitechapel station. Once at Whitechapel, I sort of knew where I had to go because I did an exam there in December. Somehow, it seems that I got lost and had to ask around to find the place. A bit of panicky running until I blissfully reached the place about 5 minutes before the exam started.
The questions in the exam were very different from my mock exams but I still managed to pass. I was worried though. My preparation for this exam was really bad – I didn’t even open the study book (in fact I didn’t have the correct book to begin with). Oh well… a pass is a pass.
Sitting the exam on a Wednesday was a strategic decision. My zouk classes were later in the day at Leicester Square and I had a good 2-3 hours to kill in between. I went to Leicester Square and watched The Hobbit at Odeon. Being a tight-ass I used my NUS card (student card) and only paid £8.
There was also a big crowd at the square. Turns out it was a movie premier event – red carpet and all. I saw Will Smith and Margot Robbie but wasn’t close enough to get an autograph or anything. This was the closest I’ve ever been to Hollywood.
It was a busy day and to top it off, the dancing was really good that night as well. I learned a few cool moves and met some new people.
Oh and before I go, don’t forget to treat your special someone in an extra nice way today!
Happy Valentines,
Ivar
A rosy story
0I was sitting in the corner all alone and not playing with the other kids. Well, not so much playing but dancing but you know what I mean. “Different, but same-same” – as they say in Malaysia.
I was a true outsider or should I say outlier? Suddenly I had an idea to give something new a shot. Here goes nothing…
I’m going to introduce you to a woman in my life. She’s not much older than me but far wiser than she thinks. She tends to lack a filter and is a master at tearing a new one to anyone who insults her. Beware! Don’t poke the bear. She bites.
If I was interrogated by a policeman and asked if I knew someone who was capable of the nastiest and vilest actions against humanity – she’d fit the bill perfectly. She’s perfect like that.
It always seems like someone or something died in the room if she’s not around. She’s the sun that brightens up each and every crevice of a long forsaken Egyptian tomb. We all secretly miss her when she’s sick or far away on holidays.
She’s quick with her decisions. Kinda like a panda. A kung-fu panda! She can do cartwheels which will bring tears into your eyes.
Her spontaneity is both a virtue and a curse. It depends on who you ask. You always need to take everything she says or commits to with a grain of salt. We love her anyway.
Sometimes she passes me in her car on my way to work. She usually offers me a lift but I almost always give her the finger. “Up yours, I’m not rushing to work” I say. She knows that but after 10 months and countless hand gestures all meaning “go away”, she persists. A lot like a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before (~Jacob Riis). Eventually she’ll lure me into the deathtrap which her car certainly is. May the Almighty be with me when that day arrives.
One of her greatest gifts is making teas and coffees. It doesn’t happen often but when it does my neighbors neighbor will know about it. Oh boy is that an occasion.
There you go. Xoxo
Ivar the Salacious
Ivar the Salacious 
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