One of our highlights of the month is the monthly finance meeting. Katie and I get excited days beforehand, and actively spend time planning our monthly finance meeting. We find a cool location for a wonderful breakfast or brunch, open the spreadsheet and input the numbers and work out which direction our finances are going in!

This is the exact opposite of most of the population who don't like to look at their finances at all; scared of what they might find.  Your average person uses the "bury your head in the sand strategy" to manage their finances; with an occasional peek at the current account to see if they can afford things.  

If the saying "what get's measured; gets improved" is true; then why are so many people so scared of looking at their personal finances??

This got me thinking, "Am I a risk taker?"  What does the rest of the world see as risky that I see as the safe bet?

Do you think it is risky to start a business?  Do you think it is risky to invest in the stock market?  Do you think the safe thing to do is to get a job and stay there for the rest of your life?

How much of the money you earn do you save and invest? Do you save any of the money that you earn each month? 

The average savings rate in the United Kingdom is 6%. In the USA it is 7.9%. Do you know if you are saving more or less than that?

Do you save more money than the average person? Do you save less money than the average person? Do you know how much you’re saving?

Your savings rate is one of the key indicators of when you can retire! Knowing this number you can predict how long you have to work in paid employment. We can predict your retirement date based on this number. 

Created 11th August 2020. Updated May 31st 2022

Recently we were approaching investing and finance companies looking for sponsors for the Rebel Finance School to help us reach more people and do more good in the world.  One of the companies we found was Wealthify and they seemed to have a great mission to simplify investing and help people make the most of their investments and pensions.  On the surface it looked fabulous

We set up a call to speak to them and before we chatted we did a deep dive on their strategies and investment returns.  Katie and I were SHOCKED with what we found.  We wrote to Wealthify, cancelling the meeting. They asked for feedback, why did we cancel?  We sent the feedback and their response was "we are going to have to agree to disagree." 

Wealthify has 30,000 customers and they are out there actively marketing (in my opinion unethically) for new customers.   I decided to write an open letter to their CEO Andy Russell. 

If you have been thinking of investing with Wealthify read this first........

How do you calculate your net-worth?  The first step to change is to take a good look at where you are right now.  If you don't know your starting point it is difficult to know if the change you are creating is moving you in the right direction or not.  If you can't clearly give a £ or $ figure for your net-worth then this article will help you figure it out.

The picture to the right is from today outside our hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay.  We landed as a cyclone started to batter the coast of Uruguay.  Let's start at the beginning of 2022........

Watching the judge's gavel come down after he ordered a repossession was the worst moment of my life.   My Mum cried, I shouted at the judge he was wrong and we were told we had 1 month to move out. 

But we appealed and I represented the family in court as we couldn’t afford a lawyer. I learned as much as I could about law, made my case and we settled getting enough back for my Mum to have somewhere to live. . 

Ever since then, I've always seen debt as a dangerous thing. I've met many other people who have suffered. Some of them have lost everything.  Debt doesn’t just harm the debtors - it hurts their family, too. 

Sounds like a good idea but my biggest concern is that this leads to stock picking and therefore worse performance (profit for us) over time.  Katie and I wanted to dig into my preconceived notions and ideas to find out the truth behind ESG funds and all the hype that surrounds them!

Recently an opportunity came my way that I could not pass up and I want to share it with you as well as some ideas about mini-experiments. 

At the time I was working full time on Rebel Business School and growing it, Simon (my business partner) and I were on a mission to change entrepreneurship education and really create impact in the world. 

As I wrote out my goal of going to LA to write a movie I wondered to myself if I would ever get round to doing it.  After my coffee I met up with Katie (my wife) and as we walked around the canals of Venice she asked a question that changed my life forever.

These funds have huge promise and we wanted to dig in to find out what you are actually buying when you purchase a global index fund.

My Dad and the advisor convinced me to invest my life savings into a high tech, high growth managed fund inside an ISA.  

Within months the dot com bubble burst and my life savings went from £7,000 to £1,200.  I lost 83% of my life's savings.  By 2005 it had recovered to £1,400 and I sold it all off to go and volunteer in Costa Rica.

