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Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today’s episode a little different to usual recording on my phone
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and will be a solo episode. Now the reason for being here is a change of direction. All will be
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revealed through the episode as you listen through it. So reach out if you have any questions at any
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time but the last 12 months have been an absolute roller coaster and it’s it’s been a real challenge
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on a lot of levels now on the one hand uh just over a year ago net assets hit the best it ever
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been i was like oh my god killed it absolutely killed it and 14 months later they absolutely
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were not at the same level um when i have run some calculations at points it’s been
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over 60% drawdown in net wealth. It’s like, oh my God. And so all the decisions that one had made
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in terms of future spending, whether that be on a renovation or on a holiday or on where you might
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homeschool your kids, all of it comes into question. It’s like, whoa, what in the hell just
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happened? Now, the truth is I was heavily exposed to Bitcoin and that was brilliant on the way up,
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you know 5x your purchasing power but in hindsight uncrystallized gains now of course
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this is a complex subject and an ongoing debate you know the the price action of bitcoin the
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exchange rate for digital scarcity now is there a price you can put on that but the reality of
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navigating one’s conviction in bitcoin and the concept of sound money and the ability to separate
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government from state, to separate money from state, and the importance of that, the importance
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of sovereignty, the importance of protecting yourself from monetary inflation or time theft,
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it’s obviously, it’s crucial, right? This is a huge subject. But when you are a husband with a wife
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and young kids and commitments, it’s actually, it’s a complex thing. And what transpired is
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I was overexposed and vulnerable and the volatility was too much. And it’s just been a fascinating
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few months. So my net wealth dropped a massive amount. I just never expected that to be the case,
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but it’s true. And so over the last 15 years now, till my father died when I was 20,
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sudden heart attack absolutely brutal got a phone call on January the 1st 2009 Jake you got to come
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home your dad’s dead fuck okay and a few years later we decided to sell the family home that
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we’d grown up in I was the eldest son so it was given to me and decided that I didn’t want my mum
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living in his tomb for the rest of my life and I had 10 years to figure out how to make the whole
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thing work. It just, it didn’t make sense for us as a family. And I remain very steadfast in that
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choice has been the right thing. But the result was in my mid twenties, I received an inheritance.
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It’s like, okay, you’ve got some money. Well, what are you going to do with it? And that’s taken me
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on this whole journey So in many ways the moment my father died my life radically changed and the the trajectory that I was on altered forever And so okay you got some money great You know in my case I initially received some from an inheritance but people sell a business or they
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hit lucky in the casino, like who knows where you might get your money from.
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The point is, it’s difficult. You know, there’s all these people out there selling you different
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products, all these ideas that you can follow yourself, there is risk, there is reward.
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There’s a whole playing field of different things you can do.
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And over what’s now been over 15 years, I’ve had some great wins, but also some losses.
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And none of them are ever easy to take.
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Now, as things have progressed, I’ve got more sophisticated in my approach.
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But like 12 months ago, if you said, Jake, by the way, you’re going to be 60% down.
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I would have laughed.
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I’d be like, forget it.
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That’s never going to happen.
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But here I am.
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And it is painful.
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And absolutely, it’s painful. But because I’ve become more experienced over time, I’ve collected together tools, skills, frameworks that help me navigate this process.
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And in a sense, out of the pain, out of the frustration, the fear, the very obvious drop in purchasing power in dollar terms has come a huge moment for me, frankly.
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It’s something I mentioned on an Instagram reel a few days ago as I started this new program that I’m building and that I want to talk about on this podcast episode.
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It is the most important thing that’s ever happened to me.
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Because out of that pain comes something that you build.
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And I heard a really interesting point this week by someone who said, you know, adversity is an opportunity.
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Now, as an investor, I’m down.
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I’m not wiped out.
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And that is absolutely crucial.
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And so the question is, well, what have you still got?
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Well, yes, the financial capital is down, but from the lens of humanistic and intellectual that I like to describe, and anyone that’s listened to this podcast before will know well this idea, my financial capital down, but intellectual capital up. Fascinating, right?
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And it really tees up this concept, like you can’t lose, like not really.
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If you sit, you get past the emotion, past the fear, breathe, you have to meditate, get your feet on the grass, like really tune into what’s going on.
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There’s just gold all around you in terms of intellectual capital, lessons that you’re picking up along the way.
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And this is no better highlighted than an experience I had.
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So as Bitcoin was crashing, it’s January, I’m like a rabbit in headlights, like what the hell’s going on?
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I was stuck, frozen, didn’t want to tell my wife what was happening or wasn’t as open with her as normal.
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Previously, I was creating statement of assets every week and I actually did this.
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I said, oh, I think, you know, it’s a bit volatile at the moment.
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I should push this out to monthly.
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You know, I wasn’t able to report to myself that it was coming down.
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and very interesting observation as I think about it in hindsight but I was like okay well Jake what’s
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a podcast done for you well it’s made an opportunity for you to learn but also make some friends and
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then so reach out to some friends and one conversation in particular was so interesting
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shout out to my friend Ben if you ever listen to this he knows exactly who he is I calling him I mean I in Australia he back in the UK And he like the irony of right now Jake is what you think this is costing you is actually going to make you
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a lot more in the future. And it’s like, it’s so hard to really understand that. Is that actually
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true? But I can kind of see it now. It’s like, yes, it is. And because, because he was,
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And did that even, I hope that recorded.
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I’ll have to double check.
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Because he was able to check in a few weeks later.
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It’s like, what happened, Jake?
