Why you need to change the way you think about money - Meaningful Money

37:18Yes. If fear is the most dangerous emotion, overconfidence is probably right there, isn't it? Oh, 100%. I mean, occasionally we'll get an email from somebody maybe wanting to work with us, you know, and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I've built this portfolio to that. And you sort of dig in a little bit and you're like, well, I mean, honestly, a monkey could have made money in the timescale that you've been investing, right? So you're not a genius. You're not all that. And again, I think humility, perhaps something I've learned from my upbringing, a little bit of humility can go a long way.

37:51I think actually none of us really have any idea about what we're doing. There's so much that is down to timing and good fortune. So we need to just take a little bit of a chill pill and say, you know, I got lucky there, so I'm not going to push it. Yeah. Like the example of global markets or the S &P have done so well over the last few years and then everyone starts trading because they're like, well, I figured out that, so I must be able to, you know. Yeah, one-way ticket, innit? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'll put my money in. Do you think being passively invested in a global index fund is diversified enough or do you think we should be introducing other asset classes?

38:26For most people, yes. Investing in a global equity fund, you know, the makeup of that fund, the constituents of that fund are going to change anyway. But what you're buying is human endeavor. You're buying into sort of capitalism as a system, essentially, for all its flaws. It's still the best system we've come up with to build sort of corporate and communal wealth. And because you're buying, I mean, what would a global index fund? 25 ,000 stocks? No, less than that. Maybe like, I mean, it depends on the index, but like a VWRL, maybe three to four, but you can get some with six to 8 ,000. If you include in small caps, it gets like 8 ,000.

39:09That's probably diversified enough for most people. And you're getting gold companies in there. You're getting miners. You're getting commodities. You are getting every type of asset, really. Yeah, you are. That's often the argument given for S &P investing as well because the American market's where it is, 65 % of the global market. You're getting global sort of exposure through American companies. I'd still prefer personally to go full global. But, yeah, I think that's enough for most people, man. you complicate it to the degree that you want to but for the vast majority of people that's fine i am 100 global equity invested there you go and that's that's good because you know you're a man of experience i try another stuff i just i get bored of it yeah this is the stuff that will work consistently yeah and then you don't like i find that the because the american decision especially you are making a decision if you say i'm only buying america you're making a decision and then And I think that complicates it if things go wrong, which they might.

40:07America might have another lost decade like it did between 2000 and whatever. And then you're sat there going, oh, God, should I be buying France or whatever? If you buy the world, well, I own it all. There's no decision. There's no decision to make. I've got a bit of everything. China does well one year. Great. I've got a little bit of that. And as the world changes, as I think it's inevitably going to do over the coming decades, as the world increasingly moves eastern, wealth moves eastern, all that sort of stuff, you will capture that. So you don't have to think about it. Yeah. I'm all for that.

40:36And if America continues to dominate, you'll capture that as well. Exactly right. It's the sort of ultimate lazy investment. How do you think that rationalizes with the human brain that the simplest, easiest thing to do is the best? Because I think that's complete odds at how we think about life. It is. We hold complexity as a badge of honor. Yeah. Where it rarely is. I think usually the people that gain from complexity are the professional advisors, right? The number of reports I've seen written by advisors for client situations, I just think the only people this is serving is the advisor. There's no need for this level of complexity.

41:18And I think that's a fairly good rule to live by. It's like who is benefiting from this complexity? Is it the lawyers? Is it the accountants? Is it the financial advisor? It's almost certainly not you. complexity usually adds cost um it reduces engagement so you're less likely to be engaged with a complex portfolio than you are with a simple one and those are um fundamental negatives so simplicity wins every time for me you know ramin from pension craft i know you know a lot of time for ramin yeah he he was from a traditional background in the sense of he worked in in the city he worked in banks he was a teacher of investment bankers um was just like his training almost brain the size of a planet exactly but he admitted that he came out of that space started a youtube channel had his portfolio up and saw him why don't you just buy a global index because he had like this kind of all weather back-tested 20 fund portfolio and he then he looked at it and he was like yeah well why don't i just have a global index why am i recreating a global index inside of a portfolio you know it's gonna cost you more yeah yeah yeah you know i take credit for roman You take credit for him.

