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Travel with purpose11/2/2023
After 4 years of travelling around the world, Katie and I have started to work out some of the things we love most about travel. This post shares some of our ideas and comes with a HUGE offer at the end (well we think it's pretty cool, you can judge for yourself!)
No matter whether you travel or not, want to travel in the future or not I think this article has a message that can help you. Read Onwards.........
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What is success?27/1/2023
They want to know what school (university) you went to, what car you drive, where you live? Then last one really defines you. Which neighbourhood, which town and what location tells us everything we need to know about you. Do you live on the right side of the tracks, do you live in the nice side of town?
Do you measure up to societies description of success or sometimes do you feel like you don't fit in? Don't measure up?
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Comfort, Awareness & Possibility15/1/2023
Even now at 44 there is SO much that I know I don't know about, let alone the stuff I don't know I don't know!
How do you know what exists, how do you know what is possible for you and how do you get comfortable having a go?
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This article is designed to make financial independence as simple as possible (not easy; simple) so that you know what to do next - which lever to pull and how to make progress.
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10 years of Rebel19/10/2022
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.
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PANIC: the market has crashed10/10/2022
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.
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Donegan Update5/10/2022
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Should I stop investing?2/10/2022
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!
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What is in VTSAX?24/9/2022
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!
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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.
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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!
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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?
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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?
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Wealthify review25/5/2022 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........
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Donegan Update May'2217/5/2022
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........
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Stop pushing debt on us10/5/2022
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.
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Building Version 1 - mini-experiments18/3/2022
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.
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Trouble in paradise10/3/2022 Why am I sad? Because I just had a huge argument with Katie, my wife. She is the love of my life and people always compliment us on how strong our relationship is; but we are just two normal humans that have problems too.
We have figured out a lot. We have figured out how to build businesses, how to get to financial independence and we have been working on communication and self-development for decades but we still don't know it all. We still have problems, arguments and issues just like everyone. Why am I telling you this? I think it is important to realise no one is perfect and we are all trying our hardest.
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Movie Script Update5/3/2022
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.
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How global is your global fund?20/2/2022
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.
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Fear of investing in stocks and shares16/1/2022
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.
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Annual Review Questions28/12/2021
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...............
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The start of a mini-experiment12/12/2021
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?
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Black Friday sale: FREEDOM20/11/2021
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?
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5 reasons not to invest in crypto27/10/2021
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! |