When the purse strings are pulled tight, it’s challenging to look at your statement and see monthly amounts deducted for insurance payments. Whether the risk policies are for health care, income protection or the protection of assets, seeing them come off your account can be painful. As a result, many of us cut these policies quickly to create immediate relief to our finances because it feels like one of the few things we can control. But […]
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Why is it so hard to plan for tomorrow?
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ― Abraham Lincoln We’ve written so many blogs about mindfulness and being grounded in the present; understanding that the future doesn’t actually exist yet means that we mustn’t get lost in fear, anxiety and worry about it. But, we still need to plan for it. This is why it’s so hard. We seem to have competing messages, […]
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When you think you can’t
Stress can be an incredibly powerful motivator. Most of the time, we see it as a negative, but that’s because our days are generally overwhelmed with stress. And, our coping skills have evolved to help us survive in environments very different (Cosmides & Tooby, 2013). Our mind protects us from harm and further stress by telling us that “we can’t”. Coping with everyday life is complex and learning to make healthier decisions is a lifelong journey; […]
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Building character, not just cash reserves
“What a our mind can create, our character should control.” Thomas Edison Money is a tricky tool; too little and we fear how we will get by; too much, and we fear wasting it. Whilst much of traditional financial planning and advice has focussed on the numbers, formulas and historical market commentary, we have always believed that to live in our wealthspace means that we need to connect all the dots, not just the few that […]
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What’s happening in the markets?… is not always the best question
Whilst it’s good to have someone on your team (your financial adviser) who knows what’s happening in the markets, it’s not always helpful to relay all that information to you and have you make decisions about it. We can’t control the markets, but we can control our conversations about money. That’s why it’s not always helpful to ask what is happening in the markets; it’s more beneficial to ask what problems we can work on in […]
Continue readingWhen invention meets convenience
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” – Plato Invention is a beautiful creative expression where we can create something that never existed before. As kids, we would invent things all the time, but as our lives become full of growing responsibilities and obligations, we find ourselves relying more and more on the inventions of others. But invention doesn’t always make life easier; this is where innovation enters the picture. Where invention creates something new, innovation finds […]
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It’s okay to listen and learn
Over the last two decades, we’ve been introduced, seduced and held captive by the overwhelming presence of digital communication. From the days when we promised ourselves we would ‘never get emails on our Blackberry’ to an age where we can DM, post, comment, react, share, support, subscribe, pin, tweet, self-publish, sync, stream, webcast, update, upload and download practically anything and everything. We’ve moved from a chosen behaviour to listen and learn to a conditioned behaviour of […]
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When the markets have you second-guessing
“Genuine travellers travel not to overcome distance but to discover distance.” James P Carse Investing money is always a paradox: it’s simple, complex, straightforward, challenging, mathematical, and unpredictable. It’s because of our emotional influence that plays a significant role in every decision we make. When investing in the markets, many have said it’s all about time in the markets, not timing the markets. When trying to time the markets, our emotions can offset our mathematical thinking […]
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How we innovate to thrive
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used to create them.” Albert Einstein Innovation doesn’t need to be hard work. Our modern age has equated innovation with research and development, industrialised and commercialised it and made it feel like hard work. It’s also created a culture of perfectionism, where we’ve become afraid to innovate because we might fail. But, as Brené Brown writes: there is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period. […]
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The Superman Syndrome
Have you ever watched a superhero movie where they show the origin story of the hero? It’s often a journey of going from ordinary and wanting so much more, to being extra-ordinary and not being able to cope with all of the responsibility. A sense of overwhelming obligation can both distract and dilute the hero from being truly powerful in exacting the change they would like to see. And, although we’re not superheroes we can sometimes […]
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