DDeep Dive with Ali Abdaal
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Rob Dix17 August 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Finding Financial Success in a Rigged World (5 Principles) - Rob Dix

4Frameworks
13Insights

Episode overview

Ali Abdaal and Rob Dix explain how modern money creation, persistent inflation, low real interest rates, and expanding government debt can disadvantage ordinary savers. Dix presents five responses: do not rely on cash savings for wealth growth, use debt responsibly, be cautious with fixed-income investments, own real assets, and invest in stocks boringly. They also discuss earning power, property ownership versus renting, and the content-led property businesses built by Dix and Rob Bence.

Key ideas

  • Money functions because people collectively accept it, while commercial banks create new money when they issue loans.
  • When inflation exceeds savings interest, cash loses purchasing power; emergency funds remain necessary, but savings alone are unlikely to build wealth.
  • Debt can be a useful tool because inflation erodes its real value, though expensive consumer debt and borrowing against volatile assets carry serious risks.
  • Real assets such as property, infrastructure, commodities, and gold can offer some protection in an inflationary environment.
  • For most people, boring diversified stock-market investing is preferable to stock picking or chasing fashionable growth companies.
  • A person's earning power—expanded through valuable skills, career strategy, leverage, or business—is often a stronger financial asset than optimizing a small investment portfolio.
  • Renting can rationally provide flexibility, while property ownership can provide leveraged exposure to inflation; the right choice depends on costs, time horizon, and personal priorities.
  • A content-led business can give education away freely and monetize high-value implementation, but focus and strong operations are essential as the company grows.

Transcript available · source text is retained privately and is not published

Frameworks in this episode

Entrepreneurship5 steps

Earning Power as Your Best Financial Asset

Grow what you earn before optimising what you save or invest

Read →
Marketing5 steps

Give Away the Knowledge, Sell the Implementation

Publish everything free, monetise the high-value help a few people pay for

Read →
Finance5 steps

The Five Principles for a Rigged Financial World

Prosper when inflation beats interest by owning real, leveraged assets

Read →
Self-Mastery4 steps

Write-It-Down Intentional Spending

Log every purchase by hand to question spending without a rigid budget

Read →

People & resources mentioned

Attributed to the moment in the episode. Timestamps are approximate.

People · 9

  • Rob DixCoinedRob is an investment fund advisor and he's the co-presenter of one of the UK's most popular business podcasts called the property podcast

    “Rob is also the co-author of The Ultimate Guide to property investing”

    ▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
  • Rob DixMentionsRob is an investment fund advisor and he's the co-presenter of one of the UK's most popular business podcasts called the property podcast

    “today I'm joined by Rob Dix”

    ▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
  • Ali AbdaalCoinedthe ongoing podcast where every week I get the chance to sit down with inspiring authors, entrepreneurs, creators, and other inspiring people.

    “I have written a book”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
  • Rob BenceCoinedthe book that you and the other Rob wrote

    “the book that you and the other Rob wrote”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
  • Ali AbdaalUsesthe ongoing podcast where every week I get the chance to sit down with inspiring authors, entrepreneurs, creators, and other inspiring people.

    “I've also invested in four properties through your company”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
  • Henry FordMentionsmentioned

    “apparently there's this quote from Henry Ford”

    ▶ Watch at ~17:30approx.
  • Julian HearnCoinedwe have the founder of huel Julian Hearn who was on the very first season of the podcast

    “we had the founder of huel Julian Hearn”

    ▶ Watch at ~29:30approx.
  • Morgan HouselCoinedmentioned

    “that was one of my biggest takeaways from Morgan Hazel's book the psychology of money”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:06:00approx.
  • Warren BuffettMentionsthe thing that Warren Buffett and basically everyone who sensible in the space recommends

    “the reason you've heard of the people who can like Warren Buffett is because there aren't many of them”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:27:00approx.