42:22I met Romain. I said, you are our father. This is why you're the godfather. You are the father. We're all your sons. We are all your sons. I'm your grandchildren. He's your son. I'm your grandchild. So don't forget about the kids when you're... He's third generation living off the teat. He don't work hard enough. It's a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but I ran into Romain, met him for the first time at a conference in 2017. And he said to me, I'm thinking he just left his job and I think he was in a bit of trouble with his wife, right? because I think it was a big thing for him. It's his ex-wife.

42:51Yes, sorry. Thank you. Important communication. That was a lot of trouble. That didn't end well, did it? But he said, I'm thinking of doing some stuff on Vimeo and charging people to watch it. I said, you need to put it all for free on YouTube. Boom. Because who loses Vimeo? Maybe people do, but... I haven't used it for like seven years. I took a general amount of credit, but I think Robin's a genius. He is amazing. and another calming voice within the space. I don't think there's anybody better than him at simplifying and making understandable investment principles and theory and practice. I think he's a very clever guy.

43:27Yeah, yeah. You talked about a second ago the influence of media and trying to switch off from those things when things are going bad and people making rash decisions. And we know that when markets drop, they're dropping because people are selling. how do how do people how should people think about decisions in those times it's probably perhaps the most difficult thing in the world that we live in where we're just bombarded with this messaging 24 7 it's really hard to switch it off but yeah i think some kind of acknowledgement of the fact that we're in a world which is designed to inflate uh everything and our reactions very often will be amplified as a result.

44:12So start by understanding that, I think. Also understand that, you know, whatever you read, hear, watch, is going to have its own agenda, right? So that's abstract objective thinking, but it's really hard in the moment to remember that stuff. I think more than anything, remembering that, God willing, we're going to live a long time. And that in the context of a multi-decade investing career, I mean, 50 years, potentially, if you're 30 now, you're probably going to live to 90, 60 years, right? Is what's happening right now going to matter a jot in that timescale? And the answer is just an unequivocal no.

44:59And, you know, you've got time to make good, even if you make a bad decision there's very few decisions which are irreversible or you can't claw back from i think in finance you know it might set you back a little bit but you're unlikely i think unless you're putting you know going all in red or black putting your house and everything on the line that that would be a you know risky decision but actually the world is much more nuanced than that and the context of longevity and the time that we're going to be investing over i think is a real powerful factor. Even with my retired clients, they'll say, well, you know, I don't want my portfolio to fall anymore.

45:40I'm 80 now. I haven't got time for it to come back. I'm like, but this is family money, right? You know, you're not going to, probably not going to spend it all before you die. And so we're actually investing for your kids and your grandchildren. And so the investment timeline gets even longer. Yeah, generational. yeah and we must think of money like that it's just one asset um and if we're going to leave a really good legacy um i spend a lot of time encouraging clients to think multi-generationally rather than just their own life lifespan but even if we do only think of our own lifespan it's still multiple decades hopefully and that should be enough your your motive is to think about your whole life and your kid's life and potentially beyond the the motive of the media and even people like us is to make a video or a piece of content for that week yeah and you need to understand that i mean and i think the people like yourself and hopefully me are a bit more balanced and have a long-term view but cnbc just thinks what are we going to do today that's going to keep people watching and the answer is invariably to make it seem like it's crapper than it is Sensationalist.

