Tony & Libby Weir
Libby has kindly written the article below on her and Tony’s working life, family, retirement and relationship with GFM Wealth Advisory. We greatly appreciate Libby’s contribution to Trade Secrets.
We joined GFM in 2008 on the recommendation of my brother and sister-in-law, Terry and Judy Buscombe. Judy had met and worked with Paul while he was still studying, and they became clients when he qualified.
Our first meeting with Paul back in early 2008 decided us. Paul was interested and listened to our questions. We’ve never looked back. We tried to run our own super fund with little success, so having Paul and the GFM team take over was an easy decision and a great relief. Why have a dog and bark yourself?
Tony and I were married in 1972 and spent our first year of married life in Singapore. I was 20, Tony 21 and Tony was doing National Service in the army. When we returned to Australia, Tony went to work in a liquor store, and I went back to my job as a medical technician. A few years later, we started our family. Michael was born in 1976, Adam in 1979.
Eventually, we invested in our own business with a business partner. He and Tony ran two liquor stores. We then branched out into cleanskin wines, and while Tony and his partner ran the business, I looked after the office work. Subsequently, we sold the stores and ran the business from a warehouse, which we eventually purchased.
About seven years ago, we sold our share of the business to our partner. I retired, and Tony continued to work part-time for two more years. He retired fully five years ago.
We moved to the Mornington Peninsula to live and are both involved in the local community. We, together with a group of like-minded people, started the Blairgowrie Community Garden. It is a huge success, and aside from growing fruit and vegetables, we have made wonderful friends.
We both play golf, Tony much more seriously than I do. However, we enjoy the game and the camaraderie and have met some wonderful people.
Both of us enjoy exercise, we do Pilates together whilst I also do Zumba. We love our garden, grow lots of veggies and flowers and keep chickens.
Both our sons are married. We have two marvellous daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. We get enormous pleasure from our family, being the most important thing in our lives.
We have been fortunate to travel and see a lot of the world, both for pleasure and in business. We had planned a return trip to Europe in 2021, but COVID put that to rest for now. While in lock-down, we did some renovations to our house and garden. We are fortunate to live in a safe part of the world; we didn’t have to worry about work and had open spaces surround us.
In all our dealings with GFM, we have always been happy. The staff treat us like old friends, and nothing is ever too much trouble.
Paul has been our advisor from the beginning. His advice is always in line with our thinking, and I am continually impressed by his uncanny ability to read upside down, and he never falters! He puts a report in front of us across the table and highlights a line he wants to discuss with us.
We have loved our retirement so far. We have a lovely home, a beautiful family and our SMSF and investments are in good hands.