2025: I was slightly “off-grid” for most of 2025. Literally, in some cases.
After two decades of investing, I took my second mini-retirement to explore a new country, enjoy the lifestyle I’ve worked for, and focus more on my own trading.
I’ve now been camping. Like, proper camping, in the wilderness, sleeping in a car roof-top tent, making my own fire (with a flint and knife!) to cook on. A bit different from penthouse living in city centres…
An entertaining side benefit (?) of leaving the UK and going international: I dealt with accountants, lawyers, and tax authorities in 9 different countries. I am now stupidly well-versed in international and cross-border tax law. It’s a new string to the bow that has made my own (and my clients') wealth extraction strategies even better.
The 2025 Results: I have optimised my own tax situation and got my own trading account back up and running (more on how well it’s done below). But I also kept a teenie tiny handful of high-value CFO clients active during my travels; founders who needed institutional-grade optimisation of their business and personal finances.
Tax Efficiency: Saved one client £42,400 in unnecessary tax.
Revenue Growth: Built a new revenue stream for another that is on target for £150k in 2026.
Capital Events: Raised £400k in funding for one business and assisted another with a £12m exit.
Beyond the "CFO" basics of improving profitability and lowering tax, we focused on lifestyle too: buying forever homes, securing family members properties, and hitting that first £100k in personal liquid investments.
It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed the variety. So 2026 is the year Damien goes fully into being your CFO.
My 2026 Focus Having spent 2025 up to my eyeballs in charts, I managed to hit a CAGR of 34.1% (I’m planning to break the 40% mark). To benchmark that: Warren Buffett has averaged 19.9% since 1965. He beats me on consistency... for now. #subtleflex
So my priority remains my own trading, but I’ve decided to work with 4 more Private CFO clients. For the fun and games (and sanity) of hanging out with motivated, successful people.
It’s not a "coaching program." It’s a family-office-esque / ultra-high-net-worth / institutional level oversight of your business capital, wealth extraction, and personal balance sheet.
The Requirements:
Scale: Your company is doing (or projecting) £500k+ turnover.
Reality Check: You’re tired of being ‘rich in theory’ but having a messy personal balance sheet.
Liquidity: You can afford a minimum of £2.5k a month.
Action: You actually implement what we discuss.
I have a few people currently "sitting on the fence" about working together. I ain’t chasing anyone. If you can’t make the obvious decision to stop a five-figure tax leak or nail their investment strategy, we probably shouldn’t work together. This is my fun work, I don't want this to feel like a chore. That doesn’t mean you can’t be nervous about it, or scared of implementing… you just have to do it anyway!
So Next Steps? If you (or anyone you know) meet the requirements and want a 10-minute call, reply to this email. I’ll send you a link and we can have a chat.
And with that, given the change of direction, you probably won’t hear from me again (sad times).
So thanks for inviting me into your inbox for all these years. Hope some of what I’ve said has helped you move a bit closer to financial security and peace of mind, or at least brought a smile to your face.
Here’s to 2026 being a fantastic year for us all!
Cheers,
Damien
PS - Random Value Add for you!
My 2026 Prediction: The 4-year liquidity cycle has stretched to 5.4 years so we’re potentially going into a global liquidity pump fueled by U.S. energy price cuts and forecast rate cuts.
Silver funds will likely rotate back into Gold after it’s parabolic move up. Retail chasing "TO THE MOON" could blow up the Altcoin market, but I expect blue-chip crypto to stabilise outside of the massive pump and dump cycles.
I expect another strong bull year for the S&P 500 where I’ll be harvesting volatility. Q1 is going to be choppy, so money to be made on hopping in and out. Stable plus risk assets will make an ideal combination in 2026, shifting more towards preservation by Q4.
NB: Don’t be paralysed by 10% market wobbles because you don't understand how to handle them.
PPS - My personal goal
I think I’ll try out powerlifting this year. So will either become the strongest finance nerd you know, or will break myself and hobble a lot. Either way, could be a giggle.