Christmas and what matters most

It is Christmas time again, a time when you feel obligated to buy presents for family and friends.

I find Christmas to be one of those times when we lose our senses. I say this, because it seems we have forgotten what Christmas is all about.

The Christmas’ I remember and cherish most are those where the focus was not on presents but on family spending time and doing things together. I remember them because they were about activities – playing games, carol singing, playing with fire-works, listening to folk tales and so on.

While I did received presents, what I remember are the experiences. The sad thing is we no longer look forward to enjoying Christmas with family. If anything, a number of the people I know can’t wait for Christmas to come and go, as it has become a stressful time for them. Not only do they spend unnecessarily, they do so under stress.

What I find interesting with all these Christmas hysteria is buying presents with money you don’t have. To make matters worse, most of the presents bought are unwanted and will never be used. From what I heard on the news the other day most will be advertised for sale on eBay come January.

Why then do you put yourself through it? Especially when you know, it doesn’t have to be so. I will tell you why. Obligatory buying….the act of buying because you feel obligated. You feel guilty turning up for Christmas without a present in hand. According to you, family and friends would punish and disown you for not buying them a present.

Such an idea is further from the truth and we know it. No relative or friend who genuinely cares about you wants you to put yourself in financial difficulty by spending too much on him or her. What they want in reality is your love and care, which can be expressed without a present.

If you care to exercise thought, to look deeper, you would realise the winners in all these are retail outlets. They get to make large sums of money while you languish in debt, and family and friends stuck with presents they will never use.

Having the opportunity to see another year draw to a close, getting to spend time with family and friends, and celebrating religious believes is what Christmas is about, not buying presents. Focus on what matters most.

Banks find another way

Who is thinking of making money from you – Part 2

It seems banks have found another way to rob their customers.

Until recently, banks were permitted to charge their customers exorbitant penalty fees. Thanks to the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) this is no longer possible. The OFT is investigating current account penalty fees and is expected to clamp down on banks when their investigation is completed.

Realising the door to the riches they have enjoyed over the years will be close, banks have resorted to opening a new door of riches by providing customers a “Premier” account.

What is a premier account you ask? A premier account is a current account with add-ons, such as free mobile insurance, breakdown cover, discounts at hotels, etc. your bank charging you a monthly fee for the privilege of these add-ons.

The interesting thing about this account is, unlike a penalty, which you pay when you go overdrawn and which may not happen so often, you are paying a monthly fee, so the bank has a secured monthly income from you. And as I understand it, banks are already taking in almost 900 million pounds-worth of fee income annually. Thanks to you.

Of course, you will have to sign up for such an account before your bank starts charging you. The point is do you really need a “premier” account? What benefit is a mobile phone insurance to you? After all, you can get a new phone for £20. Why would you pay for a service you may never use? Even if you did need breakdown cover for your car, wouldn’t you get it for the same price or cheaper by going direct to the AA, RAC et al

I always tell people who moan about not having enough money or who want to save up to start by scrutinising their bank statements for unnecessary payments. This is one such payment you do not need to make.

Beware the banker salesman

Who is thinking of making money from you?

I find it disturbing that I not only have to be alert about salesmen/women trying to sell me stuff, I also have to worry about my bank as well.

I got a letter from my bank the other day, it read sometime like this….

Welcome to Private Banking…. As a desirable customer, you would enjoy the following services…a personal banker, discounts to hotels, restaurants, insurance and so on. It then went on to say that for this service a charge of £12 a month would be required.

Now here is the fascinating bit. I had not asked to join this “private banking service” and I sure was not going to make use of the phantom benefits listed in the sales letter.

Why is it that people are only concerned about you when you have a healthy bank balance? You would think your bank’s job was to help store, protect and grow your money. Wrong! There job am afraid is to make money from you, to suck you dry and make you indebted to them forever. They give you an umbrella when it is sunny but take it back when it starts raining.

I remember going to see my bank account manager about 6 years ago, to ask for a property loan. As you might guess, they asked me to take a walk. The irritating thing was I wasn’t asking for a lot and a proven property investor was going to mentor me, so the risk was low. May be I would be sitting a pretty property portfolio now.

