In my 22 years as a financial adviser, I’ve noticed something about the rhythm of life, business, and even investing: we all move through cycles. Roughly seven years at a time.
Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher and social reformer who developed the idea of seven-year cycles as fundamental stages of human development, each marked by distinct physical, emotional, and intellectual growth. This concept resonates in my journey, because it mirrors how both individuals and investors move through predictable life phases. This is why I think it’s important receiving advice those just one step ahead of you.
Studying cycles, trends and patterns are a bit of a hobby of mine. It sounds a little ‘woo-woo’ to many, but I’m one of those people who can see patterns everywhere. Patterns that repeat not just in the macro-economy, but the micro-economy too, in peoples lives. Buying your first home, starting a family, investing in property, these are the moments lived, before people really know what hit them. True financial advice involves the transmission of wisdom around key mistakes, winning strategies, and paradigms that worked well with those who’ve already succeeded. Unfortunately in New Zealand, financial advice is often regulated and remunerated as selling a financial product, instead. When you seek out advice from someone, ideally you’d like to think the person you’re listening to has walked the walk to some extent.
To get results that aren’t average, you need to do things that aren’t average.
From our first home to first child, to first rental, and first financial milestone, it’s often felt like I’ve lived through things not just for myself, but for those who end up jumping through the same hoops after me. None of us can give away what we don’t have. Not only is it fake, it doesn’t have the power to help others. I’ve been very conscious of this over the last 7 years as I have strategised to move into the next phase of my financial advice career. I need to serve my clients better as they enter into their next stages of life (reorientation of investments, selling businesses, managing inheritances, and building intergenerational wealth).
Starting the NZ Everyday Investor podcast 8 years ago was part of the education process and preparation needed to best serve my future clients. Yes, I was qualified to provide investment advice, but until starting this podcast, I wasn’t really that knowledgeable. I’ve spent over 8 hours a week for almost 500 weeks to learn how to help everyday people, build new wealth, for the new world. Thankfully, doing a podcast introduced me to new ideas and forced me to be open-minded about things I had previously written off. I was relatively ‘early’ with Bitcoin in 2017, scaled into precious metals in 2019, and saw the writing on the wall with the insurance and mortgage industry in 2024.
The Backstory
When I was 19 years old, I started a business which would get me through university and eventually be sold 7 years later to become the deposit for our first home. I learnt early on how the financial system worked, and how simply earning a lot of money wasn’t enough. We needed to collect assets which were relatively scarce, and ideally borrow to do it. My wife and I rode what was clearly a property wave from 2004. Yes, we got our timing right, but we acted on an investment thesis. We didn’t become wealthy through the textbook ‘best-practice’ model of diversification and avoiding debt, either. Funnily enough, I’ve never met a wealthy person who’s done it this way.
My strong and growing belief is that change presents equal opportunity for loss and gain. How you get on the right side is determined by your approach: goals or purpose-driven.
So, after selling my mortgage and insurance practice late last year, I spent the first half of this year, trying to map out a fresh financial advice model that truly meets the need of the everyday investor, aware of the transformation of wealth currently occurring. Well, I grossly underestimated the complexity involved with setting up this type of practice in New Zealand. While there’s a need, the compliance makes it tough to focus on what really matters. As a small operator, I realised I couldn’t do it on my own.
Then, I met Joel Robinson and Radical Investment. I found him while researching other businesses that were already doing what I wanted to do. Finally, I found a financial advice practice already shaking things up in New Zealand’s advice industry, with integrity and client focus at the heart of it. Joel already built the business I was imagining, using platforms like KiwiWrap, which allows bespoke KiwiSaver portfolios that include the assets everyday investors really want access to, not some locked-down menu.
So after 3 months of negotiations, at the start of October 2025, I became a shareholder in Radical Investment and a financial adviser contracted through this FAP (financial advice practice). Being apart of Radical Investment is a commitment to reversing mainstream norms – offering real advice (not ‘product-pushing’) centered on your freedom to choose and the reality of today’s digital transformation.
So Where Does That Leave Us?
If you’re an everyday investor, you can still access my coaching service: fee-based, nimble, and grounded in real-world experience. For those* ready to edge beyond conventional DIY investing, however, I now offer comprehensive Investment and KiwiSaver advice through Radical Investment.
Ready to take control? Want to talk purpose-driven wealth building aligned with the new world? I don’t just want to keep up with the future. I want you ahead of it.
*For investors with $100k+ in KiwiSaver or $500k+ in portfolios, these innovative options open new doors, to truly own your financial future aligned with your values and risk appetite.
