Spring Clean your Finances

I woke up this morning with the urge to clean!  No, I don’t mean the usual push the vacuum cleaner round; do a bit of dusting clean.  I mean the empty the cupboards out, see what is lurking in the back of the pantry and have a good old decluttering session.

Maybe it has something to do with spring; the trees are just starting to blossom and the garden is coming back to life after winter.  So the urge is there to get ready for summer.  Or maybe I am just sick and tired of opening a cupboard and all this ‘stuff’ that I don’t use or need stares back at me and it is time to do something about it.

That got me thinking, we should also spring clean our finances on a regular basis as well.  Have a look at all the automatic payments and direct debits that come out of your bank account.

Do you know what they are for?

Do you still want the service you are paying for?

It is also a good opportunity to review other expenses like your insurances, phone and power provider to see if there are any deals you could capitalise on.

What about your credit card?  If you have a balance just sitting there that won’t go away, are there any options by changing credit card company that could help reduce the cost.

Don’t forget to look at your savings, when was the last time you increased your contribution to your savings plan?  If you got rid of a couple of unused subscriptions, you could divert the money to savings instead.

Oh well, it’s back to the kitchen cupboards for me…..

If you would like some help decluttering your finances, feel free to drop us an email or give us a call

 

5 tips to help you cope with Money and Depression

It was with surprise and sadness that we learned of the death of Robin Williams.  How could someone who gave so much to everyone else not realise that he was loved in return?  The answer of course was that insidious illness, Depression.

Then I saw this headline in the NZ Herald “Williams was depressed and broke”.  It was only a few months earlier that Charlotte Dawson also suffering from depression and ‘jobless and penniless’ ended her life as well.  It seems that depression and money problems are a dangerous combination.

I don’t know the details of either’s financial circumstances other than what has been in the media.  But both had been in the situation of earning very good incomes during their careers, they enjoyed the good things in life and were able to be generous to their friends and family.  Then for whatever reason the money stopped flowing and life became even more difficult when combined with depression.

The Have’s and Have Nots – The gap is growing.

Wow, what an eye opener. I have just watched Nigel Latta:  The new Have’s and Have Nots.  What a powerful documentary about the changes in the New Zealand economy, the impact on families and the widening gap between the have’s and have nots.

I highly recommend that you watch the documentary, but if you can’t spare 44 minutes, then these are the key points that I picked up from it.

We have a new ‘class’ in New Zealand, The Working Poor.  These are the families where both parents work full time, and still don’t have enough money to meet the day to day needs of their families.

If something goes wrong and they need to borrow money; say for car repairs or a family funeral that is out of town, they have no option but to borrow money.  The banks won’t lend it to them, so they end up in the hands of the loan shops, who will happily lend them money at 10% interest.  That didn’t sound too bad until it was clarified; that was 10% per week!!  When you are desperate you tend to think in terms of  immediate needs, and don’t calculate the longer term costs so the situation just keeps getting worse.

The statistics are scary.  One in five families don’t have enough to live on.  One in three families couldn’t survive more than two weeks if the main breadwinner lost their jobs. A staggering 55% would run out of money in four weeks.

Will you have enough money when you want to retire?

A scary question isn’t it.  I meet quite a number of people who don’t want to even think about retiring let alone thinking if they will have enough money when they finally do want to retire.

The answer to the question was the subject of a presentation at a network breakfast I attended.  A certified financial planner used a case study to illustrate the point.

We probably all know this.  We are living longer.  But maybe we hadn’t quite connected the dots in terms of having enough money to retire on.  It wasn’t that long ago that the life expectancy after retirement at age 65 was only 9 years.  Now it can easily be 20 to 30 years, so the number of people potentially outliving their capital is going to be quite significant.

The website My Longevity has gathered data to help you work out your life expectancy based on your lifestyle rather than actuarial data.  It is worth spending a few minutes to complete the questionnaire to see what your life expectancy could possibly be.  I did mine and unless I get hit by a bus, I potentially will need my capital to last until I am 106!!  I certainly don’t have enough to last that long.

I’ll be happy when…..

“l’ll be happy when I get the pay rise” or “I’ll be happy when I get a ………”  Just insert whatever the word is for you.  Why do so many of us wait to be happy.  What is wrong with being happy right now?

Do you know this song?

“If you’re happy and you know, it clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know, it clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it can your hands.”

I think it is about  time we started clapping our hands, instead of looking outside of ourselves and waiting until we have more stuff to make us happy.

We need to stop, take a deep breath, look around and see where we are right now and take pride in our accomplishments to date.

I am not saying there is anything wrong in wanting more things, a nicer house, flash car, but our happiness shouldn’t be delayed until you have them.

So, go for a walk in the park, watch the sunrise.  Tell your partner or children that you love them, start looking inside yourself rather than externally for your happiness.

