A day in the life of… Matt Rea
Matt likes to see people achieve their financial and life goals. He wants them to come out on top, particularly in helping free up that all-important cashflow to live the life they want (he’s pretty strong on this one). As one of the best financial planners, he’s naturally competitive and driven, which is great for clients in inspiring them to take control of their finances and go for their dreams, but not so good for the Tribe when playing him in a game of office table tennis or out on the golf course.
Matthew Rea,
Lead Adviser / Partner
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A snapshot into the lives of our Tribe
Getting to learn about our clients’ lives is one of the best parts of our job. With this in mind
we thought we’d take a peek into the daily lives of our own Tribe so you can get to know them a little better.
The first in our ‘A day in the life of…’ series puts the spotlight on Matt Rea, Lead Advisor and Partner at Tribeca.
My morning
Starting my day with purpose, focus, and intention, balancing mindful habits with meaningful work.
I wake up and follow three habits from Andrew Huberman. First, I drink a litre of water with salt added, and that’s because your brain gets dehydrated overnight and doesn’t function as well.
Second, I get sunlight in my eyes to aid alertness. Third, I finish my regular shower with a 30-second cold shower which helps focus and resilience to stress. It’s brutal in winter, but these three things have definitely had a positive impact on my mental health and productivity
I drop my son Otis to daycare and travel to work.
Today is a “normal” advice day. I’m invited by Susan Bonici at Aitken Partners for an online session about rethinking restraints, legal trends and policy. I’m keen to learn about how changes to the removal of compete clauses in employment contracts might impact my clients. Also, as a Partner, what that means for Tribeca as an employer.
I’m joined by Rob Devlin, Tribeca’s Head of Advice, for a peer review. This is something that Tribeca does very well. All client advice gets peer reviewed which ensures a consistent standard of excellence across the business.
Is a client appointment. My clients are starting their transition into retirement so they’re reducing their work hours and want reassurance that’s possible. So we use financial modelling to help answer that question. From an emotional perspective, they’re getting used to that adjustment as they’ve been accumulating super their whole life. They’re getting comfortable with the idea that their investment balances don’t need to increase anymore.
This is the second appointment – our ‘Strategy Appointment’ – which we use for narrowing the focus on what strategies we’ll be using, talking about some trade-offs, and education on why certain strategies are beneficial. It’s exciting to be able make plans and show them how they can stop work in two years time if they decide that’s what they want to do.
My afternoon
Continuing the day with focus and collaboration, balancing tasks, teamwork and breaks.
Post appointment. Straight after every appointment we schedule time so we can get straight onto emailing the client with the presentation, a summary of what we discussed and the next steps.
Lunch, today I went across the road and got some sushi.
I have an internal meeting with my associate to agree on the final strategy that’s going to be in the Statement of Advice. We complete the work so it is prepared to give to our paraplanners
Table tennis break! We’re fortunate to have table tennis in the office for couple of reasons. It’s fun and I like the competitive aspect of playing against other Tribe members. It’s also a great way to get out of ‘presenting’ mode and into ‘work’ mode as these parts of my role take a completely different mindset and energy. That exercise and mental break really helps in shifting between the two. Talking of mindset, different advisers have different workflows.
Some prefer client meetings first thing in the morning, but I prefer afternoon meetings if I can so I can get my admin duties (execution of advice) completed first.
The afternoon is spent responding to client emails and calls, then working through checklist items and tasks, basically doing my piece of a process and then handing it to the next person.
I like to write a list on paper of how many tasks I want to do per hour – my version of the Pomodoro Technique (a time management method). If I can put things in smaller chunks and focus on getting this chunk of work done, then I’m more productive in ticking them off one task at a time. For some reason it’s cathartic and works for me, that act of writing it down.
My evening
Ending the day with gratitude and connection, cherishing family time and peaceful moments.
I leave around 6.00pm and I’m happy to do these longer days as I don’t work on the Wednesday (Tribeca works a 4-day work week).
I get home around 6:25pm for the best hour of the day – hanging out with Otis before bed with dinner, bath and about 10 books! Every time I bring a new book out he claps and excitedly points, or he crawls over to this bookshelf. It’s so cute.
Otis’ bed time!
Now it’s my time to sleep.
Talk to Matt
If you would like more background on Matt or any of our Tribe please head over to our Who we are page, and you can also check out Matt’s LinkedIn here.
If you would like Matt to help you with your financial plans and goals please book in a complmentary getting to know you appointment.
