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.

What does wealth mean to you?

Typically in our society wealth is equated with how much money we have.  Wealth can mean different things to different people and what it means to you comes down to your core values.

As a money mentor I love to listen and learn from as many different experts and  differing perspectives about money as I can.  So it was with eager anticipation that I attended Dr John Demartini’s recent talk on wealth in Auckland.

I wasn’t disappointed, it was fascinating. I could really relate to what he was saying.  It isn’t just about changing your money behaviours, you need to go much deeper than that and explore your beliefs and core values.

When you ask a room full of people how many of them want to be financially free most of the room put their hand up.  When you ask the same room to put their hand up if they are financially free, very few do.  Why is this?

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

 

 

Think like a travel agent when setting your goals

Our bags are packed and we are all set to go.  After months of waiting we are on our way to Sydney to attend Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy.

We knew where we wanted to go, the date we were leaving and how we were going to get there; so planning for this trip was really quite easy.

Other times when we travel, we are more fluid.  We have a departure date and a date we need to be home and what happens in the middle is totally flexible.  So we decide what to do on a day to day basis.

Goal setting is like that, sometimes you have a short sharp goal that you just need to get stuck in and achieve.  Maybe saving for that unexpected large dentist bill or setting up your emergency fund.

Your goal may go something like this “I want $1,000 in a savings account for emergencies in 90 days from today”.  That ticks all the boxes in terms of being a clear, measurable and attainable goal.

But if you are 25 and you have a goal to have enough money to retire on when you are 65, you will need a bit more flexibility in your planning, by turning your large goal into smaller measurable and attainable chunks.

So, when you are setting your goals.  Think like a travel agent

1. Where are you now?

1.  Where do you want to go?

3. How are you going to get there?

4. When do you want to arrive?

We love to hear from you, so please leave us a comment or to learn more about our programmes, feel free to  contact us. 

Lynda Moore    www.mymoneyseeker.com

Imagine earning $44 million dollars a year

What would you do with it?

We could ask Cristiano Roanaldo the World’s highest paid soccer player, he should know, that is what he reportedly earned last year.

Judging by the photos of him (and his girlfriend) in the media they certainly have the lifestyle and the toys that go with that level of income but I can’t help wondering if he is following the first few commandments of money management which are:
1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Know where you money goes.
3. Pay yourself first.

You see it doesn’t matter if you earn $44 million or $44,000 you still need to follow the basic commandments as you never know what is around the corner.
The other commandment for those that suddenly acquire wealth or haven’t been used to a high level of income is,

Get good advice!!

Good advisers not only include accountants, lawyers and financial planners, but also money mentors.  Change is rarely about the numbers (the math) otherwise it would be simple, but emotions cloud money issues.  Money mentors can help you understand your money mindset so you can deal with the changes in your life.

Anyway, back to Ronaldo, he has an amazing sporting talent, let’s hope he has the right people around him to make sure he is investing wisely for the future, whilst enjoying the fruits of his labour at the same time.

Lynda Moore    ww.mymoneyseeker.com

Anchoring; how it impacts on our spending behaviour

At some time or other we have all been anchored.  This tends to happen more often when we are purchasing a product or service that we don’t know too much about.  Here’s how it works.

I was happily driving my car when it developed a bit of a shudder through the steering wheel.  I didn’t think it was a major so I took it to my local Tyre shop, thinking my wheels just needed balancing. (That is about the extent of my technical knowledge of tyres).  I left my car in the serviceman’s capable hands and headed off to my appointment.

Within 10 minutes my phone rang – never a good sign.  It was the tyre shop, the problem was somewhat more serious than balancing.  I needed a new tyre as this one was falling apart (apparently I was lucky I made it to the tyre shop without having a serious accident).  Not only did I need one new tyre, the others were looking quite worn so I really needed to replace all four.  Not what I wanted to hear, but safety comes first so I took a deep breath and asked for some prices.

This is what I was told.

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.

Money Beliefs, where do they come from?

Our beliefs, or our view of the world starts with our early childhood memories.  We learn from our parents, our environment and form our own beliefs from those observations.  So what are your earliest memory’s of money? How do you think that has impacted on how you relate to money now in your adult life?

My earliest memories of money revolve around the word ‘No’.  No I couldn’t have the umbrella with the pink frill; the must have winter fashion accessory for a 4 year old.  No, I couldn’t have a Barbie doll, they were too expensive, so I got the imitation one instead.

My parents were (and still are) very careful with their money, they were quite frugal in day to day expenditure but that meant that there was money set aside for our holidays and should any emergency crop up.

Their goal was to be mortgage free, as they hated any sort of debt and over the years they achieved that goal.