Building Out

Owner

Founder

Heanton House Property

Property Investor

Urgent Care GP

NHS Appraiser

Portfolio GP

Macfarlane Wealth Partners

Partner

Royal Navy

General Practitioner

Doctor

As a doctor, former financial advisor, and property investor, I'm sharing the lessons I learned from being a busy, time-poor professional to building a life of time and financial freedom. 

My journey to financial freedom began with the standard advice of getting a great job, working hard, and hoping the system would take care of me.  After 20 years of service in the Royal Navy and as a doctor, I realised this was a myth.  This standard narrative will only take you so far, and I have started to seek better ways to build time and financial freedom for myself and my family. This realisation inspired me to share my journey and the lessons I've learned with you. 

My journey led me to earn my MBA, work as a financial adviser in London, and eventually transition into entrepreneurship. Investing in property and sharing financial lessons through our financial education start-up Building Out.  

I hope that sharing these lessons will help you on your path to Building Out a life of time and financial freedom.  The journey can be challenging, but it's certainly worth it!

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter at: 

www.building-out.com

Good luck on your journey!

Nothing on our website, blog, socials or newsletter is designed to provide financial advice and is for educational purposes only. For individual financial advice on your circumstance, please seek the advice of an FCA-approved advisor.

People think insurance is about fear.

It's not. It's about freedom.

Freedom to:

- Take career risks
- Start a business
- Work less if you want
- Say no to work that drains you
- Make choices based on what's right, not what you can afford in a crisis

Before I sorted protection properly, I felt trapped. I couldn't reduce hours because "what if something happened?" I couldn't take business risks because my family depended on steady income.

Now? I have options.

Not because bad things can't happen - they can. But because if they do, my family won't face financial catastrophe on top of personal crisis.

That security lets me take the creative and career risks that actually build wealth and freedom.

Insurance isn't the end goal. It's the foundation that lets you build everything else.

What would you do differently if you knew your family was protected no matter what?

That's not a theoretical question. That's what proper protection planning creates.

Diarmaid Mcmenamin

As a doctor, former financial advisor, and property investor, I’m sharing the lessons on the path from being a busy, time-poor professional to building a life of time and financial freedom.

I asked 50 busy professionals what stops them from building wealth.
This is what they said: 

Nobody said "lack of money."

They said:

"I don't know where to start."

"It feels overwhelming."

"I'll figure it out later."

Translation: Comfort feels safer than action.

But here's the brutal truth:

Waiting for certainty is the most expensive strategy you can choose.

While you're "figuring it out," compound growth is working for someone else.

The move? One uncomfortable action:

→ Open the investment account

→ Schedule the financial review

→ Automate £100/month

Perfect clarity comes from movement, not meditation.

What's your one action this week?

I ran the numbers on lump sum investing and the truth is uncomfortable.

Here's what the research actually shows.

Lump sum beats Dollar cost averaging (DCA) most of the time – not all the time, but most. If your goal is maximum long-term returns and you can handle the roller coaster, getting invested sooner usually wins.

Why? Cash drag reduces your compound growth. Performance matters more than perfect timing. Every month, waiting costs you potential returns.

So why is everyone still doing DCA?

Because the real risk in investing isn't volatility. It's you freaking out and doing something stupid. DCA shines in that anxious window right after you decide to invest. It keeps you from panic-selling when fear takes over.

Bottom line: Pick the strategy you'll actually stick with when markets drop 20%.

Want more straight-talking money systems? Join the newsletter at www.building-out.com

Motivation is a terrible business partner.

It shows up late.

Leaves early.

Disappears when things get hard.

But consistency?

Consistency is the reliable partner that builds wealth.

Think about it:

→ £100/month invested consistently = £60K in 20 years

→ £0/month invested when "motivated" = £0

→ One property viewed weekly = 52 opportunities/year

→ Property viewing only when "ready" = 2-3 opportunities/year

→ Daily 30-min skill building = 182 hours/year

→ Learning only when "inspired" = maybe 20 hours/year

The professionals achieving time and financial freedom aren't the most talented.

They're the most consistent.

What system can you commit to regardless of how you feel?

You don't need to be perfect with money. Just intentional.
Here's how: 

Pick a system, tweak it to fit your life, and ignore the rest.

Start with 50/30/20 if you need structure.

Add values-based habits as you grow.

Combine the two for long-term clarity.

You don't have to choose a side. You just have to choose you.

Your budget doesn't need to impress anyone. Just work for you.

I spent 6 months researching UK founders who built life-changing businesses. Here's what the data actually shows:

What I found completely shattered my assumptions about "the right time" to start. 

The myth we believe:

Founders are either brilliant 22-year-olds or wealthy 45-year-old executives with safety nets.