Anyway, that is all in the past now, back to this sale letter from my bank. I wonder how many of you ever analyse your bank statement for “private” or “preferred” services that mean nothing to you but are costing you money every month.

As we draw nearer to the end of the year and the start of a new year, may I propose you are alert as to the services sold to you by your bank. Something as simple as a diary from the bank can have cost implications you are now aware off. I should know it happened to me.

If you did not know, now you do…there are many people interested in your money, and some of these people are those you least expect.

Contest that fine

You can get a refund most of the time, but only on one condition – you ask for it.

I had a booked a hotel on a last minute trip to London. On getting where the hotel was my partner suggested we walk past the hotel, check out the condition before going in to confirm our booking.

What we saw was not encouraging, paint to the stucco fronted elevation was flaking, the sash windows were rotten and the reception looked grotty and un-kept. As expected, we decided not to go in but to look at other hotels in the area. We found one two streets away, well presented and clean, and the rate was only a few pounds more than the one we had booked.

While I was happy to have found a better hotel, I still had the issue of cancelling the booking on our original hotel. I did think I was going to lose my deposit – small amount – but I wasn’t expecting to be charged “administration / cancellation fee” which was quite high. The main issue being I hadn’t given enough notice for cancellation.

Anyway, I complained about the extra fees and asked to speak to a decision maker at the head-office, as I could see I wasn’t going to get any joy for the rep on the phone. As far as he was concerned, nothing could be done.

Maria, from the head-office called me about an hour later. I think she was Spanish. She waived the fee and cancelled my deposit, which meant I came out of the deal not having to pay anything.

I remember my sister had a similar situation where a rep told her nothing could be done. However, when she spoke to a decision maker, her fine was reduced. Sometime back, I had to contest a late fee with my bank, I got the same result - the fine waived.

These are everyday situations you and I go through but only few of us go the extra mile to contest a fine even when we are in the right. This is why car parking and traffic management is big business because a high percentage of their fines are never contested because you and I are to scared to do so, or should I say we see it as a time consuming bother.

Did you know it is also part of the strategy to have reps prevent you taking your complaint further? Their job apart from selling to you is also to paint an impossible picture of you getting what you want if you feel they have acted wrong.

My point - always contest any unfair fine. Ask to speak to a decision maker and eight times out of ten the decision will be in your favour. However, there is one condition – you will need to be polite and friendly. Ask nicely, as my mum used to say.

Practical Education

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.

John W. Gardner

Are you missing practical education? Education you can use in the real world. You probably are.

Since graduating from university in 2000, I have come to conclude that I was not taught correctly. I was taught to respond, rather than think, taught liberal education as opposed to practical education.

I was not thought how to make money, move up the career ladder, deal with office politics and so on. I had to learn all that the hard way, through experience. Boy! how much I’ve learnt in six years in the school of life.

All our educational system seems to do is churn out corporate slaves. Think about it, you are taught how best to manage the finances of, say, businesses and corporations, but they neglect to teach you how best to manage your own finances. In effect, they are saying if you want to know how to run a bank, “come to us,” but if you want personal advice about financial matters, “go to a bank.”

Napoleon Hill once said “education comes from within; you get it by struggle, effort and thought. How true! He also said, “All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination. Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

What then must you do to solve this problem? Start thinking and start investing your time in practical education. Think do I want cut flowers or do I want to know how to grow my own plant.

Life is a lot easier when you have the right thought and information.

Paper Money

“If you think making money by thinking is difficult then read this article”

I love it here. You are not frowned upon when you hand over a fifty-euro note to a cashier. Using paper money (cash) to pay for goods and services is normal in Greece, unlike the UK.

What is the big deal in paying with cash you ask? There is a deal my friend, there is a deal.

You see cash money has an aura – an effect on our emotions. I discovered during one of my many personal studies of this thing we call money that I get tight fisted when I am using cash to pay for a service or transaction. Because cash is real, I find myself attempting to hold onto it for as long as possible. If I left the house with 150 euros, I always want to come back with some change and more.

