ABOUT ME

That has led to some brilliant experiences, a few questionable routes and plenty of things I only discovered once I was already there.

PROPERTY

Over the years, I’ve bought, renovated or owned property in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and South Africa.

I see property through an investment lens, even when I’m also excited by the renovation itself.

Property is something I take seriously. Renovation is something I’m genuinely passionate about.

I enjoy looking beyond what a property is today — understanding its potential, working through the practical problems and figuring out what can realistically be improved.

When I bought in Spain, I chose to work through the buying process myself rather than rely on a buyer’s agent or lawyer for every step. I wanted to understand the process properly, including the smaller checks, decisions and calculations that sit behind a purchase.

For larger or more complex projects, I would absolutely bring in the right legal, technical or financial expertise. But I want to understand the due diligence myself well enough to know what needs checking, what questions to ask and when specialist advice is needed.

That approach became the foundation for the Spain Property Buyer Toolkit.

TRAVEL

I travel a lot, and by now I’d consider myself a fairly seasoned traveller.

Flights, accommodation, food and activities are the obvious costs. What interests me more are the destination-specific costs and requirements that even experienced travellers can miss.

They are often buried in the detail and may only become obvious once you are already there.

That became the basis for the Travel Cost Checker — a way to uncover the less obvious costs that standard holiday budgets often miss.

I also pay close attention to the guest experience itself: what works, what doesn’t, whether a stay delivers what was promised and whether it feels worth the money.

That has naturally grown into travel content and independent guest-experience reviews for hotels and accommodation.

FARM BY 50

My current long-term project is Farm by 50 — my attempt to find the right farm before my 50th birthday.

What began as a fairly simple idea has become a serious due-diligence exercise.

Rural property brings a different set of questions: land classification, legal buildings, water, septic systems, access, planning restrictions and whether your intended use is actually permitted.

The more properties I look at, the more obvious it becomes that the attractive part — the land, the views, the house — is only part of the decision.

That process led to the Farm Reality Checker, which helps structure the due diligence before getting carried away by what a property could become.

WHY CLUELESS GENE EXISTS

Clueless Gene wasn’t created around three carefully chosen content categories.

It developed from things I was already doing: travelling, buying and renovating property, and eventually looking for a farm.

Along the way, I kept finding details that were easy to overlook and information that made far more sense once I had gone through the process myself.

So I started documenting it.

I don’t claim to have every answer, and I’m not here to replace professional advice.

What I can share is my own experience, the numbers behind my decisions and the due-diligence mindset I’ve developed along the way.

Real experiences. Real numbers. Better questions before big decisions.