I was made redundant back in 2009 from my financial analyst job at a media firm in London.

The credit crisis (as it was known at the time) was hitting advertising hard, so our team was halved.

I was pretty happy about it as I was already planning to leave, and took the £9,000 or so to South America to see how long it would last until it ran out – which was seven months (and was chuffin amazing).

I was 28 years old, with no dependents, and a decent five figure amount sat in a high interest savings account (6%+, remember those days). I didn’t touch a penny of the capital, although I did spend the interest.

If you’ve never been made redundant before then it’s hard to imagine you’ll ever be taken into that room by HR and told you have a few months (tops) to get yourself another job.

This memory came back into my mind today as I read an article on the BBC website about four people who have had very different redundancy experiences so lucky for you dear readers, I’m going to provide you with a redundancy checklist in case you haven’t prepared for yours yet.

Feel free to email back to let me know if I missed anything.

GI checklist to ensure minimal redundancy pain:

1. Create other streams of income (such that losing your salaried income has less of an immediate impact).

2. Look at taking out an income protection policy (although I think they tend to cover you for serious illness, not simply being made redundant).

3. Create a cash savings pot of at least three months worth of total outgoings, so including food, petrol etc, not just your bills.

4. Be your own boss, and don’t make yourself redundant.

Practicing what I preach as I almost always do (plus having experienced a redundancy in the past)…

My ticking off of said checklist:

1. My family have seven streams of income.

2. We have one of these, but it does only cover me for serious illness/injury (and it covers all of our bills plus about 60% of our other costs per month).

3. Ours is currently around three months, but I tend to push it to nearer six when I can.

4. Check, and check.

You may be in a job you really like, and becoming a full time investor or business owner might not be your goal in life.

But regardless, you should be doing these four things.

And if you’re not, feel free to go away and work out how long it is before you’re maxing out credit cards just to get by each month, only able to pay the minimum off until you’ve landed that new job that’s surely just around the corner.

In my opinion, anyone who isn’t preparing themselves (especially if they have a family) for a redundancy is really naïve.

I can’t (nor want to) provide personal advice, but subscribers do get to ask me any questions they want about a previous guide. Such as happened this week, when a subscriber asked for some advice about bolting another company on to his existing one.

The knowledge I gained in the risk and finance departments of financial services (and media) companies in the corporate world has proved to be a fantastic foundation for my Guerrilla Investors work.

Subscribers leverage this.

The referral scheme is still open to applications (subscribers only), but the first step will be to subscribe of course.

Thus potentially checking off points 1 and 3 in my checklist in the very near future.

The button is here:

www.guerrillainvestors.com/subscribers

All the best,

Stephen Wallis

Copyrighted and published by FOAR Ltd

The benefits of becoming a Guerrilla Investors subscriber start with the monthly guides.

These get sent out on the first of the month to all subscribers, are typically twelve to sixteen pages long, are full of what to do (less what something is), and have clear and actionable next steps for all readers.

So in themselves, these are worth the £79 per month (especially as my aim is that action takers can get ten times that in terms of value and returns).

But the most valuable aspect of being a subscriber actually comes from the two free benefits.

The first one is that you can email me about anything you read in the guides and I will personally reply to you, usually very quickly.

I won’t hand it over to a virtual assistant, or fob you off saying you can find everything you need to know in the guide, as often people will have some very specific questions.

I can’t provide personal advice, and nor would I want to (seeing as I keep telling you to sack your adviser),

But I will do my best to answer any questions, and if I can’t then I will almost always be able to point you to someone who can.

So this is benefit number one.

Number two is the one I don’t talk about very much, because it should be seen as an unexpected surprise as and when it ever happens.

In some cases I can earn marketing fees.

It’s not always the case, and it will depend on what the topic is as well as what the regulators’ view is on that particular investment area (and a few other things).

At no time will I look to push you into doing anything, remember my aim is education, not inducement.

