We had BIG news in June.  When you work in the world of financial planning, the media is always making news BIG …..generally BIGGER than it needs to be and normally peppered with their special brand of doom & gloom spin.  So, BIG news is nothing out of the ordinary.  This time, however the news was closer to home.  Very close in fact because Nick Cooper, announced his retirement!

We must admit it didn’t come as a huge shock – Nick was already “semi-retired”, working 2 days a week.  I have worked with Nick for 25 years and when he finally made his decision to retire it prompted me to think about the things I will miss about him when he’s gone.  And some things I won’t miss.

I WILL miss Nick’s company.

I WON’T miss him hanging over the side of my desk to tell me EVERY “important” thing he can think of.  Let me tell you, there’s a lot of “important” stuff happening in the world of Nick Cooper!  And telling him to “go away” doesn’t even work!

I WILL miss Nick’s reliability and sense of duty – if something needs to be done, investigated or followed up, he’s the man to go to.  Big or little job.  Hard or easy job.  He even normally does it without complaining.

I WON’T miss Nick’s singing and dancing.  How does that man know the lyrics to every song that’s played on the radio?  Worst still when he used to play the Moody Blues at ear splitting volume and sing along to that.  Painful memories there for sure.

All jokes aside, Nick and I have worked together for a very long time and the thing I will probably miss the most is the ease of relationship you have when you’ve worked with someone for that long.  We can’t offend each other – we’ve tried and it’s like water off a ducks back.  We can have tantrums with each other and we don’t even have to apologise afterwards.  We’ve built up a form of unspoken language where one look can say much more than words ever could.  As Nick would say, “he’d get less for murder” or even worse “it’s like he’s got two wives, both telling him what to do”.

Amazingly, Nick has only ever had two jobs:  starting as a young cadet in the RAF before transferring to the RAAF and achieving the rank of Flight Lieutenant; and financial planning, where humble Nick won’t give you any clues but he did achieve quite a few accolades along the way.  Nick decided to start studying while he was in the RAAF and completed a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Accounting.  Not too long after his studies were completed, he decided to leave the RAAF and try his hand at financial planning.  Nick took a position as a junior planner at a planning firm in Dandenong, where he was taken under the wing of planner Dilip Dutt, with whom he remains firm friends to this day.  Nick then decided that a tree change to Geelong was in order and took up a partnership opportunity with Geoff Peach in Lara (at this time he made the best business decision of his career by hiring me!).  There has been a few business reincarnations along the way, eventually leading where he is today at Income Solutions.   And it has been a ride with a few twists and turns – probably the biggest challenge being Nick’s horrific accident.  Sometimes from bad things, good things can shine – Nick generally understates the severity of that accident but he was lucky to survive it.  He displayed so many of his positive traits to get through that time – determination, strength of character, perseverance.  Plus he proved what we all knew – his tough head was no match for a car windscreen!  As he’ll readily tell you – he won that battle, not the car.

I know it’s with great pride that Nick will tell you that many of his original clients are still his clients today and they are the reason he’s stuck around for so long. While he’s sad to say goodbye, he’s confident he’s left them in good hands.  All good things to come to an end and I’m glad Nick’s decided it’s time to do some things for himself.  He’s going to tick off some bucket list items – a couple of cruises around this beautiful world we live in and if you’re travelling on the roads look out for the old bikie putt putting past you on his motorbike!  Give him a wave when you see him.

By Alison Adams, Business Development Manager