Payment cards or plastic as we like to call them on the other hand is not as real as cash. All you have is an "I owe you", a promise on paying a certain amount later. Not exactly the same as paying there and then is it? With plastic, you get to spend money even before you earn it, or better still you can also spend other people's money. Spending 500 euros using a card, occurs in a flash, you don’t even feel the money leave your hands.

Logically, it is hard to grasp why we have a system that allows you to spend money you do not have let alone other people's money. The companies who peddle these cards would have you believe it is handy. Of course it’s convenient for them to have you pay a penalty for such a service – getting rich off your back.

To make things worse society looks at you suspiciously when you wield a £50 note or larger sums of cash. Carrying cash is now seen as a crime, you must be a drug dealer or something to be carrying cash around. Here is what I think, damn society, do what is advantageous to you. Look after number one.

My point is there is a mental process in the ways we use money. Use cash as much as you can and you will spend a lot less. Spend less and you will have more.

Thinking does make life easier

It is always a difficult period – when you lose your job. You are distraught, angry and anxious about the times ahead.

I had just been speaking to my mother about my sister losing her job. Her services were longer required as they say.

A couple of weeks before, a friend had emailed me asking if I knew of any jobs going as the company he was working for were losing their contract and he might find himself out of a job.

A major issue isn’t it – losing your job, especially when you do not have any other source of income. Which brings me to ask why very few of us ever stop to think about how we make money and what would happen if that source of income dried up.

You would have thought a backup plan would be in place for the times when your boss calls you into his/her office to say “Sorry, we have to let you go”. The problem is not such plan exists because it would have involved ‘thinking’.

And thinking unfortunately is not something we do well. Spending a few minutes to think about the day, week, month or year ahead seems to be very difficult. It is probably the last thing that comes to mind.

How different would your life be if you stopped to think? A lot easier is the answer you are looking for. You see there is something special about thinking that does wonders to you.

Thinking clears the mind of clutter, helping you see things as they really are. It also makes solving everyday problems easier because with thinking comes creativity.

Creativity opens your eyes to what is possible. When you think of what is possible, you are saying and why not. Want to know if a ‘why not’ attitude gets you places, ask Sir Richard Branson

With creativity, you start to see the possibilities of making money available to you. You realise money does not come from just your job but from many other sources. With this in mind, you begin to relax, gradually reducing your dependence on a job.

Work - what do you expect?

Do you know why you work? Am not sure many of us do. I certainly didn’t know why I worked until a few years back when I saw the ‘light’, as they say.

Do you also know there are different types of work? You probably knew all the work you did were different, like work you did around the house, work you did for family and friends- like running an errand or babysitting, work you did for fun and, work you did for money.

Its one thing knowing the difference in the types of work you did, it is another to treat them accordingly.

Herein lay the problem – treating the different work you did the same. Am sure you expect / experience different feelings from different people and like being treated as an individual. So does the work you do, it would like to be treated different, like an individual if you will. Treat your work as an individual and your reward will be calmness and happiness. Let me explain….

The work you do for family is just that, for family – helping out. Don’t expect this work to be something you enjoy or that rewards you with money. The same is true for work you do for money, don’t expect it to do anything other than get you money. If you enjoy doing it great, but, don’t expect it to fulfil all your needs.

Expectations, if not understood, will always lead to disappointment. Too many a times do we go to work with an attitude of expectation that our work will fulfil all our needs, it won’t. Do you have this attitude? You can change it by separating all the different types of work you do and identifying what you expect from each one. Know what you expect and expect nothing else, see everything else that comes with this work as a bonus.

Having this type of attitude to work has made me more relaxed and fun to be around. I know why I work and what I expect from my various works and so should you.

What is this all about

Money, education, living....words that reflect what matters to me.

On these pages you will read about my experiences on the above, and my hope is you would learn something new that would help you along your own journey through life.

I have created this blog for students and young professionals because am a life long student and I love;

• people
  
• writing
  
• communicating with people
  
• reading everything and anything
  
• money and what it can do for me
• and living

I hope I can help you find what you are looking for, maybe even solve a problem or two provided it has to with the "Money, Education, Living".

Seyi