46:52Yeah, because that's what people click on. And they figured that out. Clickbait was invented by them. It's not new to YouTube. Clickbait came from traditional media. You wouldn't take advice from somebody who didn't have your best interest in mind. And so you ought not to make decisions based on a media that cares nothing about you and is entirely misaligned with your long-term outlook. So you're dead right, don't you? know it's it's you know all they want is today's clicks today's eyeballs what you want is wealth for the rest of your life but when we grew up wouldn't when we were growing up wouldn't you say like you would trust what was in the newspaper kind of i don't know maybe it's just like i'm getting older but like when i was younger i think like i see my dad reading the financial times or reading like the telegraph i'd be like oh whatever it says in there is the truth and then as you get old you're kind of like oh people have their own agendas but i still think in the back of my mind like you kind of me too if they put it in the media you're like oh it's they put it on bbc it's true they put it definitely true yeah it's definitely true they put they put it in the telegraph it's true like yeah we're fine here in the uk american media is terrible yeah that's nonsense they're just as biased they're owned by the same bloke a lot of it must remember that yeah for sure it's um again that's that's part of our upbringing in it that sort of thing that we have to develop and as we grow um and grow up yeah we start to question that stuff and we should we should question it we should question everybody's motivation it's a fine line between cynicism and questioning i think cynicism is taking things too far but we should question everything i had an experience of this in terms of um a market downturn and how i reacted and how i had to manage my own emotions and it speaks to what you said about feeling good so in the covid crash i was buying a buy to let property i was going to buy one and then the market dipped 20 basically instantly um and i knew that this was an opportunity that to make some money and uh we were going into lockdowns and stuff so the property thing was that had a big question mark over it um so i cancelled the purchase of the property got the you know had my deposit and the temptation was just to throw the whole lot in but i was in a group of um like like-minded kind of investors and everyone was talking about you know how are we going to buy this dip because that's what we wanted to do and we just all kind of talked to each other and came to think of like right let's just buy once a week on a sunday or like you know put place the order on the sunday and then it'll just execute on the monday and then that's it because you know i got to say 20 30k and i just want to bang it all in right now but then i you know the market could drop another 50 could drop whatever we don't know and that restraint that we had to show it was really hard i just wanted to get it in yeah but actually it meant that i went all the way down i hit the bottom on one day you know i can say i timed the market perfectly i did 20 purchases you know over the course of a few weeks but you know that that was like that community gave me that system you know gave me that resilience to all that kind of we all were in it together and we were all like today's the day we buy come on yeah well that helps doesn't it so if you've got people you know in similar sort of circumstances to you then definitely sort of group think can be helpful in that sort of situation.

49:59I get new investors ask me, you know, should I go in as a lump sum or should I drip it in quite frequently? I think if you look historically, in the vast majority of cases, you'd be better putting it all in in one go. Yeah, because the market trends upwards more than it goes down. Yeah, right. But, so I tend to say, look, if you want to drip it in, that's fine. As long as you understand that it's more of a sort of emotional, psychological crush than it is a financial one. because you'll either wish you put it all in on day one or you'll be glad you didn't. That's binary, right? You'll either be better off or worse off as a result of whichever decision you make.

50:36But if it makes you feel better putting it in and dripping it in over time, that's reason enough to do it, I think. If it's less likely to lead to regret, lost sleep, then do it. You might be worse off, you might be better off. You can't control that though. What people don't realize who pay in every month from their wages is their lump sum investing. They're not dollar cost averaging. They're putting every bit of money that they've got to invest into the market at once. So, you know, like people think, oh, I dollar cost average for my wages. No, it's all going in. A drip feed would be, I've got 100K here.

51:10Do I slap it in or do I go a grand a month? And that's a very different kind of mental joust, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I would say, look, never more than six months. There's too much opportunity to question it. You know, it's like if you've got a lump sum of money, don't put it in over more than six months it's just like and the inflation is doing a number right so just either get it in and just suck it up which is easy for me to say but obviously not very easy to do sometimes or just say like i'm going to do it and i'm going to set the payments to go automatically and i just won't think about it and what you said as well about over 30 years is it really going to matter that the market dropped two percent in no on one day one random tuesday yeah no you'll look at it and go oh god i'm glad i bought then i wish i put more in you You know, not that, oh, there was, you know, you get your Black Mondays, which are big events, but even those kind of, they all fade away on the long timeline.

51:58They do, and you look at the map over, you know, look at the chart over a 50-year horizon. Those are minor blips, even though they were horrific at the time. I think, was it Richard Coffin? Someone on the podcast said, time in the market beats timing the market. I think he was quoting someone. Someone else. Like a Warren Buffett or something. The longer you're in the market, it's better than like, oh let me get the right day it's better to just be in it from the start of the like longer time and again it's an understanding of volatility and risk you know we tend to think of risk as an all-or-nothing thing it just isn't you know uh the biggest risk by far is i think again george mentioned this when he was on the show is that you know you're going to miss out on growth you're going to be able to live uh less of a full life because you didn't invest because you were worried about short-term volatility volatility is not risk they're two entirely different things volatility is the price of entry as an investor you've just got to accept it you can temper it to a point but it's actually it's working for you yeah the biggest risk of investing is not investing 100 yeah you spoke before about um automation and how automation can lead people into investing habits but i also saw from the briefing that you you were kind of cautious or critical about its involvement as well and how it can limit people so can we just explore that yeah it can I mean, automation is, it removes decision-making, or you kind of pre-make the decision, and the decision is to set up the automation, then you don't have to think about it again.

