{"id":107,"date":"2015-02-01T10:16:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T10:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/?p=107"},"modified":"2020-04-13T07:58:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T06:58:06","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Company Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My name is Nick May. I have a background in IT. I&#8217;ve architected and developed mission-critical systems for big companies. Much of my career has been with financial applications, like banking, accountancy, insurance and trading.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Until a few years ago, I\u2019d never analysed whether I was saving too little, too much or just enough. I\u2019d always been reasonably thrifty, investing a fair amount each month into a personal pension plan. But I had no real idea when I would retire. My main reason for paying into my pension plan was to cut my tax bill!<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Plan 1: A Speadsheet<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Eventually I decided to do my own cash flow planning using an Excel spreadsheet. I wanted to work out how much I could afford to spend on the good things in life, things like holidays and meals out. I also wanted confidence that once I retired I could continue with the same level of discretionary spending. My spreadsheet started simple, but gradually grew more complex.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some things kept bothering me. Was I making the right assumptions about investment growth? What if there was a market crash? What assumptions should I make for life expectancy? I started researching these issues, and gradually improved my spreadsheet. But there were limits. It was hard for me to be sure that my spreadsheet\u2019s predictions were reasonable. Also, whenever I needed to change numbers in the spreadsheet due to changes in my circumstances, it was tedious. I had to juggle\u00a0my levels of saving, investment and spending to try and achieve the best outcome.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Plan 2: A Calculator Program<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I decided that what I needed was a calculator program that had:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>A financial model that could capture my relevant financial details.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to run Monte Carlo simulations to assess or verify a chosen financial strategy.<\/li>\n<li>A method for optimising the chosen strategy without endless trial and error.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Being gainfully employed, I had to work on much of this project in my spare time. Over a period of time, I put together a calculator that combined all of these elements. I was surprised to discover that what I was attempting to create was unique. At least, it was unique in terms of financial planning tools available to the general public.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Plan 3: The Company and Website<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Once I saw my calculator working, I realised that it was too useful to keep to myself. I had to make it available to a wider public. To take it from a prototype to a publicly available web application required a substantial investment of time and effort. I needed to involve other people. We created a company called OkinawaZest to do this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Okinawa is a Japanese island. It&#8217;s also the place in the world having the most people aged 100 or more. Our <a href=\"\/\">calculator<\/a> helps in planning for a &#8216;zestful&#8217; retirement, even for people living to a ripe old age. Hence the cryptic name!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However we needed the calculator to have a more obvious name. Eventually\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/\">EvolveMyRetirement<\/a>\u00ae was born.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On these pages, you can hopefully get glimpses of some of my thinking and approach. I&#8217;ll be writing both about financial planning in general and about relevant tools. Please feel free to <a href=\"\/application.html#\/contact\">contact us<\/a> or <a href=\"mailto:support@evolvemyretirement.com\">email<\/a> our team with any suggestions for future improvements, either to the calculator or to this blog.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Nick May. I have a background in IT. I&#8217;ve architected and developed mission-critical systems for big companies. Much of my career has been with financial applications, like banking, accountancy, insurance and trading. Until a few years ago,<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Company Introduction - EvolveMyRetirement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out how EvolveMyRetirement\u00ae evolved into the fantastic service &amp; optimised cash flow calculator it is today. 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Create your financial plan for free now!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EvolveMyRetirement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/evolvemyretirement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-01T10:16:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T06:58:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@evolvemyretire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@evolvemyretire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/927febeaea45f5b77b454c800da0e5b8\"},\"headline\":\"Company Introduction\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-01T10:16:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T06:58:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/\"},\"wordCount\":555,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger-1.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/\",\"name\":\"Company Introduction - EvolveMyRetirement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/welcome\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/evolvemyretirement.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-01T10:16:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T06:58:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"Find out how EvolveMyRetirement\u00ae evolved into the fantastic service & optimised cash flow calculator it is today. 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