Invest in ETFs is a free, plain-English guide to investing for people in the UK who have never invested. It’s written by Dr Sam Pybis, an economist with a PhD in economics and finance who teaches at a UK university, under the pen name The Off-Duty Economist. No ads, no affiliate links and nothing to sell.
We built the original site in 2018. For years it ran as an investing blog, with market news, company updates and how-to guides from a team of writers. By 2026 the ambition had changed: one expert voice, one audience and one job. More than half of UK adults with significant cash savings and no investments say they haven’t considered investing, and the top reasons are fear of losing money and not knowing enough to start.
That’s a hard audience to win. Money is the subject Google scrutinises most closely, and readers are rightly wary of anyone talking about their savings. So we rebuilt the brand, the website and the SEO around one idea: show the working. A named expert, a source for every claim, a review date on every guide and a public log of corrections.