5 lessons Wimbledon greats can teach you about financial planning

Every summer, the focus of world sport turns to a 42-acre site in the south-west of London. Since 1877, the All England Club has hosted the Wimbledon championships – one of the most prestigious tournaments in the tennis calendar.

The only Grand Slam event to take place on grass courts, the tournament offers a cool £2.35 million to the winner of the gentleman’s and ladies’ singles – a far cry from the £750 that Billie Jean King won as the champion of the first Open tournament in 1968.

With many of the sport’s greats having triumphed in SW19, celebrate this year’s event by reading five quotes from former Wimbledon champions, and what they can teach you about your own financial journey.

1. “You have to believe in the long-term plan you have but you need the short term goals to motivate and inspire you”

For many, Roger Federer is simply the greatest male player to have graced the Centre Court.

The Swiss legend reached 31 Grand Slam singles finals, winning 20 including eight Wimbledon crowns. He also emulated Bjorn Borg’s feat by winning the tournament in five consecutive years, from 2003 to 2007.

Federer’s quote about the motivation of short-term goals and believing in the long-term plan is a key part of the way we approach our relationships with clients. Financial planning is often a goals-based endeavour, and there will be milestones that you’d like to hit along the way.

Ensuring you can balance your inspiring short-term goals – moving home, supporting your children through education, or dream holidays – with your important longer-term goals will likely be a key part of your plan.

2. “There’s no right way, there’s no wrong way, there’s just my way”

A talented cricketer as well as three-time Grand Slam champion, Ashleigh Barty won the Wimbledon title in 2021 achieving, as she later said: “the one true dream that I wanted in tennis”.

The Australian spent 114 consecutive weeks as the world number one, before surprising the tennis world by retiring from the sport at the age of just 25.

Barty’s decision to join the Australian Big Bash League and to retire in her mid-20s underlines how she is someone who does things “my way”.

When it comes to managing your wealth, as the 2022 Australian Open champion says: “there’s no right way, there’s no wrong way”.

Each client we meet is totally unique, and your goals, aspirations, and personal circumstances are different from everyone else – which means your financial plan will be different also.

3. “If you’re afraid of losing, then you daren’t win”

Another tennis great who retired at the age of 25, Bjorn Borg dominated the sport in the late 1970s. The Swede won 11 Grand Slam titles in just seven years, including five consecutive Wimbledon titles between 1976 and 1980.

Borg’s quote about the fear of losing is an instructive one when it comes to your investment choices.

The theory of “loss aversion” posits that humans feel the pain of losses twice as strongly as the pleasure of gains. So, many people seek to minimise loss wherever possible, rather than seek our potential profits.

If you fail to take enough risk when investing – particularly over a long time horizon – you could fail to generate the growth you require to reach your long-term goals. It may mean you can’t afford your desired lifestyle in retirement, or you can’t leave the legacy you’d like to loved ones.

Working with a financial planner can help you to build a diversified portfolio aligned with your tolerance for risk. Regular check-ins can also help you to overcome your fear of losing, meaning you can, in Borg’s words, “win”.

4. “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome”

What would you like to achieve with your life?

It’s a question you may not expect a financial planner to ask, but without understanding your aims, goals, and ambitions, it’s hard to build a financial plan. Only by understanding what you see as “success” can we formulate a roadmap to get you there.

It’s something that the 1975 Wimbledon champion understood. Arthur Ashe was a trailblazer for the sport and is still the only black athlete to win the men’s singles title in SW19.

5. “Control the things you can control”

While she may never have reached the second week at Wimbledon in her singles career, Samantha Stosur reached six Wimbledon doubles finals, winning the mixed doubles title in 2008 with Bob Bryan, and in 2014 with Nenad Zimonjić.

The big-hitting Australian played in the main draw of an impressive 69 Grand Slam events, with her one singles success coming at the 2011 US Open final where she beat Serena Williams in straight sets.

Stosur’s mantra “control the things you can control” is another key tenet of financial planning.

Over years and decades, many events have the potential to blow your financial plan off course. In just the last few years there’s been a worldwide pandemic, a land war in Europe, rising interest rates, sustained high inflation, and market uncertainty.

If you combine this with unexpected events in your own life – changes of employment, ill health, bereavements, and so on – you can see how trying to navigate the path to your financial goals can be tricky.

By tuning out the noise, focusing on your own plan and goals, and meeting regularly with your financial planner, you can stay on course and, as Stosur says, work on controlling the things that you can.

Get in touch

To find out how we can help you to “ace” your financial plan, email enquiries@blackswanfp.co.uk or contact your adviser on 020 3828 8100.

Please note

This blog is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.