When building your wealth for retirement, it’s tempting to focus solely on the price tag of investments. However, in doing so, you may overlook a crucial insight: the true cost of owning assets extends far beyond the initial purchase price. To my mind, sound financial planning involves accumulating assets that provide sustainable, growing retirement income. While the monetary cost is obvious, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Hidden expenses can significantly impact your wellbeing and financial success, yet they’re frequently overlooked in investment decisions. In this article, I’ll explore these often-neglected aspects of asset ownership. My goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of what it truly means to own an asset, equipping you to make informed decisions about... Read More

Financial planning is very much about ensuring that you can enjoy a long and happy retirement free from money worries. Alongside building sufficient wealth to provide you with an income after you stop earning, it’s also important to consider other factors that will affect your post-retirement lifestyle. Many articles on this topic tend to cover the same points when it comes to living a successful and fruitful life. These will include staying active, finding hobbies, and keeping fit. While those are certainly very valid – and I’d recommend them myself – I always think that there’s a psychological side to retirement that can often be just as important as the physical aspects. To that end, here are six ways you... Read More

Retirement as we know it is barely 150 years old. Otto von Bismarck introduced the world’s first State Pension in Germany in 1889, setting the retirement age at 70, a milestone that only a tiny minority of the population actually reached. The concept was simple: work until you could no longer physically do so, and then society would care for you in your final years. That world no longer exists. The forces reshaping how we live, and work are so fundamental that the retirement of the future is unlikely to resemble the retirement of the past. The question isn’t whether retirement will change, but how quickly we can adapt our thinking to match this new reality. For the first time... Read More

If I had to sum it up in just a few words, I’d suggest the aim of financial planning is to provide you and your loved ones with valuable peace of mind through growing your wealth. However, I think there’s a frequent temptation to see wealth and asset accumulation as the be-all and end-all while losing sight of the wider picture. Wealth can define you in terms of the lifestyle you lead, but your wellbeing and happiness are arguably equally important. Furthermore, they aren’t necessarily dependent on how much money you have and the value of your assets and possessions. This is particularly important once you have retired and no longer have work as a key determinant in defining who... Read More

Most people plan their retirement by looking forward, trying to envisage their perfect future. “What do I want to do? Where do I want to live?” Unfortunately, most people have no idea what they want. Ask someone to describe their ideal retirement and you’ll get vague answers. “Travel more.” “Spend time with my family.” These sound nice, but they’re not specific enough for planning. Here’s a different approach that gets you better answers much faster: start with what you don’t want. This comes from Charlie Munger, who made “invert, always invert” one of his core principles. Instead of asking “How do I succeed?”, consider asking “How do I fail?” and then work to avoid those outcomes. When you ask “What... Read More