From the stoics to the sentimentalists, most have one question in common: What is the meaning of it all? Searching for purpose and meaning helps us come up with a reason for living. As Aristotle always said, our ability to reason is what makes us different to other animals. This sits at the core of Ikigai, the Japanese concept that speaks to our lives’ direction, purpose, and meaning. Quite literally, iki means “to live”, and gai […]
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Don’t be afraid of being different
“Every next level of your life will demand a different you.” Leonardo DiCaprio If you’ve ever thought – I wish I’d known this in my twenties… then you’ve subtly acknowledged that the person you are now is different to the person you were back then. We are surrounded by conversations of change and forward-thinking, and it can cause us to panic and hold on to our integrity by not wanting to change who we are. But […]
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Discovery and discomfort
It’s nearly impossible to make it through an entire week without glancing at a blog, social media post or newsletter that reminds us about the pervasive and perpetual change in our lives. Hopefully, this blog won’t be one of those to add to the list. Instead, it will help us to identify the benefits of the challenges that we face. Change can be sparked in so many ways, some of them are by our personal choice, […]
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Five financial tripwires
If you’ve ever seen the mayhem from the middle of the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), you can be forgiven for thinking it’s a warzone! Whilst most stock exchanges around the world now trade electronically, having cleared out their trading floors, NYSE still hosts the traditional tussle of the floor traders’ open outcries. But this is not the only place where money mayhem can cause a right kerfuffle. Every day, in all […]
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What are the financial implications of your life choices?
“When money changes, life changes, and, when life changes, money changes.” Susan Bradley Your money and your life are linked. As we move through life, we all experience transitions. For many, these have been referred to as milestones, but as the goals keep shifting, and we live in a world increasingly tailored to our personal choices – we cannot escape the reality that our life choices affect our financial situations; and they can’t be unlinked! Here […]
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Bias and your bank balance
When it’s a question of money – everyone is of the same religion, or so said Voltaire. Like religion, there are many different perspectives on how it helps (or hinders) us. It’s probably one reason why people always say you should never talk about money, religion or politics at the dinner table. There are so many differing views! It is not to say we should never discuss money; instead, it’s helpful to be selective about our […]
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The premium time to review your premiums
When it comes to financial planning, risk planning, estate planning and investing, many of us like to “set and forget”. Our lives are full of things to remember, for work, family and the communities in which we’re involved – often, the last thing we want to review is our financial portfolio. As a result, it’s easy to forget why we have some of these financial products in the first place. The complexity of financial planning and […]
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How other people affect our money choices
“When we all think alike, we don’t think very much.” Albert Einstein Countless studies in Social Psychology demonstrate the influence of groups on the decisions we as human beings make. It is virtually impossible for a decision made as a group to be in alignment with the potential decisions each individual within the group would have made independently. In The Little Book of Behavioral Investing, expert James Montier explains: “Groups have powerful self-reinforcing mechanisms at work. […]
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Our oft-told money stories
Money isn’t real. It’s just an agreed-upon system of exchange. Have you ever heard that? This is the realisation that many reach when feeling frustrated with tax systems, witnessing social injustice or experiencing the unfairness of life. While money and currency systems may not be real, they represent value and help us form and communicate meaning. Money is interwoven with our stories of life and meaning. “We tell ourselves a story about how we got that […]
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Becoming an impartial investor
“Wall Street has a few prudent principles; the trouble is that they are always forgotten when they are most needed.” – Benjamin Graham The study of behavioural finance, a sub-field of behavioural economics, arose in the 1980s. Since then, we have been learning more and more about how our emotions, biases, and blindspots affect our money-making choices and can hinder our investing outcomes. This is contrary to traditional financial theories, which failed to take human behaviour […]
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