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Dynamic Wealth Solutions Financial Advice in Livingston & Edinburgh. Plan your life with clarity and confidence

At Dynamic Wealth Solutions Ltd, we provide holistic, purpose-driven financial advice across Livingston and Edinburgh. Founded by Steven Auldjo, we help individuals and families align their money with what matters most. Whether that’s retiring early, supporting loved ones, or creating a lasting legacy. Our tailored advice covers retirement planning, pension planning, investment planning, ISA planning, and financial protection. We deliver trusted advice in a friendly, jargon-free way, so you can plan with clarity and confidence.

Earning a lot is not a retirement plan. It feels like one, which is the problem.When the money's coming in well, the fut...
08/10/2026

Earning a lot is not a retirement plan. It feels like one, which is the problem.

When the money's coming in well, the future takes care of itself in your head. You assume that somewhere down the line you'll sort it, that an income like yours surely adds up to being fine later.

So retirement planning gets put off, because why worry about it when you're earning this well.

A big salary or a strong run of commission is brilliant right up until the day it ends, and then it's worth nothing unless some of it was deliberately set aside along the way.

I've sat with people at the top of their earning years who were, on paper, enormously successful, and genuinely anxious underneath it, because some part of them knew the income was doing all the heavy lifting and nothing was being built behind it. The lifestyle had kept pace with the earnings. The future hadn't.

And I've sat with people who earned far less but will be completely comfortable, because they understood early that the job of a good income isn't just to fund today. It's to build the thing that funds all the days after you stop.

Money. Meaning. Life.

The fix for a thin pension on a commission or bonus income is not "just pay in more each month." That advice assumes a s...
07/10/2026

The fix for a thin pension on a commission or bonus income is not "just pay in more each month." That advice assumes a steady income you haven't got.

The whole thing has to be built around how you actually get paid, not how a salaried person gets paid. Here's roughly how that works.

Instead of relying on a fixed monthly contribution that falls over the first time a quiet month hits, you contribute in a way that flexes with your income. A smaller steady baseline you know you can always manage, topped up deliberately when the good months and the big payments land. So you're putting more in when you can afford it, and you're never committed to a number that a slow quarter blows apart.

The big payments are where most of the ground gets made up. When a strong month or a chunky commission comes in, a planned portion of it goes straight into the pension before it can get absorbed into everyday spending. This is also where the tax side really matters, because pension contributions come with tax relief, and for higher earners that relief can be significant.

Used well, it means a meaningful part of what you put in effectively comes back to you.

There's also timing to think about, because when you're self-employed or your income swings between tax bands year to year, when you contribute can matter as much as how much.

And then, as ever, we model it forward. We look at where you are now, what contributing in this flexible way actually builds over the years ahead, and whether it gets you where you want to be. If there's still a gap, you see it early, while there's time to do something about it.

Money. Meaning. Life.

06/10/2026

Some of the best earners I meet have some of the worst pensions.

When you're employed on a steady salary, a pension mostly happens to you. It comes off before you see it, the employer adds their bit, and it builds in the background whether you think about it or not.

When your income is commission based, none of that applies. Your pension contributions are normally based on your base salary only. And every extra pound you'd put away is competing with a cashflow that never feels quite certain enough to commit, because what if next quarter's quiet?

So the contribution that a salaried colleague never even notices becomes a decision you have to actively make, and keep making, and it's the easiest thing in the world to put off until the income feels more settled.

The income rarely feels more settled. And the years go by.

The result is people pulling in excellent money who, if you looked only at their pension, you'd assume earned a fraction of what they do. The lifestyle reflects the income. The retirement provision reflects the putting-off.

This is very fixable, and it's a big part of what I do for people in this position. The key is building a way of contributing that actually fits an irregular income, rather than pretending you've got a salary you haven't. You use the strong periods deliberately, you make the most of the tax relief that comes with pension contributions, which matters even more when you're a higher earner, and you stop relying on a steady monthly habit that was never going to work for how you actually get paid.

Earning well now is only half the job. The other half is making sure some of it is there when you stop.

Money. Meaning. Life.

