​COUNTD[OWN]

​Own The Middle Years - a full-day workshop on what to do with the years between "I'll be financially fine" and "I'm done."

​Financially, you're probably going to be fine. So why does it still feel like a countdown?

​You might not have done the sums properly. Most people haven't. But you know, roughly, that you're ahead. You've been saving for years, the pension's real, the investments are doing what they're supposed to. Somewhere in the back of your head is a number, and it's not dollars, it's years. Five, six, maybe eight. Then you're out.

​In the meantime, nothing changes. You renew the lease. You chase a bonus you've stopped needing. You book the holiday around leave allowance and take the 11pm call because you always have. The thing you actually want to do with your life is still filed under "after," and "after" keeps being a few years away.

​That's the middle. It's fine. It's also a bit of a waste, and nobody talks about it because on paper you've already won.

​What tends to get missed is this. If you're ahead, you haven't just got closer to the finish. You've got options you didn't have five years ago, and every one of them can be priced in months on your date. Most people never price them. They keep going exactly as before and wonder why the good bit hasn't started.

​COUNTD[OWN] is a full day, twelve people round a table, about those middle years. You're staying in work for now, which is a perfectly reasonable choice. The question is whether the next five or six years have to look identical to the last five, and what it would cost you, in actual months on your date, if they didn't. For most people the answer to the second question is a lot smaller than they've assumed.

​If you're leaving in the next year or two, this isn't your room; the Life After Enough - Escape Plan is instead.

​Haven't got a number yet?

​Most people haven't, properly. When you book I'll send you a link to the Freedom Dashboard, a free tool I built that gets you a rough date in about twenty minutes using what you actually spend. It's the same tool we use on the day, so you'll turn up with your numbers already on your phone. If you'd rather do it in a room with other people, RE[TIRE]D is my 90-minute workshop for exactly that, and there are a few running in January.

​What we do all day

​We start with an awkward question: what changed on the day you realised you'd be alright? Everyone writes their answer down. The wall fills up with "nothing," and that's the day's starting point.

​Then the four dials. Once your money can look after itself you have four levers you didn't have before: how much you work, how much you save, where you live, and how much time you take off. Every one of them trades against the same thing, your date. We'll price your options live, on your phone, with your own numbers. What does a four-day week cost you in months? What did the bigger flat cost you in years? Most people have never seen those two numbers side by side and one of them is always a surprise.

​Then we decide. Pricing a change is the easy bit. We put your top options through four plain questions, at a table where two other people are allowed to tell you which ones are rubbish, and you leave having picked one.

​Then we give the years a shape. Six years is too long to plan and too short to ignore, so we break yours into a couple of chapters with a theme each. Chapter one starts the week after.

​We finish on the money, done properly. What to automate, what to look at and how often, and the rule that stops you reopening the spreadsheet on the MRT. More of the mental load in these years comes from that habit than from anything the numbers are doing.

​You'll leave with

​📋 Your trade table: the changes you're considering, each priced in months against your date

​✅ One change chosen, with a small first test and a date on it

​📖 A chapter map for the years between now and your number

​🔁 Your money rhythm on a card, so the spreadsheet stops running your weekends

​📬 Three check-in emails from me at 30, 60 and 90 days, to see whether you actually did it

​The details

​📍 133 New Bridge Road, #21-06, Singapore - room CTP M01 (Chinatown Point - EW/NE Chinatown MRT, right downstairs)

​🗓️ Saturday 30 January 2027, 10:00am to 4:30pm

​☕ Coffee's and snacks on me. Lunch options are downstairs at Chinatown Point, lunch is not included in the ticket price.

​🎟️ SGD 349 for this first run. From the second one it's SGD 499, so this is the cheapest it'll ever be.

​🪑 Just 8 seats. You'll know everyone's name by lunch.

​How booking works: register here and I'll come back within 48 hours with payment details. Your seat is confirmed once it's paid. Full refund up to two weeks before the day; after that you can pass your seat to someone else or hold it for the next run.

​One honest note: This is the first time I've run it. If fewer than four people are booked by 17 January, I'll cancel, refund everyone in full, and tell you early. I'm building this out loud, same as everything else.

​What to bring: your phone, with your Freedom Dashboard numbers in it. That's the whole kit.

​One quick question when you register: roughly how far away do you reckon your "I could stop" date is, and what, if anything, have you changed since you first worked it out?

​Who's running this

​I'm Nic 👋 host of Life After Enough, a podcast about the part of financial freedom nobody really talks about: not the spreadsheets, but the leaving. The identity bit. The "who am I if I'm not the job" bit.

​I'm a corporate lawyer, twenty years in. I passed my own number a while back and kept working anyway, for reasons that had nothing to do with money. So I've spent longer in the "boring middle" than most people I talk to, and I've got the Sunday scary scars to prove it. I've also done the dramatic version: years ago I quit law to run an adventure fitness business, ran out of money inside two years, and came back to rebuild. I know what leaping early costs and I know what staying too long costs. This day is about the third option.

​Life After Enough is where I work through all of it, out loud. This workshop is me doing the same thing in a room, with coffee, with you.

​What people say

​These are from RE[TIRE]D, a shorter 90-minute introductory workshop.

​“The session by Nic, at Life After Enough, was very insightful. Helping me to flip the narrative of how much I need to save on its head. I came to saving in my late 30s and always felt a bit intimidated by the prospect of being single with no support in my old age, worrying if I would have enough money to retire early and continue with my expensive shopping habits. Nic helped me see that saving enough money was achievable and not scary - spoiler alert: I can retire early and still spend money!

​The 90 minutes was purposeful, engaging and refreshingly open. Thank you for helping me rethink my future, addressing critical questions not just about money.”

​— Fiona, RE[TIRE]D, August 2026 session

​Nic is an excellent storyteller and going to the Life After Enough workshop was pretty life changing. It’s made me rethink how I think about my money. I thought being financially free was something for later in life - but I can see how small steps now will set me up so well for later much earlier than I thought.

​— Jaime, RE[TIRE]D, August 2026 session

​RE[TIRE]D is an effective way to get the foundations of FIRE down, work out where you actually are, and start thinking about what happens afterwards, which isn’t something I’d given much thought to before. Nic’s an engaging presenter and he’s open about his own learnings, including the times it didn’t work out, so the whole thing feels very approachable. Highly recommend if you’re just starting out, or if you’ve got the money side sorted but haven’t thought much about the leaving.

​— Seb, RE[TIRE]D, August 2026 session

​Friendly heads-up

​This is purely an educational session, not financial advice. I'm not a licensed financial adviser, and anything we work out on the day is rough, illustrative and educational only. For decisions about your own money, do your own research and talk to a qualified professional.