The Tour That Changed Everything

What happens when you take a couple of financial rebels, a suitcase full of pineapple cash, and a mission to meet the most inspiring community in the UK and Ireland?

You get the Rebel Finance School Financial Freedom Tour—a whirlwind of hugs, awkward sing-alongs, heartfelt stories, and the more than occasional M&S meal deal.

Over the past few months, we (Alan & Katie) hit the road to bring the Rebel Finance School to life. From London to Belfast, Cardiff to Edinburgh, we met thousands of incredible humans who are rewriting their financial stories, one saving, one investment, one pension move at a time. And wow… it was emotional, hilarious, and completely unforgettable.

Read on for the pictures of every event, highlights and what we learned!

🎤 Rebel Finance School on the Road

Katie and I had planned to do a short presentation and then get everyone chatting amongst themselves. What started as a “short” presentation ended up being a 45 minute opening act!

We packed our presentation with the history of Rebel Finance School, current market updates and a few surprises. We talked about:

• Where it all began: the story behind RFS and why we started it. From creating it in lockdown 2020, 135 people turning up to the first one, to how it’s evolved over the years!
• The Trump Dump and the Rebound: at the start of the tour in early April, the stock market volatility had people panicking but by the time we finished in early June it had pretty much bounced back again!
• The Rebelutionaries’ music album: yes, we made a financial education album. And yes, we played it live. (Eventually. After a lot of awkward fumbling with the speaker.)
• Our mission: free education and inspiration to help people take control of their money, ditch the debt, and build a life they love.

At first, we were nervous. Playing music at a finance talk? Unconventional at best! But as the tour went on, our confidence grew. We found our rhythm (literally), and by the end, we were having an absolute blast teaching the chorus and singing along to Create a Gap with you all!

Would you be interested in a video of the history of Rebel Finance School? Let us know in the comments below if that is something you would enjoy!

💥 Moments That Moved Us

We set out to share knowledge—but what we got in return were stories, surprises, and soul-moving moments that reminded us why this community is magic.

Like the 14-year-old who came up to us after a talk and asked for our best life advice… written on pineapple cash. (We hope he still has it. It might be worth millions one day. Or at least a fiver on eBay.)

Pineapple cash you might be asking?

When we were planning the tour we also organised a party to celebrate receiving British Empire Medals for services to Financial Education from the King (still feels weird typing this!). I was thinking of fun things we could do for the party.

The idea struck me:

What if every time someone opened their purse or wallet to spend money they saw some pineapples cash and thought maybe I will invest instead?

I loved the idea so much that Katie and I got some cash designed by Personalised Fun Money. We printed enough for one note for every person on the tour. I printed £350,000 worth of cash feeling quite like the Bank of England quantative easing!

We had so much fun with the cash including this photoshoot on the day we received the medals at the Tower of London.

One person actually asked us to sign their pineapple cash—because, you know, “it’ll be worth more on eBay when you’re famous.” We’re not saying we’re The Taylor Swift of taking down wealth managers, but we’re also not not saying it.

The central London event was absolutely mental—300 people packed into a room, buzzing with energy, questions, and energy. It felt like a financial rock concert (minus the crowd surfing… maybe next time?). This was a huge highlight for Katie and I but I did feel bad that I couldn’t say hi to everyone personally.

We met legends like John Buston, we reunited with Ricky who inspired the Greggs story in week 1 of the Rebel Finance School course and we caught up with people from the very first course in 2020!

Martin and Lisa

We have to give a massive shoutout to Martin and Lisa, two absolute legends who came to every single meetup on the tour. That’s right—every. single. one. All 29! They were the Rebel Roadies, The Entourage, The Support Team showing up with smiles, stories, and the kind of energy that made every event feel like a family reunion.

We didn’t actually believe them when they first said they were coming to everything. But by the time we got to Inverness, we realised… they really meant it.

Pete from Southampton lent us a blow-up pineapple and Martin took it upon himself to inflate it for every single event afterwards—because what’s a Rebel meetup without a giant inflatable fruit?

Their presence lifted the room every time—they brought warmth, wisdom, and a reminder of why this community is so special. We laughed about me calling massive meals “snacks”, shared lots of jokes, as we travelled on one big Rebel road trip together.