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And it was like, okay, well, a lot has happened.
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And so I’m going to read you the specific message.
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It’s like, okay.
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He checked in.
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He’s like, hey, mate, just checking in.
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Hope everything’s settling down.
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It’s like, yeah, okay.
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Hey, Ben, thanks for checking.
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Settling down, yes.
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This is my actual reply.
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Bruised and battered, yes.
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own less bitcoin than i wanted yes renovation paid for yes fat being trimmed yes when i say
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renovation paid for i was sitting there going oh my god my renovations are twice as expensive
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in dollar terms because the bitcoin price has plummeted but what do you do
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like you’ve got to just you’ve got to just cover cover the position right so i was a forced seller
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huge reality check nature in action new guardrails in place and action that’s been taken
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So monthly reporting with the misses, actual expense tracking, cash flow forecasts, net asset summary, cash reserves.
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Aim is to have 18 months on the table at all times.
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Now, in this particular case, I sold Bitcoin again for seller, but to pay for some lifestyle tokens for the next few months.
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And you could have an equity sale inbound in May, June time.
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And that would bolster the cash reserves for another 12 to 18 months.
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I’ve input a capex rule.
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Only if you feel wealthy enough in that moment
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do you commit any capex in fiat terms.
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The example here specifically being a renovation
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that I committed to in October.
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My wife warned me specifically,
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Jake, we should take some money off the table.
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In December, we had that conversation
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and I ignored her.
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Really, really silly decision
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and a huge mirror moment for me
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to reflect on how valuable the relationship
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actually is with my wife
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and how I need to listen to her more.
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And that’s a big lesson from this.
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It doesn’t come through in this message,
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but that’s another angle to the humanistic capital that’s come out of it.
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So if you commit, take all the funds off the table there and then to manage cash flow.
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Never again speculate on price when making a large reallocation decision.
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Now, of course, had it gone up, it would have felt amazing.
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But if it had gone the other way, well, in this case, it has.
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It’s actually a far better lesson.
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Now, in this case, it’s also an element of cash flow.
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of cash flow, right? I wasn’t creating any cash flow. So the big reveal being as an investor alone,
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not creating yield on my time, my self-worth is attached to a net worth, which my major volatility
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up and down is actually an inefficient slash stressful place to be. My job as a father is
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to provide stability, durability, strength, safety. Being long only Bitcoin in drawdowns
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proved to be too intense for family life. Going forwards, I’m going to work again.
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now in this case I was looking at building a small business buying a small business from someone
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retired that’s evolving this coaching program that I’m about to run you through is what I’m
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going to build so it very interesting I said let catch up you know financial capital down intellectual and humanistic capital significantly increased ultimately I learning to be a better manager of things in the future I plan to never be a force seller again
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but rather an accumulation machine sitting underneath me
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that is better at navigating the vol.
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And his reply, fucking magnificent stuff, man.
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10 out of 10.
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Now, that’s pretty massive, right?
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And I’m hoping that that was coming through as a recording.
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But the crux of that being that the Bitcoin price drawdown has enabled a moment to allow me to see where I was exposed and where I was inefficient, where I was underperforming.
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And I’m now unable to adopt all those things.
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And what it really is, it’s become a coaching program.
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So I’m building something called the durable man.
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and it’s really not just this most recent drawdown as a lesson
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that’s the first phase, it’s called the foundation
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and it’s a review of everything you’re doing right now financially
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so what are your expenses, what’s your cash flow, what’s your net assets
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and then looking at how you make decisions on what to buy, when to buy
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and equally what do you do with your time, how are you creating a yield in your time
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that’s the base case, that’s the first three months of the program
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That’s $3,000.
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And then I’m hoping most people want to kick into the deeper work from that functional pain point.
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It’s like, okay, well, who am I?
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And I want to work with people on their values, set a future vision.
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What is the self-image that you’re working towards?
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Then it’ll be a deep dive onto like sound money and looking at asset classes.
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And what’s the difference between saving and investing?
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and when you have in your mind
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liquidity, volatility, risk, counterparty
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what does it mean to look at all the different assets
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that sit out there
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and say okay well obviously Bitcoin’s a part of that
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but then it’s like okay what’s the kind of macro situation
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at the moment
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what are the short term risks that are involved from a war
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for example
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what costs have you got coming up
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what’s the tax scenario
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and then the final piece of the puzzle
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which is the last three months
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is really then about the identity work
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and disconnecting that self-worth and net worth,
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thinking about how I can help people
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to generate capital on their time,
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to generate cashflow.
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And so it’s a full 12 month working with me one-on-one.
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The price for the 12 months is 10,000.
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And I have just put an offer out there.
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So I’ve sent it out to some warm contacts.
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This is now a podcast episode about it.
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and really what I want to help people do is learn from all the mistakes that I’ve made,
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like 15 years plus of heading in directions that were dead ends or making decisions that
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just could have been so much better. And so to some people $10,000 might sound like a lot,
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but actually when you’re allocating large sums of money, that’s nothing. And the mistakes that
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those decisions can make in terms of loss of capital are far higher than any price you’re
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going to pay for a coaching program like this. So if this resonates and you want to reach out and
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get in touch, check out the Instagram videos I’ve been posting. Send me a DM on Insta or reach out
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to me on Signal if you have my phone number or lastly my email address hi at jakewoodhouse.io.
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Anyway, a slightly different podcast episode for today. Very proud to be launching The Durable Man.
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Thank you so much for supporting the podcast over the years.