Typically, inflation and interest rates are in an “inverse” relationship: When rates are low, inflation tends to rise. And when rates are high, inflation tends to fall. Moneyweb recently wrote “increasing the cost of credit will reduce the demand for it and therefore slow down the pace of ‘new money’ entering the economy via credit channels. This slowdown of funds entering the economy via credit channels will slow down the inflation rate as less money chases […]
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Recognise. Interrupt. Change.
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” – Sheryl Sandberg The foundation of most of our ongoing frustrations can be traced back to our habits, and the challenge with habits is we often aren’t even aware of them. When the world went into COVID lockdown, there was an increased awareness of face-touching, hand-washing and social distancing. All of a sudden, we became aware that […]
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Rewriting retirement rules of thumb
At the end of any retirement planning conversation, we should always end with how our plan is unique to our own situations. But at the beginning, during the exploratory stage, it’s helpful to have some basic guidelines for where we can begin, or how we can craft our own benchmarks. In the same way that a baby may start to walk anywhere between 8 and 18 months, we all start saving and investing at different stages […]
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Finding the healthy positive
Everything we know, believe, and feel is based on our internal thoughts. Positive thinking gives us extraordinary power over our thinking and ourselves (Strycharczyk & Clough, 2015). Some people are exceptional; they always seem to remain positive regardless of what lemons are tossed their way. You know the type, the every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining, glass-half-full, things-will-get-better type of people. We love to have them around when we need their support, but we can also envy their seemingly relentless positive […]
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Ready and Willing
Here’s the thing about financial planning: we don’t plan out of fear; we plan so that we can extend our peace of mind. This is why wills form such a key role in our planning. However, engaging in this process can be clumsy, confusing, and a little hairy, and as Ricky Gervais once said, where there’s a will – there’s a relative! We need to talk about wills and estate planning so that we can remove […]
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Messy, not perfect
It’s hard not to become fixated on getting things perfect. It may not be in all areas of our lives, but for almost all of us, we have skills, relationships and responsibilities where we want to show up as perfect. As Dave and Hester Vaughan (yourjourneyforlife.com) often say, “Messy, not perfect!” This is a great reminder that we mustn’t fall into the perfectionism trap. If we do, we will find piles and piles of frustration. As […]
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Cruise through a cost-of-living crisis
No one likes to plan for a time when we might not have enough money to make ends meet. Often, when we plan or make financial decisions, we assume that our future self will have enough money to pay for the decisions we make today. Sometimes this turns out to be accurate, but sometimes it doesn’t. And, if the economy slumps and we have a cost-of-living crisis, the pressure on our finances can be debilitating. Before […]
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The importance of boundaries
Every day we make decisions to live a life of our choosing. But yet, when asked about what our ideal life could look like, it’s often quite different from the one we’re living right now. Our decisions link our current life to the life we’d like. With every decision, we’re either establishing a new boundary, moving a boundary or removing a boundary. Unfortunately, if we spend too much time removing boundaries, we will become increasingly frustrated, […]
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From bags to riches
We often think of things like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities and assets as investments. But, investments are a broad area. According to Investopedia, an investment involves putting capital to use today to increase its value over time. An investment requires putting capital to work, in the form of time, money, effort, etc., in hopes of a more significant payoff in the future than what was initially put in. With the increased use of technology to […]
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Want to avoid a lapsed policy?
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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