Money & Me: ‘I grew my wealth by leaving a salaried job’

Anne Jackson, founder and chief executive of One Life Coaching, believes that leaving a salaried job and establishing her own business has helped her become wiser with money and to grow her wealth.

The Briton, who has Brazilian-Portuguese lineage, is a therapist and life coach with more than 14 years of experience in the UAE.

Ms Jackson, 54, works with individuals facing mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, addiction, abuse and trauma. She also offers couples therapy, and coaching for divorce, co-parenting and positive parenting.

She has lived in the UAE for 25 years and holds a degree in international marketing with psychology and a postgraduate degree in education.

She is accredited for psychotherapy approaches including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), trauma-focused CBT and compassion-focused therapy.

Ms Jackson worked in advertising for five years, then retrained as a secondary schoolteacher, before leaving full-time teaching in 2014 to become a life coach and therapist.

She has lived in Bur Dubai, The Gardens in Jebel Ali, and bought a house off-plan in Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai, that she moved into 14 years ago.

Her children are 21 and 18, with her son at university in London and daughter set to go to Cardiff.

Did wealth feature in your childhood? What did you learn from it?

One minute, we were really rich and surrounded by money. I lived in the Barbican, which is a posh place in central London, and my dad worked at the embassy. Then we were living in a studio apartment in a poor area in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There were four of us and four dogs.

I never asked my dad why, but it was like we alternated between having money and not having it. That's how I grew up. Rather than having a fear of not having money, I've always had this mentality that money comes and goes, and you will always have it when you need it.

My children laugh at me because they tell me that money doesn't grow on trees. But I believe it will just turn up when it needs to turn up. I have a mentality of abundance from my experience with money.

How did you first earn? What did your first job pay?

I've always needed to work in something I love doing. I found it hard to work somewhere that I didn’t like. My first job was two weeks in a coffee shop with a Spanish family who were good friends, but I didn’t like it.

My real first job was with the C&A clothes store when I was 15. Although I was the cashier, I got to tidy clothes all day long and loved it. It was well paid back then in 1985, like £4.20 ($5.60) an hour, which is something like Dh20 an hour.

When I was at university, I had a job with an assistance company. I was chosen because I speak five languages. When people go abroad and take medical insurance, if they end up in the hospital and can't speak the language, I would speak to the doctor, find out what's wrong and translate it for them. It was good to help people who were stranded. You had to organise air ambulances to bring them back or organise car hires when their car broke down.

Any early financial jolts?

I wasn't very money-savvy early on. It's taken me a few years to think about money. What my childhood taught me was that money comes and goes. So, I never thought about it.

I either had money or didn't have it. If I didn't have it, I couldn't do what I wanted. And if I had it, I could do what I wanted. I just went with the flow.

How do you grow your wealth?

I had three careers. My first career was in advertising and was well-paid. I decided that I needed to help people more, so I switched to teaching. When you become a teacher, you lose quite a lot of wealth because my salary diminished, but I loved what I did.

Then I decided it's time to be a therapist because I realised I wasn’t helping people enough by being a teacher. My third career is my favourite.

Then I decided to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. That’s when I realised that I'm now in charge of making my own wealth. So, growing my wealth has been very much about leaving a salaried job and going into having my own business and growing it that way.

Are you a spender or a saver?

I save a bit and I'm not a huge spender. What's important to me is financial freedom, so that you have enough money to do the things you want in life.

I'm not really into buying things for the status. If they give me pleasure, I want them. I like experiences and going on holiday with my children. I do like buying a nice pair of shoes, but that’s not my whole thing.

Money is important. I know the life that I want, know how much it is going to cost and how much I need to save for it.

Have you been wise with money?

While I was a salaried person, I was probably not wise with money. My decision to buy my house here in 2005 was very wise. I bought it off-plan.

Investing in my company is also a wise decision. It's only when I became an entrepreneur and was in charge of making money, saving and spending it, it became more relevant to me and that's when I became wise with money.

What has been your best investment?

My house, business and my children. Their education is a great investment.

Any cherished purchases?

My house and my 14-year-old Hummer. It's still running. It's cherished because I used to take my children on their school run in it.

All our big family conversations have happened in that car, so it’s part of the family. But I'm about to buy a new car because I think it's time.

Any financial advice for your younger self?

Take the courage to become an entrepreneur earlier. Be in charge of your own money and believe that you can earn your own money earlier than I did.

I didn't do it for that reason, but that's what transpired from doing it. I have the ability to make a lot more money than what somebody is going to pay me a salary for.

Any key financial goals?

I aspire to achieve financial freedom. Because of my job as a psychotherapist and life coach, I talk to people about their career and relationship with money. A lot of the time, we have a fearful relationship with money.

I think it’s important to have a relationship with money, it’s more important than any financial goal. Once you have that relationship with money, know what your idea of financial freedom is, know what it is you want to do with money.

I want to buy more property. I'm looking to have properties in Portugal and the UK. That’s what I'm aspiring to.

What luxuries are important to you?

Travel is very important to me. Like everybody else, I like the odd new bag, a new pair of shoes, and cars.

How do you feel about money?

My relationship with money is a happy one. I trust it. I know money will turn up when I need it.

A lot of people say that too much money will ruin people. It's not the money, it's other factors around it.