Mike Roberts
Investor since 1999. Retired at 53. Zero finance qualifications. A lot of hard-won perspective.
Why I built this
I started investing in 1999. I was in my late twenties, had no idea what I was doing, and made pretty much every mistake available to me — timing the market, picking individual stocks, ignoring fees, misunderstanding tax. I wasn't stupid. I just had no framework.
Over the next 25 years I gradually developed one. GAIT came first — a way of thinking about investment decisions that started with me rather than with products. FLOW came later, as I started thinking seriously about the transition from building wealth to living from it. PINS came last, when I realised that every conversation I had about retirement eventually arrived at questions that had nothing to do with money.
I retired at 53. Not because I had some brilliant strategy or unusual luck (though markets were kind in the second half). Mostly because I got clear on what I actually wanted, built towards it with discipline, and stopped being distracted by noise.
What I'm not
I'm not a licensed financial adviser. I have no formal finance qualifications. Nothing on this site is financial advice — it's personal experience and frameworks that helped me, shared in the hope they might help you too.
I'm also not selling anything. No fund, no course, no coaching programme. ThinkActRetire is a free resource. The frameworks are yours to use.
What this site is for
ThinkActRetire is for people who take retirement seriously enough to think carefully about it — but who want plain language and honest frameworks rather than industry jargon and product recommendations.
It's specifically aimed at a New Zealand audience, though much of the thinking applies more broadly. Tax references, platform discussions, and regulatory context are NZ-specific.
How to use it
Start with the Start Here page for a guided journey through the three frameworks. Or go straight to whichever framework is most relevant to where you are right now.
The articles go deeper on specific topics. The resources page lists the books, tools, and platforms I've actually found useful.
And if you want to reach out, the contact form is there.