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Have you ever had a week where everything feels harder than it should be?
Where you are more tired than usual, less patient than you would like to be and the things that matter most to you somehow keep getting pushed down the to‑do list?
We have.
Over the past few months we have been reminded just how easy it is for life to become unintentionally complicated. And when everything around you takes a little bit more effort, it becomes much harder to do the work that actually creates the magic in your life.
Some exciting things have been happening. Some genuinely challenging things too. A few funny things that we are not sure whether to laugh or cry about. And quite a lot of lessons that we seem to be learning in real time rather than in hindsight.
Because the truth is this.
Nothing happens unless you make it happen.
And that doesn’t just apply to your career or your money. It applies to your health, your relationships, your peace of mind, your environment and ultimately your happiness. If you want magic in your life, you have to create the time and energy to do the work that creates it.
This Donegan Update shares behind the scenes progress on the Money Hero Makeover TV show, Rebel Finance School and our trip to Türkiye, alongside personal lessons about simplifying your life so you have the time and energy to work on what really matters.
The Money Hero Makeover TV Show
Back in June 2025 we shared that we were working on something a little bit different. A brand new money makeover show
Since then we have re-titled it to the Fast Track to Financial Freedom and filmed eight episodes of the show in different locations around the world.
There were moments when it felt surreal standing in an AirBnb in California talking about investments and categorising spending, and other moments soundproofing a Brazilian hotel room with our producer Ben by dragging the bed and mattress across the floor where we wondered what the heck we had got ourselves into!
The episodes are now being edited and, if everything continues as planned, we should be able to launch in about a month or two. We are genuinely so excited to finally share this with you all because it has been a huge amount of work behind the scenes.
We screened one of the first episodes at NinjaCon in Bogota (more on what that is shortly) and the feedback was awesome. we have three episodes edited and are working on getting them lined up to launch.
Big exciting projects do not happen by accident. They happen because you block time in your calendar when it would be easier not to. They happen because you have awkward conversations, make decisions when you do not feel ready, and say no to things that are perfectly good but not aligned with what matters most right now.
They happen because you have a team of people you work with (thank you Ben for your hard work) and because you keep going over time, putting one foot in front of the other.
We’re itching to release this into the world, having started this project 9 months ago! It is coming!
NinjaCon 2025 in Colombia
In November we ran the very first NinjaCon.
This was the first ever event where we brought people together from the Ninja Rebel Finance School community to meet face to face, chat about the course and work together on improving it. What’s a Ninja? It’s the army of wonderful humans who volunteer their time to help us run Rebel Finance School.
Until now, so many of our interactions have been through Facebook groups, comments and Zoom calls, so there was something really special about finally being in the same room as people we had only ever seen as profile pictures before.
We got to hang out. Talk about money. Share ideas. Work on the course together. And actually spend time as humans rather than usernames.
It was amazing.
And also… a huge amount of work.
There was a point where we suddenly became very aware that all of these people had flown across the world to Colombia because of something we had organised. It felt like a real responsibility to make sure everyone was safe, looked after and having a meaningful experience.
Hosting an event like that carries a weight that you do not fully appreciate until everyone arrives and you realise you are now responsible for the thing existing in real life.
See the images below for us spelling Ninja on the roof of a building overlooking Bogota, playing Tejo where you throw metal hockey pucks at explosive charges whilst drinking and just hanging out and having fun.
One of the highlights for us was everyone getting to meet Dani and the Rebel Business School Colombia team and learn about the work they are doing locally to help people start businesses without debt. Seeing that connection between the global Rebel community and the on the ground work happening in Colombia was incredibly special.
We also had a rather magical moment in the hotel lift. We were on our way down to breakfast and a lady stepped into the lift from another floor and exclaimed “Donegans!” She had done the course on YouTube and was just as surprised to see us in the lift as we were to get greeted! It was so cool chatting to her and finding out about her financial journey and what she had done since the course!
When something moves from an idea on the internet to real people in the room, you realise very quickly how much work it takes to make meaningful things happen.
That moment did not start in a hotel lift.
It started with someone deciding they wanted to take control of their financial future and doing the course on YouTube. It started with us deciding we wanted to share how we had taken control of ours and what had helped us along the way so that others could do the same.
Years later, that decision meant we were standing in a lift in Bogotá chatting about her financial journey like we had been friends for years.
We are so grateful for the time, energy and effort these amazing humans put into coming to Colombia to help us make Rebel Finance School even better!
Extraordinary Richmond
Extraordinary Richmond was amazing. 115 people turned up in Richmond, Virginia to spend a weekend with us working on their version of an extraordinary life.
Huge thank you to Brad from ChooseFI for hosting us and bringing together such an incredible group of people. There is something very special about putting a group of humans in a room and giving them permission to think about the life they actually want rather than the one they feel they should be living.
