In the pursuit of personal growth and financial success, it is easy to become laser-focused on traditional strategies and conventional wisdom. While I’m committed to only recommending and implementing tried-and-trusted investment strategies to my clients, I do see the value in learning from great minds in other fields. In a previous article, I shared some of the investment wisdom of the late Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, Charlie Munger. One point I didn’t include in that piece was the fact that Munger always emphasised the importance of developing a “latticework of mental models” to improve your thinking, problem-solving abilities, and decision-making process. In this spirit, I wanted to explore three valuable lessons you can learn from the life and words of... Read More

I recently read an excellent online piece from the Australian website Quillette, which provides long-form journalistic analysis on a variety of subjects. This particular article was about pessimism, and asked the very pertinent question that if life is said to be better than ever, why does the world feel so depressing? It resonated with me, as I’ve written previously about the importance of optimism and the fact that the life we enjoy today is significantly better than that experienced by previous generations. But despite so much empirical evidence to the contrary, it still seems to be far too easy to be prone to a pessimistic outlook than one of positivity. The Quillette piece, set out some compelling  reasons why we’re... Read More

Your journey to financial success can often appear to be fraught with anxiety and uncertainty as you struggle to identify the most effective path towards your desired lifestyle. With countless investment options, complex economic conditions, and unique personal financial situations, selecting the best course of action can feel overwhelming. As an investor, you may also have to contend with contradictory advice, misinformation, and your own behavioural biases, while all the time knowing that decisions you make today can profoundly affect your future financial security and aspirations. In these moments of confusion, it’s understandable for you to seek financial advice for guidance and clarity. However, in my own experience, the key to overcoming such struggles often lies not in new and... Read More

While financial planning is the theme of most of the newsletter articles you’ll read here, I think it’s also important to reflect on what’s important to you in your wider life. So, in a change from the usual articles relating to managing your money, I’ve set out 20 different lifestyle tips and suggestions that I hope you’ll find useful. There’s no overarching theme to the first 15, as I have deliberately tried to make them as random and varied as possible. So, they cover a range of diverse subjects such as eating, sleeping, and watching sport. However, as your finances are so integral to the rest of your life and wellbeing, the final five are all about aspects of financial... Read More

To my mind, there are two distinct stages in your financial planning lifetime. The first requires you to squirrel away money for your future, hoping to benefit from the magic of compounding returns. I often call this the “savings stage”. At retirement, you then transition to the “spending stage” of your life. From this point, you will likely withdraw from, rather than continue to add to, your investment portfolio. While any habit of frugality you developed during your life will continue to be beneficial, this major change in direction can be a difficult adjustment for you. In this phase of life, I always flag two risks you’ll face. One is a risk I often think my clients fear a little... Read More