But just as Nationwide will give you £100 if a friend or family member switches to them (most banks now do this),

And energy supplier Bulb will give you £50 if you refer a friend,

And Tide Business Banking will give you £25,

Etc etc etc.

Some of the people I speak to offer similar referral schemes.

So how does this benefit subscribers?

Well, if you can self-certify as a High Net Worth Individual or a Sophisticated Investor, and you’re a subscriber, and I can earn a marketing fee – well it seems only fair that I give a proportion of this to you.

At no point will I tell you the details about it, until the time when I get in touch to say I’m sending you a GI Cashback.

It’s my way of saying good on you action taker!

If you can’t self-certify then in some cases I can still provide this incentive, it’s just less likely and only for specific things.

Anywho, details about subscribing can be found on the homepage, if you’re so inclined:

www.guerrillainvestors.com

All the best,

Stephen Wallis

Copyrighted and published by FOAR Ltd

Breaking news!

Something happened, then something else sort of happened, follow by something else!

I chuffin hate breaking news alerts on my phone, they’re so distracting.

The one last night was after this vote about the Brexit plan.

I believe there was then a no confidence vote, and something else will have happen today.

I find it all a bit tedious and boring.

Until there is something that actually requires me to do something different to what I was going to do the following day, I will ignore these alerts.

Today, as with every Wednesday, I spent the morning with my three-year-old son.

We played trains after breakfast, followed by trains at the train station café in our town, followed by a train game he invented at the library.

I didn’t feel the need to panic and change those plans, however important the BBC felt this news was last night.
Having said that, I have a background in risk and analysis.

So I’ve been actively seeking out, and acting on, alternative investments which are Brexit proof.

It’s why I wrote about litigation funding for January’s report.

It’s why the previous one was about sports betting.

And it’s why I will be travelling to Panama early next month.

Panama doesn’t care what happens to Brexit

Nor do sports teams

And nor do legal cases.

Brexit, or whatever happens, might however affect your job or investments directly.

If you want to minimise or eradicate the impact, you might want to become a Guerrilla Investors subscriber or small group member.

Not breaking news!

You’ll see this link almost every day:

Subscribers

All the best,

Stephen Wallis

Copyrighted and published by FOAR Ltd

Stick with me, this isn’t quite as bad as it sounds.

And it isn’t my recommendation to invest in 10-year government bonds.

Christmas is great especially the quality time with the kids.

However, post new year it creates a problem of how to entertain the kids before they start back at school and nursery.

This Wednesday just gone, we decided to try out the Winter Wonderland on the outskirts of York.

My almost six-year-old daughter had been going on about ice skating (I knew I shouldn’t have let them watch Frozen again), so we decided to give it a try.

Considering the fairly princely sum of £34 for two adults and two kids to attempt something for either the first time in twenty years or the first time ever, it wasn’t the best idea.

My son burst into tears after his first small slip, and didn’t return.

My wife and daughter did one lap holding onto the edge of the rink and a penguin – not a real one.

I thought I would go all Charlie Big Bananas (or whatever Eskimos eat) and just believe that I could remember what to do.

I made Bambi look like Christopher Dean, falling hard and needing some help and tips from the steward person before I even made it halfway round.

As I came back in (to complete my money’s worth) I then took out a 10-year-old girl in what felt like slow motion.

I may have even let out an “Ohhh noooooooo”

She apologised as much as me, although all she did was stray into the racing line of an out of control lunatic.

The moral of the story: don’t expect to be able to do something easily if you haven’t been practicing over the past 20 years.

My ice skating skills are truly atrocious, my risk analysis and personal finance skills on the other hand are pretty good after years of purposeful practice.

The RoI with our own investments and my decent success climbing the corporate ladder are the proof.

If you don’t fancy spending the next 20 years honing your alternative investment skills, head on over here:

Subscribers

All the best,

Stephen Wallis

Copyrighted and published by FOAR Ltd