How I’m Building Wealth with ISAs, BTL Property, & a Newsletter

Welcome back to the Money Growth newsletter—I'm really glad you're here.

Each week, I share real, practical strategies I’m using to grow my wealth who’s learning this all by doing. No jargon. No hype. Just honest, tested steps toward financial freedom.

We focus on five key areas that I believe build long-term money confidence:
💸 Money Basics | 📈 Growing | 💡 Saving Hacks | 🚀 Side Hustles | 🧠 Mindset

Hi friends,

I’ve been thinking about money a lot recently—more than usual.

There’s so much noise right now: AI is exploding, traditional markets feel sluggish and uncertain, and crypto is... well, sideways at best. Interest rates are high, inflation’s sticky, and it feels like we're standing at the edge of some kind of shift. But no one’s really sure which direction it's going.

And that’s exactly why I’ve been asking myself: How do I monetise this moment? Not in some get-rich-quick way—but how do I genuinely position myself to take advantage of the opportunities hiding in the chaos?

This question has had me digging deep:

• Refining my £200/month investing system

• Researching high-yield, low-risk savings setups most people miss

• Getting serious about my first buy-to-let investment

• Exploring how to turn a newsletter like this into a real digital asset

• And perhaps most importantly, shifting my mindset from "stay safe" to "build leverage"

I'm self-taught. Still learning. But I'm doing the work. And this week, I’ve pulled together everything that’s helped me move forward—even slightly. You’ll find real numbers, practical tools, tested strategies, and personal lessons from what’s working (and what isn’t).

Whether you're investing your first £100, trying to buy your first property, or figuring out how to build an income stream outside your day job—I hope something in this issue helps you take action.

Let’s dive in.

Why ISAs Are So Powerful (And What Most People Miss)

ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) are one of the few tax-efficient vehicles we have in the UK to grow and protect our money. Here’s what makes them work for me:

✅ Tax-free growth: No capital gains tax. No dividend tax. No income tax on interest. Every penny of growth stays yours.
✅ £20,000 annual allowance: You can split it across Stocks & Shares, Cash, LISA, and Innovative Finance ISAs.
✅ Flexibility: With Flexible ISAs, you can withdraw money and redeposit it in the same tax year without using more of your allowance.
✅ Platform choice: I use platforms that balance low fees with ease of use. I’m not looking for fancy features—I want clarity, automation, and low friction.

⚠️ A Few Things to Watch Out For:

• You can only contribute to one of each type of ISA per year, so choose your provider carefully.

• ISAs don’t guarantee returns—especially the Stocks & Shares ones. Market dips are normal. Time is your friend.

• Some providers charge sneaky platform or fund fees. Always check the total cost (I aim for under 0.3% where possible).

• Lifetime ISA rules are strict—withdrawals for anything other than a first home or retirement come with a penalty. Treat it as locked long-term.

I don’t have a fancy financial setup. Just a few automated ISA transfers, spread across accounts that I check once a month. But here’s the thing: if I keep going, this could grow into £110,000+ over 20 years—and if I bump up contributions by just £25/month each year, it could hit £180,000+.

🛠️ Quick ISA Action Plan (What I Actually Do)

1. Choose your ISA types

• Stocks & Shares ISA → for long-term investing

• Cash ISA → for emergency savings

• LISA → for retirement or first home (25% bonus)
  You can open one of each per tax year.

2. Open on easy platforms
I use Hargreaves Lansdown and Trading 212—both simple and reliable.
Use comparison sites for top-paying Cash ISAs (aim for 4.5%+).

3. Automate monthly contributions
I invest £200/month, split across Stocks & Shares and LISA.
Start smaller if needed—just be consistent.

4. Keep investment choices simple
Use global index funds with low fees (<0.3%).
Avoid picking individual stocks unless you know what you’re doing.

5. Review every 3 months
Don’t stress daily. Check in quarterly and slowly increase your monthly amount.
Small, steady increases compound fast.

That’s all tax-free. That’s all mine. And that’s the power of being consistent with ISAs.

My Buy-to-Let Strategy

I know the narrative right now—“BTL is dead,” “too much hassle,” “not worth it anymore.” And honestly, I’ve questioned it myself. But after doing my own digging, Buy-to-Let still appeals to me. Here’s why:

1. You can use leverage - With property, you can control a £200k asset with a £50k deposit and a mortgage. That level of leverage doesn’t exist in the stock market—and over time, it’s what makes property such a powerful wealth builder.

2. I’m not after quick wins- I’m in this for the long term. If the rent covers the mortgage and running costs, I’m happy. Even slow capital growth and steady rent inflation add up when you zoom out a decade or more.

3. Rental demand isn’t going anywhere - Especially in the right areas—commuter towns, family-friendly locations, places with decent transport links. There’s a real shortage of good rental stock, and I want to be on the right side of that.

🏡 What I’m Doing Right Now:

• Looking in three towns just outside major cities with high demand, strong transport links, and good school catchments

• Targeting £150–£200k properties, aiming for 6–7.5% gross yield

• Focusing on single lets and family homes—lower turnover, more reliable tenants, fewer headaches

💡 What I’ve Learned So Far:

• Buying via an SPV (limited company) makes more sense long-term—better tax treatment, especially on mortgage interest

• Glossy “yield” numbers are meaningless if a property sits empty—voids kill cash flow

• Every little cost—agent fees, insurance, maintenance, compliance—needs to be baked into your calculations before you even book a viewing

🧰 Tools I’m Using:

• Rightmove & Zoopla – For scanning listings, tracking asking vs. sold prices, and spotting undervalued homes

• DataShine – For heatmaps of population density, public transport, income levels, and housing types

• Google Maps – To sanity-check walkability, school catchments, and commute links

• My own ROI & cash flow calculator – I’ve refined it to the point where I can kill a bad deal in under 90 seconds

This isn’t passive income (yet), and it’s definitely not effortless. But if I can build a portfolio of even 2–3 properties over the next 5–10 years, that’s long-term income and equity growth I wouldn’t get just from index funds.