St James’s Place Story

Mark and Karen came to 5 meetups and Mark bravely shared his experience with St. James’s Place. Standing up in front of a room full of people, he told his story—not to vent, but to help. He said it was cathartic, and that by sharing what he went through, he hoped to save others from making the same mistakes. This is his St James Place story. Please share with anyone who has an SJP account! Let’s save people from wealth managers!

There was Danny, who told us she’d 2.3x’d her net worth since doing the course. Dee, who shared her journey from debt to her first £100k (and yes, she considered OnlyFans along the way—because Rebels get creative when it comes to cash flow).

We took selfies with people all over the country, felt the pride in every hug, and yes—we stopped at nearly every M&S service station for a meal deal. (We’re not sponsored. But we should be.)

We were blown away by Ninja Derek and his wife Seebee showing up in both Dublin and Belfast as they are from Aberdeen! And meeting Colin Ninja in Belfast? Pure joy. These were people we’d only ever seen in Zoom squares—and suddenly, they were real, huggable, and full of stories.

And Cardiff? The Welsh sang the “Create a Gap” better than anyone!

One last personal one from me, Alan, was seeing Katie’s confidence grow. You wouldn’t believe it but the first Rebel Finance School in 2020 she was so nervous. We had a melt down before the first week, full of doubt and fear of doing a good job for people. She cares so much.

The transformation is remarkable in 5 short years. On the tour she stood in front of audiences, telling jokes, laughing, singing, dancing and having an epic time. Seeing Katie increase in confidence makes me feel emotional as I type these words. She doesn’t realise how awesome she is!

There were more highlights, memories and stories than we can share in one blog post!

At the end of the post are photos of every single meetup!

Tour manager Lindsay

When we first announced the tour and what we were planning we had numerous messages of “that’s an INTENSE/insane schedule”.

With no prompting from us, one wonderful woman Lindsay stepped forward to help. She spent countless hours helping us find venues across the country, answering people’s questions about the tour and supporting you at the events she was able to attend in person.

This tour would not have happened without you. Thank you.

Exciting news! Lindsay is on the lookout for her next career adventure. Find and connect with her on LinkedIn here.

We salute you Lindsay!

Local support

We also had many tens if not hundreds of people helping us figure out where on earth we were going to meet for the 29 locations around the UK and Ireland. There’s too many people to mention here. You know how you are and we are extremely grateful! THANK YOU. The tour was a real community effort…

🌱 The Power of Community

There’s something magical about meeting people who’ve been on the same journey—people who’ve faced the same fears, asked the same questions, and decided to take control anyway.

Seeing the faces we’d only known through screens light up in real life was everything. The energy in those rooms was electric. It reminded us why we do this.

At the start of the tour, we were both nervous—really nervous. Singing and dancing in front of a live audience? It felt super awkward. Alan’s Britishness kicked in hard, and he seriously considered ditching the music altogether. The idea of pressing play on our own songs and trying to get a room full of people to vibe with us? Terrifying.

But then… we leaned in.

We figured out how to play the music without it being too weird (small wins!), and with each event, we found a little more confidence, a little more rhythm, and a whole lot more joy. We stopped worrying about how we looked and started having fun—with each other and with all of you.

By the time we hit Cardiff, we were laughing, singing, and even leading full-on singalongs to the chorus of Create a Gap. It became one of the most joyful parts of the tour.

And through it all, we were reminded: this isn’t just a course. It’s a movement. A community. A rebellion against bad financial advice and blindly accepting the default – whether that’s the default fund or the default life plan.

🚀 Join the Movement

If you’ve ever felt like you’re the only one trying to figure this money stuff out—you’re not. There’s a whole community of Rebels out there, cheering you on.

Come to a meetup. Join the course. Find your people. Whether you’re just starting, deep in debt or you’ve already fired your wealth manager and are on your way to Financial Freedom, there’s a place for you here.

We had a WhatsApp community that we used to find the venues around the country and at the first meetups, people asked us to turn that into a local meetup group. So we did.

Now there is a thriving WhatsApp community in every town and area we went to and some that we didn’t! If you are interested in other Rebel Meetups then you can join the community here.

