As we start a new year, it’s worth pausing to reflect not just on what we invest in, but how we behave as investors.

Over the last few years, consolidation in the UK financial advice and wealth management sector has accelerated at pace. Private equity-backed buyers, national consolidators, and regional acquirers have become a familiar feature of the landscape.

In my first blog of the year, I described the start of 2026 as a time to reflect on what 2025 revealed about our relationship with money. Before rushing into targets or resolutions, it’s often far more helpful to pause and ask how things have actually been going.

As we enter 2026, or any new year, there’s a familiar temptation to wipe the slate clean and set bold new financial targets. Yet year after year, the statistics tell a sobering story. Approximately one in five individuals (21%) give up in less than a month. According to Columbia University, only about 25% of people remain committed after 30 days. Looking longer term only 8% of people manage to stick to their financial resolution for a full year. The reasons are consistent: motivation fades, life intervenes, and good intentions quietly slip away.

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.