16 Oct 2025

Butler Tolls celebrates its 35th anniversary

It’s our birthday!

This October is Butler Toll’s 35th anniversary.

A lot has happened over the past 35 years, not least the ability to search online for what was happening years ago.

To give some perspective, you couldn’t search for anything in 1990 because the internet was still three years away from being available to the public!

So, here’s a snapshot of just some of the events of October 1990 (courtesy of Google, and in no particular order):

  • The UK number one singles were ‘Show Me Heaven’ by Maria McKee, ‘A Little Time’ by Beautiful South, and ‘Unchained Melody’ by The Righteous Brothers (Taylor Swift is 10 months old!)
  • New film releases included Dances with Wolves, Flatliners, and Goodfellas
  • Ayrton Senna won his second Formula 1 World Championship
  • East and West Germany formally reunified after 45 years of separation
  • The Rwandan Civil War began
  • Britain and France completed the ‘Chunnel’
  • Both the US and USSR carried out nuclear weapons tests
  • The US deployed 200,000 troops to the Persian Gulf in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
  • Oil reached a record $40 per barrel
  • The FTSE 100 traded at around 2000.

I can also recall that Sharon and I had been married for a whole three months at the point we launched Butler Toll. We were both career-minded and had agreed that under no circumstances were we going to have children.

Of course, being a financial adviser, I fully understood the importance of establishing aims, aspirations, and personal and financial goals – and putting plans in place to achieve them.

I recall that a key personal goal for me was to own a Porsche (very 90s, I know!).

Anyway, 35 years on:

  • Sarah, 32, graduated from Falmouth University and is now a professional artist
  • Hannah, 29, graduated from Cirencester Agricultural University and works in administration and finance at a large agricultural estate
  • Charlotte,22, is studying for her master’s at Falmouth University

I never did get the Porsche, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Our three girls are much more rewarding, although I’m not sure about the maintenance costs!

Of course, none of this would have been possible over the 35 years without the loyalty of our many clients who have joined us along the way, many of whom I now class as friends. The journey has been challenging at times, but ultimately, I hope, rewarding.

The point of all this? Things change – the world changes around us; we change; our plans change; our priorities change.

As things change, it’s crucial to keep our finances under regular review to ensure the plans we’ve put in place continue to do the job they were intended for. That’s the only way of planning for the life we don’t yet know.