WEBVTT

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I made the right mess of this channel. It hasn't

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turned out the way I planned. Well, when I say

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planned, I mean the quick thoughts I had on what

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I was going to talk about. Not a proper plan,

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of course. Because, as you can probably tell,

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this channel, it's more, that's something I find

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interesting. So, where's my phone? And ten minutes

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later, I've recorded it and it's up on YouTube.

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I'm not really a planner. Anyway, back to my

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big mistake. Now, YouTube is part of Google.

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So I went to Google and I said, give me a report

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on the subjects that I cover on this channel.

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I was hoping to see something like 33 % on health

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and retirement, 33 % on relationships and retirement,

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and 33 % on finance and retirement. Now, as a

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watcher of the channel, you've probably guessed

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that this is not what Google told me. So of the

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258 videos I've published on the channel, here's

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the breakdown. Three quarters of my content is

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about one thing. Money. Bats, sips, ices, tax

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drawdowns, the three bucket strategy, cash buffers.

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75%. Now don't get me wrong. Sorting out the

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financial. It's critical. If the numbers don't

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work, your plane is never going to leave the

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ground. But by focusing so heavily on the adding

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up, I've accidentally created... A massive bias.

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I would treat retirement a bit like an Excel

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spreadsheet. But the lessons I've learned personally,

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both through my retirement and talking to hundreds

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of you guys, you can have a perfectly optimized,

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tax -efficient, bulletproof portfolio and still

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have an absolute nightmare of a retirement. Because

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retirement isn't a financial event. It's a human

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event. And what I'm going to talk about today.

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is the other 25 health and relationships and

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why getting the sums right means absolutely nothing

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if you get them too wrong but why are we hooked

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on this finance bias and why do most of us fall

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into this trap when we're planning to hand in

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our notice well it's because money's measurable

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it's comforting you can Log on to your investment

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platform, look at a number, run a spreadsheet

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through a 4 % rule calculator and get a neat,

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definitive answer. It gives us a sense of control

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over the inherently scary transition, which is

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retirement. But fixing your finances only solves

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one problem. It buys you freedom. It doesn't

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tell you what to do without freedom. Now, money

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is just a fuel in a way. If you don't know where

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you're driving, where your car's falling apart,

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the bull tank petrol's gone useless. So, the

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first pillar of neglect, then, for my channel

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is health. In my video library, health accounts

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for about 15 % of the content. When I do talk

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about it, it's usually of the psychological side,

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overcoming the fear of spending, or... dealing

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with the identity loss of leaving a corporate

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job. But we need to talk about the physical reality.

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Your health is the ultimate currency in retirement.

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It's the one thing you cannot buy back with a

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well -managed SIP. Well, think about it this

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way. What is the point of engineering the perfect

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bridge to get you, sorry, from 55 to state retirement

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age, if by the time you get there, You don't

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have any physical mobility to actually enjoy

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it. And when we're working, we put off health.

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We say, I'll get fit when I retire. I'll eat

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better when I've got more time. Then retirement

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hits, the structure of the 95 disappears. And

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if you're not careful, then sedentary habits

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take over. Your health isn't a retirement hobby.

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It's an absolute must. If your health fails,

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your retirement shrinks. until it's the size

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of your living room now no amount of compound

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interest fixes that okay then there's the other

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category the smallest category on my channel

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relationships less than 10 of the video is covered

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and honestly that's a massive oversight because

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this is where the wheels usually fall off when

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you retire your social landscape changes overnight

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you lose the casual water cooler or kettle interactions

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the professional respect the daily structure

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but the biggest change actually happens here

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at home now if you're married or have a partner

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you go from seeing each other in the mornings

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and evenings to 24 7. now that's a massive shift

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for any relationship i've joked about it before

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but Going through this sudden domestic proximity

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change requires some serious negotiation. You

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have to reinvent how you live together without

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kind of stifling each other. And it's not just

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partners, it's family. How many of us build every

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time a plan early to find our time and finances

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completely hijacked by the emotional guilt of

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oversupporting adult children or becoming a full

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-time unpaid childcare for your grandchildren.