53:28It just can be, I think, a fine line between automation and kind of abdication, you know, because if you automate... I haven't heard that yet. Abdication, I know that's from like when you abdicate the throne. It is. Yes, I don't know what it is in finance, but I know I'm a king, so, you know. Give up responsibility for is how I would define that. You know what the buzzer is because you didn't crap yourself when you hit it. No, no, I know what the buzzer is. I'm a listener, man. I know what the buzzer is for. So, yeah, give up responsibility for. So automation is great if it helps you make good decisions, but what you don't want to do is then forget about that.

54:07There still needs to be some intentionality. So I talk a lot about kind of putting in place some kind of review program where you look at everything same day every year you know there's a bit of a checklist that i produce it's like just think about these things and again use your calendar put it in the calendar and review your automation so i don't think it's it's certainly not a bad thing it's just um we need to keep it in place like everything what's going to go on sorry i was just gonna say why do you need to review the automation why can't you just leave it and like if it's something like investing every month, why can't you just leave it?

54:40Review the amount. Maybe if your understanding is developed or whatever, maybe review how the regular investment is being invested. Maybe the split of funds you're buying or whatever. So those are things, not the automation itself. Okay. The details. Is that the checklist? Have you got like what's on that checklist? And you say, do you know roughly what's on that checklist? You want me to recall that from memory? No pressure. So it's things like, you know, savings rates So can I increase my savings? I tend to suggest there is real power in small increments made regularly. Start at a lower amount and push it and push it and push it until it feels slightly uncomfortable.

55:18Review, obviously, if you've had a pay rise, so your savings rate as a proportion of what your income is, maybe that's worth reviewing. Can you push that any further? You know, even, you know, am I living properly? Actually, am I saving too much? am I actually unhappy because, you know, you should definitely live in the present as well. Has my need for insurance changed? So, you know, have I borrowed more of my mortgage? Do I need to tweak my life insurance? Has my job or my salary changed significantly? Do I need to look at my income protection? Makeup of your portfolio. So has it fallen out of whack?

55:59Do I need to rebalance you know if you um are you know maybe an 80 20 investor so 80 equities 20 bonds or whatever or 60 40 or whatever has that fallen out of sync do i need to rebalance so it's just so it's like um you know financial um sort of donkey work it's the simple stuff but it's the it's worth looking at regularly it's having an advisor a form of automation it's a form of delegation but yeah potentially uh yeah i mean you know part of what we would do is remind people to do the obvious things every year um and often we'll set up those automations for them so you know bed and i serve they got money in a gia shift into isis every year uh likewise into pensions um they're doing those things reviewing the sort of investment makeup so yeah it is i mean i've built a career on telling people they don't need to see the financial advisor yeah this is this is a deep irony yeah yeah well you know obviously i am one and yeah i'm busier than ever so go figure right but i'm utterly convinced that people can do this themselves but plenty of people don't have the time or the inclination so that's why i have a job and is it is it a money thing or is it like a certain type of person kind of thing what what's your experience in terms of who are the people that should be speaking to a financial advisor look 98 % of people just need a pension and a nice global equity fund and it gets complicated when you approach retirement but wealth building is the simpler phase I think so we add real value I think when you've got people with nine different pension plans and you know DB schemes paying out defined benefit pension schemes before you hit the buzzer you know I was about to yeah right defined benefit pension schemes paying out at different times and understanding the different threads of, you know, when incomes are going to pay out, when expenditures are going to go out, different events, inflation, holding all that stuff together, particularly at the transition point into retirement is basically where we add the most value.