The reality:

- Tech founders average 30
- Fintech founders: late 20s-early 30s
- Healthcare founders: early 40s-mid 50s

Ben Francis started Gymshark at 19, delivering pizzas.

Anne Boden launched Starling Bank at 54.

Ali Parsa built Babylon in his 40s as a former refugee.

The pattern?

None of them waited to feel ready. They started with what they had, where they were.

If you're thinking "I'd love to build something but..." — you're already past the starting line. Most people never even get to the thinking stage.

The only barrier isn't your age, your job, or your circumstances.

It's waiting.

What's one small action you could take this week toward building the life you want?
What I found completely shattered my assumptions about "the right time" to start.

Here's what the data actually shows:

The myth we believe:

Founders are either brilliant 22-year-olds or wealthy 45-year-old executives with safety nets.

The reality:

- Tech founders average 30
- Fintech founders: late 20s-early 30s
- Healthcare founders: early 40s-mid 50s

Ben Francis started Gymshark at 19, delivering pizzas.

Anne Boden launched Starling Bank at 54.

Ali Parsa built Babylon in his 40s as a former refugee.

The pattern?

None of them waited to feel ready. They started with what they had, where they were.

If you're thinking "I'd love to build something but..." — you're already past the starting line. Most people never even get to the thinking stage.

The only barrier isn't your age, your job, or your circumstances.

It's waiting.

What's one small action you could take this week toward building the life you want?

"I'll sort insurance when I'm less busy."

"I'll sort it after this busy period."

"I'll sort it next month."

I said these things for two years.

Here's what actually happened during those two years:

- I got two years older (premiums increased)
- I developed mild hypertension (exclusions added)
- My family grew (needed more cover)
- Two colleagues had serious health events (reminder of reality)

Waiting didn't make the decision easier. It made it more expensive and more complicated.

Every year you wait:

- Premiums increase with age
- Health conditions create exclusions
- The gap between your protection and your needs grows

The best time to get insurance was 10 years ago.

The second-best time is today.

Not when you're less busy (you won't be). Not when you understand it perfectly (you never will). Not when you feel ready (you won't).

Today. Even if it's imperfect. Even if it's just basic cover.

What's the one decision you've been postponing that you know you should make?

Here's the protection mistake I see constantly:

Couples insure the high earner. Skip the stay-at-home partner.

Massive error.

My partner doesn't have a salary. But replacing what they do? £30,000+ per year:

- Full-time childcare: £15-25k
- After-school care: £3-5k
- School holiday cover: £2-4k
- Household management: Priceless

If something happened to them, I'd need to:

- Cut my hours (losing income)
- Hire childcare
- Pay for household support
- Manage everything alone while grieving

That's not a financial plan. That's a crisis.

Both partners need protection. Whether you're both earning or one manages the home, you're both essential to your household's function.

We have individual policies rather than joint coverage. Yes, it costs more. But joint policies only pay once - after the first person dies, the survivor has no coverage.

Your household is a two-engine aircraft. If one fails, you still need lift.

Don't just insure income. Insure the life you've built together.

Most doctors I know earn a decent wage.

Most are also one illness away from financial crisis.

Here's why: employer life insurance typically covers 1-4x your salary. Sounds good, right?

That's 1-4 years of income. After that? Your family is on their own.

I calculated what my family would actually need:

- Mortgage: £350k
- Income replacement (15 years): £1.35m
- Kids' education: £200k
- Total: £1.9m

My employer coverage? £180k.

The gap between what we have and what we need is called the protection gap. And nearly every high-earning professional has one.

Here's what shocked me: proper term life insurance for £2m costs about £85/month. Less than our family phone bills.

The real cost isn't the premium. It's the years we spend telling ourselves we'll "sort it later" while our families remain unprotected.

If something happened to you tomorrow, would your family actually be okay?

Not "get by." Not "manage." Actually okay?

That question changed everything for me.

Hey everyone — just checking in 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why Building Out exists — it’s not just about money, investing or business. It’s about helping time-poor professionals like us create a life that actually feels free — where you can choose how you spend your time, not have it dictated by someone else’s schedule.

So I wanted to take a moment to check in with you.
- How’s your journey toward time and financial freedom going?
- What’s been your biggest win or challenge recently?

If you haven’t already, make sure you’ve joined our newsletter at www.building-out.com
.
Every week I share practical tools, mindset shifts and stories that help you build a life with more options, more control, and less stress — one small step at a time.

What’s one thing you’re working on right now to move closer to your version of freedom?

That voice in your head?
You know the one:

The one that tells you you're not good enough, that you don't deserve wealth, that you'll never achieve financial freedom?

That voice isn't you.

It's the result of thousands of invisible agreements you made years ago. Agreements you don't even remember making.

Here's what I've learned: most of the barriers between you and the life you want aren't external. They're internal. They're the stories you tell yourself.