Resources · 29

  • The Property PodcastCoinedpodcast · Rob Dix and Rob Bence

    “he's the co-presenter of one of the UK's most popular business podcasts called the property podcast”

    ▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
  • The Price of Money: How to Prosper in a Financial World That's Rigged Against YouCoinedbook · Rob Dix

    “his most recent book is called the price of money how to prosper in a financial world that's rigged against you”

    ▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Property InvestingCoinedbook · Rob Dix and Rob Bence

    “Rob is also the co-author of The Ultimate Guide to property investing”

    ▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
  • feelgoodproductivity.comRecommendswebsite · Ali Abdaal

    “if you head over to feelgoodproductivity.com all one word you can check out the website”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
  • Feel-Good ProductivityCoinedbook · Ali Abdaal

    “my book feel good productivity is now available for pre-order”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
  • PenguinMentionscompany

    “there's no way penguin would have come knocking and been like hey do you want to write a book”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:00approx.
  • Feel-Good ProductivityRecommendsbook · Ali Abdaal

    “do check out the book If you like at feelgoodproductivity.com”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:00approx.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Property InvestingRecommendsbook · Rob Dix and Rob Bence

    “which literally taught me everything I know about property investing”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
  • The Property PodcastUsespodcast · Rob Dix and Rob Bence

    “I first got into the idea of property investing through your podcast”

    ▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
  • BarclaysMentionscompany

    “that's all right for Barclays to do”

    ▶ Watch at ~18:30approx.
  • Bank of EnglandMentionscompany

    “the bank of England's Target is two percent inflation a year”

    ▶ Watch at ~25:00approx.
  • HuelUsesproduct · Julian Hearn

    “I've been a pain customer of huel since 2017”

    ▶ Watch at ~28:30approx.
  • Huel Black EditionUsesproduct · Huel

    “my favorite version is the heel black edition”

    ▶ Watch at ~29:00approx.
  • HuelRecommendsproduct · Julian Hearn

    “it's absolutely fantastic it's like one of the meals of the day especially if you're busy”

    ▶ Watch at ~29:30approx.
  • YouTubeUseswebsite · Google

    “I've made a bunch of videos about it on the YouTube channel”

    ▶ Watch at ~30:30approx.
  • Trading 212Usessoftware · Trading 212

    “you can use Apple pay like I do initially”

    ▶ Watch at ~31:00approx.
  • NHSMentionscompany

    “the government is like screw the prices we are going to fund everything which is amazing”

    ▶ Watch at ~41:30approx.
  • ShopifyUsessoftware · Shopify Inc.

    “we've been using Shopify for the last several years to power the e-commerce side of our business”

    ▶ Watch at ~58:30approx.
  • ShopifyRecommendssoftware · Shopify Inc.

    “if you're interested in potentially starting a business or growing a business then I'd highly recommend using Shopify”

    ▶ Watch at ~59:00approx.
  • GymsharkUsescompany

    “even companies like gymshark that are doing like one billion plus dollars in Revenue are being powered by Shopify”

    ▶ Watch at ~59:00approx.
  • The Psychology of MoneyMentionsbook · Morgan Housel

    “my biggest takeaways from Morgan Hazel's book the psychology of money”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:06:00approx.
  • Silicon Valley BankMentionscompany

    “isn't this what happened with like Silicon Valley Bank”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:16:00approx.
  • TeslaMentionscompany

    “you had like companies like your Netflix and Tesla and everything else well flying high because it's all very exciting”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:22:00approx.
  • NetflixMentionscompany

    “you had like companies like your Netflix and Tesla and everything else well flying high because it's all very exciting”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:22:00approx.
  • YouTubeMentionswebsite · Google

    “when building a YouTube channel and a business around this sort of thing”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:23:00approx.
  • Austin, TexasMentionsplace

    “I gave a keynote last week when I was in Austin Texas”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:23:30approx.
  • TelegramUsessoftware

    “we have a couple of questions from the audience in our deeper diver community on telegram”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:25:30approx.
  • NHSMentionscompany

    “within the system of the NHS”

    ▶ Watch at ~1:31:30approx.
  • VidIQRecommendssoftware · vidIQ

    “we say Hey you know we'd recommend vid IQ Chrome extension”

    ▶ Watch at ~2:03:00approx.

Spot an error or want something removed? Request a correction or removal.

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 1

Myth Buster1:44:00

The property ladder no longer exists

Rob argues the classic property ladder, moving from a one-bed flat up to a house, has broken. Because people buy later in life, the most typical first purchase is now a three-bed house they often stay in forever. With huge moving and stamp duty costs, buying only makes sense if you are confident you will stay put for five to ten years.