If you don’t feel happy right now, then every day when you wake up think of one thing you are grateful for, as the list grows, so will your happiness.

If you want to be a little crazy then sing the song and just start clapping.

We love feedback, so please feel free to leave us a comment or contact us.

Lynda Moore   http://www.mymoneyseeker.com

 

 

Money, Behaviours and Beliefs

If you aren’t getting the results you want in an area of your life, take a look at your behaviours.  Are they helping you or hindering you?  If you are up for the challenge take a step further back and examine the underlying belief that is generating the behaviour.

If you really want to make changes in your life, this is a very important equation to learn and more importantly, to implement.

Beliefs drive Behaviours.  Behaviours drive Results.

My clients challenge me on this and ask, “Why should I examine my beliefs? I just want to spend less/save more.”

A belief is an assumed truth that we then make our reality; our beliefs become self fulfilling prophecies. So if life is going well for us then our beliefs are working and we don’t need or want to examine them; we may not even be aware of what the underlying belief is.

Let’s look at an example. I have a belief that exercise is good for me.  So even though it occasionally causes me physical pain (particularly after a personal training session),  I don’t question or challenge my belief because I know I have more energy on the days that I exercise and I know my health is much better than my pre-exercise days.  My belief is working for me.

Financially supporting our Children. When does it stop?

It is an exciting day and also tinged with a bit of sadness when our children leave home. Maybe they are off to see the world, heading to university or flatting with their friends.  Does this mean we stop supporting our children financially?  This question can become the elephant in the room for many families.

The short answer seems to be no we don’t stop supporting them financially!  Among friends and clients it seems many of us with adult children are still helping out in one way or another.

The agreement we had with our children was we would support them during university and after that they were on their own.  Sounded like a really good plan at the time, but over the years it hasn’t quite worked out that way.  The number of parents in the same boat as us seems to be growing.

The old adage of children leaving home at 18 or when they finish their tertiary education and supporting themselves, has disappeared for a high percentage of parents.  We are faced with the dilemma of supporting our children for longer than originally thought.  This can cause friction between the parents.

This story was told to me in a humorous way, but there were serious undertones.

“Our son came back from overseas, no money, no job, so of course we welcomed him back home.  Six months later he is still here, he has a job, but isn’t contributing a penny.

Money. Love it or hate it, you have to live with it.

Strange as it sounds we all have a relationship with money.  When you think about it, it does make sense.  Money is everywhere, we really can’t ‘opt out’ and say we want nothing to do with it.  Unless you want to be a hermit in the deepest darkest Amazon jungle where there are no other people and you can be self sufficient, not my idea of fun.

I hadn’t really thought about it either, money was just there (or not) depending on what day of the week it was and how close to payday it was. OK, that was many years ago when I was young, single and carefree, or I liked to think I was, but looking back now, even then money permeated my thoughts and actions.

Whether you like it or not, you have a relationship with money.  Love it or hate it, money is everywhere and like any relationship there are good relationships and bad.

A little tongue in cheek, but think about it this way, if you were dating money what would it say about you?

Instant Gratification: the other side of the story.

Earlier this week I wrote a blog on Instant Gratification.  Just like the movie Sliding Doors, the story can have a different ending…..

Twelve months ago, I had a Freddy Mercury moment. “I want it and I want it now”.  What was the object of my desire? A red leather lounge suite.

It would look perfect in our house, not that there was anything wrong with the lounge suite that we had, but the red leather was divine.  It wouldn’t just enhance the room, it would transform it.

We weren’t even looking to buy new furniture, it was one of those moments when you walk past a shop and something grabs your attention, next minute you’re in the shop chatting to the salesman like he is a long-lost friend.

I did all the things that I tell my clients to do when impulse kicks in.  Walk away, give yourself time to assess whether this is a Need or Want.  What is the opportunity cost of the purchase?  Is the purchase worth it in terms of our longer term goals?  We looked at the price tag and decided we weren’t prepared to pay that price.  So we didn’t buy it.

Instant Gratification: I want it and I want it now!

Twelve months ago, I had a Freddy Mercury moment. “I want it and I want it now”.

What was the object of my desire? A red leather lounge suite.

It would look perfect in our house, not that there was anything wrong with the lounge suite that we had, but the red leather was divine.  It wouldn’t just enhance the room, it would transform it.

We weren’t even looking to buy new furniture, it was one of those moments when you walk past a shop and something grabs your attention, so you go in to have a closer look.

I did all the things that I tell my clients to do when impulse kicks in.  Walk away, give yourself time to assess whether this is a Need or Want.  What is the opportunity cost of the purchase?  Is the purchase worth it in terms of our longer term goals?  We looked at the price tag and decided we weren’t prepared to pay that price.  So we didn’t buy it.