I recently revisited The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and it hit differently this time. Because I realised something uncomfortable:

Every time I broke a promise to myself, I was teaching myself that my word means nothing.

"I'll wake up early tomorrow and work on my side project."

Hit snooze.

"I'll do it tomorrow."

Small thing? No. Each broken promise erodes self-trust. And without self-trust, you can't commit to the daily actions that build wealth.

The first agreement—Be impeccable with your word—isn't mystical. It's practical. It's about integrity. About saying what you mean and following through.

Start with the small promises. Keep them. Watch what happens to your confidence.

Because here's the truth: you already know what to do to build financial freedom. The question is whether you trust yourself enough to do it.

What's one small promise you could make to yourself today?

You send an important email to a potential clientand get no response:


Three days pass. No response.

Your brain immediately fills in the blanks:

They're not interested.

They think my price is too high.

They found someone better.

I blew it.

You feel defeated. You don't follow up. You move on, convinced it's a lost cause.

Two weeks later, they email apologizing. They'd been traveling with spotty internet. They want to move forward.

How much anxiety did you create for yourself by assuming you knew what they were thinking?

This is what Ruiz calls the third agreement: Don't make assumptions.

We're all guilty of this. We assume we know what people are thinking. We assume we know why they did what they did. We assume we know how things will turn out.

Most of the time, we're wrong.

And here's the kicker: our brains are wired for negativity bias. When we don't have information, we tend to assume the worst.

This is catastrophic when you're trying to build wealth.

You assume you're not qualified for that opportunity, so you don't apply.

You assume your prices are too high, so you don't charge what you're worth.

You assume your partner will be upset if you invest money in yourself, so you don't have the conversation.

All these assumptions become self-fulfilling prophecies. Not because they were true, but because you never tested them.

Here's what this looks like in practice:

You're unclear about a client's expectations. Instead of assuming you know what they want (and potentially delivering the wrong thing), you ask clarifying questions. You confirm. You get on the same page.

You catch yourself thinking, "I could never earn six figures doing what I love." That's an assumption. You don't actually know that. So you research. You talk to people who've done it. You test the waters.

The result? You start living in reality instead of in the anxiety-inducing stories your brain creates.

Stop making assumptions. Start asking questions. Start seeking clarity. Start testing your theories.

You might discover your assumptions were completely wrong.

What assumption are you operating under right now that you haven't actually tested?

The question everyone asks is "Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) or lump sum?" but that's the wrong question.

Here's what you should actually be asking.

The real question is: "Which strategy will I actually follow?"

I've seen both approaches work brilliantly. I've seen both fail spectacularly. The difference? Not the strategy. The person.

Lump sum wins when you have strong emotional discipline, can ignore 20% drops, are optimising for expected returns, and won't check prices daily.

DCA wins when you're building an investing habit; you'd freeze without a process. Peace of mind has real value, and you're actually new to this.

But here's what always loses: Waiting for the perfect moment, sitting in cash for years, letting fear make your decisions, never starting at all.

Pick one. Commit to it. Stop second-guessing. Then build the life that money is supposed to enable.

Because here's the real secret: The difference between DCA and lump sum over 20 years is noise compared to the difference between investing and not investing.

What's stopping you from starting? Build wealth without it taking over your life: [www.building-out.com](https://lnkd.in/ePYPd5tB)

I spent 15 years building a successful medical career while dreaming of freedom. Then I read about the Crystal Merchant and realised I was making his exact mistake.

In The Alchemist, there's a character who dreams of a pilgrimage to Mecca his entire life. He talks about it constantly. Plans it meticulously. But he never goes.

Why? Because as long as it remains a dream, he doesn't have to face reality.

Here's what I see with busy professionals constantly:

- Dreaming of starting a business but never taking action
- Planning property investments but never making an offer
- Talking about freedom but never leaving the secure job

The hard truth? As long as your freedom remains a comfortable dream, you'll never face the risk of actually building it.

Achieving time and financial freedom requires action, not just aspiration.

What dream have you been protecting by not pursuing?

When I work with professionals who want financial freedom, there's this myth that you need to make a dramatic leap — quit the job, go all in, burn the boats.

Sometimes. But usually? You need a smarter approach:

The Three-Step Freedom Build:

1. Keep your day job (your foundation)
2. Build your freedom engines (property, business, investments)
3. Transition when ready (move forward stronger)

This approach gives you:

- Capital for the next phase
- Skills you didn't have before
- Confidence in unfamiliar territory
- Proof you can succeed

My property portfolio was built exactly this way. NHS shifts funded the deposits. Financial advisory knowledge guided the investments. Small, consistent action while maintaining income.

Not dramatic. Not Instagram-worthy. But effective.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment to leap. Start building your freedom engines right now, even if it's just 10 hours a week.

I used to wait for perfection before sharing anything.

