Hey Ryan,

There’s been a trend you may have seen online recently - ‘Deinfluencing Black Friday’ and ‘Deinfluencing Christmas’. 

Essentially the trend says - stop buying shit you don’t need. 

As often Black Friday and then Christmas promote spending. Often spending money on stuff you don’t need. 

It’s a bit of tough love. You might even feel personally attacked... but I like this trend 😂 

Let's talk about it in more detail.

(And there are details further below on a giveaway!)

How much crap do you have in your wardrobes that you’ve never worn? 

I recently got rid of 2 pairs of Vans, my mum gave them to a charity shop. I bought them years and years ago and hardly wore either of them. Overconsumption for no reason, and a waste of my money. 

Do you need to buy more and more clothes and shoes? 

How many books do you have that you’ve bought and never read?

I’m extremely guilty of this one. I have so many books that I’ve bought and still never read. 

Yet I still buy more books... do I need to buy more? I certainly don't. 

These are two good examples, but there are loads of instances where we buy stuff - spending our hard earned money - on stuff we don't really need.

There is a great book written called ‘Enough’. It was written by Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. 

The person who has ‘enough’ is the one who is the most happy and most content. Because they’re not continually chasing material possessions. They’re not chasing more and more. 

We all know material shit doesn’t make us happy, but many of us (myself included - when I'm not putting money into global index funds... 😉) keep buying more material shit. 

We constantly accumulate stuff we don’t need. And of course, all of this stuff costs money. 

We could use some of this money, even if it’s a few hundred quid per year, in much better ways. 

A holiday, an experience, saving for the future, or put to work in the markets through investing. 

All better options in my opinion, compared to excessive overconsumption for the sake of it. 

It’s your money, you can spend it however you like of course. I’m not going to tell you what to spend it on. 

But it is worth thinking about - do you really need more and more stuff?

Can you make more use of what you already have? Maybe even give some bits away, to charity for example, for bits you have and don’t use? 

Of course, and you probably knew where this was going to end up, I’m all about investing. 

So my spin would be to spend less on crap you don’t need and invest that money instead. 

Bring that mindset with you into 2025.

Less money on 'stuff', more money into investments.

Investing little extra bits here and there could help you retire a few years earlier, due to the power of compound interest. 

Anyway, something to think about as we approach Christmas and I thought it was worth sharing in this email - thanks for reading. 

12 Days of MMS Christmas

Speaking of Christmas, from 9 December I will be doing the '12 days of MMS Christmas'. 

12 days, 12 emails, 12 different topics ranging from paying off debt to index funds to earning more money. 

This email sequence will give you quickfire tips and knowledge that you can use to improve your financial situation.

Giveaway

Finally, my book Stop Waiting, Start Investing has now been out for one week.

Thanks to anyone who has got it! I can't thank you enough.

And... I am giving away 3 copies of Stop Waiting, Start Investing to my email list (thanks for subscribing to it!).

To enter - simply reply to this email and in one sentence say why you would like a copy. I'll then pick the 3 people this weekend. 

The only rule - you need to be from the UK (sorry, international postage is a pain).

Even if you already have a copy - firstly a massive thank you - but secondly you could win another copy and gift it to someone close to you, use it as a stocking filler, use it for secret Santa at work, put it on the bonfire 😂 - whatever you want!

All the best,

Ryan