Beyond the Market

Why are so many people in the UK still scared of investing? After one of my recent social media posts went viral, I was flooded with comments saying investing was gambling, that I wanted people to lose their money, and that keeping cash in the bank was the safer option. To me that reaction says a lot about how investing is still viewed in the UK. In this episode of Beyond the Market, I look at why...

The UK State Pension is going to be worth more than £13,000 a year for the first time. This has made quite a lot of noise this week, with people talking about pensioners paying tax or intergenerational fairness. But I think that actually misses the bigger point. This is a moment to think about investing and how much you'd need invested to comfortably withdraw £13,000, as that will shock you. B...

When you see a billionaire investing millions into a start-up, cryptocurrency, property or the next big technology, it is easy to assume they know something you don’t. But that headline usually tells you very little about how they actually built their wealth. In this episode of Beyond the Market, I look at the billionaire family behind LEGO and their investment into plastic recycling, and why copy...

Investing is boring. And that kind of the point. In this week's episode of Beyond the Market, I explain why a boring investment portfolio isn't something you need to fix and why constantly searching for something more exciting can actually make it harder to build long-term wealth. I look at why so many people associate investing with trading, stock picking and constantly watching markets,...

Why haven’t you started investing yet? For most people, it isn’t because they don’t understand that investing can help them build long-term wealth. Instead, there are a handful of barriers that keep them waiting for the “right” moment. In this episode of Beyond the Market, I break down four of the biggest reasons people put off investing, the fear of losing money, feeling like they don’t know enou...

Is investing in individual stocks stupid? That is the argument I keep seeing across personal finance social media. And while I agree that most people probably should not be picking individual stocks, I completely disagree with the idea that stock picking itself is "stupid". In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explain why investing in individual companies is far harder than most peopl...

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explain how my approach to investing has changed after more than a decade of investing professionally and why experience has pushed me towards simplicity rather than complexity. When I started investing, I thought being a good investor meant researching individual stocks, building financial models, finding undervalued companies and trying to outperform the s...

What would actually happen if the stock market went to zero? It is one of the biggest fears stopping people from investing: “What if I put my money into the stock market and lose everything?” In this episode of Beyond the Market, I break down what a stock market going to absolute zero would really mean. We look at how the stock market actually works with using the S&P 500 as the example, why i...

A fund losing 67% in a single month is a dramatic story. But for me, the real value is not in the entertainment, tt is in the lessons individual investors can take from it. In this episode of Beyond the Market, I use the collapse of Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI focused fund, Situational Awareness, as a case study in risk, behaviour and portfolio construction. I explain why being right about a long-t...

This week on Beyond the Market, I hand the interview over to you the listeners and followers. Instead of another generic investing conversation, I answer ten personal, uncomfortable and deliberately polarising questions about money, markets and my behaviour as an investor which I have received from people over the past few weeks, as some of these were deeply personal. We discuss what I still got e...

Why should anyone care what other people do with their money? In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explain why helping people understand investing matters to me, and why this is not about telling everyone how they must manage their money but being informed. Too many people fall into one of two traps, speculation disguised as investing, or permanent inaction disguised as caution. Some constantly...

AI is changing the way people learn. This is for everything and not just about investing. Large language modlels such as ChatGPT and Claude can now explain complex financial concepts, analyse investment ideas and help people understand their own circumstances in seconds. But will AI actually make people better with their money ad better investors? In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explore th...

Premium Bonds are one of the UK’s most popular places to hold cash. They feel safe, they are backed by the government, the prizes are tax-free, and every month two people win £1 million. So what’s not to like? In this episode of Beyond the Market, I break down what Premium Bonds actually are, how they work, and why I don’t believe they should be treated as investing. Premium Bonds are effectively...

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I talk about why I’ve stopped reading finance books. For years, almost everything I read was non-fiction, investing books, business books, self-help books and autobiographies. All of which are books types of books that I enjoy and some of those books have shaped the way I think about money, investing, compounding and long-term wealth building. But after readin...

In this episode of Beyond The Market, I’m sharing exactly how I built my first £100,000 invested and why it took far longer than people might expect. This is not a story about finding the next Nvidia, making one brilliant stock pick, or becoming an overnight investing genius. It is a personal look at my real investing journey,, saving money, moving to London, using ready-made portfolios, sitting i...

When people hear “I work in finance”, they often assume that means one thing. It doesn’t. Finance is huge. Professional investing, investmnet banking, public markets, pensions, real estate, financial advice and accounting all sit under the same broad umbrella, but they are very different worlds. In this episode of Beyond The Market, I talk about the difference between professional finance and indi...

Investing can be simple, but that does not mean it is easy. In this episode of Beyond the Market, I talk about why investing feels so difficult for normal people, not because buying an investment is necessarily complicated, but because the psychology behind it is hard. Most people want certainty before they invest. They want to know they are making the right decision, that they will not lose money...

Not every investing journey starts with some dramatic transformational story. In this episode of Beyond the Market , I talk about why the most relatable investing stories are often the least dramatic. I have been investing for over 15 years, worked in finance for over 10, and built a multiple six-figure investment portfolio, but I have never had a huge financial transformation moment. No bankruptc...

In this episode, I’m talking about why most people probably don’t have the time to properly invest in individual stocks. Stock picking sounds exciting. You imagine finding the next Nvidia, buying Bitcoin early, or becoming the next Warren Buffett. But doing it properly takes serious time, research and discipline. You need to understand the company, its accounts, competitors, valuation, risks and w...

You’ve probably seen the example: invest £500 per month into a diversified fund for 30 years at 7% and you could end up with over £600,000. The maths is technically right. But the way most people interpret it is wrong. In this episode, I break down the problem with online investment calculators, why inflation changes the way you should think about future portfolio values, and why £600,000 in 30 ye...

I recently became the victim of financial fraud. I would say that I’m sensible with money. I know where my money is going, and how much I should have in my bank accounts. So when I spotted an unknown £900 transaction on my credit card, I was shocked and did all I could to get it back. In this episode, I talk through exactly what happened, from the moment I realised the money was taken which lead t...

The UK has a problem, millions of people are sitting on large amounts of cash, but still feel too nervous, confused or overwhelmed to invest. In this episode of Beyond the Market , I break down the new Invest for the Future campaign (link: https://takethenextstepinvest.co.uk/ ), launched by the Investment Association and backed by the FCA, which aims to encourage UK savers to take the next step fr...

A couple of years ago, I seriously considered becoming a financial advisor. I attended industry events, spoke to advisors, and explored some of the biggest firms in the UK. On the surface, it looked like a compelling career, a structured training programme, support through the process and beyond, plus the opportunity to build your own business. But the deeper I looked, the more uncomfortable I bec...

You don't have a money knowledge problem. You have an action problem. In this episode, I break down the real reason so many intelligent, capable, high earners have money sitting in cash instead of invested in the stock market. This is not about a lack of information. It is about psychology. I cover the key behavioural reasons people delay investing: status quo bias, decision fatigue, regret av...

In this weeks episode, I talk about the shame that stops so many UK professionals from taking their first real step into investing. If you earn good money, consider yourself intelligent, but feel lost when investing comes up in conversation, this episode is specifically for you. We cover: Why 13 million UK adults are holding £430 billion in cash they should be investing How the British school syst...