Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Christmas comes with a special magic, family traditions and, let’s be honest, no small amount of stress. But after the initial burst of energy on Christmas Day the tempo often drops and we have time to relax and process the thousand memories from the year. For many this has been a year of joy – Conor Barrett of this manor tied the knot during the summer – or success be that in work, sports or academic. For others there has been the loss of a loved one or a failure to achieve a desired goal.

For most, I imagine 2024 was a curates egg as we strove to balance family, business, personal ambitions and responsibility. These are often in conflict as we only have finite resources, which Sarah Knight writes about in glorious technicolour in her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck”. Her hypothesis is that we only have so many F’s to give so deploy them wisely, or to put it another way, prioritise what matters, let go of the rest, and live a happier, lower stress life.

Many find “Twixtmas” a good time to think about what they wish to prioritise in the year ahead and it is little surprise that January is the month when folk look for new jobs, houses, or decide a relationship has reached its conclusion. The same is true in business, new initiatives are often started and we find this is when we receive a lot of enquiries for capital raising, making acquisitions and, of course, business disposals. We recently asked Peter Burke of Meonbridge, who spent many years as a wealth manager at Coutts, what he thought founders and owners should consider before selling. He kindly wrote us this insightful piece, which focuses nicely on addressing the emotional challenges.