Here's what that perfectionism cost me:

→ 6 months building in silence

→ Zero feedback until launch

→ A product nobody wanted

→ Complete restart required

The shift that changed everything:

I started sharing before I was ready.

Messy first drafts. Half-baked ideas. "I don't know what I'm doing" moments.

The result?

Real-time feedback. Course corrections. Community validation. Faster iteration.

The lesson:

Consistency over perfection. Always.

3 ways to start before you're ready

1. Share your outline before writing the content
2. Post your framework while it's still rough
3. Announce your goal before you have the full plan

Your audience would rather see regular, authentic updates than wait for the "perfect" post that never comes.

Perfection is procrastination in disguise.

Movement beats meditation.

Do you have an idea for a business but don't know how to pitch it? Here's one way to be unforgettable!

I speak to people about building a life of time and financial freedom and hear the same excuses: not enough time, not enough money, and it's too late 

Open article: How To Be Unforgettable When Pitching Your Business by Diarmaid Mcmenamin • 5 min read

How To Be Unforgettable When Pitching Your Business

People rarely buy on logic alone.
They buy:

- Belonging
- Identity
- Story
- Emotion

Your product is just the vehicle. The feeling is what people are really buying.

Think about the brands you're loyal to. Is it really because their features are 10% better than the competition?

Or is it because of how they make you feel? What being associated with them says about you?

The coffee shop that makes you feel like part of a community. The tech brand that makes you feel innovative. The car that makes you feel successful.

That's what drives purchase decisions.

Features tell. Feelings sell.

When you're building your business, ask yourself: What emotion do I want people to feel when they use this? What identity does choosing my product reinforce for them?

Because if you only compete on features and price, you're in a race to the bottom.

But if you compete on meaning? You build loyalty that transcends logic.

People will pay more, wait longer, and defend you fiercely—not because you're objectively better, but because of what you represent to them.

What feeling does your product or service create? And are you leading with that in your messaging?

I used to treat money like a checklist.
Here’s the problem with that:

Pay bills. ✓

Save money. ✓

Don't go into debt. ✓

Joyless. Mechanical. Something to get through rather than feel good about.

Then I started tracking micro-wins, and progress became genuinely motivating:

Cleared that lingering credit card? Acknowledged it.

Emergency fund hit three months of expenses? Celebrated it.

Increased pension contribution by 1%? Marked it.

These aren't life-changing amounts. They're small victories that prove the system works.

But here's what I'd missed for years: discipline without rewards is just punishment.

If your financial journey is all restriction and zero celebration, you'll eventually rebel against your own system.

The brain needs evidence that effort leads to progress. It needs dopamine hits from wins, not just the absence of losses.

Behavioural psychology is clear on this: what gets celebrated gets repeated.

So I keep a simple list. Nothing fancy. Just a note in my phone where I log financial wins. Small ones count. Consistency counts. Progress counts.

Looking back at that list after six months is surprisingly powerful. You see accumulation. You see momentum. You see proof that the boring, daily decisions add up to meaningful change.

This isn't about being materialistic or obsessing over money. It's about acknowledging progress in an area of life that's easy to take for granted until something goes wrong.

Most people only notice their finances when there's a problem. But what if you trained yourself to notice when things are working?

What's one financial win from the past year that you haven't stopped to appreciate?

Maybe it's time to mark it, even briefly. Progress deserves acknowledgment.

Even when I was earning well, I felt guilty spending on myself.
Here's why:

That dinner out? Should probably cook at home.

Those concert tickets? Maybe save the money instead.

New running shoes when my old ones still work? Feels frivolous.

Every purchase came with a side of anxiety: "Should I be saving this? What if I need this money later?"

The irony? I could afford all of it comfortably. The problem wasn't my finances—it was my psychology.

Then I set up a separate "Spending" account. 60% of my income, allocated purely for living and enjoying life.

Same salary. Same expenses. Completely different mental framework.

Here's what shifted: the decision was made before the money even hit my main account.

If it's in the Spending account, I have permission to spend it. No guilt. No second-guessing. No mental gymnastics.

Want to upgrade my coffee? It's allocated spending.

Grab dinner with friends spontaneously? Allocated spending.

Book a weekend trip? Allocated spending.

Meanwhile, my emergency fund and long-term investments were automatically being topped up from separate accounts. Future me was taken care of without current me having to sacrifice enjoyment.

This isn't about reckless spending. It's about intentional enjoyment within a structure that protects your future.

Guilt-free spending isn't irresponsible. It's a feature of a well-designed system.

The alternative—constant anxiety about every purchase—is exhausting. That mental taxation probably costs more than any financial mistake you could make.

If your financial plan doesn't allow for joy, you won't stick to it long-term. Discipline without rewards is just punishment.

What would your guilt-free fund go toward? And more importantly, what's stopping you from setting one up?

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