The Full Philosophy
The 33 Philosophies.
The complete version. Every belief about money I've earned over 13 years, organized into five layers. If the 13 Nomad Principles are the headline, this is the whole story.
The 13 Nomad Principles are the tight, memorable version of how I think about money. They're the ones I'd want you to remember if you only had ten minutes.
This is the long version. The 33 beliefs underneath the principles, grouped into five layers: the investing doctrine, the behavioral doctrine, the Canadian systems, money as a tool for living, and the meta layer that sits above it all.
You don't need to memorize these. But if you ever want to understand the full picture of what I believe and why I coach the way I do, it's all here.
Layer
The Investing Doctrine
The non-negotiables. These show up in almost everything I write.
Don't try to beat the market.
95% of professional fund managers underperform a simple index over 10+ years. They have billion-dollar research budgets and full-time teams. You and I won't beat what they can't. Trying is a fool's game.
Own the casino, don't play it.
Picking individual stocks is gambling. Owning a low-cost index fund is owning a piece of the whole casino, so you get a slice of every winner without guessing which one it'll be.
Index funds are self-cleansing.
Bad companies fall off the index and winners replace them automatically. You never have to worry about your fund going to zero, which is exactly why you can hold it for decades without babysitting.
Asset allocation is 90% of your results.
How you split between stocks, bonds, and cash matters far more than which specific funds you pick. Most people obsess over the wrong thing.
Dollar-cost average, every paycheck.
Invest a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, regardless of the news. It removes timing decisions and emotional buying. Some paychecks buy high, some buy low, and over decades you get the market's average return.
Fees are the silent wealth killer.
You feel a price tag but you don't feel a fee. A 1% MER instead of a 0.2% one can quietly cost you over $200,000 across a career. The banks count on you not noticing.
Automate everything.
Build the system once and let it run. The money moves and invests itself every paycheck. Willpower is finite. A recurring transfer never gets tired or scared.
Layer
The Behavioral Doctrine
Investing is a psychology problem disguised as a math problem.
Optimize for sleep, not returns.
The best portfolio is the one you don't think about. I simplified mine to reclaim my mental space, and it performed better anyway. When you stop tinkering, you stop making the emotional mistakes that cost the most.
Boring wins.
Even with a finance degree, my clever niche bets lost while my boring index fund won. The exciting strategy is usually the expensive one.
Be fearful when others are greedy.
When the market feels euphoric, ease off and divert extra cash to your emergency fund or debt. When it feels terrified, that's when you go more aggressive. Do the opposite of the crowd.
Don't sell, don't go all-in.
The two biggest mistakes. Holding through fear is where wealth is built. Going all-in on the next hot thing during greed is where it's destroyed.
Keep 10% for fun.
Telling someone to never buy a hot stock is like telling them to never eat dessert. It doesn't last. Keep 90% boring and let 10% be fun money. You scratch the itch, and even if it goes to zero, your future is untouched.
Behavior beats math.
The information is free. If knowledge were the problem, everyone would be rich. The gap between knowing and doing is where money is actually won or lost, and it's a behavior problem, not a math one.
Layer
The Canadian Systems
The practical, Canada-specific frameworks I actually use.
Follow the order of operations.
High-interest debt, then a $1,000 starter emergency fund, then employer RRSP match, then FHSA, then TFSA, then RRSP, then a full emergency fund, then a brokerage account. Each dollar goes to the highest-priority bucket first.
TFSA before RRSP, for most young earners.
At a lower tax bracket the RRSP deduction isn't worth much, and your income will probably grow. Save your RRSP room for the higher-earning years when the deduction is worth more.
The employer match always wins.
If your company matches your RRSP, that's an instant 50-100% return. Nothing else comes close. Capture the full match before anything else, even before paying down most debt.
Use the 120-minus-your-age rule.
Subtract your age from 120 to get your stock percentage. The rest goes to bonds or a bond-equivalent. I personally use gold instead of bonds, the Tamil in me, generations of treating it as a store of value.
Pay yourself first.
Save before you spend, not what's left at the end of the month, which is usually nothing. The moment you get paid, a fixed amount moves to savings and investments, and you live on the rest.
Time in the market beats timing the market.
Nobody can reliably predict the market, including the pros. Start early, stay invested, and let compound interest do the work. Time is the input that matters more than money.
Layer
Money Is a Tool
The part that makes me a coach and not a calculator.
The point isn't more. It's enough.
Past a certain point, more money stops making you happier. The goal isn't a bigger number. It's defining what enough looks like for you and then actually living the life the money was supposed to fund.
Money buys options, not status.
Nobody admires the driver, they admire the car. Buying to impress backfires because people don't notice you, they notice the thing. The real luxury is options: the freedom to say no, switch careers, or take a year off.
Beware the hedonic treadmill.
Every lifestyle upgrade feels amazing briefly, then normalizes, and you're chasing the next one. The way off isn't a bigger purchase. It's mindfulness and gratitude for what you already have.
Avoid lifestyle creep.
When every raise gets absorbed into a nicer car and a bigger apartment, you can earn six figures and save nothing. Keeping up with the Joneses is the silent wealth killer of high earners.
Spend on experiences and health.
Research is clear: experiences make us happier than stuff, and your health compounds like an investment. A trip, a gym membership, a better mattress. These are the purchases worth making.
Train your spending muscle.
If you're a natural saver, spending can feel like failure. The $100 Spending Challenge fixes that: deliberately spend on something that brings you joy. Learn to enjoy money now, so you're not a stranger to it in retirement.
Spend on purpose, without guilt.
Set up sinking funds, separate accounts for travel and the things that matter, and fund them automatically. When the money was always meant for that trip, you spend it guilt-free, because you already decided months ago.
The 1% Giving Rule.
Give 1% of your take-home now, while you're not rich. Generosity is a habit, not an income level. Build the muscle early so when you do have more, giving more is automatic instead of an afterthought.
Layer
The Meta Layer
The beliefs that sit above everything else.
What gets measured gets improved.
Tracking your net worth once a month, even 15 minutes, is the easiest financial habit to build and the most powerful over time. Like weighing yourself, the act of looking is what keeps you honest.
Your finances are personal.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer, and most money anxiety comes from comparing yourself to others. Your income, goals, and timeline are yours. Run your own race.
Financial literacy beats a high income.
78% of NFL players go bankrupt within five years of retiring. Income without literacy always fails eventually. Knowing how to manage money matters more than how much you make.
Slow and steady wins.
The tortoise beats the hare. Get-rich-quick is usually get-poor-quick. Boring consistency over decades beats heroic effort every time.
Education is the most underrated investment.
A new skill, a course, a book. Investing in your own ability to earn and think has a higher return than almost any stock. You are your own best asset.
True wealth is not financial success.
Relationships, purpose, health, and gratitude are what actually make a life rich. Money can't buy them, and a big portfolio with none of them is just a number. Build the wealth that money can't measure too.
That's the whole picture
Knowing the philosophy is the easy part.
Living it is where the coaching comes in. If you want a system that runs these in your real life, that's what the program is for.