AT THE age of 27, Sara Anscombe is already reaching the pinnacle of her chosen career.

Ms Anscombe is an investment manager at Abingdon-based stockbroker Redmayne Bentley and although she makes her career path sound relatively smooth, she has made some important decisions along he way.

She said: “I started out wanting to be an accountant – I always wanted to work in finance and thought that was where I would end up.

“But accountancy is about detail and focuses on the last penny, and I decided that was not me.”

Living in Finstock, she attended Wood Green School in Witney where, predictably, maths was her strong point.

After A-Levels, she gained a degree in financial economics at Leicester University.

She said: “I enjoyed the real world side of looking at financial impacts globally as well as on domestic markets, and it was at university I developed an interest in investment.”

After graduating, she was not sure what she wanted to do but as it was July 2007, her options were becoming limited by the financial crisis as the economy headed into recession.

Despite knowing little about investment, she found a job with Thesis Asset Management in Guildford, Surrey, and she rapidly found her niche helping investment managers analyse the stock market and corporate markets on behalf of clients.

She went on to gain a Certificate in Investment Management and a Masters in Wealth Management from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Then, after four years, she came to another crossroads in her career.

Having built experience in investment, perhaps the logical move would have been to go to a big London firm and take on a potentially high-powered job.

But Oxfordshire was calling her back and she decided it was time to come home.

She said: “I wanted to move on into a management role but I also had a desire to return to the area.

“I had come back to Finstock every weekend and living a split life was no longer right for me.

“I could have gone to London but I am not that sort of person. I want a good work/life balance and to be able to enjoy the local community and country lifestyle.”

Ms Anscombe landed her perfect job as an investment manager at Redmayne Bentley, Abingdon.

As an investment manager, she has about 30 clients ranging in age from 18 to 96 for whom she runs portfolios, meeting them regularly to assess performance and the decisions she has made on their behalf.

She said: “Dealing with someone’s money is a lot of responsibility. They are relying on me for their future. I have long, in-depth conversations with them about balancing the risks with the reward of the potential returns,” she said.

The typical sum she deals with is £50,000. Some of her clients will have saved for retirement or others may have inherited it.

But does she practise what she preaches?

“I invest a little – I am saving for a house,” she said.

And once that is achieved, her ideal of living and working in Oxfordshire will be complete.