58:05So I think an advisor can add value for anybody at retirement, unless your circumstances are very simple, but we tend to deal with people who are at that point, but also people who maybe have got some complexity. So maybe there's trust funds involved, or maybe they've got money in multiple jurisdictions, or maybe they're very high owners, and so their obvious options are limited. They're fully tapered on their pension, so they can't put much away. So it's the sort of 2 % that need to think a little bit outside the basics, really, that we tend to serve. um but even that most people can do if they want to yeah i think if people understood that better that really financial advisors are for the complex parts of planning and the rest is simple because the message into the world is a bit like go see a financial advisor but what you're saying is no the accumulation phase really it should be it's relatively simple if you just do these few steps yeah do them consistently and do them well um and keep things under review and there's so much great information to help you do that so yes it's mostly it's not it's not even really about level of wealth it's about complexity of situation really um you know so i mean i've had kids who have lost parents who have trust money well there's a world of it's not actually that complex but there's a world of psychology behind that you got kids who are reaching age 18 well you want them to understand that money and be able to use it without loading them up with a load of guilt because, you know, they lost a parent to get that money, right?

59:42That sucks. So, you know, I've had to walk through that. I believe the vast majority, I'd even, if I had to put a number on it, 90 % of an advisor's value is in the behavioral stuff. It's keeping people behaviorally on track. Yes, we understand the technical stuff, the tax stuff and all that, but most of it is keeping people in their seats and helping them to make good decisions so to that degree it's not necessarily an automation but we are a coach i pay a pt to shout at me in the gym yeah and it's i know i know exactly what i need to do i know i need to lift i know what i need to eat but in my older age now i know that rage yeah but i just i've just in my 20s i was highly motivated for with that and now i find in my mid 30s i find it a lot more difficult to prioritize and carve out that time but if I've paid a guy for an hour I'm not letting him down do you know what I mean?

1:00:33And I go and I know that my means allow me to do that and I know not everyone can do that but it's a similar kind of Well that's a form of commitment device isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're paying guy it's like those things in it where you you know, you write a check to the sort of the Trump campaign if you don't like do your reps in the gym or whatever and somebody else has got it in them. I've got one of those this year if I don't make a certain amount of videos I have to post £200 in cash to Man United and I haven't I'm not going to hit the videos. I found like the, you know, the lovely receptionist that's worked there for 40 years and she's just going to get 200 pound in cash.

1:01:08She probably thinks it's got Amfrax on it. From a city fan as well. Yeah, right. Yeah, thanks for the work you do. Here's 200 quid, you know, but yeah, I said it at the start of the year and I'm not going to hit the goal, but you know, it's going to hurt, man. Yeah, it does, but it's also, you know, I've done more than I thought I would and the business has done great and i might not have made as many main channel videos but the podcast is doing great we've got other channels blah blah blah sounds like a rationalization that man yeah yeah yeah i'm trying to talk to myself you still got to send the 200 quid yeah i'm gonna yeah i'm gonna send her the 200 accountability you you just mentioned about like kids with uh trusts and unfortunately their parents passed away do you find different um behave money behaviors with people who like had grew up with lots of money compared to people who didn't or is it kind of humans are just the same we're just not good with financial decisions overall yeah more great question more the latter than the former you know i've never i've dealt with like two lottery winners over my what 27 year career the vast majority of people are self-made um so i wouldn't say any better or worse just maybe a different view of it um so we've got two families that I can think of who were on the fourth generation as clients.

1:02:25So, you know, great granddad was a client, now passed away. Grandparents, still clients, parents, and now I've got sort of 25 year old kids. We're a 50 year old company. So, you know, that kind of consistency has helped. So it's interesting to see different behaviors, different views of the different generations. You know, the grandparents think that the the grandchildren don't work hard enough. I think that's pretty universal. I know, it's just nonsense. Back in my day. It's reductionist thinking. I don't like it. And I will challenge them on it if it comes to it. You know, they don't want to give them too much in case they have it too easy.

1:03:02It's like, actually, it's really hard to be a 25-year-old at the minute, right? They inherit some money as well, by the time. Yeah, exactly right. It's a great-granddad, the one that's got them to claim and say, I like the artist. Particularly if they're farmers, it's like, oh, yeah, okay, did the 150 acres just, you know, take magic out of nowhere? No, you inherited that. You've had to work it. So yes, we've all had a leg up to some degree, many of us anyway. So I'd say it's just different. It's not better or worse, but it's endlessly fascinating. How about the lottery winners? What was their psychology like coming into it?