Running the weekend taught us so much and seeing the energy of people coming out of it was genuinely inspirational. People arrived tired, overwhelmed and unsure, and left with clarity, purpose and a plan.
We will be doing it again next year, so join the mailing list here if you would like to be notified when tickets go live.
Environment matters. When you put yourself in a room with people who are working on their lives, it becomes much easier to work on yours.
Rebel Finance School 2026 Update
The 2025 course videos will be coming down on 31st March 2026 and Rebel Finance School 2026 will start on 1st June 2026.
Sometimes progress means closing one chapter before you open the next. Every single year we take the videos down and then go to work improving the course and developing the content for the next year!
Join our main mailing list if you would like to be notified when sign up opens and when the new course launches.
Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter Cups
While we were in America, we may have developed a slight addiction to Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. They are dangerously good and, slowly but surely, our weight started creeping up. Who would have believed it?
Here is the interesting part though.
We did not suddenly lose discipline. We did not suddenly become lazy. We just lost our routines. Travel, different kitchens, different food options, different schedule, different time zone and no normal shopping habits meant that without really noticing it, the default became easy.
Luckily we were measuring out weight so we saw it happen. It didn’t get too bad as I could see that my weight was trending in an unsustainable direction and took action. That is why on the Rebel Finance School course we continuously talk about What gets measured gets improved.
On our first day in Türkiye we joined a gym. Not because we felt particularly motivated, but because we knew from experience that motivation is unreliable. Routine is not.
Within a week we were back training, we lifted weights 3 days in a row and were headed back to a more normal post Dark Chocolate Butter Cup incident weight. Same people. Same goals. Different environment. Different outcome.
It is incredible how powerful environment is over your goals. How is your current environment supporting your goals? Your health goals? Your financial goals? Your relationship goals?
Using AI to Create Clarity
AI development is moving incredibly quickly right now.
Recently I had a bad night’s sleep because my brain simply would not switch off. In the morning I asked Copilot (my AI of choice) to interview me one question at a time and help me figure out what was going on in my head. It asked some brilliant questions and really helped me think through what was bothering me in a way that felt calm rather than overwhelming.
The insights I gained were invaluable and the plan we came up with together to stop this happening again is in place. I have found AI’s value to be amplified when you get it to interview you and pull the thoughts, ideas and answers out of you and feed it back to you.
Have you tried the AI bot on our website that is trained on our content to help answer your questions? Have you tried getting it to interview you about what to do next? Understanding your money fears? How to move forwards?
You can find the AI bot on the Rebel Finance School Course Library page of our website in the bottom right corner. Click on the little yellow speech bubble to access it.
Sometimes the right tool, used at the right time, can save you a huge amount of time and emotional energy.
Maybe try it as a part of your monthly finance meeting and use it to interview you and your family about your progress and come up with next plans together?
Book Update
About a year ago we announced We Wrote A Book and quite a few of you have been asking “where is it Donegans?!”
Katie and I have had a really good month working on the book and have made solid progress. We are not committing to a publishing date yet, but we are working on it consistently.
Consistent progress beats dramatic bursts of effort followed by burnout every single time.
I still can’t believe how big of a project writing a book is. We have spent 3 years on this project so far and we have some distance to go.
We are so excited to get it into your hands…
💰 Net Worth Milestone
We hit a net worth milestone in February which I’m excited to share with you. Our net worth hit £2.5m.
Before we go any further, we want to acknowledge something important.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now. The headlines are heavy and at the time of writing, in March 2026, the stock market has taken a bit of a tumble. We 100% expect the market to be a roller coaster, it’s a normal part of long term investing. We also know that to new investors, the first time it happens can be tough.
We also know that even the idea of having spare cash to spend can feel a long way off for many families at the moment.
That is exactly why Katie and I volunteer a large part of our year teaching finances, investing and money through Rebel Finance School. We want to help you all get ahead and build the kind of financial resilience that gives you options in the future.
This next part is not about saying you should be spending more today. It is about showing what becomes possible over time when you consistently work on your finances.
And as always…
Don’t compare your pineapples.
Your situation, your timeline and your priorities are your own.
I knew compounding was a thing but I still can’t quite believe how well it works over time. We hit our financial independence (FI) number of £1m invested in 2019 and left work to travel, explore and do cool things. Since then compounding has carried us to £2.5m.
As you are probably aware, Katie and I were pretty frugal on our way to financial independence. Turn the heating on? No way, get another jumper. Eat lunch out? No way, I’ll make salads at home. Those frugal habits and our earning power helped us get to FI.
In 2020 we made an agreement that for every £500,000 milestone we hit, we would spend 1% of our net worth. We did this to stop us becoming the richest people in the graveyard and to help shift those old frugal habits.