  • First-time buyers now typically buy a three-bed house, not a starter flat
  • There is no meaningful trading-up ladder anymore
  • Stamp duty and moving costs punish short holding periods
  • Buying rarely works unless you will stay five to ten years

“the whole concept of a property ladder doesn't really work anymore”

Rob Dix · 1:44:00
#property ladder#first-time buyers#stamp duty#housing

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take1:41:30

Renting your home is not money down the drain

Rob rents the flat he lives in while owning investment property elsewhere. He argues you always have housing costs, whether you pay a landlord or pay a bank interest, plus the opportunity cost of capital locked in a home. His position: you must own assets, but you don't have to live in them.

  • You always have housing costs, renting property or renting money from a bank
  • A paid-off home still carries upkeep and huge opportunity cost
  • Renting can win financially when the yield on owning is low
  • Rob rents for flexibility and to make repairs someone else's problem

“you're either renting property from a landlord or you're renting money from the bank it's the same thing”

Rob Dix · 1:42:00
#rent vs buy#property#opportunity cost#housing

Explainer· 6

Explainer13:30

What money actually is: a useful collective fiction

Rob Dix explains that money has no inherent value; it is whatever we collectively agree it is. Historically money itself held value, like gold coins or notes redeemable for gold, but modern currency is money purely because we say so. Keeping this in mind helps you understand why things get weird as you go deeper.

  • Anything can be money: shells, notched sticks, gold have all served
  • Money works because everyone agrees to accept it, giving a shared unit
  • Early banknotes were redeemable for a set amount of gold
  • Today the pound and dollar have no fixed underlying value

“money is whatever we say it is so anything can be money”

Rob Dix · 13:30
#money#economics#currency#fiat
Explainer10:00

Banks create money out of thin air when they lend

When a bank grants a loan it does not dip into a store of spare cash; it simply types the money into your account, creating money that never existed before. When you repay the loan, that money ceases to exist. A banking licence is effectively a licence to print money, and governments can create it too.

  • A bank loan is new money created on the spot, not lent from reserves
  • Repaying a loan destroys that money again
  • It would be illegal for an ordinary business to do the same
  • In 2020 the Bank of England created 450 billion pounds to fund covid spending

“they will literally create it out of nothing that money never existed before”

Rob Dix · 10:00
#banking#money creation#credit#central banks
Explainer25:30

Why governments are terrified of deflation

Central banks target 2% inflation for no deep mathematical reason, just a suggestion that stuck. The real driver is debt: with inflation, everything grows relative to a fixed debt pile, but deflation makes debt grow as a proportion of everything else. With UK government debt around 100% of GDP, deflation would be disastrous.

  • The 2% inflation target was an arbitrary suggestion, not a law of nature
  • Inflation shrinks the real weight of a fixed debt; deflation inflates it
  • The government must borrow more almost every year
  • Inflation is the only painless way to stop the debt spiralling

“they need to have inflation because that's the only way to stop the debt from growing”

Rob Dix · 28:00
#deflation#national debt#inflation target#gdp
Explainer33:30

If everyone woke up with a million pounds: inflation explained

Rob uses a thought experiment: if the government gave everyone an extra million pounds, no new goods would exist, so everyone rushing to spend simply pushes prices up to maintain scarcity. That is inflation. Prices are a signal that manages demand and pulls more producers into the market.

  • Extra money without extra goods just raises prices
  • Price is a signal that allocates scarce supply and attracts producers
  • Capping prices by law leads to shortages, not fairness
  • You need money to be scarce, or abundant money chases scarce goods

“creating extra money hasn't created any extra stuff so everyone rushes out to spend”

Rob Dix · 33:30
#inflation#supply and demand#price signals#scarcity
Explainer36:30

Rent controls and Uber surge pricing: prices as signals

Rob argues price caps solve a problem short-term but backfire long-term. Rent controls in Stockholm made flats nearly impossible to find and spawned a sublet black market, because capping rent removes any way to allocate scarce housing or attract new supply. Uber surge pricing is the opposite: it both rations demand and pulls more drivers onto the road.