01/10/2026

The people who come to me after a large sum lands are rarely excited about it.

You'd assume a windfall feels like good news, but more often it arrives with a knot attached.

An inheritance is the clearest example. Someone's lost a parent, and now there's a sum of money that exists only because that person is gone. Spending it feels wrong. Investing it feels cold. So it sits untouched, sometimes for years, because doing anything with it feels like closing a door they're not ready to close.

Redundancy is similar in its own way. The money's meant to be a cushion, but it lands in the middle of worry about what comes next, so it gets clung to rather than used well.

What I've noticed, again and again, is that the first thing people actually need isn't financial at all. It's permission.

✅ Permission to take their time.
✅ Permission to use the money without guilt. ✅ Permission to turn it into something good, which, in the case of an inheritance, is usually exactly what the person who left it would have wanted.

Once that lands, the practical side tends to fall into place. We work out what it's for, we handle it properly, and the thing that had been sitting as a source of dread becomes something with a purpose behind it.

One person described the relief as finally being allowed to stop thinking about it. The money had been on their mind every single day, not as a pleasure, but as an unresolved weight. Getting it sorted gave them their headspace back as much as anything else.

That tends to be the real outcome. Not just a well-invested sum, though that matters too. It's that a thing which had been weighing on someone is finally settled, and they can get on with their life.

Money. Meaning. Life.

30/09/2026

So a large sum has landed, and you've not done anything with it.

Here's how it actually gets sorted, and why it's less daunting than the avoiding makes it feel.

The first thing, genuinely, is to slow down. There's almost never a reason to rush a decision like this, and a lot of the poor moves people make with a windfall come from acting too fast.

Then comes the question that does most of the work.

What is this money for? Given everything going on in your life right now, what would you want this to change, if anything?

Sometimes it's security, a buffer so you stop worrying. Sometimes it's time, the thing that lets you drop a day a week or bring retirement forward. Sometimes it's for the children, or a house, or simply making the years ahead more comfortable. Often it's a mix.

Only once that's clear do we look at the practical side, and this is where a bit of planning really earns its place.

Some of it may want to stay as accessible cash. Some might go towards clearing a mortgage or other debt. Some might be invested for the longer term. None of this is beyond you, but it's a lot to weigh up alone, especially at what's often an emotional time.

And then, as always, we model it forward, so you can see what this money actually does across the years ahead rather than guessing.

That's the moment it stops being a source of anxiety and starts feeling like an opportunity.

The whole thing tends to move from overwhelming to clear surprisingly quickly, once someone's walking through it with you. Most of the difficulty is facing it on your own.

A windfall handled well can change the shape of your future.

Money. Meaning. Life.

When a large sum of money lands in your lap, the strangest thing happens. You do nothing with it.You'd think it would be...
29/09/2026

When a large sum of money lands in your lap, the strangest thing happens. You do nothing with it.

You'd think it would be the opposite. Big money arrives, you spring into action. But it's usually the reverse. It sits in an account, sometimes for years, while you avoid making a decision about it, because the decision feels too big and too easy to get wrong.

It often arrives at a difficult time, too.

💰 An inheritance comes with grief attached.
💸 A redundancy payment comes with upheaval and worry about what's next.
🤑 Even the good ones, selling a business, carry a weight, because suddenly there's a sum of money that feels like it's supposed to change things, and you don't want to be the one who fumbles it.

Doing nothing with it still safe, but it rarely is.

A large amount doing nothing is slowly losing value to inflation, and more than that, it's a missed chance to turn a one-off event into something that genuinely shapes the years ahead.

This is a big part of what I help people with, and the first thing I do is take the pressure out of it. There's no rush. Nothing has to be decided this week. We start by working out what this money is actually for, given everything else going on in your life, and that one question usually does most of the heavy lifting. Is

Once you know what it's for, the what-to-do-with-it part gets much simpler, because now it's serving a purpose rather than just sitting there as a number you're afraid of.

Money. Meaning. Life.

