Hi Reader

💥 1,320 copies of The Retirement You Didn't See Coming sold in 3 months 💥
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When I started writing the book, I didn’t care about “Amazon bestseller” tags or vanity metrics. I cared about one thing:
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Getting a book into people’s hands that changes the way they think about life after work.
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The publishing industry says a nonfiction book that sells 250–500 copies in its first year is “average.”
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We’ve just passed 1,300 copies in 3 months.
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That tells me something important:
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👉 People are craving a more human, more honest, more useful conversation about retirement.
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👉 The old scripts are broken, and people know it.
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Thank you to everyone who has bought it, read it, shared it, and told me what it has sparked for you.
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If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, you can find it here​
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And if you have read it, I’d love to know:
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What’s the one insight, challenge, or moment that stuck with you most?
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Because this is just the beginning…

FEATURED ARTICLE

The Gap Between Living and Living Well

Every week there’s another headline celebrating our growing longevity.

“Life expectancy hits record high!”

“The average person can now expect to live well into their 80s!”

Cue the stock photo: two perfectly tanned retirees holding hands on a beach, laughing like they’ve just remembered where they left their pensions.

It’s a nice story. But it’s only half true.

Yes, we’re living longer. But we’re also dying slower.

The Hidden Gap No One Talks About

Over the past 30 years, global life expectancy has jumped by more than six years. That sounds great… until you look beneath the surface.

The World Health Organisation calls it the “health-adjusted life expectancy” or in plain English, how long we live in good health.

And here’s where it gets alarming.

While life expectancy keeps rising, healthy life expectancy isn’t keeping up.

That gap, the years we live in poor health, has widened to an average of 10–12 years in most developed nations.

In the US, it’s 12.4 years.

Australia: 12.2 years.

New Zealand: 11.8 years.

UK: 11.3 years.

That’s more than a decade of life spent managing chronic illness, pain, or disability, often fuelled by diseases of affluence rather than poverty.

And ironically, that gap is smaller in some low-income countries. Lesotho’s is 6.4 years. Somalia’s 6.7.

Not because people there are healthier, but because they don’t have the same access to healthcare that can prolong life once it’s already fragile.

In wealthy nations, modern medicine has extended our lifespan, but our lifestyles have quietly eroded our healthspan.

The Longevity Paradox

It’s one of the strangest contradictions in human history.

We’ve never known more about nutrition, movement, and mental health, yet we’re more sedentary, more stressed, and more medicated than ever.

According to Public Health England, over 40% of adults live with at least one long-term health condition. The NHS reports that nearly two-thirds of over-65s take five or more prescription medications daily.

We are, quite literally, keeping people alive longer than their bodies can cope with.

And while we often talk about adding years to life, we’ve done a poor job of adding life to those years.

As researcher, physician and author of the great book Outlive, Peter Attia puts it:

The Myth of the ‘Good Long Life’

When I talk to retirees, many tell me they’ve “got a long retirement to fund.” And they’re right... but only partly.

What most people don’t realise is that only a portion of those years are likely to be spent in the state they’re imagining — travelling, socialising, volunteering, playing golf, and generally thriving.

Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the average Brit reaches peak happiness in retirement around age 70, and by 75, satisfaction starts to decline, mainly due to deteriorating health and mobility.

So while we imagine a 30-year retirement, the truth is that the fully active phase may last just 10–15 years.

That’s not morbid. That’s reality, and it should shape how we plan.

Medicine Keeps Us Alive Longer. Lifestyle Makes Us Unwell Sooner.

Our ancestors didn’t have Fitbit data, probiotics, or gym memberships. They also didn’t spend eight hours a day sitting, snacking, and scrolling.

Today, we live in an environment where convenience trumps vitality:

• Diet: We eat roughly 500 more calories a day than we did in the 1970s.
• Movement: The average Brit walks less than half a mile per day (ONS).
• Sleep: Nearly a third of adults sleep under six hours a night.
• Connection: Loneliness now affects more over-50s than diabetes.

In short: modern life is extending our years but shrinking our quality of them.

We’re surviving longer... but not living longer.

What This Means for Retirement Planning

The myth of longevity has warped how we plan for life after work.

We obsess over not running out of money, but ignore the risk of running out of health.

We build spreadsheets to model 30-year retirements, but forget that many of those years might not be active or independent.

And we talk endlessly about return on investment (ROI), but rarely about return on vitality (ROV).

When I work with clients, I often say:

That subtle shift changes everything: how you spend, how you travel, how you eat, and what you prioritise.

Healthspan Planning Is the New Retirement Planning

True retirement planning isn’t just about cashflow and investment returns. It’s about maximising the years when you can actually enjoy what you’ve built.

That means investing in:

• Physical health — strength, balance, and movement.
• Cognitive health — learning, curiosity, and challenge.
• Emotional health — purpose, connection, and belonging.

Because adding years to your life means nothing if you’re not adding life to your years.

And that’s why healthspan planning is the new retirement planning.

Reflection of the Week

If you knew your “healthy years” might run out 15 years before your “total years,” what would you do differently now?

Would you spend more on experiences and less on things?

Would you prioritise health as much as wealth?

Would you build your plan around the best years, not just the most years?

Because here’s the truth: You can’t buy more time...but you can spend it better.

PODCAST

Ep 94 - Tax, Death & Rock 'n' Roll

Three topics no one wants to talk about... but absolutely should. This week, I’m tackling the taboo trifecta: tax, death, and legacy. It’s not morbid, it’s liberating. Because when you face the end with clarity and courage, you stop hoarding, start living, and turn your final chapter into an encore worth remembering. Listen in now ​​​​

SKETCH OF THE WEEK

The Balance of Money, Health & Time

Here’s a cruel little joke life likes to play on us… When you’re young enough to do everything, you don’t have the money. When you finally have the money, you’re too busy working to enjoy it. And when you finally have the time, your knees, back and energy have other ideas.

This week’s sketch shows how the balance between money, health, and time shifts as we age. In your 50s and 60s, you’ve got a good mix of all three — the sweet spot. By your 70s, money’s still looking healthy, but you might not be. By your 80s, you’ve got plenty of cash… just not enough time or health to spend it well.

The moral? Spend it while you can still enjoy it. Money’s only useful when it’s converted into memories, meaning, and moments.

IN OTHER NEWS

What I've Read This Week

• The New Normal of Stock Market Concentration - A Wealth of Common Sense
• Retirement Voice 2025 - Standard Life RetirementVoice2025.pdf

Spreading The Message

• I was a guest on the Money Without Math podcast, hosted by the brilliant Karen Coyle, where I talked about The Most Dangerous Day of Retirement