Media

Expat Saving & Investing 101 workshop – learn everything you need to know to invest sensibly and start making your money work hard for you.

Find out more and sign up for Fri/Sat 19/20 April in Dubai here.

Social

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Events

Future Events

Contact Steve here if you would like him to speak at your conference, corporate learning event or social gathering. Talks are always engaging and easy to understand!

5 & 6 April 2019 (Dubai) The Ultimate Expat Saving & Investing Workshop

*** March sold out, now taking bookings for April. ***

Learn how to finally take full control of your personal finances in this 8-hour workshop split, over two days. Based on the Dead Simple Saving 10 Steps to Financial Independence, Steve will personally take you through everything you need to do, explaining the basics and showing you the most practical path to saving and investing as an expat.

By the end of the two days, you will know how to get in the right mindset for dealing with money, how to plan for financial independence, how to maximise your income and minimise your expenses, how to track your net worth and monthly savings rate, how to calculate your own target net worth and other goals, how to establish a cash buffer, how to get out of debt, what stocks, bonds and ETFs are, what to invest in based on your own personal situation and how to invest as an expat.

Not only will you know how to do it – you will have done it already, with all the numbers calculated and accounts set up, ready to make your first investment.

Friday 5 April 10-3pm (with lunch break) Parts I & II

Saturday 6 April 10-3pm (with lunch break) Parts III & IV

Price: 990 AED total

Figuring this out yourself could take you weeks! Let’s get this part of your life sorted. Find out more here and reserve a seat as numbers are very limited.

Recent Events

16 February 2019 (Dubai) SimplyFI – Boost Your Income, Slash Your Expenses & Get Out of Debt

A free afternoon from some of the UAE’s top personal finance experts and over 100 people attending! This time it was all about actionable tips and productive ways of thinking that help you to ‘grow the gap’ between your income and savings. Get out of debt and avoid getting trapped in long-term savings plans. Steve talk was called ‘Let’s Talk About Debt!’ Interestingly, most of the attendees were very good at managing their debt already – hoping to reach people with serious issues in future sessions.

Using the Mentimeter app was a joy, crowdsourcing lots of ideas on how to reduce expenses, avoid debt etc in real time and taking the pulse of the audience’s issues.

16 February 2019 (Dubai) Women Investment Forum

A really interesting mix of people creating an inclusive platform for thought leaders and female business professionals. Steve talked about how to take control of your finances in Saving Made Simple, Practical and Memorable. Women often feel less confident about investing than men but have been shown to be better long-term index investors, as they stick to the rules rather than investing in fun new things or trying to time the market.

28 January 2019 (Dubai) Leverage Knowledge in Financial Markets to Grow Personal Wealth

An entertaining evening at the DIFC organised by the Lebanese financial lecturer Jihad Al Hokayem. After their talks on digital currencies, financial analysis and systemic debt, it was great to hear the other experts promote sensible long-term investing using cheap, diversified index funds for personal investment portfolios.

Steve was talking about how to invest sensibly without getting distracted: Too Much Knowledge can be Dangerous – Keep it Simple.

28 November 2018 (Dubai) Unwind the Grind – A Practical Guide to Financial Independence

A fantastic free evening from the millennial-inspiring platform Unwind the Grind. After a panel discussion about our own Financial Independence journeys, we covered the ‘Why of FI’ along with some practical advice on how to get there. To finish we had some roundtables on specific areas of FI, so that no question was left unanswered! I think we were still going as the cleaners moved in…

Steve was talking about 10 Steps to Financial Independence, as well as leading a roundtable discussion on How to Invest Cheaply & Sensibly.

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Steve’s talk on the 10 steps to Financial Independence

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What is Financial Independence?

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My Financial Independence journey

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Thinking seven generations ahead

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The index won’t go to zero

Past Events

18 October 2018 (Dubai) - Financial Independence Fest: In the Garden with Andrew Hallam

Memorable free event packing over 100 people in the garden to listen to Andrew Hallam talk about how to invest as an expat. Great community vibe with everyone bringing food and drink to share on a beautiful evening under the stars.

23 November 2018 (Dubai) - Financial Independence Fest II: Daytime BBQ in the FI Garden

Community event sharing food, drink, stories and advice in the Dubai sunshine.

Radio

Dubai Eye 103.8 FM

10 February 2019 (Dubai) – The Agenda (News Review)

Steve reviews the day’s most interesting local and global news, as well as giving out some personal finance tips: spending money vs happiness and love, Harrison Ford in town with a mission, doughnut economics (yum), my first pop concert, desalination and salty seas, courts adding Hindi, the youth bulge and the 2019 outlook for savers…

10 December 2018 (Dubai) – The Agenda (News Review)

Steve reviews the day’s most interesting local and global news, as well as giving out some personal finance tips: how to save money over Christmas, could the Chinese switch off our internet infrastructure, why you shouldn’t eat after 10pm, good news from 2018, plus how many camels you can safely fit in the back of your truck.

20 June 2018 (Dubai) – The Business Breakfast

Steve discusses the impact of the UAE Central Bank capping bank fees.

5 April 2018 (Dubai) – The Business Breakfast

Steve goes head-to-head with the Chairman of Globaleye in a robust discussion about why less than a third of people in the UAE trust their financial advisor.

Podcasts

A Life of Education

Financial Independence Europe

Steve talks to the awesome Araminta about his life in Dubai and how to reach Financial Independence as an expat. Araminta is a little genius (joking, she’s like 7 feet tall) who helps young people get financially savvy with her website Financia lly Mint.

Listen to the recording here, with some nicely detailed show notes.

Profile Articles

Millennial Revolution

FIRECracker and Wanderer from Millennial Revolution are truly living the FIRE lifestyle. Having retired in their early thirties, they spend their days blogging and travelling. They’ve pretty much visited every country in Europe now and are showing no signs of stopping. Their blog is really informative for those wanting to retire early and indulge in some geoarbitrage (that’s living somewhere else to save/earn more money). It’s also damn funny.

Steve [was honoured to be invited to do a guest post] writes about life in the UAE and provides some top tips for how to invest as an expat. You can read it here.

The National (UAE)

The National is great! Always promoting sensible investing and highlighting the problem of unscrupulous, commission-driven financial advisors in the UAE.

Steve talks about why investing in long-term savings plans from insurers is a terrible idea.

You can read it here.

Financial Independence Europe

The shownotes for this podcast are so detailed that it could easily be an article. Steve talks with Araminta about his life in Dubai and how to reach Financial Independence as an expat.

You can read it here.