Russell’s view – June 2026

How much do you value your time?

This is not a philosophical question, but a practical one.

I find it especially useful to think in these terms when I’m considering how and what to spend my time on.

It’s something all of us can do – and I’ll show you how.

The real value of free time

First of all, think about how much you earn at work.

Some people are paid hourly, many people charge hourly rates for their work while others of us can work out our effective hourly rate by dividing a month’s salary by the number of hours worked.

Once you’ve got that figure, then consider how much you would charge or would want to be paid for working outside your normal hours – in the evenings, at weekends, or on Bank Holidays, for example.

I’d imagine that ‘out of hours’ work figure is quite a bit more than your normal hourly rate.

That’s why it’s important to spend that time wisely, whether that’s with your family, your friends, relaxing or enjoying hobbies.

If you spend your time wisely, I’d imagine you’d also want to spend your money wisely too – particularly when it comes to investing that money for your family.

When time and money are of the essence, is it a good idea to spend both at once?

The reality of DIY investing

I ask the question because that is what DIY investing essentially consists of.

Investing can be hugely rewarding, but it is also hugely complicated with significant consequences if you get things wrong.

As we always say whenever we talk about investing, the value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount that you invested.

As a DIY investor, you can buy any publicly traded share, fund or bond anywhere in the world with no checks and balances and, thanks to technology, you can trade at the touch of a button anywhere you want.

If you manage to swerve the siren voices of social media influencers peddling questionable crypto and get rich quick schemes, how do you choose what to invest in?

You’re going to have to spend a lot of time researching investments – and if you use the ‘out of hours’ calculation, that process alone could cost you a lot of money.

Deciding what to invest in

For example, which country should you invest in?

If it isn’t the UK, how will you factor in exchange rate fluctuations? What effect will such investments have on the tax you pay, here and potentially in another country?

If you’ve chosen a country, which sector or sectors have the best growth prospects within that country and which individual companies are the best performers within those sectors?

Let’s say you decide not to invest in individual companies and countries but in an investment fund.

Which one of the 16,000+ funds should you choose?

Can you be sure that a fund that’s performed well previously will do so now?

Have the market conditions changed since that fund did well?

Do you know whether the people who were in charge of the fund when it was successful are still there now or have moved on somewhere else?

A second full-time job

Add up the ‘out of hours’ time you need to put in to find the answers to these and myriad other investing questions and you can see you’re basically doing a second job to invest some of the money you make from your main full-time job.

With raising a family and making a home a job in itself, you’ve now got three full-time jobs to fit into your 24 hours a day.

And what happens if you’ve invested a lot of your family assets, future wealth and your precious time in something which turns out to be disastrous?

Did you really know the risks before you put your money into an investment and did those risks match up with how you feel about the potential of losing money?

Behavioural economics tells us that people feel losses twice as strongly as they do equivalent gains – do you want to feel personally responsible for losing money for your family and financial future after you have spent so much time trying to get it right?

The value of financial advice

There is no such thing as a foolproof investment but there are certain things which can help when it comes to investing:

Experience.

Expertise.

Knowledge.

Access to market and company intelligence and analysis.

Extensive support and guidance.

Constant research and updates.

This is what you get when you spend some of the money you have earned on bringing in an expert professional financial adviser like those at Fairstone.

The ‘always on’ adviser

While you deal on a one-to-one basis with your adviser so that he or she can really get to know you and understand your financial goals, in reality at Fairstone there is a whole team of people behind that adviser.

From researchers to paraplanners, portfolio managers to investment analysts, your adviser can call on a whole host of fully qualified experts to assist you.

In fact, what you have is essentially an “always on” adviser to help you negotiate not just the investment world but also assist in areas such as retirement planning, estate planning and financial protection, all while keeping an eye on important aspects of wealth building such as taxation.

And guess what?

All of this means you don’t have to get that ‘second job’ as a DIY investor – instead you can concentrate on the job which earns you money and the job of raising your family and making a home.

And as for that ‘out of hours’ time, you can spend it doing something you really love – rather than something you have to do.

That’s surely worth a lot, not just to you but also to your family and friends.

Getting expert financial advice

For expert professional help with your financial future, get in touch with one of our advisers.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is also not a reliable indicator of future performance. Always seek professional advice before making financial decisions.