Hey friends,

👨‍🏫 Why experts don't always make great teachers

Well there seems to be some interest for my guide to investing in the stock market. I'm about 3/4 of the way through writing it and it should be ready for next week's newsletter.

This week though I thought I'd write about writing it, because I've run into a problem: I'm struggling to remember what it was like when I had no knowledge of stock market investing or finances at all. As I'm writing it for the beginner, to be effective I need to build one's understanding brick by brick.

This was relatively simple for my garden room series because I was only a few steps ahead so I could present the information in such a way that I myself had wanted just a few months prior.

C.S Lewis summed it up best: 'The fellow pupil can help more than the master because he knows less. The difficulty we want him to explain is one he has recently met. The expert met it so long ago he has forgotten'.

The other problem with expertise in general is that once you're deep down the rabbit hole of knowledge it becomes almost impossible to see things from a different perspective.

I once dated a girl whose father was a Fields Medal winner (like the maths professor in Good Will Hunting). He told me that most of his breakthroughs were made when he was young because his thinking wasn't constrained by the things he knew later on. 

I've experienced the same (just not at the same level!). In a new job I'm full of ideas about how processes can be improved but within a few months I'm too bogged down in the details to see them.

The longer you do something and the more you learn, the more defined the lines of the box become and the harder it is to think outside of.

It's hard to know what to do with these realisations but I guess:

1. If you want to learn something, perhaps find someone just a few steps ahead of you.
2. Keep a healthy scepticism of experts, especially on house price predictions 😉, but don't discount them - experience counts for a lot.
3. If you are the expert, try to keep a mind open to new possibilities and when teaching - remember, what's obvious to you, isn't obvious to others.

👷 Projects

We have a proper bedroom! Steve did an excellent job of the lighting and made it all look relatively simple. I'll be doing the same twice over in the next bedroom: first to add lights to kitchen directly below while I have access to the ceiling/flooring and second for the lights in the loft. I've not yet made a decision on adding more loft insulation yet, and have just put back what was there leaving space around the lights for cooling.

We've now bought a bed, and are awaiting our bedside tables and lamps. It's a well made bed and I'm sure the bedside tables will be lovely but I do think I could whip up something similar for much less expense, but time is a factor here. Once I have my workshop, there'll be no excuse though 😁.

The curtain rail and curtains are from Dunelm. Apparently the rule is to allow 15cm all around the window i.e both sides for the curtains to hang when open, the rail 15cm above the window and the drop 15cm below. However, to get made to measure curtains was about four times the price so we went with a standard size which were a bit too long. They look a little odd, but do the job. Perhaps I need to take up sewing?

I have to hand it to Abi, she's done a great job choosing colours and styles. It feels very calming and grown-up in there. I'm pretty hopeless with this stuff by comparison.

Final touches will be a reclaimed scaffold board shelf above the bed with these brackets; some Brum soft-close hinges to replace the old ones on the wardrobes which will also help me align the doors better; and then a TV, which I might have scuppered myself on:

The last time I wall mounted a TV I had a plug directly behind it which worked well as the bracket held the TV an inch or two away from the wall leaving room for a plug, so I did the same for this room. But it seems technology has moved on and there are now TVs that finish flush to the wall such as the Samsung Frame:

From what I can find on YT, it seems I should have cut out a vertical line in the brick, installed a conduit and then had it plastered over. Then the cable could have run inside the conduit and plugged into the lower socket. It's still technically possible without ruining the plastering job as behind the brick is a chimney so I could drill a hole behind the TV into the chimney and bring the cable back out at the bottom. But will the higher socket be in the way even without a plug in it? If anyone has this TV and can give any advice on the matter, I'd be very grateful!

The bubba has reached 6 months now and is capable of being on his own, despite his protests to the contrary, so he's moved into the small room (we're still trying to get a plumber in to turn that into the bathroom) and we've moved across to the nearly finished room. The room at the bottom-right is now empty so I can get on with turning it into a proper nursery. First though I'm finishing off my studio downstairs as I've been doing it in drips and drabs and have a few videos finished on it but want to have it done before releasing. Nothing too difficult here, mostly wall paper stripping, painting and shelving but will likely make some sound absorbing panels to reduce the echo when narrating vids.

As for the laylandii outside, the more I looked at them, the less I fancied cutting them down myself so I got a quote of £850 to reduce them to near ground level and to dispose of the lot along with the other branches I've accumulated from doing the rest of the fence. That seemed rather good value to avoid risking death. I will be trying to grind out, dig out or pull out the stumps by myself though - I reckon it's going to be quite the workout.

If you have something similar though, don't let me put you off. If I had more room for them to fall or they were shorter, I'd definitely take it on as it seems relatively simple:

First cut a wedge out on the side you want the tree to fall towards, then cut in horizontally from the other side leaving an inch or two uncut in the middle. This will break by itself but keep the tree from springing back up into the air. Just in case, you can also use a rope tied to the top half of the tree and the other end to something sturdy on the ground to stop it from falling the other way.

Anyway, that's booked for the 19th July so if we ever get any sunny days I'll make a start on the garage roof instead. Did I previously say I enjoyed the British summer? What was I thinking.

🏗️ Build To Rent

A news article that caught my eye this week was that John Lewis will be turning some of their locations and car parks into flats that they'll rent out to create a new stream of income. A smart move.

This is worth paying attention to as it's a relatively new phenomena (though Blackrock did it post 2008) that's picking up steam quickly. Hedge funds, pension funds, REITS (real estate investment trusts) and banks are all getting in on the act and it's happening in an even bigger way over in the US and it isn't just apartments over there either. Houses too.

I suspect that on the plus side it will mean more homes are built and the standard of rentals will become higher, dragging everyone else up as they try to compete. On the down side it's highly disconcerting; you can imagine a dystopian world where we all rent from and work for large conglomerates.

One to watch, especially if you're a landlord.

👋

That's all for this one, mostly because I've been watching football all evening. Don't miss next week's mega newsletter. If you've never managed to get your head around investing and sorting your long-term finances, this is for you.

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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