BLOG – Jamie Hilsdon

Redefining true financial wellbeing

When working with a qualified and experienced financial planner, you should have a partner who will be exceptionally well-positioned to diagnose a balance sheet. They can easily spot a gap in risk cover, identify underperformance in a portfolio, and structure a tax-efficient estate plan. We are taught to read the numbers like a novel. But […]

Invisible ink

Have you ever thought about the unspoken money scripts we pass to our children? As parents, we often assume that teaching our children about money requires a formal sit-down conversation. We plan to wait until they are teenagers to explain the mechanics of a budget, the danger of credit cards, and the magic of compound […]

The high price of “someday”

There is a very common narrative that high-achievers tend to buy into. It is the idea of the deferred life. We work relentlessly in our thirties, forties, and fifties, pouring all of our surplus time and energy into building our careers and our portfolios. We tell ourselves that we are making sacrifices now so that […]

The Rule of 72

The financial world is full of complex algorithms, dense spreadsheets, and jargon designed to make investing look like a highly complicated science. You could find yourself thinking that you need an advanced degree just to understand what your money is doing. But occasionally, a piece of math comes along that is so simple, and so […]

The shift from reactive to intentional wealth

There is a distinct feeling that comes from being out of control with your finances. It is a quiet, low-grade anxiety that hums in the background of your life. When your finances are unguided, you spend your time reacting. You react to the unexpected bill, you react to the late fee, and you react to […]

Reclaim your future from debt

If you have ever carried a significant amount of debt, you know that it is rarely just a numbers problem. It is an emotional, social and physiological weight. Whether it is a heavy mortgage, a maxed-out credit card, or a spiralling personal loan, unmanageable debt dictates your mood, limits your choices, and introduces a low-grade […]

The open hand

Have you ever thought about how gratitude could be a key part of your financial strategy? Ken Honda calls it “arigato money”, which we could call “thank you” money. When we are children, the very first lessons we learn about social etiquette revolve around two simple phrases: “please” and “thank you.” We are taught that […]

Will you enjoy the journey?

There’s a traditional approach to financial planning that relies heavily on the maths of your money. A legacy expectation of discussing asset allocation, historic yields, and projected growth. Success can be perceivably forecast with the building of beautiful spreadsheets that show exactly how a portfolio should perform over the next few decades. But a spreadsheet […]

Keeping money in its place

We often look to our investment portfolios for ultimate security. We watch the markets, hoping the numbers will grow large enough to finally give us permission to exhale. This is so common; if you resonate with this, you’re not alone. But relying entirely on a bank balance, risk product or investment portfolio to provide your […]

The opportunity cost of ‘Inbox Zero’

Have you ever started off your day with the intent to mark off everything in your email inbox as ‘Read’? Sometimes, we have this perception that our emails need to be all read and sorted before we can move on to our next task. We are often taught to manage our time with the same […]

Inheritance without instruction

When families who have spent decades building a substantial financial foundation sit down to talk about money, a quiet, often unspoken anxiety usually surfaces. As they look to the future, they worry about the impact their wealth will have on their children. Will the capital empower them to build meaningful lives, or will it remove […]

Designing a frictionless recovery

When we build a financial plan, we naturally spend most of our time looking at the horizon. We focus on the big, exciting milestones: funding a comfortable retirement, selling a business, or leaving a meaningful legacy. We engineer our long-term investments to weather global economic storms. But in doing so, we often neglect the everyday […]

Why “enough” is not a Number

There is a subtle psychological trap that catches almost every successful person we meet. It is rarely discussed in financial textbooks, but it causes more anxiety than a market crash. It is the phenomenon of the moving finish line. It usually starts early in our careers. We tell ourselves, “I will feel secure when I […]

Retiring to something

Have you ever thought about retiring TO something, not just from something? We spend our entire working lives focused on the mechanics of retirement. We build the plans, optimise the tax structures, and monitor the compounding. We plan meticulously for the day the regular salary stops. But we rarely plan for the day the alarm […]

Asking better questions

When we sit down to discuss finances, the natural instinct—is to get straight to work. We want to be productive. Because of this, the conversation almost always begins with a variation of the same well-intentioned question: “How can I help you today?” or “What are your financial goals?” These questions come from a good place. […]

The hidden gaps in your safety net

We spend a lot of time engineering our financial futures. We carefully allocate our assets, monitor our compounding, and build portfolios designed to withstand economic storms. But one of the most profound risks to a long-term financial plan has nothing to do with the stock market. It has to do with your health. When we […]

Why your brain is working against your retirement

How are you feeling about your retirement plan? For many, this is a stress-filled question, leading them to avoid diving too deep! For others, they like to spend a lot of time looking at spreadsheets when planning for the future. They love analysing cash flow, projecting inflation, and debating asset allocation. But the biggest variable […]

The word over every door

“If I had my way, I would write the word ‘insure’ over every door of every cottage and upon the blotting pad of every public man… because I am convinced that, for sacrifices that are conceivably small, families can be secured against catastrophes which otherwise would smash them forever.” — Winston Churchill Winston Churchill spoke […]

Who contributes to your success

There is a persistent myth in modern culture about the “self-made” individual. We celebrate the singular entrepreneur, the disciplined saver, and the visionary leader. We are naturally drawn to stories of individual grit. But if we are honest, the reality of success is rarely a solo endeavour. Behind every person who has built a life […]

Surviving the noise

Have you ever looked at the financial news and felt that the world has lost its collective mind? Markets often plunge on seemingly good news and soar on terrible news. A company with no revenue can be valued at billions, while a solid, profitable business is ignored. The short-term behaviour of the stock market can […]

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