I had a £950k salary and a happy marriage. I lost it all overnight – but I’m happier on less than minimum wage
By his late 40s, Adam Simmons was living the kind of life most people dream about. He had an Aston Martin convertible and a Bentley on the driveway, a beautiful seven-bedroom home in Loughton, Essex, and regularly flew first-class to dream destinations such as Australia, the Philippines and Thailand on holiday.
At the peak of his career as a stockbroker, Adam was earning £950,000 a year and spent more than a decade working in Tokyo on and off.
‘As a broker, it was all about making money. Numbers were everything,’ the father of four, now 58, says. ‘It was an incredible life. My kids didn’t know you could turn right when boarding a plane as we’d always go left to first class,’ he says.
But Adam, who is from Chigwell in Essex, says this life of luxury came to a crashing halt nine years ago when, aged 49, he was made redundant.
He lost his £450,000 a year salary overnight in 2017 and had to move back the UK from Tokyo.
‘I went from hero to zero almost,’ he says. ‘You go from earning a large salary to zero. That’s a big shock.’
And the career shock coincided with turmoil in Adam’s personal life, as his marriage to his second wife, with whom he had a daughter, broke down.
Adam, who also had three sons from his first marriage, says: ‘We met when my career was booming and we had a fantastic life in Japan and then coming back, reality hit a little bit and it just didn’t work at all.
Adam Simmons, pictured at work with his children, was earning £950,000 a year at the peak of his career as a stockbroker. But, aged 49, he was made redundant
With the sudden loss of income, which coincided with his divorce, he had to sell his Bentley
‘We didn’t get on anymore. It was an awful situation to get through and a very messy divorce.
‘I went through hell. My career ended and my marriage ended. I was done. I thought what did I do to deserve this?
‘I was in a really dark place for a long time. I was having therapy and at that time I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go on.’
Adam began his career in the City in the late 1980s, starting as a messenger before working his way onto a trading desk and eventually specialising in Japanese equities. He spent 13 years living and working in Japan, first moving to Tokyo in 2000 before moving back to the UK for a few years and later returning to Japan to run teams for major financial institutions.
Adam says he would typically arrive at his desk before 7am and rarely leave before 6pm. As he became more senior, he says the pressure intensified.
‘The more senior I got, the more political it became and it wasn’t as fun as it was in the earlier days.’
The perks of the job were unbelievable, he says. The family were living in a luxury apartment in a prime location rent-free with no bills and paid-for business class flights home when they needed them.
Adam says: ‘We didn’t pay for school or nursery fees. We’d go on holiday and take our nanny with us. It was just another world.’
But Adam says that losing his job in 2017 and going through such personal upheaval forced him to confront a reality he had been trying to avoid.
‘I wasn’t enjoying work at that stage,’ he says. ‘The job was becoming hard to sustain. It was too much pressure and I’d been doing it for almost 30 years.’
When he lost his job, Adam and his family were forced to leave Tokyo and move back to the UK, where their standard of living was much lower without his large salary. The couple had kept their seven-bedroom home in Loughton while living abroad so were able to move back in.
But with the loss of income and the breakdown of his marriage that same year, he had to sell the home.
At this point, Adam was living off savings and set up a trading business – but when markets didn’t go his way, he says it was a wake-up call. He decided he couldn’t continue with that career path.
One conversation with a counsellor would ultimately change the direction of his life, he says.
‘The best form of therapy is to go and help people,’ the counsellor told him.
Adam began volunteering, first delivering meals for Jewish Care, a health and social care charity for the Jewish Community, before moving on to telephone befriending, which is where volunteers speak to someone on a regular basis to provide companionship or help for those who are feeling lonely, for example. Adam later volunteered with the Samaritans, too.
‘I loved it,’ he says. ‘It gave me a real sense of worth. I’d never had that when I was a broker in the City. It was all about making money.
‘I learnt so much through volunteering. It completely changed who I was.’
Inspired by the work, Adam began researching opportunities in the care sector to turn his new passion into a business.
After he began volunteering, Adam took a keen interest in the home care sector and eventually set up his own business, helping vulnerable people across Essex
Despite having no experience or knowledge of the industry, he spent months reading, meeting providers and analysing companies before deciding to invest around £140,000 of his savings into a Radfield Home Care franchise.
This group allows those with upfront cash to buy and set up their own care business.
He has since set up and runs a home care business helping vulnerable people across Essex.
‘I knew nothing about home care when I first started looking into it. There was lots to learn and I wanted to make sure I got it right.’
The transition was not easy. Adam says it took months of training and regulatory approvals before the business could start operating.
Even now, four years on, he says the role is more demanding than anything he did in finance.
His income is dramatically lower than it once was, as he only pays himself around £24,000 a year and uses his savings to help supplement his income.
He added: ‘I don’t take a lot out of the business. I’ve been running it for three years and I’m still building it up. I’m still living on some savings and take around £2,000 a month salary. I don’t need more.’
Adam insists he has never felt richer in the ways that matter.
‘It was an incredible life,’ he says. ‘I was blessed because I got to experience a completely different culture.
‘I got to travel all over Asia, the food was outstanding, the people were lovely and I got to experience some incredible countries. I’ve been to every Michelin-starred restaurant in Hong Kong and London. But it doesn’t mean anything.
‘I thought I was happy, but I wasn’t.
‘My life couldn’t be more different now. I don’t miss the Michelin star restaurants, I prefer eating at local gastro pubs and almost begrudgingly go to an expensive place now.’
He now rents a two-bedroom maisonette in Chigwell, Essex, for £1,600 a month, where his daughter often stays with him.
Adam adds: ‘I haven’t been on an abroad holiday for four or five years. Sometimes we go to visit my friend’s apartment in Spain or we’ll visit a Parkdean holiday home in the UK. It’s a completely different lifestyle.’
He says the satisfaction he now gets from helping clients and supporting his staff is what makes him happy.
‘There is so much more to life than a high-paying job. I have such a sense of worth and such a sense of pride in what we do,’ he says.
‘I don’t take very much out of the business because I’m still investing in it and building it.’
And for anyone contemplating a major career change later in life, Adam’s message is simple: ‘Don’t have any regrets,’ he says.
‘It’s very easy to stay doing the same thing because it feels safe. But if it’s something you feel passionate about, then absolutely go for it.’