A trusted adviser by your side to keep you on track makes all the difference. The regular reviews are where the peace o...
25/09/2026

A trusted adviser by your side to keep you on track makes all the difference. The regular reviews are where the peace of mind comes from.

Money. Meaning. Life.

24/09/2026

The most valuable thing I do for couples often isn't the financial plan itself. It's getting them to the point where they both understand it

That sounds like a small distinction. It isn't, once you've watched it happen a few times.

Money is one of the few things most couples never really talk about properly. They'll talk about the kids, the holidays, whose turn it is to sort dinner. But sit down and actually go through where you both stand financially and where you're heading? Rarely. It feels too big, or too dry, or like it might turn into an argument.

The result is that two people who share a life often carry the money side of it completely separately. One tends to know more about the pensions, the other about the day to day. Each has their own private version of whether things are okay.

When you put both people in the same room and build one clear picture they can both see, something shifts that goes well beyond the numbers. Often for the first time, they're genuinely on the same page about the future they're building.

I've had people tell me the plan was useful, but the real relief was simply knowing that if anything happened to them, their partner wouldn't be lost.

So yes, I build the plan. But the bit that matters most is that two people who love each other finally understanding the same thing, at the same time, and feeling a bit lighter for it.

Money. Meaning. Life.

Building one financial plan for a couple, is mostly about getting everything into the same room at the same time. It sou...
23/09/2026

Building one financial plan for a couple, is mostly about getting everything into the same room at the same time. It sounds obvious. It's rarely been done.

The first job is simply gathering it all up. Both sets of pensions, including the old ones from previous jobs that everyone forgets about. The savings, wherever they've ended up. Any investments, any protection, the lot.

For a lot of couples this is the first time it's all been written down in one place, and that alone tends to be a bit of an eye-opener. You can't plan around things you can't see, and until now you've each only really seen half.

Then we work out what the two of you actually want, which is a different conversation from what each of you wants on your own.

When would you like the option to stop working, and does that line up, because often it doesn't and that's worth knowing early.

What do you want the years after that to look like. What matters enough to protect. These are joint questions, and answering them together is often the most valuable part, because plenty of couples discover they've been assuming different things.

Once we know where you're both heading and what you've both got, the two halves become one picture. We can see whether it all adds up, when it works, where the gaps are. And crucially, we can model it forward together, so you can both see the same future on the same screen.

What comes out the other side isn't two people managing their own bits and hoping they combine into something sensible. It's a single plan you both understand and can both talk about. If one of you got hit by a bus tomorrow, the other wouldn't be starting from scratch trying to work out what on earth they had.

Money. Meaning. Life.

A lot of couples have never once looked at their money together properly. Not a row about spending, not the quick "are w...
22/09/2026

A lot of couples have never once looked at their money together properly.

Not a row about spending, not the quick "are we okay?" chat on a Sunday. Actually sitting down and seeing the whole thing as one picture.

It's more common than you'd think, even with couples who've been together twenty years. You've each got your own pensions from your own jobs. Maybe separate savings, an ISA here, an old policy there. You've both got a rough sense of your own bit and a much vaguer sense of the other person's. And somewhere underneath it, each of you is assuming the other one has a slightly better handle on the overall plan than they actually do.

So there isn't really a plan. There are two half-plans that have never been introduced to each other.

That matters more than it sounds, because the big questions are shared ones.

When can we afford to retire, not just me. What happens to you if something happens to me. Can we help the kids and still be fine ourselves. None of those can be answered from one person's half of the picture. They only make sense when it's all on the table at once.

This is a big part of what I do, and it's often the first time a couple has seen everything in one place. We pull it all together, both sets of pensions, the savings, the protection, the lot, and build a single plan for the two of you rather than two separate ones running in parallel. Usually the picture is better than at least one of you feared. Sometimes there's a gap nobody had spotted because nobody was looking at the whole thing. Either way, you both finally know where you stand, together.

And there's something that happens in those meetings that's hard to put a value on. Two people, in the same room, finally on the same page about the thing that worries most couples.

Money. Meaning. Life

Address

17 Mossend View West Calder
Livingston
EH558RZ

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

Telephone

+447749931037

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