When we think about working with a financial planner, we often assume the value lies entirely in the numbers or the brokering of a financial product or contract. We naturally expect them to pick the right investments, optimise our tax, and help us generate a better yield. Those technical elements are certainly important. But true lifestyle financial planning goes far beyond the spreadsheet. The real value is rarely found in simply trying to beat the market. […]
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The real purpose of short-term insurance
It is perhaps the ultimate grudge purchase. Every single month, we watch the premium leave our bank accounts. We pay to insure our cars, our homes, and our household contents, often wondering if it is simply money down the drain. Because if we have a quiet year with no claims, it can easily feel like a wasted expense. But if we look at it through the lens of our overall financial wellbeing, it might be helpful […]
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Am I going to be okay?
Am I going to be okay? This is one of the most commonly asked questions. Research in financial therapy shows that we don’t buy products; we buy peace of mind. Underneath every question about fee structures or historical returns, we are actually asking a much simpler, deeply human question: ‘Am I going to be okay?’ It is the quiet worry that can so often keep us awake at night. We wonder if we have saved enough, […]
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What’s running the show?
We invent tools to make our lives easier, more efficient, and more comfortable. But there is a strange phenomenon that happens when we aren’t paying attention. Sometimes, the tool quietly becomes the master. Money is perhaps the greatest example of this. At its core, wealth is simply a utility. It is meant to be a tool that we use to build a flourishing, meaningful life. But without strict boundaries, it is incredibly easy to let the […]
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Financially stronger
There is a powerful reminder that often surfaces when life feels overwhelming: You have survived your worst days, and you are stronger than you think. A.A. Milne put it like this: “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” When we apply this simple truth to our financial lives, it takes on a profound meaning. It is incredibly easy to feel financially fragile. Our brains are literally wired for […]
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50 to 80 might be our most productive years
We have been culturally conditioned to view retirement as a hard finish line. For most of our lives, the narrative suggests that the moment we reach our late fifties or sixties, we are supposed to quietly wind down. We are taught to view this era as a long, uninterrupted retreat from the world. But what if we have it completely backward? Thanks to modern medicine and a focus on our healthspan, many of us are entering […]
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Your balance sheet isn’t a life purpose
It’s not uncommon to speak with someone who believes that we spend decades of our lives looking forward to the day we can finally stop working. We build our financial plans, calculate our retirement numbers, and dream of a life with no alarm clocks or urgent meetings. This is a common cultural assumption. But what happens when the permanent holiday actually begins? In “Good Money”, John Coleman explores another pillar of human flourishing: meaning and purpose. […]
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The engine and the compass
Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored a completely different way to look at our wealth. We’ve considered an approach that looks at the mechanics of flourishing, rather than the inner workings of the stock market. We have stepped away from the spreadsheets and the investment graphs to ask what actually makes a human life go well. We have talked about our health, our relationships, our character, and finding our own benchmark for contentment. But as […]
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Funding your healthspan
It’s completely natural to obsess over the numbers on our investment statements. We track the growth, review our asset allocation, and carefully project how long our capital will last. This is good practice and solid foundational planning, but it’s not the whole story. What if, in all our careful calculations, we are overlooking the most critical asset of all? Carrying on from our recent blogs, based on John Coleman’s “Good Money”, we are reminded that financial […]
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Investing in social wealth
We often dedicate the best, most energetic years of our lives to building a fortress of financial security. We work long hours, take on additional responsibilities, and sometimes miss important family milestones, all in the name of providing for the people we love. It is a noble pursuit, driven by a deep sense of care and responsibility. But what if, in our quiet rush to build that financial security, we are accidentally sacrificing the very relationships […]
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