How I Found Over £1,100/Year in Quietly Wasted Money

This month, I ran what I now call a “quiet cost audit.” Not a budget overhaul. Just a focused, honest look at what I’m paying for month after month out of habit—and what I’m actually using or valuing.

Here’s what I found, and what I cut:

• Netflix – £5/month
  I barely use it anymore. Everything I watch is on Disney+ or YouTube. Easy cancel.

• Amazon Prime – £8.99/month
  I’ve started batching orders and using slower delivery. Cancelled and haven’t missed it.

• Nationwide credit card fee – £5/month
  This was an old account I didn’t even actively use anymore. Fee gone.

• Phone contract – £35 → £6/month
  Didn’t upgrade to the latest iPhone this year. Switched to a SIM-only deal with more data than I actually need.

• Sky TV + Internet – £80 → £55/month
  One quick call. I asked if they could review my bill. No threats to cancel. Just a polite negotiation, and they knocked off £25/month immediately.

Altogether, that’s £67.99/month saved, or £815.88/year—and that’s before counting the phone switch, which alone saves me £348/year.

📉 Total annual savings: £1,163.88

What surprised me most? None of this felt like a sacrifice. I still watch what I want. My WiFi works. My phone functions the same. What changed is that I’ve stopped leaking money into stuff I’m not using—or don’t really care about anymore.

This freed-up cash now goes directly toward:

• My Stocks & Shares ISA

• Emergency savings

• The occasional guilt-free takeaway with the family (because saving money should still feel human)

✅ Action Steps: Run Your Own Quiet Cost Audit

1. List every subscription and recurring payment – bank statements and apps like Emma or Snoop help here.

2. Ask: Am I actually using this? Do I value it?

3. Cancel what doesn’t serve you anymore – even £3/month adds up over time.

4. Negotiate big bills – Sky, broadband, insurance. You’d be surprised what happens when you just ask.

5. Redirect the savings – automate it into an ISA, savings pot, or investment account so the gain becomes permanent.

Your monthly budget isn’t just a list of costs—it’s a collection of decisions. And when you make those decisions with intention, the long-term impact is massive.

Growing a Newsletter

House of Leadership started as a way for me to share what I was learning about leading teams in tech. It was raw, honest, and experience-led. I had no list, no audience, and no clue how newsletters made money.

Fast forward to now, and I’ve turned it into a decent income stream.

• £2,400 revenue in year one (2023–2024)

• £6,500+ already in year two (2024–2025)

• Powered by a mix of paid subscribers, advertising, and referral partnerships

Here’s what helped me get traction:

• Moved from Substack to Beehiiv for a clean design, powerful growth tools, and built-in monetisation options

• Built a subscriber-only resource library packed with templates, frameworks, and leadership playbooks

• Launched a referral program (coming soon) to reward loyal readers for sharing the newsletter

But beyond the numbers, here’s what really matters:

🛠️ Want to Build Your Own Newsletter? Start Here:

Here’s exactly how I got House of Leadership off the ground—step by step:

1️⃣ Reflect on your value
Think about your experience, lessons, or unique perspective. What have you learned the hard way that others could benefit from? That’s your edge.

2️⃣ Sign up to Beehiiv
It’s the platform I use—it’s clean, powerful, and built for growth. I’ve used it to scale my list, run referrals, and monetise.
👉 Start here and get 20% off

3️⃣ Write your first issue
Keep it simple. One lesson, one story, one takeaway. Done is better than perfect.

4️⃣ Message your people
Send a WhatsApp or email to friends, colleagues, and contacts. Tell them you’ve started something new. People want to support people—they just need to know what you’re doing.

5️⃣ Hit publish
Ship your first newsletter. You don’t need a full strategy. You need momentum. Every week you show up, you’re building an asset.

Moving Toward Abundance (Even When I Double-Check Every Penny)

This might sound odd coming from someone who checks every outgoing, compares quotes across four different sites, and still questions whether £2.99 is too much for an app—but I’ve been working on building an abundance mindset.

Not the “think rich, get rich” stuff. I mean something more grounded:
Learning to believe that…

• There are opportunities worth pursuing

• Investing in myself isn’t wasteful—it’s necessary

• Money works better when I use it with purpose, not fear

Last week I nearly skipped a £40 leadership resource that could help me grow this newsletter. Old me? I’d have said, “Do I really need this? Maybe next month.”
New me paused and thought, “If this improves how I lead and write—even slightly—it’s worth more than £40 over time.”

For me, abundance doesn’t mean spending carelessly. It means:

• Trusting myself to make smart choices

• Zooming out from this month’s cost to next year’s return

• Believing that the right investments of time, money, or energy will repay me in ways I can’t always predict

Since I’ve started shifting my mindset, I’ve noticed real changes:

• I stick to my investment plan even when the market looks shaky

• I take small, strategic risks—like launching this newsletter

• I’m starting to view money less as something I need to protect, and more as something I can deploy

I still have scarcity thoughts—“Maybe wait, just in case.” But now I challenge them. Because I don’t want to just manage money. I want to grow it. And that starts by believing there’s something bigger on the table, if I’m willing to reach for it.

Thanks for reading

Disclaimer:
This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only. I’m sharing my personal journey, not offering financial advice. Always do your own research and speak to a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking financial action.