8 months on: Pretty much the same, no better joint planning wise. Still doing sensible enough things like maxing out pension contributions.
I made a small life assurance investment (65% gold, 35% equity), down 2% over the last 6 months in Euro, after selling a holiday house.
Cash built up, better than shares for the last 6 months (i.e. cash was wrong for 10 years then right for 6 months).
We viewed some apartments nothing we thought we could not live without, largely eventually for my son, but for renting out temporarily.
(No financial advisor. If I am reluctant to pay professionals, my wife is if anything more reluctant than me.)
An ex colleague said someone he dealt with was good when he was going for early retirement, might be worth a try. Of course the advisor could specialise in retirement planning rather than family finances. However retirement is not that far off. I read a popular book about retirement planning recently, I really need a 'not work' plan. My wife changed jobs for the better, less commute for her and easier to take holidays.
I might just invest what is in my name (most cash is in a joint account or is in her name) if I feel the need to do more investment, run of the mill shares maybe Berkshire hathaway brk.b as a way of buying the USA economy in a single share. I had been holding on to cash to pay a possible tax bill, but that tax is not due for a long while.
There is a small inheritance coming up which may make investment topical again. (Neither of us has great communication skills.) Strangely the holiday home cash was thankfully considered "my money" not to be converted directly into more cash.
It is a bit funny complaining about her cash, when I leave a bit of cash lying around myself.
The only investment that I did that was over 5% per year was the company shares, so I cannot say I am a crack investor, a couple of things roughly 5% (pension, house plus some extra life assurance, so maybe 5% is pretty standard, which was OK when inflation was 2%).
Small bets on bitcoin and (specific share) lost 50% so I do not see me exercising any great stock picking skills.
I could use the life assurance, to invest in a fund and the life assurance company can calculate/deduct the tax, but that might lock the funds away for a while, and cost 1% Annual Management Charge. (I only picked the life Assurance to buy gold thinking it might be something my wife might invest in with similar properties as cash, store of wealth but rise with inflation rather than 0% cash.) I did not shop around or do much fee minimisation planning for the life assurance.
That's just a 'lack of progress' report, I think the financial retirement planner may be the thing to follow up on, where we would not admit to having to go to a financial planner because we cannot talk to each other.