These choices only exist because of years of effort and compounding doing its thing quietly in the background.
But what got you here will not get you there.
The tools that got us to financial independence are now, slightly ironically, stopping us from enjoying the freedom we worked so hard to create.
So…
What should we spend 1% of our net worth on?
Some of these are things just for us. Some are things that could make a difference beyond us.
Here are a few of the ideas we have been talking about:
- Funding a Rebel Business School in Colombia to help 100 disadvantaged people start businesses without debt
- Sponsoring a Rebel Finance School cohort somewhere new, paying to start the project in a country that really needs it.
- A £25k Freedom Weekend where we partner with a community organisation, fly people in for a two day immersive Rebel Finance School experience and follow their journeys for a year
- A “We Paid Off Your Debt” tour where we relieve small debts for people who really need the financial support and pair it with financial education and a 12 month follow up
- A Castle Retreat for Rebels to come together for a life design weekend in an Eastern European castle
- A Rebel University Weekend as a free alternative to formal education, with us / volunteers teaching practical life skills
- A Pop‑Up Advice Booth in shopping centres / Waterloo Station showing how broken traditional financial advice can be by contrast
- A Global Rebel Day where thousands of people take one financial action together on the same day
- Training 100 volunteer teachers to deliver Rebel Finance School locally in their communities.
- Following 10 people for a year and documenting their real life financial journeys to break the taboos around money
- A Rebel Documentary telling the stories behind financial independence and create something to spread the message of good personal finances.
- Letting the audience choose an experiment for us to fund next
And maybe something that’s just for us too. Like a once in a lifetime adventure or taking our friends on a shared experience together.
You earn money by putting your time, effort and creativity into the world and it stores that energy until you choose how to use it. Over time, investing allows that energy to grow beyond what you put in yourself.
You can then direct that stored energy towards amazing things.
- For yourself
- For your family
- For others
Imagine your future self deciding whether to use that stored energy to help your family, support your community or simply take time together without worrying about your personal finances.
Money is an incredible tool.
Everything we teach at Rebel Finance School is about helping you have more of that tool in your life so you can do more good with it when the time comes.
You can look after yourselves and when compounding creates abundance for you, you can look after your family or others too.
The truth is, those kinds of choices are built slowly over time.
The version of you who gets to make these kinds of choices one day is built by the small decisions you make this week.
- That missing pension you work to track down.
- The ideas you come up with to increase the gap between what you earn and what you spend.
- The review of your existing workplace pensions to get your money working for you.
- The tenner you save not buying take away that you invest instead.
The extraordinary is rooted in the mundane.
And it’s also why…
You do not have to wait until you are financially independent to create joy in your life.
If money is tight right now, what could you do this weekend with the people you love that would still feel like an adventure?
- A walk somewhere new with a flask of tea.
- A shared meal where everyone brings one ingredient.
- A picnic on the living room floor.
- A board game night that gets competitive far too quickly.
- A sunset walk with someone you have not spoken to properly in ages.
Embrace the Work That Creates the Magic
Nothing happens unless you make it happen.
Make your life easier, organise your environment, so you can do the work now that gives you options later.
If you want a stronger relationship, better health, peace of mind, financial security or a home you love, you have to do the work. That might mean spending time with the people you love, working on your finances, improving your environment, going to the gym or having difficult conversations.
Money is simply one tool that can make some of that work easier over time.
It stores the energy of your effort until you decide how to use it. You can use that stored energy to create experiences, to buy time, to support the people you care about or to make a difference in the world beyond yourself.
But first, you have to create it.
Simplify your life so that you have the time and energy to do what matters.
Embrace the work that creates the magic.
What kind of magic would you create if money became a tool rather than a worry?
And if you were in our position…
What would you tell us to do with the energy that we have earned, saved, invested and watched compound over time? If you were us, how would you spend the £25k?
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Out of all the options suggested, option 9 looks the best one, as it reaches the furthest IMO
Thanks Tom, it would create a wave of progress. Interesting. So open up a how to run Rebel Finance School content and train people to train others in the content. A sort of train the trainer or spread the word…. Thanks for commenting. Alan
Thank you Donegans for all you do, I always check your posts when the market takes a downturn, your words reassure and bring light to dark days. Your blog is considered, thoughtful, honest and hopeful and beautifully written. Looking forward to RFS 2026, blessings to you both 🙏
Sharon, you are amazing. Thank you. We had fun writing this one and it is nice to be able to write a mix of articles about the different stages of the market. Just working on RFS 2026 now and updating it to be the best it possible can! Sending love and happiness. Alan
Echoing what Sharon has posted – thank you for your hard work, reassurance and inspiring sensible approach to life and its up and downs.
Best wishes and pineapples to you both.
Fiona what a lovely message. THANKS for commenting and replying. it means a LOT! sending you happiness. Alan