Back in the mid 1990s, my wife had just finished her doctorate in clinical psychology, and I was deep into my dissertation on applying AI to improve human judgment. At the same time, something else was taking shape, the early Internet. One day I showed her a demo of this evolving “thing” and told her that, combined with AI, it would change the future in ways we couldn’t yet imagine. Half joking, I said her role as a clinical psychologist might soon be eliminated. Without hesitation she said, “Based on what you showed me, my career is very safe because in that future, anxiety and loneliness will become the dominant problems.”
Fast forward to 2025. After turning over Believe in Belize, an all-volunteer nonprofit I launched in 2018, to local Rotary clubs, I had to decide what the next chapter of my life would be. Ever since I retired in 2011 at 49, people had been asking me to write a book about how I did it. I had dabbled for years, but in the summer of 2025, I finally committed to writing it.
As I wrote, I kept searching for ways to simplify the complexity of the personal finance domain. Then one day, that 1990s demo and my wife’s comment came back to me and the connection became obvious. Personal finance doesn’t hold a monopoly on complexity. We now live in a world where people are overwhelmed by financial jargon, accelerated workplace politics, contradictory health advice, uncertain relationships, and a digital life full of scams and constant noise. They feel anxious about making the wrong decisions, overwhelmed by complexity, exposed to things they don’t fully understand, and navigate hesitantly.
That realization changed the book. It was still a tool for achieving financial independence, but in the process, it helped me see what the next chapter of my life needed to be: Sharkproof Living™, a movement designed to help people make more confident decisions in a complex environment. Namely, cutting through complexity, simplifying what feels overwhelming, seeing patterns clearly, making better decisions, and building confidence in any environment.
Future posts will share how the movement is evolving within personal finance and beyond.