Personal finance coaching
I went from nothing to retired at 34, and didn't realise how much that mattered until I got there. Now I coach people through the part most personal finance skips. The mindset behind the mechanics.
Book a callPhilosophy
Money is not what you actually want. You want what you believe money will get you. Time. Options. The ability to focus on what matters.
The way most people pursue it ends up working against the life they were trying to build in the first place. That is the paradox.
The mechanics of becoming financially free are simple. The reason most people will never do it is not the maths. It's that two things are usually missing: a must, and a belief.
When both are present, the rest is logistics.
The formula
Must+Belief=Inevitable
If becoming financially free is genuinely a must, and you genuinely believe it's possible, the rest is logistics. The whole of my work is installing both.
Years to financial independence, from £0.
The age I stopped working actively.
Properties owned across asset classes.
Rise Retreats run with my community.
About
At eleven, I was walking myself to the supermarket with whatever coins my mum could spare, working out what combination of the reduced section could feed four of us. Usually it was soup.
I grew up poor. What made it hard wasn't the scarcity. It was the volatility. The same request on a Tuesday and a Wednesday could get two completely different answers.
I learned, fairly quickly, to stop asking.
What I came out of that childhood with was an instinct that's served me well and cost me at the same time: the belief that the safest thing in the world is to not need anyone. I built my way out alone. Grades. Friendships. University. A Big 4 accounting qualification I hated. M&A consulting, which I enjoyed more. Property. Investments.
I went from £0 to financially independent in six years. I stopped working actively at thirty-four. It wasn't a flex. It was the answer to a question I'd been carrying since I was eleven:
Can I make sure I never have to feel like that again?
The part nobody warned me about was what came after. Retiring at thirty-four does not fix what you think it'll fix. What it gives you is space, which turns out to be the entire point. The existential reckoning that follows is half of what I now teach.
I coach because the boy who scoured the reduced section, who walked himself to school, who learned not to ask for things, does not want anyone else to have to figure it out the same way.
Method
The same path I walk every client through. Boring, fundamental, and the thing almost everyone is missing. No get-rich-quick schemes. No frugality-purist FIRE that nobody actually sustains. A straightforward path built around the life you want to live.
What you're actually trying to build, before we touch a single number.
The two things that decide whether the rest works. We install both first.
Where you are now. Where you're going. The route between them.
Your finances rebuilt as one coherent system, pointing in one direction.
The rails that move money toward what you want, without monthly discipline.
A holistic approach you actually understand. Tailored to your life.
The habits, reviews, and mindset that hold the long arc.
Outcomes
Six months in, you'll have:
Fit
I work with
People who have already done hard things. People with a track record of going after something difficult and seeing it through.
Not because money coaching is exclusive. Because the work requires it. The mechanics of getting financially free are straightforward. The reason most people don't get there is the psychology, and addressing it takes someone willing to look at uncomfortable things and act on them. That filter matters.
This isn't for you if
I'll be honest on the first call if I'm hearing any of those. You're better off elsewhere.
Coaching
Whether you want focused one-to-one work or the structure and accountability of a small group, there's a way in.
One-to-one
Six months of one-to-one work, structured entirely around your situation. We start with installing must and belief, then walk through the rest of the method at the pace your life can absorb. I take a maximum of ten clients at any time.
Group program
A twelve-week cohort for people who want the rigor of one-to-one work with the community of a group. Same method, walked together. The community piece is the part most people underestimate, and the reason a lot of solo work doesn't stick.
Results
"James has single-handedly given me the best financial advice of my entire career. My income has risen from £2k a month three and a half years ago to this month earning £183k. My life is radically different because of his presence."
"Previously my relationship with money was fraught with anxiety and financial freedom was a pipe dream. Now I have a plan and I'm on track. Work has become a passion, not an obligation."
"I was 29 and had thrown all my savings into a business I'd just decided to call quits on. One year on, I have more money than I've ever had, an investment approach I believe in, and I've just bought my first property. James was phenomenal."
"I was afraid I wouldn't understand the technical concepts, but the way James explains them made everything straightforward. I'm now on the right track to financial freedom, and I have a personalised dashboard I can check whenever I want."
"James helped me cut through the noise to understand where I want to be. He gave me a clear framework and direction for my financial future, and the tools to stay committed to it."
"James has changed my life. He listened to my somewhat disordered thoughts about money, validated what I'd been doing right, and gently stopped me from devaluing myself. The conversations we've had have truly changed my life."
Questions
Probably, but the first call is the place to know for sure. People earning £40k can become financially free; people earning £400k can stay stuck. The work is about the gap between what comes in and what stays, not headline income.
More than you'd expect. Most high earners have done a version of the mechanics. What they usually haven't done is interrogate the psychology, the relationship to money itself, and the question of what they're actually optimising for. That's where the real progress is, and it's also the hardest to do alone.
No, and that's deliberate. Regulated advice usually means selling products on commission, which is a conflict of interest I do not want anywhere near my coaching. I am a chartered accountant who has done this for myself, with nothing to sell and nothing to gain from your decisions other than seeing them work. The disclaimer at the bottom is real.
No. I work with clients in the UK and abroad, and I live in Barcelona. Investing principles are universal. Specifics like tax wrappers and pension structures vary, and I'll be honest with you where I'm the right or wrong person for a country's particulars.
Most clients have what they need by month six and continue independently. Some take a second engagement around a specific shift, like buying a property or navigating a major life change. The whole point is that you don't need me.
Yes, and money is often where couples either align or quietly diverge. Couples coaching costs the same as individual coaching; we run the sessions together and treat you as a unit. It is some of the most valuable work I do.
Consultation
No obligation. I'll ask about your situation, give you my honest read, and tell you whether one-to-one, group, or none of it right now is the right fit. I'd rather not waste either of our time.
Book a free thirty-minute call