I have followed the writings and podcasts of American entrepreneur and investor Tim Ferriss for a few years now, and one of my main learnings is how he likes to focus on a post-year review, to inform new year resolutions, rather than solely focusing on new years resolutions, which tend to mostly fail within the first month.
As 2024 draws to a close, I have plenty to reflect on.
I made a decision to relocate to London, UK, at the beginning of January. Plunging right into the unknown. It was probably the biggest decision I’ve taken. It was the decision of decisions, that automatically makes many other decisions.
My biggest unknown was what work would I do once I got here. The state of the economy didn’t help. The UK economy has gone backwards in recent years, for a variety of reasons. People’s living standards have dropped. Government spending has ballooned, tax burden is now the highest since World War 2 at 37% of GDP. But I feel like I have lived most of my life in economies that go backwards and have realised that you can actually do okay with the right mindset.
The work
I felt I had five things in my favour:
- Sufficient cash resources to get my through an expected dry period, and to be able to enjoy the dry period as much as possible;
- A British passport to be able to work legitimately in the UK, and
- Three qualifications – a UK undergraduate degree, a CFA Charterholder, and a Chartered Certified Accountant
- Several years strong work experience
- Resilience
In hindsight, the biggest disadvantage I had was a lack of UK work experience. All the companies I had worked for in the past, were non-UK companies, some without even a website, let alone Companies House filings.
Another disadvantage was that I had varied experience which made it difficult to know a) which type of jobs and apply to, and at what level. Most of my years to date was spent as an investment professional, and more recently, as a CFO. Which job offer to apply to? Where do you even begin to start? Investment roles are far and few in between, and notoriously difficult to get into, and finance/accounting roles often want a specific track record, such as having trained at the Big 4, and five years post-experience.
It isn’t helped by the fact that most roles go through recruiters whose one mission in life is to earn a commission, and if they think they can’t place you, they won’t bother.
But if you hang in long enough, eventually something turns up.
So one day I get a call from a recruiter offering a role at Toyota Financial Services. I was interested, but cautiously sceptical, as you often get emails/calls from recruiters, express an interest, and then never hear back from them. He calls a couple of weeks later to say I had been invited to a first stage interview. I was travelling at the time in Portugal, so took the telephonic interview from my hotel room. I have the call, and get an email back saying I had been invited to a second stage interview, was to be held at the Toyota headquarters the following week.
Off I go, having prepared a case presentation, to the headquarters Epsom, arriving outside the smart eco-campus. Presentation seems to go well, but always expecting the worst, hoping for the best, I am not sure what the outcome will be. Ultimately, the hiring manager needs to take a calculated risk on an applicant.
The minutes drag by. An hour later, I get a call from the recruiter saying I had been offered the role.
The role was a six-month contract, which was then extended by a year.
Toyota Financial Services is an amazing company, and it has been a very happy experience thus far, and the best introduction into the regulated car finance industry that I could hope for. In addition, I have begun to learn about PowerBI.
Resolutions: Maximum effort into TFS, embrace fully and live and breathe the One Toyota Vision. Become expert at PowerBI and Data.
Travel
My first stint of independent travel was at the age of 22, when I joined a friend on a backpacking trip to India after graduating university. Since then, I have loved travelling, for the awe inspiring, soul feeding experiences, the history, learning about new cultures, people and economies. Having visited around 50 countries before this year, I had covered much of North and South America, Asia, and parts of Africa. Europe – I had done very little of, apart from my university days mostly spent rowing in the UK, and some family trips to parts of Europe. I had always been eager to visit Central and Eastern Europe, and decided to mix European city breaks with job searching. The job search process can be long and arduous. It often involves going months of trialling and erroring with various tactics, lots of cold calling, rejections, ups and downs. Travel brings a sense of respite to the process.
In addition, we really don’t know what is around the proverbial corner. In 2020 we had COVID which restricted travel for several years, at one point during 2024, I thought there was a real chance of a major war breaking out in Europe. There still could be, but hopefully Trump can broker a peace deal.
This year, I have visited 12 countries, taking my grand total up to 63. During the spring, I visited Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Portugal, a Greek island for a wedding, back home Zimbabwe for a wedding, Ireland to visit my family roots, Norway to get engaged, and most recently ending the year in Paris, France, for Christmas.
Having back-backed most of my years, I am not afraid of doing travel on a shoestring, flying low-cost airlines and staying in cheaper hostels. I love the freedom that comes from hopping on a plane, flying into some unknown destination, and start exploring and learning.
Resolution: travel more in 2025. My goal is to visit at least one new country on average per quarter. Provisionally, I am looking to travel to Romania in Q1, Morocco in Q2, Zimbabwe (wedding) in Q3, then somewhere else in Europe next Autumn. The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) interest me.
Bridge
My grandmother used to play bridge several times a week. My parents are regular bridge players. My idols Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger play bridge. It is a game I always wanted to learn, but never enough to want to “struggle through” to learn it. In 2024 that changed, and my partner and I enrolled in bridge lessons at the nearby Wimbledon club. The course includes three terms of 10 lessons each, spready over the course of the year. I have completed term one, and am eager to get into term two which starts in mid-January. It is both depressing and enlightening that some very experienced older players who have been playing for decades, say you never truly stop learning how to play bridge, for there is always something new to learn.
Resolution 3: Play more bridge
Health and Fitness
With a wedding to look forward to in August, I have eight months to get into shape. I cycle to work two or three times a week which is great for my day-to-day fitness. And there is a gym at work which helps on the strength side. I joined a cycling club in 2024, which has a great group of people riding. I need to join a running club and do at least one group run per week.
In 2024 I gave up alcohol. I had done a few “dry-Januaries” in the past, but felt that with a move to London, it would be beneficial, both mentally and physically, to give up the booze. I never had a problem with booze, but I wanted to see how it felt, going off it for long periods of time. And I haven’t looked back since. I love the feeling of getting back home after a night out, and you feel as clear headed as a clear sky.
I have put on a few kilos though since being in London, and I intend to get back into a 90-92kg range by August, and to maintain this range going forward. Generally speaking there are two inputs to get to an optimal health output: diet and exercise. I have generally been okay with the exercise part, but diet is what gets me down. I am looking for a few foods to completely cut out of my diet come January 1st, which will have the maximum impact on weight loss. I am thinking about: break and baked goods, chocolate and ice-cream, and any type of fast foods (Pizza, Five Guys, Greggs). One thing I have found in the past that helps with weight loss is tinned sardines/pilchards. It has good levels of protein, is not “moreish”.
Tim Ferriss advocated one cheat day per week where you could binge as much as you wanted too during that day. He claimed it was scientifically helpful to the fat loss process. Is this acceptable, or does it have to be absolutist? With alcohol, I felt the reason it has worked is that because it was a hard rule. Nothing/nada/zilch. No special occasions. As soon as you start adding some exceptions in, the rules tend to become broken more regularly.
Resolution 5: do at least one cycle per week with the cycling club and one run per week with a running club. Gym on work-days. Cut three things from diet this year. Chocolates, bread and pastries, and ice-cream. Have sardines for lunch more often. The two exceptions are: one binge day per month, and when travelling.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is definitely the future. Either embrace it or get left behind by it. I don’t know much about it, but am eager to learn more about it.
Resolution 6: Take a course on AI
Start-ups
I love growing businesses, and working with entrepreneurs. I have gained a lot of experience doing deals and growing businesses. During 2025 I aim to invest in a start-up.
In summary, it’s been a big year, lot’s of change, but am super excited for 2025 and all that it brings. Anyone passing through London, would love to get in touch and catch-up, talk through a business proposition, or just have lunch.