Christmas has a way of creeping up on us, and with it, a surprising amount of pressure.

It still feels strange to say the words “I wrote a book.”Not because the book is overly academic or a deep philosophical text on the meaning of money, but because it is something far more personal. It’s a real-life exploration of our relationship with money, part biography, part behavioural finance, and part practical guide for anyone who wants to take control of their financial future.

Over the past two years, I’ve been watching the retirement conversation gather pace. It feels a bit like a wheel of cheese rolling downhill—slow at first, but gaining momentum with every turn.

Confirmation bias is our tendency to:

Every year, as Budget Day approaches, the noise levels rise. Headlines shout. Commentators with crystal balls line up to predict the “big shocks”. Social media fills with people making bold forecasts, and, more worrying, others making decisions based purely on guesswork.

The dot-com boom was one of the most fascinating periods in market history. Technology was suddenly the “emperor’s new clothes”, companies rushed to list on stock markets, investors piled in, and the fear of missing out (FOMO) drove prices higher and higher.

There is a growing conversation in the UK about intergenerational planning, the movement of wealth from one generation to the next. We often talk about the numbers involved, the tax implications, and the sheer scale of wealth transfer expected over the coming decades.

The term ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – has been discussed so often in our industry that it risks becoming a buzzword rather than a meaningful concept. I’ve written about this many times, but it’s worth revisiting because the conversation continues to drift away from what really matters.

All the statistics show that money is one of the biggest sources of anxiety in modern life. Whether it’s the inability to save, the stress of overspending, or simply not knowing where our money goes each month — many of us feel out of control when it comes to our finances.

When the government announced that financial education will be introduced more formally into schools, I was—like many—delighted. I still remember taking a subject called Commerce at school. It was a basic introduction to how money works, but it planted a seed. If today’s students can get even a fraction more than we did, that is progress worth celebrating.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed financial planning firms increasingly grapple with one important question: how do we demonstrate value?

Does everyone have a book inside them? I’ve always admired people who manage to write one, especially novelists. How do they keep the thread going day after day? I’m told the secret is to write a little each day, but I imagine you also have to immerse yourself fully in the characters. And when the final chapter is written, do you fall out of love with the book—or in love with it even more?