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