Rob is a internet marketing entrepreneur and former chef has travelled the world helping people make money online.
Now in his 60s, he started working at age 12 doing anything he could to make money. Learn how he he uses Moneyhub to balance his saving and spending in pursuit of a good life and a secure retirement.
““When you work, you know how much you earn and your expenses, but how much do you need to retire, you have no idea.””
After qualifying as a chef in his early career he later went on to invent a series of leather personal organisers. These sold particularly well and when the internet came along in 1995, things changed significantly. “I had a theory about the internet, tested my theory and within twelve hours of going live, I got my first order. I became very successful on the internet, got discovered, and found myself lecturing all over the world on internet marketing.”
In fact, soon he was able to create a business helping other businesses to replicate what he had done, “I thought everyone was making money out of the internet, it turns out they weren’t.”
You could put this down to luck, however, hard work and earning a wage has been drummed into this Moneyhubber from a young age, “I wouldn’t say I had the easiest of childhoods. My father said ‘you want money, you go and earn it’… I started working at the age of 12. Doing anything I could to earn money”.
This approach to work and money became so deeply ingrained, that when his parents passed away it created an internal tension, “I went on an emotional rollercoaster when I inherited. I struggled with the concept of receiving money after my parents had gone.”
This is when he sought advice from a financial advisor and for the first time understood his own net worth, something he believes is an important feature in Moneyhub.
“You work, you know how much you earn and you know how much your expenses are, but when somebody says how much do you need to retire you have no idea. You can’t get your head around it. It’s like a secret society. If you say to me how much have you got in your pocket, I could say £20 which I can see, but you don’t consider the value of your property or assets. You don’t consider your savings or portfolio.”
When asked how he approaches saving money, he has a simple system that involves having different pots for different savings. Something he believes Moneyhub could benefit from introducing in a future feature release. “That way I know I can afford something. If I want to buy boys’ toys, I’ll sell junk on eBay and put that money into PayPal knowing I’ve then got money to buy more. I almost feel poor if I’ve got nothing in that pot, I don’t think I’ve got money elsewhere I can spend. I haven’t got the money so I can’t afford it yet.”
This disciplined approach to saving also extends to when he does choose to spend, something where quality also trumps quantity. “I don’t buy something cause it has a nice pretty label, I do it because it does the job. I’m interested in functionality and benefit over and above everything else”.
His definition of financial wellness echoes his entire ethos, “It’s about having the comfort of knowing you can afford it and you're savvy enough not to waste it”.
“Am I money savvy?” he responds when asked, one eyebrow raised, “If money-savvy means keeping it in your pocket and never spending it - that wouldn’t be me. But if you said to me am I into having a good life, I’d say yeh. It’s about balance. If you can’t spend what you earn, or spend part of what you earn then what do you earn it for?”
It is this visibility of all of his accounts and assets that Moneyhub provides which keeps Moneyhubber which has kept him using Moneyhub all these years. It is not just the savings pots he likes to keep an eye on, but his entire portfolio having connected investments, pensions, his house, and even his car.
“I like the fact it links to everything, I like the fact it updates automatically, I like to be able to see the net worth.”
