Farfetched

“Yes, I plan to retire at 55” repeated the evening’s host. A stunned silence settled over the other diners seated at the table. They wore looks varying from quizzical to aghast. The tense hush was eventually broken by a series of staccato questions: “Are you serious?” “How is that possible?” “Will you tell me your

Pre-Release Book Review; ‘Invest Your Way To Financial Freedom’

Robin Powell (The Evidence-Based Investor) and Ben Carlson (A Wealth of Common Sense) are two personal finance content creators who need no introduction. As such, I eagerly took up the opportunity to review their soon-to-be released literary lovechild “Invest Your Way To Financial Freedom; A Simple Guide To Everything You Need To Know”. Disclaimer:  I

REIT Research

Investing in real estate is a popular wealth-building strategy. As it would take the average first-time buyer nine years to save a deposit, buying even one property may seem like a pipe dream. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are often billed as a way for the everyday investor to stick a finger in the property

Phoney

My phone recently gave up the ghost. All the ‘hacks’, tweaks and resetting proved futile in the face of an overriding hardware failure. My moribund mobile had had a good innings. It excelled for over five years, which my research tells me is pretty good going for a modern smartphone. Despite having neither case nor

Opting out of the NHS Pension

A question that I see cropping up with relative frequency, and often from new doctors, is whether one should eschew the NHS Pension altogether. On reflection, the NHS Pension series is predicated on an assumption: that you’re sticking with the NHS Pension. It’s easy to be dismissive of those who would consider leaving the pension

Crypto IV – Investment Hope?

Gambling. Speculating. Trading. Investing. Owning the future world currency. Whatever your thoughts about cryptocurrency, what could happen if you put your money in it? ROI Many will have reaped the rewards of cryptocurrencies’ meteoric rise to a market cap of approximately two trillion dollars. Indeed, few other asset classes could have matched the returns from

Crypto III – Return of the DeFi

The future is promising yet unclear; a watchful eye on cryptoassets and their underlying technology is certainly reasonable for the time being. August 2020 It’s been over a year since I first looked into the world of cryptocurrencies with a two-part extravaganza (1,2). In a sector that’s ever-growing, you could probably write an update every

Financial induction for new doctors

It’s that grand time of year where we usher in a new cohort of doctors. To my new colleagues – welcome! Let us ignore the recent furore over financial turbulence in the medical world for the time being. Instead we’ll focus on the fact that you’ll soon enough be enjoying the satisfaction, some of you

Pension party put on hold

There’s a whole host of heads buried in the sand when it comes to personal finance. Unexciting topics such as financial planning for your retirement and the intricacies of pension schemes are only likely to push heads, shoulders, knees and even toes further into the silica. Indeed, pensions are about as interesting as watching paint

Vindication? Or warning sign?

I recently experienced a personal novelty; an emergency. Though my working life is (sadly) rather replete with the emergent, outside of the four hospital walls I’d never before become unstuck by the vicissitudes of bad luck. One of my very first posts was about the financial pitfalls of cars, so it was perhaps fitting that