Bruce Lee once said: Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own. It’s an exceptional quote that is profoundly helpful when working with a financial plan. However, the difference between our current situation and Lee’s is that in the 60s, it was much harder to access information. Now, we’re overwhelmed with information, and too much advice can derail even the most robust plans. Sifting what is useful from what […]
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How mindfulness helps our money
How much time do you waste trying to solve problems that haven’t happened yet? Many of us fixate on problems that might happen tomorrow, next week or several years in the future, and this is not what life and financial planning are about. Getting stuck in the future at the cost of living life to its fullest today is precisely what we’re trying to avoid! This is why we talk so much about being mindful. Dr […]
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Need a little grounding?
Have you ever gone for a walk in the garden without shoes on? Remember what it felt like, as a kid, to come home from school – slip out of tight school shoes and walk barefoot? Whether it was on comfy rugs, soft sea-sand or lush grass, the sensation often felt so good because we were grounding ourselves. A quick Google search will tell us that there’s a lot more happening when we walk barefoot. The […]
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Building wealth, one brick at a time
The root of our wealth is not in our income or our spending; it’s in our behaviour. Our habits make us wealthy, not the markets. Some have said that sound financial management comes down to spending less than we earn – but whilst this adage holds merit, it’s a lot more complicated in practice. It’s complicated because people are complicated. It’s not helpful to tell someone who is already relying on credit to get through the […]
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What’s changed in your life?
WHERE TRUE FINANCIAL PLANNING STARTS One of the best ways to make any constructive change or difference in the direction of our lives is to take a moment to observe what’s currently going on. Life whizzes by so quickly that if we don’t check in with ourselves, we will find it hard to observe and articulate what has changed. Financial planning, if done right, should start in the same place. Rather than beginning a financial planning […]
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Thank you, money
Some people say that magic isn’t real, but what about the first magic words we’re all taught to say? No – not “abracadabra” or “zimzalabim”, although those are great words. Abracadabra is thought to come from the Aramaic phrase “avra kehdabra”, meaning “I will create as I speak”, and zimzalabim comes from the mythological tricksters, Zim Zala and Bim. But, our most basic and formative levels of social etiquette (getting people to do what we want […]
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Building your Money IQ… and EQ!
Would you consider yourself to be financially intelligent? Depending on how you answer that, here’s another tough question: how much do you trust yourself to manage your own finances? Often we find that after answering the second question, clients want to go back and reanswer the first! And, that’s okay. As Ken Honda suggests, there’s more than one type of financial intelligence, and we can work on both to be happy and prosperous. Honda, Japan’s no. […]
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Re-train your brain for healthier relationships
At the heart of everything, we find relationships. Most of these are unintentional relationships that happen situationally, but some are relationships that stem from our choices. From the moment we enter the world, we will have a relationship with everyone and everything: from the space around us to the people who are present and how each made us feel. While these connections are as old as life, the Scientific Revolution sparked Newton’s insight in 1687. He […]
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The importance of being intentional
If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything. Essentially, our actions will either result from what we choose, or what is chosen for us. Our days are packed full of communication and actions. From the moment we engage with our mobile device or open our emails, messages begin to stream in and affect us. We will either be triggered into action by what we engage with or choose to follow our own intended […]
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Four ways to measure your fortune
We often don’t worry about something until we realise that it’s limited. If we have lots of something, it’s a fortune. If we don’t, it can become a focus of concern and anxiety. Young children generally don’t worry about much if their needs are met. With access to their parents’ love, attention and confidence, children have much of the social affirmation they need. When school starts and they are placed in a room with lots of […]
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