Personal Development
How To Get Ahead In Life
Look around and you will struggle to find a person who doesn’t want to get ahead in life.
But what does “getting ahead” really mean? And how can you go about it? […]
Personal Development
Personal Development
The Best Strategy For Winning At Life
Every year, without exception, I see the exact same situation playing out at work.
Bright, motivated, and hard-working guys and girls begin their careers as investment banking analysts.
Almost immediately, the most ambitious and foresightful of the bunch […]
Financial Independence
How To Build Wealth In Your 20s: Updated For 2021
If you are in your 20s and reading this, let me promise you one thing. At some point in the future, there will come a point in your life where you will think to yourself: Ahh. If only I knew / did / thought / avoided [insert one] this earlier! […]
Personal Development
The Beauty (And Danger) Of Compounding
You will have noticed that over the past few weeks, I have really dialed back on the number of “quantitative” posts. Gone are the rates of return, expected probabilities, and asset class comparisons. There’s plenty of time for those topics throughout the year. Instead, […]
Personal Development
New Year Resolutions – Five Strategies That Work
When it comes to New Year resolutions, so many people fail at keeping them that it’s a surprise that anyone still bothers to make them in the first place. According to research, 80% of people give up on their New Year resolutions by February. […]
Personal Development
Losing Control
Last Friday was a long day for me. The first Zoom call of the day started at 7 am, courtesy of a demanding continental client with a penchant for early starts. A year ago, my secretary would have punted the meeting by a couple […]
Personal Development
Should You Go (Back) To School?
Almost twelve years ago to the day, it felt like the world was on the verge of collapsing. Venerable financial institutions have gone bankrupt, while others were teetering on the brink. Real estate values plunged in an unprecedented way, leaving millions of overleveraged homeowners […]
Personal Development
Itching For A Fight
The two boys wouldn’t stop taunting me. I was in Grade 9, and it was my third day of high school. An experience equal parts novelty and anxiety. Having just immigrated to a new country didn’t make things easier. Our parents, busy with a […]
Personal Development
How To Create Something From Nothing
Between a person’s first and last name, the name of their employer, and a little LinkedIn sleuthing, it doesn’t take a genius to come up with an email address for anyone in the world. In theory, that means getting into anyone’s inbox, from the […]
Personal Development
What No One Tells You About Entrepreneurship
A while ago, one of my Twitter followers sent me the following message: “Hey Banker, any chance you can do a post about your business? I am at the start of my career (early 20s) and entrepreneurship seems enticing, both for the potential to […]
Personal Development
Not Fade Away
In a break from tradition, today’s post has nothing to do with money, investing or financial independence. Instead, it is about life, and dealing with the curveballs that it will inevitably throw your way. Imagine for a moment that you are young, healthy, have […]
Personal Development
Taking Stock
In any journey, the half-way mark is always an interesting – and symbolic milestone. Even more so this year as we navigate our way through a tumultuous 2020. Not that long ago, we were busy writing up our New Year’s resolutions. Those Australian wildfires […]
Personal Development
A Matter Of Time
One of the biggest obstacles we face on the path to success is the concept of time frames. As a species, humans are just so damn impatient. Genetics plays a big role here. Put simply, delaying gratification was never the utility-maximizing strategy. For thousands […]
Personal Development
Want To Reach Financial Independence Faster? Multiply Your Number By 10
Solving for the best way to reach financial independence can be a frustrating exercise. Inevitably, it involves making some hard decisions about your current lifestyle and spending habits. And while the good life is certainly there for the taking, it sure feels like it’s […]
Personal Development
Getting Comfortable With The Uncomfortable
In a way, aspiring to financial independence is all about comfort. Forgetting what the jam-packed commute feels like. Never having to deal with workplace politics again. Leaving all the money worries behind and spending the rest of your days in a state of pure […]
Personal Development
Finding Gratitude In Challenging Times
The economy is tanking. The stock market is plumbing new depths every day. Everyone is stressed out trying to figure out how the Covid-19 pandemic will impact their health, careers, and finances. I certainly have spent a lot of time pondering what my future […]
Personal Development
Have No Fear – Surviving And Thriving In A Recession
As recently as two weeks ago, the prevailing macro view was that while the impact of Covid will be severe, the recovery will be V-shaped. That is, a sharp decline would be followed by an equally strong rebound in economic activity and asset prices. […]
Personal Development
Learning From The Best
When it comes to financial self-education, you can hardly do worse than spend one hour a year reading Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire’s shareholders. Informative, entertaining and thought-provoking, Buffett’s letters are a far better source of information and advice than 99% of the […]
Personal Development
Don’t Click Here: Five Hard Truths You Don’t Want To Acknowledge
If you got here by clicking on the headline above, then well done to you. You can pat yourself on the back for being brave enough to face up to some adversity. The first step to true personal growth is acknowledging some pretty uncomfortable […]
Personal Development
Dare To Dream – A Decade At A Time
On a cold winter day about 10 years ago, I was waiting to board a flight to Philly. I was with my best friend and we were on our way to do a couple of MBA interviews, starting at Wharton. To say that I […]
Education
Want A Proven Way To Improve Your (Financial) Life? Start Meditating
Did you know that meditation has officially become the fastest-growing health trend? Take note. Meditation has been around forever. But over the past decade, it has really come to the fore, with millions of people realizing the benefits of regular meditation practice. Go away, […]
Financial Independence
Five Essential Principles For Health And Wealth
Would you like to spend your life pursuing an utterly futile affair? If so, I recommend growing your wealth while ignoring your health. When you finally hit the holy grail of financial independence, you will likely find yourself spending most of your newfound free […]
Financial Independence
Reach Financial Independence Faster By Moving To A Big, Expensive City
When it comes to reaching financial independence, leaving an expensive city for a low cost of living area is pretty much a pre-requisite. At least that’s the impression you are bound to get if you spend any amount of time reading financial independence blogs […]
Financial Independence
Global Wealth Inequality: The Cavalry Isn’t Coming
Last week, CNBC ran an interesting story on global wealth inequality. It was based on the recent global wealth ranking by Bloomberg, which attempted to neatly slot in everyone in the world in 14 buckets. Pictured below is the summary output of that exercise. […]
Education
Eliminate Loss Aversion To Get Rich Faster
Have you ever shopped for flights on EasyJet (or any other discount airline) and had this message pop up? Aww, isn’t that nice of old SleazyJet? I better book those tickets now before they run out! I don’t want my next holiday leading me […]
Monday Motivation
Monday Motivation: THIS Is How You Deal With REAL Adversity
Struggling with the Monday blues? Happens to the best of us. Monday Motivation is a series of stories and articles from around the world to inspire us and put a little spring in our collective step for the week ahead. Whether we are deep […]
Financial Independence
Eight Reasons You Will Never Reach Financial Independence
This post was first published in September 2019 and updated in February 2021. To say that the financial independence movement has gone mainstream would be an understatement. Blogs, podcasts, youtube videos, Twitter “experts” – heck, we’ve even had a movie on the topic. Now, […]
