I Went On A 'Free' Holiday On An NHS Salary. Here's How.
- Simon Wong
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
(When you get to the end, I have a free gift for you)
I'm writing this from the balcony of our family suite in Anatara Resort Hua Hin, Thailand.
My wife's next to me. My kids are doing their thing socking up all the best bits of Asian poolside holidays — the 800m river-shaped pool will do that, and so will the endless Asian buffet, the lemongrass-scented cold face wipe that greets you in the lobby, and the Thai cultural dancers who perform at the dinner buffet each evening.
Two weeks. Flights. Resort. Food. Activities. The lot.
And here's the bit that still makes me grin every time I think about it: I didn't pick up an extra locum shift or a Waiting-List-Initiative (WLI) bank shift for it. I didn't work a single hour longer to earn it.
My investment portfolio paid for it.
Wait, What Do You Mean "Your Portfolio Paid For It"?
Let me back up.
I'm a Urology Registrar. 16-plus years in the NHS. I started supporting a family young, which meant I had to figure out money fast, with zero formal education on the subject. Nobody in medical school taught me this. Nobody in my training programmes did either.
So I did what I had to do — I read, tried and tested. 80+ investment books, over 15 years, mostly on night shifts and commutes. And I invested, made enough mistakes in investing in all types of assets to last a lifetime. The key is I consistently stuck with it, learnt from it and adapted. Boringly. Whatever I could, whenever I could, into a broad global index fund.
One of my Investment funds in one of my ISAs now sits at roughly £120,000. Started from £0, purely from an NHS salary. No family contributions, no gifts from parents or grandparents. Just monthly disciplined investing with an NHS salary.
You don't need to be a hedge fund manager to understand what happens next. Money invested in the stock market does two things over time:
It grows in value, because the businesses inside the fund grow. The fund increases in value.
It pays you dividends, because those businesses share a slice of their profits with the people who own them. You.
You don't lift a finger for either of these. You already did the hard part — you put the money in years ago, knowing that compound growth takes time.
The Actual Numbers
I'm not going to hide behind vague language like "healthy returns." Here's roughly what a £120,000 global index portfolio can look like in a decent year:
Growth: around 10% for the year → £12,000
Dividends, paid out three times a year at a yield of about 3.3% → £3,960, so roughly £1,320 per payment
Our Thailand trip — flights for four, two weeks at the resort, food, day trips, the works — came to about £4,500.
Read that again.
The dividends alone, money I did precisely nothing to earn this year, nearly covered the whole trip. And the growth on the portfolio, money I also did nothing to earn, covered it more than three times over.
I want to be straight with you: these are rounded, illustrative numbers from my own situation, not a promise of what your money will do. Markets go up, markets go down, and nobody can guarantee a return. But the investment mechanism is real, and it's available to any of us on an NHS wage. Low risk, long term, tax efficient, disciplined, investment compounding is accessible to you working in the NHS.
You just need education and know-how.
You Don't Need The McLaren To Be Wealthy
I'm not mega-rich. I don't own a supercar. (My dream car is a McLaren, and I will absolutely own one someday, but that day isn't today.)
Here's what I am.
I'm wealthy enough that a stock market I don't have to think about most days quietly paid for my kids’ cultural curiosity. To run around temples, eat mango sticky rice, and see a version of the world that's nothing like home. No overtime. No dipping into savings I was supposed to be protecting.
Warren Buffett put it better than I ever could: Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree years ago.
I planted mine on a Foundation Year FY, a Trust Grade SHO, a Core Trainee, and a registrar's salary. It's already giving shade.
So What's Actually Stopping You?
Not your income. I promise you that.
What stopped me for years wasn't my NHS pay — it was that nobody ever handed me the instruction manual. Once I had and learnt it, through years of studying and doing, the maths did the rest.
Ask yourself honestly: is it really that you can't afford to start, or is it that no one ever showed you how?
That knowledge gap — not your salary — is the thing worth fixing.
It's Not About Picking The Next Trading 212 Tip
Before you go anywhere with this, let me be clear about what this actually is.
It's not about chasing whatever's trending on Trading 212 this week. It's not about buying the latest cryptocurrency because a colleague on the ward mentioned it made someone rich.
Here's my previous blog post about my honest thoughts on investing via stock picking for everyday NHS professionals
It's about everyday money discipline:
Cutting the costs that don't actually improve your life
Squeezing every pound you earn for everything it's worth
Investing in your investment funds before you spend on your present
Delayed gratification, on purpose, every single month
Sadly, to be really realistically honest with ourselves. We won't be basing our fortune on winning the lottery. We cannot base our future wealth on potential inheritance from some family member. (Many people I know base their wealth plan on this)
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I couldn't be sitting here today unless Simon from ten years ago paid his portfolio first, every month, then swept whatever was left over into it too. At my peak, that was close to 38% of my take-home pay going straight into investments before it touched anything else.
Not ready for Coaching? Here's some Self-Learning material for NHS Colleagues
It's about picking the right accounts, so tax doesn't quietly eat your returns. It's about knowing which platform charges you the least for the same job. It's about knowing when a mutual fund earns its fee and when a low-cost ETF does the same work for less.
None of that is exciting. None of it makes a good Instagram story. But it's the actual engine behind this whole trip — and it's built to keep running for decades, not just for me, but for my kids, and their kids, after me.
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The Complete NHS Account Framework
Everything in this post is one piece of a bigger picture. I've put the whole thing together into one self-learning PDF — every UK account from your everyday current account through to your NHS Pension and SIPP, one page each, in the order I'd use them myself — into a free guide:
No email spam, just the framework.
Here's What I Want You to Do Right Now
Step 1 — Check your financial health in under 5 minutes
Before anything else, take the free Financial Health Score self-assessment. It gives you an honest snapshot of exactly where you stand with your money right now — budgeting, debt, savings, investing, and tax efficiency.
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Phone/WhatsApp: +44 7923 069 623
Whatsapp: +44 7923 069 623
P.S. The biggest regret I hear from NHS professionals I coach? "I wish I'd started this sooner." Let's make sure that's not you.
One conversation could be the financial turning point you look back on in ten years and think — "that's when everything changed."
The knowledge is here. The plan is here. The only thing missing is you.
Let's build your financial future — properly, this time.
Disclaimer
All content on this blog — including articles, guides, tools, and any other products — is written and produced by me personally, drawing on my own experience, research, and opinions. I created this blog for the greater good of my NHS colleagues, to support their careers and financial wellbeing. I'm not a financial advisor, and nothing here is produced by a firm, editorial team, or licensed professional on my behalf. I have no affiliation with, and accept no incentive from, any financial firm, company, or product that could influence or coerce me into producing promotional content — the views expressed here are my own and entirely independent.
This site exists for general financial education and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or any other form of professional advice, and nothing on it takes into account your individual objectives, financial situation, or needs. You should not rely on anything here to make a financial decision.
You remain solely responsible for your own decisions. Please do your own research, due diligence, and independent learning before acting on anything mentioned or implied on this blog. Examples, case studies, and any figures used are purely illustrative of my own experience — they are not guaranteed and may not be replicated in your circumstances.
Investing and financial planning carry risk, and the value of any investment can go down as well as up. Before making any financial, investment, or tax decision, please seek personalised advice from a suitably qualified, regulated professional adviser.
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