This one incident scared me off investing for 15 years.  

Now, 21 years after that first bad investment, 79% of my net-worth is in stocks and shares and once we sell off our investment properties that number will rise to 95%.  What changed?  How did I go from petrified of investing, saying I would NEVER invest in stocks and shares again to being the biggest advocate for them?

This article is designed to help you have more confidence when starting to invest. 

10 or 12 years ago I started to do annual goal setting and reflection and have slowly developed my list of questions and process over that period.  I have run it with everyone on the Rebel team and shared with friends to great impact but not published it yet!  This is what I want to give to you for Christmas this year.  This is my Christmas present to you...............

My goal for 2022 is to write a book and I wondered if you would help me with a little mini-experiment to start with?

Consumerism is at fever pitch at this time of year with the holidays, Christmas and gift buying going CRAZY! 20% of ALL retail sales happen in November and December driven by Black Friday, Cyber Monday and then Christmas.  

The question is what are people actually buying?  What are you buying?  A bunch more liabilities for the house that you have to maintain?

So many people seem to be talking about it.  Millennial Revolution are mining it in their Airbnb's, the Escape Artist is writing about it and the highs and lows.  It seems to be in the press in different ways every single day. 

With all the hype I wanted to stand up and give a different opinion.  These are my reasons why I don't invest in crypto and won't tell anyone to do it either.

If you are looking to let go of the feeling of "I should invest in crypto" or you want some balance to the reasons for investing then this article is for you.  If you love crypto and don't like to be challenged you aren't going to like this one!

These 3 clear barriers are what we tackle first and this helps people make progress quickly.  The objective is to build a business making money doing what they love, but first we need to get past the barriers!

​My wife, Katie, and I have become fascinated by finances and since running our first finance course we have been trying to understand what stops people from getting their finances in order. 

At the beginning of that course we asked everyone that signed up "What stops you having your finances the way you want them?" What do you think they said? What do you think stops people from fixing their financial situation?

Almost every blog talks about cutting out streaming services, reducing expenditure and not going out to eat.   I have a slightly different take on it.  

​There is almost an air of resignation when I ask people about how much money they make.  It is as if they earn what they earn and that is it.  Well I am here to tell you that there maybe a floor to how much you can reduce expenditure but the is NO ceiling to the amount of money you can make!  You want to pull a lever that is going to supercharge your finances and your path to financial independence?  This is the one!

As you walk down the street there are messages on the bus signs, billboards and shop windows.  There are adverts on the TV, the radio stations we listen to and if you log onto social media there are endless targeted adverts directed at you. 

There is a war raging around you.  Some of the smartest, best trained and well funded people in the world are trying to crack the code to your purse/wallet.  Who is going to win?  The marketeers or you? 

This is a post about the Donegans and what they have been up to.  There will be ideas and inspiration but this post is mostly about us!  I always feel a little weird writing about us as most of my articles focus on giving value to you but I think you might still have fun........

I am wondering how the heck we got here.  Will we get the phone back?  Has it already been sold on the black market?  What will happen to the person I know stole it?  Is the building administrator in on the whole theft?  What is going to happen next?

For years I have felt as though companies are working against me. They try and sell me insurances I don't need, give me credit when I can afford to buy it without it and try every trick under the sun to squeeze a few more £££s out of me at every single turn. 

But who can blame them?  They are just trying to turn a profit aren't they?  Or are there teams of the smartest people in the world working for multinational companies scheming how to increase profits, make products addictive and get more money out of you?

I originally wrote this on the 26th of May 2020 and updated it this week for you on 15th of June 2021.   Has the advice changed following the pandemic? 
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So here are all your questions about the 4% rule, early retirement and financial independence answered!  Let's jump straight into "How much does it take to retire? The Q&A" with Alan...…..

I came across an incredibly simple formula for knowing when enough is enough. I will show you the straight forward maths behind calculating how much you need to invest to retire.

This was first written on the 26th of August 2019 and updated on the 15th June 2021.  I am now 42 years old now!  How time passes. We have reviewed and updated the article given everything that has happened since I wrote it in 2019!