1:03:31Were they buzzing or were they scared? Minor lottery winners, I should say. A million quid in both cases, so it's still a lot of money. It's one of them though where it's not... I have a friend who was in a car accident and he's fine now, but it was such a... he got hit at 80 miles an hour driver side on in a 30 so the guy was going 80 miles an hour in a 30 slammed into the side of him destroyed his car and knocked a house over he was he had all he he was rebuilt um yeah he's fine now who knows long term but he he got a chunk of money but it's like he lost his business that's why he he did well but it's it's enough money to for people to go wow but it's not enough money to stop at 30 odd do you know i mean and that's like a million quids kind of that number I mean you could spend that on a house couldn't you you could yeah yeah so I mean one case I'm thinking literally this this couple won the pools remember the pools I think right so they won the pools they won a reasonable sum on that a couple hundred grand I think and then six weeks later I kid you not they won a scratch card for a million quid why are they still playing gambling they're going to gamble it all the way two months after that he died no so man you think and these people Yeah, exactly.

1:04:47Isn't that ironic? So they, but they were state pensions only. They had nothing. They had their own home, but they were living on state pensions only. Suddenly she's a millionaire, but now her life partner's gone. There's so much to unpack. The money's irrelevant in the grant scheme of that sort of thing. I've seen far too many people work like dogs, retire and die within six months. Don't say that. And so I'm seeing... This is why I encouraged Damien to come on holiday with me and blew all his money. Yeah, on you. Yeah, on me. We're going back to Oktoberfest. I've seen it happen too often, and I've seen these widows in these fantastic houses that they've worked to build and get out, and it's just beautiful, and they're rattling around in there.

1:05:29I've got a lady who's got a property in Portugal. She never goes because she's got nobody to go with, and because they were just all in on each other, she didn't really have a circle of friends, and it just puts money in its place, man, you know? And so that's why I love what I do because I very often get to challenge that in clients. It just doesn't matter. The stuff you're talking about, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Client, about, you know, whether we should invest this way or whether you want to buy that extra property. It's like, for God's sake, you know, why don't you help your kids out? Let's build a film.

1:06:04Most of my clients have got enough, right? So we spend a lot of time talking to them about giving, which circle back to that. Because money's not that important. It's a means to an end, never an end in itself. At the point at which money becomes so important to us that it becomes all-consuming, then it's overreached and we need to get perspective. Making money, Damien talks money. Fine, that's meaningful. It's a lot of overreached a little bit, just to switch. Look, it's important, right? We need it to live and eat and survive and all that sort of stuff, but it's not the be all and end all. Who are the happiest of your clients?

1:06:40The ones with great relationships with their family. Yeah, it makes sense. No doubt. The ones who, I've got one family, they live next door to their daughter and son-in-law and two grandkids. And the kids are in there all the time. They sort of gently complain about it. I'll be in there chatting to him. Grandson will walk in, not say a word to him, open the fridge, get a drink, and then go out again. So that was George. That was my grandparents' house. But they love it, really. And they actually, they absolutely love it. So I think it's ones who have some kind of purpose, and that purpose can be anything.

1:07:15And the freedom that money gives them to pursue that purpose, whether it's time with family, whether it's, you know, volunteering at the RNLI or the cancer shop or whatever, or church. I've got Decker Millionaire clients who do debt counseling, you know, help with a debt counseling charity. And that's all they talk about. um that's those are the happiest um yeah do you think a lot of people when you talk to them about you should you've made all this money or you've got this money for retirement give it to your kids do you find like the majority of people are like oh yeah that's a good idea or do you find like a lot of people like forget them i worked hard for it this is my money like what like what's the percentage more of that yeah yeah sometimes for you in it yeah yeah you think that's weird My parents are in law, our clients, right?

1:08:10So try having a gifting decision. Try having a gifting conversation with your mother-in-law. That's so good. You're on a purely objective basis. You might want to give your daughter my wife. Happens to be my wife. Yeah, yeah. But that's irrelevant. Yeah, there's resistance. That's a generational thing. But again, with some sort of gentle encouragement, people come to it in their own time. I worked on one family for 15 years. She was always up for giving. And they've done little bits. But he was vehemently against it, not giving him anything. He's going to have it all when we die. They don't even spend any of their capital.

