Author Archives: The Escape Artist
Cash Crunch : How To Get Out of Debt
This post will not apply to most readers…but bad luck / redundancy / business failure can hit anyone…please share this with anyone that you think would benefit from it… One of the big lessons that I learned working in corporate finance and restructuring is that companies do not go bust when they make losses or […]
How to buy a house in your twenties
This post is a <thought experiment> in risk taking for the young and the brave. It is most definitely <not> advice that applies to everyone. Let us start with the brutal truth…buying a house is sliding beyond the reach of more and more people. To get on the housing ladder in your 20s or 30s […]
Fuck You Money = The Power to Say No
If you want to be a free man (or woman), if you want to be citizen of Rome (rather than a slave) you need to be able to say no to your boss. This is best illustrated with a concept that I first stole learned from Nasim Taleb’s book Fooled by Randomness (although it’s appeared in multiple places and […]
The Workplace is a game of Snakes and Ladders
In order to win the game, you must first survive in the game. The modern workplace involves a series of games to be played, ladders to be climbed (promotions) and snakes to be avoided. The Workplace is where we (people interested in financial freedom) get our start. It’s where we earn, where we progress and […]
How to negotiate a big payrise
When it comes to career progression, AC/DC put it best in their 1975 classic: “It’s a long way to the top”. Getting robbed, getting took… I tell you folks, it’s harder than it looks It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock ‘n roll AC/DC : It’s A Long Way To The […]
The importance of low % fees in investing
In horse-racing, they add lead weights to the saddlebags in handicap races. % fees in investing are like those lead weights The higher the % fees, the heavier the weight carried by your fund… Higher % fees will probably lose you the race I did a webinar this week with a group of health professionals […]
Bogleheads and Bitcoin Maximalists
I know that some of you don’t want to hear this…but I have to tell you that crypto is back. It is my job to follow the data and trends in finance and explain what is going on to my financial coaching clients. It is not my job to push product. I don’t believe in just one […]
The 3 Legs of The Stool are Wealth, Health and Relationships
Most people struggle to save for retirement and can’t see that financial independence is even a possibility. So most personal finance content is either primary skool level (save 10% on your utility bills) or, at the other extreme, over-engineered (e.g. super-arcane detail on pension law) or designed to sell product (e.g. insurance policies, expensive gimmicky […]
If more people did money like they play Monopoly, they’d be a lot better off
Nobody ever went to Monopoly Business School and yet on some level everyone knows how to win at Monopoly. For those who’d like a quick reminder, here’s how you win at Monopoly: Similarly, we could say that everyone knows (on some level) what they should do to get rich(er). It’s just that only a certain […]
Why do so many people hate their jobs?
Bio-chemistry is upstream of everything Bio-chemistry is upstream of your success in life including your performance at work, promotions and career change…all of which are easier when you are full of energy and confidence. Your bio-chemistry dictates your health, your energy levels and your ability to do hard things. Your bio-chemistry determines your lived experience. […]
The Escape Artist 