  • Rent controls discourage new supply and create black markets
  • Stockholm's caps made renting almost impossible to arrange
  • Surge pricing rations limited cars and signals drivers to come out
  • Interventions spawn side effects that need further interventions

“capping the price sort of solves a problem in the short term but it doesn't really start in the longer term”

Rob Dix · 38:00
#rent control#surge pricing#markets#housing
Explainer1:46:00

How a mortgage lets you leverage inflation

Rob explains why mortgaged property is historically a great bet. Because you only put down part of the price, inflation acts on the whole asset value, magnifying your return. Put down a quarter and with 2% inflation your annual return on the invested cash is roughly 8%, so you are leveraging the very force the central bank is trying to create.

  • You control the whole asset while investing only a fraction of its price
  • A 25% deposit with 2% inflation implies roughly 8% annual return
  • You are leveraging a force the government actively wants to happen
  • Being a landlord still means real risk and concentration in one asset

“if you put down a quarter of the money and inflation is two percent then your annual return will be eight percent”

Rob Dix · 1:46:30
#property#leverage#mortgage#inflation

Story· 2

Story15:30

1971: the year money left gold and the supply went vertical

For most of history currencies were pegged to a fixed amount of gold, which capped how much money could exist. In 1971, on a supposedly temporary basis, the US dollar stopped being redeemable for gold. With that constraint gone, the total money supply chart goes flat for centuries then shoots up like a hockey stick over the last 50 years.

  • A gold peg limits money because only so much gold can be mined
  • 1971 severed the dollar from gold, meant to be temporary, 50+ years ago
  • Money supply looks flat for most of history then spikes vertically
  • What feels normal to us is historically abnormal and cannot last forever

“the last 50 years it feels normal to us because it's the only time we've ever known but historically it's completely abnormal”

Rob Dix · 17:30
#gold standard#monetary history#inflation#money supply
Story1:53:00

The trap of following your audience into everything

Rob describes how giving the audience everything they asked for led his business to sprawl into letting agencies and tax consultancy, operationally hard and low-margin work that stretched the team thin. They eventually divested it all and returned to the high-value core: investing, where they hold a real edge.

  • Building what the audience asked for led to too many hard businesses
  • Letting agencies are sticky but low-margin and operationally brutal
  • Doing too many things pulled focus from the highest-value work
  • They divested back to the investing core they do best

“Turned out what they wanted was a lot and so we tried to do a lot so it was just kind of too much”

Rob Dix · 1:53:30
#business focus#scaling#audience#strategy

Q&A· 3

Q&A43:30

The wealth tax and land value tax debate

With inequality exploding since 2008, Rob thinks some form of wealth tax may eventually be unavoidable. A land value tax is popular among economists because land cannot be moved offshore, but it is unlikely to pass while most of the House of Lords are large landowners. Income tax is odd because it taxes work, something we actually want people to do.

  • Inequality exploded after 2008's asset-focused money printing
  • Land value tax is hard to dodge because land cannot leave the country
  • It is unlikely while big landowners hold political power
  • Taxing income taxes work; the fear is caps get added on top, not instead

“you tax things that you don't want people to do like smoking sure you also tax things like working we can kind of do want…”

Rob Dix · 46:30
#wealth tax#land value tax#inequality#taxation
Q&A49:30

Why governments borrow money instead of just printing it

Ali asks why the government borrows rather than pressing print. Rob explains that printing risks runaway inflation, as the covid money creation showed, because extra money without extra goods pushes prices up. Borrowing from bondholders and countries like China costs interest, which is precisely why it is less inflationary than simply printing.

  • Bonds are loans to the government, often held in pensions
  • China is a major owner of US debt
  • Printing risks runaway inflation, a big cause of today's price rises
  • Borrowing costs interest, which is why it is not the same as printing

“if you just printed it you won't have to pay back and then sort of you end up with more money in circulation”

Rob Dix · 51:30
#government debt#bonds#money printing#inflation
Q&A1:34:00

Managing money as a couple: alignment over accounts

Answering an audience question, Rob says the mechanics of joint versus separate accounts matter less than alignment. Partners inherit money blueprints from their parents, so the key is picking someone aligned and then talking about money regularly, bringing the other person along on any learning journey rather than leaping ahead alone.

  • People inherit deep money blueprints from their parents
  • Alignment matters more than the account structure you choose
  • Talk about money regularly, not necessarily via a formal money date
  • Bring your partner on the journey rather than deciding for them

“you can't have to go on that that journey together”

Rob Dix · 1:35:30
#couples#money#relationships#communication