1:08:48They live within their income, this couple. And I've finally beaten him down. And now we're starting to make some serious gifts. But sometimes it just takes time. I think it's that thing of, you know, get the benefit in terms of be the legend at the table, you know, because you want to see their eyes when they get that and you want to see the impact it is on their life and you want to go to Christmas dinner that year and be like, I'm the man. You've all just like been sorted out because of me. That's happiness, right? Yeah, it is. Giving with warm hands is far better than giving with cold hands after you've died.

1:09:19Yeah, for sure. That's a lovely way of saying it. There's joy in it. I like that. Because my grandparents used to take all of the grandkids on like a cruise. So there'd be like 20 of us. We've got a big family. And there'd be like 20, all the kids running around on a cruise, like me and my cousins all going to the, the older ones going to the club on the boat the younger ones going to like play group and my parents there my uncle's there and like those memories you've got forever but like once they're gone it's not quite the same oh your granddad gave you 10 grand it's like well i would rather have gone on the cruise with my whole family for sure but the joy that would have given them worth infinitely and they loved it yeah you could see in their eyes every time they saw their grandkids they were so happy and like yeah makes them happier than the zero on a bank statement definitely yeah what is the best piece of behavioral or just general financial advice you've ever been given i've ever been given yeah okay man of life um my first boss as an IFA I had a couple of tied advisor jobs he said um for him his company right his sort of day job if you like was his cash cow that's what made him the money he took that money and bought assets with it and that's living with me ever since so So, you know, your main asset is your ability to earn an income.

1:10:32That's why income protection insurance is so important. Take that away, really, you've got nothing to build with. You're entirely dependent on the state. So take that income and buy stuff with it that means you are less dependent on that income. That's ultimately, I think, the best advice I've ever been given. So buy, you know, your global equity fund, buy property, if that's what you want to do. Buy stuff that will replace your need to earn an income. Buy assets. Yeah. So for me, as context, my uncle is one of my heroes. And one of his friends from university became very successful, owned one of the biggest funeral companies in the UK.

1:11:16And I was at a party once and we were talking. And my uncle was telling me about it. I was desperate for success. You know, like desperate. but I was like almost angry at myself for not knowing what to do with my life. And we've got some background noise, someone's polishing metal outside. Yeah, I was almost angry at myself for not knowing what to do. And he said, Paddy said to me one time that throughout life, you'll have a few opportunities to make a lot of money. You've just got to be ready when they go by you to do them. So if you don't know what to do, just build up, you know, investments and savings.

1:11:53So when that thing comes in front of you, you can pounce on it because most people can't when they happen. And that's what happened. I did that for 10 years. YouTube happened. I quit my full-time job because I had savings and investments. And that was my opportunity. So for me, if you don't know what to do with your life, just save some money up because something will come along and you can jump on it. Exactly. It's freedom. It's power. It's opportunity. It's just choice, isn't it? The ability to choose. And I think a lot of people probably see things come along and go, oh, no, it's not the right time.

1:12:22And then five years down the line, they go, oh, I could have done that. And it's like, well, if you're not positioned correctly for it, you can't. Is that not the definition of wealth or freedom and ability to choose? Take opportunity of things. So definitely great advice. I would say kind of a little bit piggybacking on yours. He does this a lot. You just listen to the good minds and make it a little bit better. Remix. Pull it back. We talk a lot about, we talk a lot on the podcast about like your, like you said, your job being the most important thing you have. That's how you make your money.

1:12:55That's like the biggest investment, investing in yourself. Damo said like whether it's YouTube channel, investing in yourself or your main job, like you said. So for me, it was, we did an episode on how to get a raise. And one of the points we talked about is like, you say, this is what I do if I want to get a raise to your manager. If I do this, will I get the raise? and also you can just change like jobs and then you can use your new, you can like, when you apply for the new job, you can go for higher salary because you've got experience in different areas. So it's kind of like moving sideways into like a different company.

