To celebrate I have a huge announcement for you at the end of the article.  It is customary to give away a gift on your birthday, isn't it?

​But first, let's back up to how Rebel Business School begun and how I went from frustrated Entrepeneur to global movement. 

What should we do?  Sell before it crashes even further?  Put it all in cash under the mattress and wait for the world to return to normal?  PANIC: read the news to get insight and feel even worse afterwards? Engage with the doomsayers predicting the end of capitalism?

Here's how Katie and I have trained ourselves to react when the market drops and why doing the opposite of what everyone else does is the route to financial success.

My messages, email and other channels lit up with messages of doom and gloom.  The market is down! We need to stop investing!  The £ is at an all-time low against the $! Should we halt all investments until it goes back up?  Is it different this time?  It is all going to pieces!  PANIC!

But what actually is in VTSAX?  Do you know what you are buying when you get it? Obviously, Katie got excited and created some charts and graphs to show you exactly where your money goes when you buy this legendary fund!  Read on to find out exactly what is in VTSAX!

​Katie and I started a new diet in lock down in 2020 given to us by a coach, we followed it to the letter, gave it our everything and after 12 days we had lost so much weight but I was falling asleep in the afternoons from no energy.  The diet was literally stripping me of my vitality and energy and I was falling to pieces.  katie wanted to press on, I couldn't take it and we argued.  

Sometimes we all have the tendency to take things to the extreme when we find something we are passionate about. What does this all have to do with financial independence? Some people take it to the extreme when they find out about it, alienating the people around them and sacrificing happiness. 

Over the last 4 years of running Rebel Finance School, Katie and I have had the honour of helping people avoid and unwind some of these mistakes. We have seen up close and personal the damage that these things do to people's financial lives.  Some have happened to us and I am sure we will make mistakes in the future!  This article is designed to help you avoid making some of the biggest mistakes we see people  making in the world of finances!

After 3 years of talking about money, running the Rebel Finance School for thousands of people, and reflecting on our journey to financial independence, I can tell you that most people believe their only routes to wealth are:

1. Winning the lottery (slim chances but why not, it is only a few quid each month)
2. Inheritance  (maybe great Aunt Tilda will die and leave me money)
3. Building a business and selling it (but I can't do this as it takes money to make money)
4. The latest get rich quick scheme (of course they convince themselves that it's legit and it'll work for them!)

Is wealth really a game of chance or can anyone do it?

​In 2016, Katie and I travelled to Ecuador to learn about financial independence and investing.  Before we got to Chautauqua (the retreat) with JL Collins, the Mad Fientist and Mr Money Mustache, we stopped at the beach a few days beforehand to relax. Mompiche, a small fishing village in North Western Ecaudor, is stunning! We were staying right on the beach and each night we sat there drinking hot chocolate, watching the waves roll in as the sun set over the bay.

Interestingly, one of the most important lessons we learned on this trip was from a surfer who was staying at the same surf shack as us. But how, exactly, did a surfing binman (garbage man) from Italy end up 50% financially independent?

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. Updated 19th June 2022

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?

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?