Category Archives: Blog

As our world becomes increasingly digitised, personal skills will become more valuable. Many salespeople call these the soft-skills and realise that the old-school hard-sell-skills are no longer as effective. People are less likely to be blown away by some widget and far more likely to remember the way that you’ve made them feel. It doesn’tContinue reading “Become a better networker”

Regardless of what words we want to put to our journey with our money, there are a few realities that we need to face. First – everything we do is linked to money, whether we pay for it ourselves or rely on a benefactor. Second – some of our wealth-generation depends on luck and circumstance,Continue reading “Planning vs Coaching”

It’s easy to think about a financial plan and consider the elements that typically go into it. For instance, we could picture a plan that consists of a retirement savings product, life and health insurance, investment portfolios, and maybe a few things like trusts, wills and estate plans. Or, we could think about what aContinue reading “What a better financial plan could look like”

In the next few years, we are likely to see a significant increase in small businesses, from home enterprises to startups. Many people have had to create sideline income or recover from losing their jobs in a shrinking job market. Jobs seeing the fastest decline are in production or administration support, primarily due to automationContinue reading “Marketing yourself beyond 2022”

They say that getting old happens slowly, and then all at once. Most of the change around us occurs so gradually that we barely notice it; ageing, losing or gaining our fitness, losing or gaining weight, intimacy in relationships, and debt and investing. These are some of the areas of incrementally-unnoticeable change with which we’reContinue reading “Just one more”

‘Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought,’ Marcus Aurelius. How we engage with our money reflects what’s going on inside our heads, which is an extension of what’s going on inside our hearts. They’re all connected. Our feelings affect our thoughts, which in turn direct our actions – butContinue reading “Feelings – thoughts – actions”

We all know that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. Even after we’ve gone, taxes are still levied against our estate. The more money we make, the more money the taxman looks to take. Tax can be a serious stumbling block in our financial mindset, especially when we think about allContinue reading “Don’t let tax get you down”

“Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.” The best time to live is in the present. It’s easy to get lost in a daydream of how life could have been different or how good life used to be. It’s equally easy toContinue reading “The best time to live”

As financial planning conversations deepen and explore more value, we find ourselves moving from the empirical to the emotional, from processes to perceptions and from products to people. It’s an enlightening journey that takes us away from numbers and allows us to reflect and reconstruct our future planning approach. But, it’s also extremely challenging asContinue reading “Ask yourself these questions BEFORE switching funds”

“If I had a penny for every time I put something off until tomorrow, and never got to it… I’d put them all in a sock and hit myself with it.” Unknown In our digital age, it has become increasingly easy to create lists of things to do and remember. We can just call outContinue reading “Making goals easier to achieve”

As we build businesses and seek to create various income opportunities, we are always confronted with the challenge of pricing. It’s a challenge because all of our situations are different. Those with qualifications and experience often charge more for their time. But it’s not a sure way to work out billing and costs; sometimes peopleContinue reading “How much time is your money worth?”

Whilst intentional reflection may happen at the end or beginning of a year or personal growth journey, unintentional reflection happens all the time. And, we barely notice it, most of the time. But, several times a week, if not several times a day, we measure ourselves against something or someone; we’re either measuring ourselves againstContinue reading “Setting benchmarks”

“As you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.” Irish Blessing When everything is going right, we often feel that something is about to go horribly wrong. Sometimes, it’s helpful to smile at our human traits and do all we can to avoid derailing our plans! It’s soContinue reading “Don’t derail your finances”

One of the biggest challenges with change is that it can be overwhelming. There are many reasons why we might be averse to constant change, but when it is just simply too much all at once, we will find ourselves overwhelmed and in this space, our ability to make healthy decisions is seriously hampered. TheContinue reading “Avoid being overwhelmed by change”

In a recent article from Morningstar, they raised two excellent points about measuring financial success. Like so many of us, Morningstar believes that great investing advice means understanding our hopes, dreams, and ideals to determine what really matters. It doesn’t just focus on the finish line — it focuses on the journey. Great advice canContinue reading “How do you measure financial success?”

Have you ever heard someone say that you need to make your money work for you? It seems like an impossible achievement for many of us because we immediately think we need a stack of dollar bills to leverage this strategy. And, that’s not entirely incorrect. We do need a large sum invested, but weContinue reading “What’s an annuity?”

Somehow, despite all the messages to be kinder to ourselves, we have this predisposition to put ourselves down. Along the line, the early messages of “You can do better” become “You’re not good enough.” We live in an age where the focus is on self. As we scroll through social media, we see countless selfies,Continue reading “The best place to invest”

At the very surface level of constructing a financial plan, the journey can feel linear. We begin with what we have and plan to move towards an end goal of ‘having enough’ and being financially independent. But this is not where financial planning ends; it’s just the toe-dipping beginning as we gain courage and confidenceContinue reading “Levels of financial dependence”

“How much should I be charging my clients?” This is a common question as we work with an increasing number of people setting up their own businesses. In the wake of a radical economic downturn, our creativity and necessity to generate an income spark new business ideas. The entrepreneurial spirit begins to take centre stageContinue reading “Charge what you’re worth”

Have you ever gone down the #Fintwit rabbit hole? According to fintwit.ai, #Fintwit is a vibrant community of investors on Twitter, who tweet trading ideas, active trades, personal portfolios and well thought out insights about financial securities. Millions of investors around the world are increasingly using Twitter to stay abreast of the financial market andContinue reading “Six areas of financial planning”

How do you decide on the better of two products you are not really familiar with or can’t visually tell the difference? For example – I had to buy a new cellphone charger the other day, and there were two options – one was two-thirds the price of the other, but both were reasonably pricedContinue reading “The higher the fee, the better the value?”

When we experience our first crisis, we think our world is about to end. It could have been our first unrequited love when we were 12, a rejection letter from an application when we were barely out of our teens, bad news from the doctor or an accident that leaves us dealing with a deepContinue reading “Déjà vu?”

There’s a rare object known as a tuit. It’s a special gift to keep for yourself, but also has great value for your friends and family. Tuits, especially round ones, will generally have a note or inscription along the following lines: This is a Round Tuit.  Guard it with your life! Tuits are hard toContinue reading “A round tuit – and a bit about dread disease cover”

For many years we’ve been having better conversations about retirement. It’s no longer a matter of finding a job, staying in it for 40 years, and then retiring for fifteen years under the assumption that the company pension scheme will finance that entire period for us.  It simply doesn’t work that way anymore. Finding aContinue reading “Have you been offered early retirement? (Part 1)”

If someone is selling something, their primary goal is most often to convince you to buy what they’re selling. If you follow financial accounts on social media, your timeline is likely crowded with people touting the next big winning investment. As we look back on market history, there is an obvious attraction to finding theContinue reading “A powerful mental trick to master the markets”

The fastest way to lose half of your money is not a stock market crash but a divorce, separation or a poor business decision (so it’s a good idea to make sure you’re on the same page with your partner when it comes to joint finances.) Many have felt disheartened by the stock market inContinue reading “How does the stock market work?”