I spent most of my twenties chasing hundredths of a second on a track bike.

As a professional cyclist representing New Zealand at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, my entire world was built around performance. Training blocks, recovery protocols, race strategy, equipment choices - every decision was made in service of a moment that might last two minutes, if that.

When I retired from sport in 2020 and walked into financial advice, people thought it was an unusual move. And on the surface, they weren't wrong. The lycra stayed in the drawer. The finish lines disappeared.

But the thing that transferred most directly - the thing that shapes how I do this work every single day - is this:

Preparation before the moment is everything.

In cycling, you do not wait until race day to think about your strategy. You build it in the months before. You train for conditions you might face. You prepare for scenarios you hope won't happen. And when the moment comes - when it is loud and fast and there is no time to think - the preparation carries you.

Financial protection works exactly the same way.

You do not put income protection in place after you receive a serious diagnosis. You do not sort your KiwiSaver in the year before you want to retire. You do not restructure your ACC after you have already had to make a claim.

You do the work now, so that when life throws something at you - and at some point, it will - the plan is already there.

I work with self-employed people, business owners, and families across New Zealand. People who are building something, raising kids, holding a lot together.

And the thing I notice most consistently is not that people don't care about protecting what they've built. It's that life is full, time is short, and the financial stuff keeps getting pushed to next month.

I understand that. I was an athlete. My entire schedule was accounted for. There was always something more urgent than sitting down and sorting the paperwork.

But I also know what it feels like to be completely underprepared for something that matters. In sport, that just means a bad race. In life, it can mean your family is left in a genuinely difficult position at the worst possible time.

That's not a scare tactic. It's just true.

The families I have seen struggle most after a serious illness or injury are rarely the ones who earned the least. They are the ones who kept meaning to get sorted and didn't quite get there.

The business owners who have called me in a panic after an unexpected health event - wishing they had income protection, wishing their ACC was structured properly, wishing they had reviewed their cover after the second baby arrived - are almost always people who knew they needed to do something. Life just kept moving.

So that is what I do now.

I help self-employed people and families get prepared - properly, without the jargon, and in a way that actually fits how their lives work.

Income protection that accounts for how your income actually behaves. KiwiSaver that has been intentionally chosen, not just left in a default fund from your first job. ACC structured to give you certainty at claim time and save you money in the meantime.

Not because bad things are coming. But because preparation before the moment is everything.

I learned that on a track bike. I believe it just as much now.

Racquel Sheath is a Senior Financial Adviser and KiwiSaver Specialist at Essential Financial Solutions, based in Cambridge. EFS specialises in personal risk insurance, KiwiSaver, and ACC optimisation for self-employed clients across New Zealand.

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