Four conditions under which cash loans may not be such a bad idea after all
I know, I know that sound personal finance and cash loans don’t mix very well. But I wouldn’t really be me, and this wouldn’t be the blog you like reading, if I don’t break established conventions from time to time. Before I go on and set out the four conditions…
Covered for life
When something bad happens, it’s always handy to have something to fall back on in times of need. Most people have the safety net of insurance to fall back on for all kinds of situations, and with good reason. Insurance in all its forms is seen as being necessary, as…
‘Skills we need’ and ‘skills we have’
We do tend to focus, a bit too much I believe, on the skills we need. Here I use ‘skills’ very broadly so these can include competencies, knowledge and narrow technical skill sets. This is part of our obsession with control and the illusion we want to create that we…
A need or a want: this is the problem!
Our lives change, this is only natural. Our lives change most when there has been a seriously interruptive event in them – although we can change our lives because we want to do, we do this most efficiently and quickly when we need to. Have you talked recently to your…
Politics and economy in the Eurozone part 2
The immediate response of the markets last week was quite muted. They assumed that with Germany in charge of the Euro and Merkel in charge of Germany, the austerity programmes will continue to the bitter end. Simpletons. Faced with changes in France and another election in Greece, people then started…
About Greek art and the little things that make our lives
Usually on Thursdays I tell you about a book I have read, or an idea that I have got from a book; and sometimes I also engage in polemics but then I would, wouldn’t I? These past weeks, I have been so frightfully busy and so preoccupied that I have…
Politics and economy in the Eurozone part 1
The people have spoken in France and Greece. They do not like this austerity business one little bit. Can you blame them? After all it was not the people who caused the problem so why should they suffer while the banks get off scot-free? But what are the implications? What…
100 words on minimalism
We live in societies of over consumption and consume to offset the consequences of over consumption. Don’t believe me? How much did you eat today? Did you go to the gym to work out these extra calories? Did you drive to the gym? Told you so! This reminded me of…
It is all in the mind: about causality and the millionaire mind?
During the last week, two of my favourite bloggers, and blogging buddies, published articles about the characteristics of millionaires. Dom at Your Finances Simplified published 10 common characteristics of millionaires you can follow and Roshawn at Watson Inc asked why do the rich get richer? Both very interesting and well…
Money for all seasons II: income, spending and age profiles and received wisdom
In ‘Money for all seasons I’ I already described the seasons of our lives according to income and spending. I also set out some expectations and used these to ask you, my readers, to position yourselves within a season. In brief, I see the expectations of pitfalls in different ‘seasons’…
100 words on strategy
We hear a lot about strategy, lately. Everyone I know seems to be ‘strategising’, the organisation I work for has a strategy and most company websites greet you with a strategy. Getting to the core of it, these strategies amount to little more than wish lists and/or road maps….
Money for all seasons I: income, spending and age
This is the first of two posts in which the seasons of life and finance are outlined. In the next one, these are used to ‘profile’ and project financial health.
I have been joking that people have different preoccupations in different decades of their lives. During their 20s people are mostly interested in ‘sex, drugs and rock-n-roll’ (well, I was anyway); in their thirties, people start thinking about mortgages and children; in their forties, people worry about pensions and insurance; in their fifties they move to varicose veins and elderly parents; in their sixties concerns are focused on retirement and haemorrhoids; and after that…well, I have not got that far.
A couple of days ago, it suddenly hit me that in fact the building blocks of our lives and our finances are also very different at different stages of our lives. Have to admit that the theme John and I have been focusing on lately – the differences between generations – did help me crystallise this idea. Meanwhile, it was obvious from the outset that it is not very helpful to un-pack the relationship between earning, spending and the stages in our life by decades – earning and spending patterns don’t fit in decades; also the periods are not really even – some characteristics persist for longer than others.
This is when I remembered about the Wheel of Life. No, not the one that separates the different areas of life and is used by life coaches to make you consider your balance (my life is so out of kilter at the moment that any reminder of balance sends me into a fit of nerves and anxiety). The wheel of life I am talking about is the one painted by the pioneer of modern Bulgarian art in the Preobrazen monastery. It looks like this and the picture comes from a lovely blog called Zikata – if you would like to learn more about this monastery and the icon the link is here.
This Wheel depicts life as the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. This made me wonder what would happen if instead of thinking about our earning and spending by the decades of our life we think in terms of the seasons in our life.