1:13:26And then I would say, if we're talking real finance, investing in a global index fund, I think that's been a game changer for me. Right. Yeah. I thought you were going to end it with like buy Cardano or something like this. I was just waiting. Buy more Bitcoin. waiting for your degeneracy to feed through i'm evolving i still have a little bit of degeneracy but yeah yeah and then one more question for you if there was something that you would want a listener to take away from the conversation today what would it be two things if i'm allowed to yeah yeah you can have as many as you want honestly thank you we're all your sons even ramen pretty sure robin's older than me yeah i'm feeling older as the conversation goes on but i'm fine with it um simplify right it is a core message of mine we do it for clients it's one of our sort of core principles as a company at jackson's my finance for the vice practice simplification it reduces costs it improves engagement you're more likely to be on board with your financial future if you simplify too many people end up with nine pensions because they change jobs and they leave the pension where it was it's it's a matter of less than an hour's work each time to get the information it's probably a quarter of an hour's work and arrange a transfer into your sip on hl or wherever right so just simplify all costs and i suppose the final thing i want to kind of impress on people is work on how you think work on your capacity as a human to engage your mind and not be so reactive.

1:15:05So, you know, you mentioned right at the start of the demo about the stoicism stuff, being the best version of yourself. I mean, I love all that stuff, so I definitely encourage people to read that. I've got two brilliant books on thinking. One is called Loser Think by Scott Adams. So he's the creator of the Dilbert comic. Do you remember Dilbert? But he's a political commentator and also it's a real sharp mind. Loser Think, I just love that whole idea. So how to avoid thinking like a loser, basically. but the best book i've read recently is called clear thinking by shane parish shane parish is the creator of a blog called farnham street i signed up to it after fs.blog it's my favorite site on the internet i've been a subscriber for ages yeah even just their free sunday uh brain food email is just gold every single week so clear thinking is his kind of condensed version he's also got a four volume set on he's got a sub stack he's got a newsletter so whatever you like he's got yeah he's got it and he's he's uh he's great uh dan crosby's got a good book on behavioral investing the behavioral investor is called the first half of it particularly is good but that's sort of finance specific but i think if we can get better at thinking realize that we have almost limitless power to change our mindset uh the way we think the way we react the way we make decisions rather than just saying well i'm 25 i'm done now i'm basically fully functioning as an adult.

1:16:24I've never been more aware on the threshold of my 50th birthday in February of just how much I've still got to learn. But that is exciting rather than depressing because I think, okay, I can be a lot better in another 10 years than I was 10 years ago. And until I shuffle off this mortal core, that's what I'm committed to do. I think it'll just impact everything. Money, yes, relationships, you know, our sense of wellbeing. If we can learn to be better thinkers as adults, so it'll help us. It's a good ending line. You too. Thanks, Dan. I was going to say thanks, Godfather. When I'm calling you, we're saying we're your sons.

1:17:03It's a sign of respect. I'm not offended, man. I'm very grateful. You invented the niche. So you could be 15 and I would be your son if you invented the niche. Do you know what I mean? No one did before. I'm still the grandson and you're still the son. Well, look, like any proud father, I love it when the chance of passes. I've done. So you know, Damar, I'm in awe of what you do. I talk to everybody about what you do. You are by far and away my favourite finance content career. Oh, thanks, mate. Until you met me. Well, obviously. The finance bro. Finance bro. Yeah.

1:17:39We've taken inspiration from Pete's mantra to simplify everything down and we've created a two-page document that will give you 80 % of everything you need to know about finances. Where do you find it, Tomei? Right here. No, downstairs in the link in the description. Do not listen to this guy. You find it downstairs. I don't know why I keep saying downstairs. In the link in the description below. Below, below. So seedy. Don't go downstairs at T's house.

1:18:09Please remember, this is not financial advice. Like we say a lot on the podcast, investments can fall and rise. In fact, it's pretty much a guarantee. past performance is no guarantee of future results so your money is at risk with investing and other fees may apply as with everything financial please do your own research we really encourage that because no one cares more about your money than you i'm damo i'm team this was an episode of making money from our company most it was filmed and edited by the team at flow spire jack and ben it was produced by ruth edwards and brought together by will stolerman what about ruth until you feel it's a dog yeah shout out them too