This is an experiment and we will see how it goes. There is no perfect platform for organising this stuff. Not everyone uses Facebook, being in a WhatsApp can bring an overwhelming number of notifications and sometimes you can have one too many apps to monitor! We are giving it a go and seeing if we can bring together the community around the country and eventually the world!

Warning
We can not police and monitor every single WhatsApp group and channel so there will inevitably be some scammers that sneak in. NEVER get involved in an investment or anything else from the WhatsApp group or Facebook group. Stay safe out there!

🥦 The Health Rollercoaster

Before the tour kicked off, we were feeling great. We’d just spent three months in Mexico—eating fresh, home-cooked meals, running on the beach, hitting the gym, and generally living our healthiest lives. I was building muscle, feeling strong, and even reading about how we humans lose up to 3–8% of our muscle mass per decade after age 30. I was determined not to be part of that stat.

Then… the tour happened.

We started strong—still hitting hotel gyms, still trying to eat well. But as the tour dates ramped up and the Rebel Finance School prep took over, health slowly slid down the priority list. We didn’t choose to let it go—it just kind of… slipped. Like I did in Birmingham. Literally. (Rain + pavement = pulled quad)

We were living out of suitcases, bouncing from city to city, and yes—eating a lot of M&S meal deals. Let’s be honest: it’s harder to eat healthily on the road. But I could’ve made better choices. More salads. Fewer chocolate bars. This one’s on me.

By the end of the tour, I’d hit 100 kilos. I felt unfit, tired, and a bit disconnected from the version of me that left Mexico. The cost of the tour to our health has been real—and now, it’s time to restore.

We’re heading to Rio next, and we couldn’t be more excited. One bed. One place. Three months to reset, rebuild, and refocus on our health.

🏋️‍♂️ Health Goals for Rio:

• 🏃‍♂️ Run 5 times a week
• 🏋️‍♀️ Lift weights 4 times a week
• 🧑‍⚕️ Work with a physio to heal my injured leg and tennis elbow
• ⚖️ Reach 95 kilos
• 🔥 Drop to under 18% body fat

📈 Tour stats

A Donegan post wouldn’t be complete without some graphs and stats. Not if Katie has anything to do with it!

First off, Katie made you a Google map where she pinned all the locations we rested our heads in during the 2 months we were in the UK and Ireland (oh and a short hop over to Spain to attend the first ever European Camp FI event).

(Spoiler: it’s a lot.)

Zoom into the map to see exactly where we slept each night!

Then Katie got excited playing around in Tableau and wanted to show you an animated version. Yes, the tour felt as manic as this at times!

AND Katie has made you a race chart showing how many beds we slept in per country, because Katie LOVES charts and she doesn’t need any excuse to make them!

The chart shows the cumulative number of beds we slept in as the tour progressed, splitting out the UK into the individual countries that make it up!

❤️ From the Road With Love

To everyone who came to a meetup, shared a story, gave us a hug, or just listened quietly in the back—thank you. You made this tour unforgettable. We LOVE you!

And to the person who asked us to sign their pineapple cash: we hope it’s framed. Or at least laminated. If you do sell it on eBay I expect you to invest the proceeds into a broad based index fund like the Vanguard FTSE Developed World Ex UK or the FTSE Global All Cap!

See you at the next one. We’ll be the ones by the M&S, humming “Create a Gap” and grinning like lunatics.

Scowl down for all the tour pictures!

Speaking of love, Katie was so happy that her parents come to the West London event towards the end of the tour. Everyone knew who they were because they put their name labels as “Mum” and “Dad”. You can see where Katie got her sense of humour from!

🌍 What’s Next? You Tell Us…

This tour was just the beginning—and now, we want to hear from you. Where should we go next? What do you want us to do? Should we take the Rebel Finance School on the road in Europe? Australia? Canada? Mars?

We’re serious (about the first three). We want to keep building this incredible community, helping people take control of their finances, and—most importantly—hanging out with you. So write a comment blow, drop us a message, send us your wildest ideas, and let’s co-create the next chapter of this Rebel adventure together.

Meetup Pics

Here are the pics from every single meetup around the country! What an amazing time it was and THANK YOU all for coming to hang out with us

Sending love, peace and pineapples

Alan and Katie