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Are you doing the basics, or searching for the magic pill?
Most people want the shortcut. The pill, the app, the “one weird trick” to get fit, rich, or happy. I used to be one of them. I spent years avoiding doing the basics and looking for that silver bullet!
My old friend Nikki, a fitness coach, would roll her eyes at people looking for the latest exercise fad. “Just do the basics – squat your way to health” she’d say. “Forget the fancy stuff, are you doing the basics well?”
It’s exactly the same in personal finance. At Rebel Finance School, we see it every year. People want to skip straight to investing, the “sexy” stuff. “What do you mean I have to track my spending? Can’t I just have the silver bullet?” Sorry! There are no silver bullets here. Just the basics, done really, really well.
Katie and I like to repeat to each other “This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, it is a get rich slow plan!” If you do the basics well over time you virtually guarantee success.
The Basics That Actually Work
Doing the basics isn’t glamorous. No one’s going to give you a medal for cancelling Disney+, Amazon Prime or tracking your spending. But these are the habits that lead to spectacular results.
- Track your spending and net worth. Know your numbers. If you don’t know where your money’s going, how can you make it work for you?
- Track the gap. How much did you earn? How much did you spend? Is there a gap? Good! Now invest that gap and let compounding do its thing.
- Pay off debt before investing. Don’t build your financial castle on a swamp. If you have debt over 6% interest, work to get rid of it!
- Automate your investments. Set it and forget it—simple global index funds, invest automatically every month in tax advantaged accounts.
- Review and cancel unnecessary subscriptions. (Yes, even Disney+ if you’re not using it. Sorry, Mickey.)
The Power of Autopilot
Katie and I used to believe you couldn’t focus on every area at once. But here’s what we learned: focus on one area, improve it, and then set it on autopilot.
Health? Read, learn, set up habits, and make it part of your identity. Once it’s automatic, move on to the next life area to improve .
We did this with our finances. We studied, gamified it, and put every penny into investments automatically. We’d walk around Basingstoke for hours after dinner each night, planning, chatting about tax and organising.
We tracked our spending, increased our income, created a gap and put it all into index funds in tax advantaged accounts.
Once our money was working for us, compounding took over whether we liked it or not. We had automated finances and we went back to living our lives, building Lego models, eating pizza and doing jigsaws and left it to work in the back ground.
We set up the systems so well that in six years since retirement our net worth has grown from £1M to £2.5M, without obsessing over it. That’s the magic of doing the basics well.
But Tracking Spending Isn’t Basic!
I was talking about this with a close friend and they said to me “this doesn’t feel very basic!”
By calling it “basic,” I’m not saying it’s easy or effortless. I’m saying it’s fundamental, the foundation everything else is built on.
Squats aren’t easy but they build muscle, increase fitness and keep you able to stand up from comfy chairs when you are older!
Think about this: if you walked into work and asked the CFO, “How much money did the company spend this month?” and they shrugged and said, “I don’t know… probably about £XXX,” you’d fire them immediately. Not knowing where the money goes in a company is a cardinal sin.
Yet in our personal lives, it’s somehow acceptable, even a badge of honour to say, “I just don’t know where the money goes.” That’s madness! If you don’t know where your money is going, you’re flying blind.
Yes, tracking takes time, energy, and effort. But is a bright financial future not worth that effort? Or are you happy careering towards a retirement where you have no idea if you’ll be in poverty? Do the basics. They’re not glamorous, but they’re life-changing.
Mindset: Who Are You Becoming?
Most people focus on what scares them. They fill their heads with doomscrolling, negative media, and fear. Your intellectual diet is just as important as your food diet.
And remember: you become the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. Choose wisely.
Health, Business, and Joy
- Sleep: It’s always at the core of any struggle. Track it, protect it, make it non-negotiable.
- Diet and exercise: Real food, daily movement, and muscle-building. No one wants to do it, but it’s critical.
- Business: Stop procrastinating and do the basics—sales calls, emails, building your list. No sales, no business.
- Joy: Make time for hugs, fun, and adventures. (We’re currently watching all the Harry Potter movies before Katie’s birthday trip to NYC for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Priorities!)
The Checklist: Are You Doing the Basics?
Final Thought
Stop searching for the silver bullet. Pay your dues. Do the basics, really, really well. That’s where the magic happens.
I don’t care what age you are or what life stage you are at, if you aren’t doing the basics well you are storing up problems for the future!
Ready to take action?
Go through the checklist above and let us know what you are and aren’t doing…
Your future self will thank you.
Peace and Pineapples
Katie and Alan
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I might be slightly different to most insomuch that I’ve always had an interest in personal finance and I’ve been tracking my spending, I&E gap and net worth for the past 15 years. At first it was tiresome and a chore but the longer I recorded these the more I became interested in the analysis I could undertake and finally the effort of that recording began to pay off. Nowadays it’s very little effort and it has become almost enjoyable.
I strongly recommend people start the course from the very beginning and not jump into what they perceive as the ‘sexy stuff’ from Week 6. The first few weeks give you the essential foundations needed to become confident in one’s personal finances.
Martin, what an awesome comment. Katie and I have found that the monthly finance meeting is one of our favourite things of the month and we have just past 10 years of doing it. The data is amazing, Katie creates charts and we LOVE chatting about it all. Thank you for commenting. I love reading your comments…. Alan
Many thanks Alan and Katie for showing your gtrowth mindset, I could not agree more with it. Happy New Year 2026