I am an award-winning novelist and honorary professor with over 25 years’ experience coaching people through big projects. I understand the stories people tell about themselves and their motivations and I know how hard it can be to change behaviours. I also believe there is a fix for anything and that it is possible to live your dream - especially if you have a dream that aligns with your soul and your deep sense of meaning.

I was a writer for a long time before I made any real life-changing money. When I did finally make some real life-changing money, I didn't know what to do with it. In fact, I did a lot of very stupid things with it, some of which are listed in my posts. Then I learned how to be different, and I'm here to share what I learned with you so I can help you be different too.

Being different means choosing how to spend your time rather than having this dictated by people more powerful than you. It means being able to rely on yourself. It means having the resources you need to live in the way you choose.

I spend most of my time writing, but I am also a finance coach - this is where I get to connect with real people and make a difference in the world. I charge for my coaching but I do keep a couple of spots open for people in dire financial difficulties, who literally can’t pay. I also give free talks in my local community. Much of the content on this website is free - I have stuck a few things behind a paywall because I don't want to give scammers and bots too much info about my financial life. If you subscribe you will get access to everything - I’m constantly updating the site and writing new blogs about how you can take control of your finances and live your dream as soon as possible.

My finance coaching is for normal people. By normal, I mean people who are in a bit of a muddle with money, who are probably in debt in some form. People who don’t know what an ISA really is, and haven’t the foggiest idea about compounding. Or maybe you do know some of this stuff, but you have no idea how to create a capsule wardrobe so you can stop buying clothes you don’t wear, or reduce your spending on food or travel.

If you are already rich and want to get richer, you may find something in my blogs to give you an edge. But you probably don’t need my coaching. However, if you want to work out how you can afford a house in the next five years, control your spending, get out of debt, change jobs, get some of your time back, declutter, create a simple personal style or just figure out how to have brunch, guilt-free, with your best friend every week - I can help.

I am an expert in showing people how to make a plan, set goals, change behaviour and - most importantly - make it all fun. Working in publishing and TV has meant I have had to learn how to make things bite-size and accessible. Working as a university professor has meant that I know how to get people motivated to succeed - often beyond their dreams.

After years of struggling to make a living as a writer, I somehow paid off my debts and started saving. I now own my own house in a beautiful cathedral city where I wake up each morning and thank God for the glorious view and the blessings that mean that this is my life now. I still have no debt. I have a year’s salary saved up and more coming in via book and TV contracts. This September I am leaving my long-term university job to free up more time for writing and coaching. I am saving to be completely financially free, so I can keep doing exactly what I want every day. This means mostly writing - from which I obviously earn a substantial amount of money. But finance is my other love - I read books on finance for fun, and get all my news from The Economist.

My journey began rather differently. I don’t come from a rich family - in fact, two generations ago my maternal ancestors were in a workhouse in London. But a quirk of family dynamics meant I discovered I had a rich-ish father, and through him I got to see something of the good life when I was a kid. I was sent to a girls’ boarding school when I was 14 as a sort of punishment. Everyone there owned a ball-gown except me. My father went bankrupt in the 1980s and the rest of my family are not rich so from age 15 I have worked. My very first job was in Dixie Fried Chicken in Chelmsford. I've done everything, from catering to working in a care home when I was a student in the 1990s. I've always had to hustle - for a lot of my early writing life this meant taking risks with debt that didn't always work. Now I am completely anti-debt.

I have made almost every financial mistake there is. But somehow I went from financial fuck-up to where I am now. I run a 33-item capsule wardrobe, eat a keto diet from a 50-item shopping list and pay off my Amex British Airways credit card every month. I don’t approve of a lot of air travel, but when I do need to do it, I want it to be cheap or free.

I am unashamedly a bit of a nerd. I actively enjoy making spreadsheets. I love feelings, and art, and joyful stuff. I love irrational things like great tragedies, opera, fine wine and expensive perfume. But I also have learned to value facts over emotions and to think slow, not fast. Saving and being frugal with money might sound ‘boring’ in our glitzy capitalist have-it-now world, but it can set you free so you can live your wildest and most beautiful dreams.

My paternal grandmother was an economist, advising governments around the world, and I've always been intrigued by money, this strange abstract mathematical concept that secretly controls everything. One of my early novels, PopCo, was about an anti-capitalist movement; The End of Mr. Y was about a student living in poverty and grappling with the true nature of the material universe. Many of my novels have finance or mathematics in them. While I am in no way a mathematician, my work has been cherished and admired by mathematicians who can see that I love the same thing they do: the beauty of numbers.

Disclaimer: I am not a registered financial advisor. I can't tell you what decisions you should make with your pension or investments. However I can teach you the skills you need to empower yourself, save more money than you thought possible and start working towards financial freedom - whatever that means for you.

Please note: I will never ask you for your passwords, nor will I ever have access to any of your bank accounts, credit cards or investments. If anyone ever recommends an investment platform to you, check carefully that it is real.