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If you don't design your relationships with the

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same deliberate plan and you give your asset

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allocation, then the emotional friction will

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drain your energy faster than a stock market

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crash any day. So how do we fix this bias? Well,

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we have to view retirement as a three -legged

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stool. Finance is leg one, health is the second

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leg, and relationship is the third. Now, if the

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finance leg is 10 foot long because you've obsessed

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over it for a decade, but your health and relationship

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legs are only two inches long, then the still

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is completely useless. It's going to topple over.

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A truly wealthy retirement requires all three

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legs to be balanced. Now, moving forward on this

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channel, I'm making a commitment to fix the bias.

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We're still going to talk about the sums because...

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I know we all love numbers, and I know you all

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as much as I do, but I am going to dive much

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deeper into the lifestyle design. Now, whenever

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anyone sees fancy graphics animations or edited

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charts on YouTube, they usually assume the creator's

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running a massive, highly profitable media operation.

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Believe me, I'm not doing that. So let's talk

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numbers. Do you want to know how much I actually

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earn from this channel? It's about £10 a month.

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Yep, £10. That's just about enough to cover the

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subscription for this video editing software

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I use to put the videos together. Now, when I

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set out with Time to Try, they didn't expect

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to me any kind of money at all. And I'm completely

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fine with that. It's never part of the plan.

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But the interesting part isn't the £10 I make

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today. It's the money I turned down when I realised

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the channel had really gone off track. If we

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go back about 18 months, things just look very

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different. The channel was actually pulling in

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around £300 every single month. By YouTube standards

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for a small niche channel like this, that wasn't

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bad going really. But I had a massive problem

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with how that money was being made. I took a

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look at the video content I was putting out at

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the time. I was making videos reacting to the

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government's latest white papers, shifting policies

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and kind of chaotic plans for pensions. First

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things first, the state pension is a benefit,

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not an entitlement. Now this is controversial,

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but it's also a fact. And you know what happened?

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The algorithm loved it. Of course it blew up.

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But when I looked at the comments section, I

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realized I'd accidentally built the wrong channel.

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The audience wasn't full of people looking for

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some constructive, useful retirement lifestyle

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info. It was filled with doom scrollers. People

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who are actively looking for bad news, looking

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to get angry, and looking to confirm their worst

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fears about the future. Now, I realised I was

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feeding an anxiety machine. It's easily done

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on YouTube to chase the algorithm down a rabbit

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hole of outrage and anger clicks. Fear pays the

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bills, but that is not why I started this channel.

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I didn't retire, just become a compliance officer

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for government scaremongering. I wanted to help

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people and help myself build a practical, balanced

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life after work. So, I nipped it in the bud.

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A stock -making... those doom and gloom policy

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videos overnight so unsurprisingly my video views

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dropped through the floor the algorithm walked

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away ignored me and their revenue plummeted from

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300 pound back down to a tenner a month but that's

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absolutely fine they don't regress it for a second

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it would never pass the plan because it allowed

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me then a clean slate and to focus entirely on

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what i enjoy talking about which is the actual

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Plan for a successful retirement. And that brings

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us right back to the mistake I've been talking

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about. My bias towards finance. Now, when I cut

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out the government doom -mongering, I pivoted

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quite hard into tactical personal finance. You

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know, SIPs, ISAs, cash buffers. That was a massive

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step up because it gave... Some useful tools

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instead of just anxiety. But as I admitted earlier,

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I still leaned too far into the adding up. I

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left the health and relationship bit behind.

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Now the reason I'm sharing this income story

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with you today is to show you that this channel

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is still work in progress. I'm still learning.

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Just like we're all learning about retirement

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planning really. And I'm willing to do that pivot.

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As long as we're having the right conversations.

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I'm not here to help you doom scroll your way

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into retirement anxiety and I don't just want

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to give you a spreadsheet. But I want to help

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us together build a stable three -legged still

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where our money, our health and our relationships

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are all protected. So to the core community who

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stuck around after that pivot 18 months ago.

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And to everyone who watches these videos, thank

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you so much for helping me to fund my £10 a month

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software description. Anyway, let's keep building

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and retiring together. One that's worth living.

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And I'll see you on the next one.