Hi Reader

A quick introduction this week, as a battle the nasty flu bug that is going round! Thank God I decided to write this weeks newsletter earlier in the week.

As always I hope you enjoy...

FEATURED ARTICLE

How to Tune Out the Noise and Take Back Control of Your Retirement

Let’s be honest, modern life is loud. Not charming-busy café loud. More like-standing-next-to-a-jet-engine-while-your-phone-buzzes-loud.

We’re trying to plan a meaningful life after work — purpose, identity, money, health, all that — while the world is screaming about inflation, elections, AI taking jobs, your neighbour’s new Tesla, and some bloke named Gary on Twitter yelling about gold bars and the apocalypse.

And it’s not just annoying.

• Digital distractions have been shown to cause a 10-point drop in IQ, twice the hit you’d take from smoking weed.​
• Constant mental noise has been linked to higher stress, anxiety and depression, according to studies from Mass General Hospital.​
• The WHO recently reported that nearly 1 in 5 adults over 60 suffer from a mental health disorder, often made worse by social isolation and fear-driven media.​

So if you’ve ever felt like your brain has 72 tabs open, you’re not broken. You’re just living in 2025.

The Big Lie: “Once I retire, life will finally calm down…”

It won’t.

The noise doesn’t stop just because you stopped working. In fact, for a lot of people it gets louder:

• Headlines about “pension timebombs” and “you’ll run out of money by 83.”
• Market dips.
• Adult children needing help.
• NHS queues and health worries.
• Not to mention the real emotional noise — Who am I now? Am I still useful? Is this it?

Retirement isn’t the finish line. It’s just Act Two... and Act Two is unscripted.

The Only Way Through: Control What You Can. Ignore What You Can’t.

There’s a reason Navy SEALs, elite athletes, and good retirees think the same way:

They focus on inputs, not chaos.

You can’t control:

• Stock markets
• Government policy
• How long you live
• The media, your in-laws, or Gary from Twitter

But you can control:

• How much you spend and save
• How your money is invested
• How you design your days
• What you give your attention to
• The stories you tell yourself when things wobble

That difference — between what you want to control and what you actually can — is the gap where anxiety lives.

Close the gap.

Your Anti-Noise Toolkit for Retirement (or planning for it)

1. Set Rules Before the Storm Create your own ”If X, then Y” system.

• If markets drop 10% → I do nothing except review my plan.
• If I feel overwhelmed → I log out, go for a walk, call a friend, re-enter life.

People who set rules before chaos are the ones who stay calm during it.

2. Time-Block Your Sanity The average person checks their phone over 100 times a day. That’s 100 chances to derail your focus. So pick just one hour a day with no phone, no news, no noise. Guard it like a pensioner guards the thermostat.

3. Focus on the Big Four You Can Actually Control According to research from Leipzig University and the London School of Economics, happiness in later life is linked most strongly to:

• Health (move your body)
• Relationships (call people back)
• Purpose (meaningful goals)
• Autonomy (doing life on your own terms)

Money helps, yes — but only if it funds those four.

4. Make Peace with Uncertainty Uncertainty is not a bug in retirement. It is retirement. So build a plan that expects change — flexible spending rules, guardrails for income, periodic reviews. Don’t build a glass house and pray it never rains. Build something with drainage.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Because distraction isn’t just wasting our attention, it’s stealing our lives.

Millions of people are reaching retirement age having saved, invested, sacrificed… and then find themselves lost because they spent 40 years focusing on their pension and 0 years focusing on their purpose.

Your attention is your most valuable currency now. Not your ISA. Not your pension pot.

What you choose to focus on is what your future becomes.

Your Challenge This Week

• Do a 3-minute Noise Audit — how many times are you pulled off track in an hour?
• Choose 3 things you can control this week. Write them down. Do them.
• Protect at least one distraction-free hour. No phone. No news. No noise. Just you and your life.

Final Thought

The world isn’t going to get quieter. But you can get clearer.

Retirement doesn’t reward the person who knows the most. It rewards the person who focuses the best — on their health, their relationships, their purpose, their plans.

So block out the noise. Control your little corner of the world. Build a life you’re proud to wake up to.

Because your future self? They’re already standing there, champagne in hand, saying — “Finally. You stopped listening to the noise and started listening to yourself.”

PODCAST

Ep 96 - Why Your Brain Isn't Built For Retirement

Retirement is modern. Your brain isn’t. You’re trying to live a life of freedom, choice and calm with a mind that was built for sabre-toothed tigers, survival and constant productivity. No wonder you feel restless, guilty or like you “should be doing more”. In this episode, I unpack why your brain fights retirement, and how to retrain it to actually enjoy it. Listen in now ​​​​

SKETCH OF THE WEEK

The (False) Finish Line of Retirement

We spend our whole lives climbing the staircase — working, saving, striving — aiming for that big, celebrated moment called retirement. The finish line. The freedom we were promised. And then we get there… and it’s not an ending at all. It’s a doorway. A blank canvas. A chance to stop climbing and start creating. Yes, it’s unsettling — no more steps, no more script — but that’s the beauty of it. Retirement isn’t “What the hell happens now?” It’s “What do I want to make happen next?” This isn’t the end of the story. It’s the first time you get to write it entirely on your own terms.

IN OTHER NEWS

What I've Read This Week

• Can You be Truly Happy Without a Sense of Purpose - Psychology Today​
• 8 Brutal Truths About Retirement That Shattered My Expectations Completely - Graeme Richards ​