Environment on the human psyche

Sam Harris
March 2023 • 5 min read

The effect of environment on the human psyche

It’s a cold story. The tale of a perilous journey across an apocalyptic wasteland. Crumbling buildings, nefarious outlaws and unearthly creatures that lurk in the dark, once human, but not anymore. This is the premise of The Last of Us. An episodic series based on the video game of the same name. To say I’m invested would probably be somewhat of an understatement. Pedro Pascal is exceptional in his portrayal of Joel, the lead character. Though much like the original game a decade ago, what has truly blown me away is the atmosphere. Surreal backdrops, from spectral city silhouettes to the crepuscular ruins of abandoned structures. The show’s aura is all encompassing, the attention to detail pays off and hooks you in with a supreme level of immersion. Which brings me to the main subject of this blog post, how your surroundings and environment can affect your emotions and state of mind.

Do you ever get that giddy feeling when it snows? For me, it doesn’t even need to settle to put a smile on my face. Yet when it does, the landscape totally changes. It feels like a different world. An undeniable scene of natural beauty. Streets and rooftops covered in blankets of white, the roads are quiet. A picture of serenity. It takes you back to the halcyon days of childhood: snowball fights, snow angels and the unmistakable crunch of the first steps across virgin snowfall. My immediate surroundings invariably have some degree of influence on how I think and feel. To me, this is what makes one’s environment so important. Even when it comes to money. Especially when it comes to financial planning.

This is one of the many reasons why at Solomon’s we feel it’s so crucial to develop personal, lasting relationships with our clients. To provide you with that confidence and level of trust which, let’s face it, is an absolute requirement in the financial industry. Furthermore, we endeavor to utilize user- friendly tools and services that present and collect information with utmost clarity and efficiency. Ultimately, isn’t that why people seek financial advice? To reduce uncertainty and stress. Finding yourself in an unpleasant environment can cause doubt and turmoil. Let us walk through the snow together

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Environment on the human psycheJemima Thomas2023-12-01T12:12:36+00:00

COMPANY CAR? GEAR UP FOR CHANGE…

TODAY’S BLOG

COMPANY CAR? GEAR UP FOR CHANGE..

Do you drive a company car? do you know your NDEC from your WLTP? You now need to.

Emissions, emissions…

For many years, company car tax scales have been based on CO2 emission levels, with a supplement (currently 4%) for most diesels (although a handful of new diesels now escape this surcharge). The emissions were measured under the New European Driving Cycle (NDEC) test, which produced results increasingly at variance with the real world.

In response, a new testing regime has been developed, the World harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). Unsurprisingly, this test reveals much higher emission levels than the NDEC – about 15%-20% more, with the greatest increase for cars with the smallest engines.

Company car changes

For company cars registered from 6 April 2020, the WLTP CO2 emission figure will be used in determining company car tax rates. However, for cars registered before that date, the old NDEC measure will continue to apply. As a result, from 2020/21 onwards there will be two sets of company car scales, one WLTP scale for cars registered on or after 6 April 2020 and the other NDEC-based scale for older cars. For any given level of emissions, in 2020/21 the WLTP percentage charge is 2% lower than the NDEC charge, although this difference will be phased out over the following two tax years.

Electric and Hybrid Cars

6 April 2020 will also see a change to the tax treatment of electric and hybrid cars. The charge for all pure electric cars will drop to zero – good news for Tesla – while for hybrid cars with CO2 emissions of 1-50g/km, the scale charge will be based on the vehicle’s electric-only range. For hybrids there will be separate NDEC and WLTP scales, with both offering no discount if the hybrid cannot run at least 30 miles on battery power alone.

Action

The company car tax regime has become much stricter over the years and there is some evidence that more employees are choosing cash rather than car where they have the option. You may want to join them.

If you are due to change your company car soon, make sure you understand the tax consequences of any choice you make. If you are thinking about an electric car and the required charging points at your home or office, the Pod Point website is worth having a look at. They also have a guide that gets fairly regularly updated on different types of electric cars. I haven’t used Pod Point and am not endorsing them (or paid by them) but you may find their information helpful.

Of course if you wish to see the Tesla range….

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

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The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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Call – 020 8542 8084

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Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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COMPANY CAR? GEAR UP FOR CHANGE…Dominic2025-01-21T16:33:59+00:00

BLOOMING MARVELLOUS & SUSTAINABILITY

TODAY’S BLOG

BLOOMING MARVELLOUS & SUSTAINABILITY

The British summer – when it arrives is a wonderful time when we all complain that it is too hot and expect this to be a short-lived experience, one with remedied with regular ice lollies and ice cream and a little too much Pimm’s. The summer sports events begin and from an English perspective, invariably end soon thereafter. This year we have seen a rather better competitive endurance from the Lionesses at the women’s FIFA Football World Cup. Wimbledon has begun and we wonder whether the covers will soon appear as the rain makes an unwelcome, but regular appearance.

Many of us spend rather more time outside in the garden, soaking up the sunshine and struggle to make sense of hosepipe bans when just a few weeks earlier we were ankle-deep in rainwater. This brings its challenges to those of us that enjoy gardening. The summer also brings about rural and floral events. The RHS Hampton Court Flower Show has begun. The Tudor grounds are transformed into spectacular smaller gardens and rammed with exhibitors demonstrating their skills and ideas. It is a fantastic show that I would encourage you to attend. Conservation, sustainability and a good gin and tonic, and a three-in-one with one I tried earlier by Warner’s Distillery.

Sustainability in your portfolio

So how about sustainable investing? When I started as an adviser, rather too many summers ago, there were relatively few ethical funds at the time. The most famous was the Stewardship Fund, which was really the first ethical fund launched in the UK in 1984. This was under the backing of Friends Provident and run by the late Charles Jacob, who died 3 years ago at the age of 94. Jacob and Friends Provident both had their faith at the core of their why?

This year we have seen the introduction of 16-year old Greta Thunberg onto the world stage, and a climate crisis declared. Protests in London and David Attenborough took to the stage at Glastonbury, declaring it the largest plastic-free festival and encouraging us all to take climate change seriously whilst announcing a new series “Seven Worlds, One Planet”.

ESG is the new SRI is the new Ethical

Today, ethical investment has evolved, initially through SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) and now more recently ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). In truth the term ESG was first coined way back in 2004 in a study “Who Cares Wins”. The criteria have shifted, partly as the discussion about sustainability has evolved. In 1984, ethical investment meant not investing in certain companies in specific sectors. However not everyone holds the same views on alcohol or tobacco in the way that Methodists and Quakers did in 1984. In short, the ethical or SRI and ESG market is globally worth over $20 trillion. New funds have been launched all in attempt to meet the concerns of concerned investors.

Many of our clients prefer “ethical investing” or at least for their investments to be screened through the lens of ethics as far as it is possible to do so. There are now plenty of solutions, but certainly no obvious ones. The cost of investing is higher which is counter-intuitive for me as an adviser, but a price many are willing to pay. Returns vary, but one may take some comfort in the logic that ultimately surely those companies that adjust behaviour to reduce carbon emissions and so forth will ultimately be the long-term winners. Yet there are no certainties in life as we all know.

If you would like to discuss ethical investing, or however you would prefer to term it, please get in touch. Either email me or pick up the phone and call me on 020 8542 8084.

In the meantime, here is the trailer for the new series by Sir David Attenborough.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY | DATA PROTECTION

BLOOMING MARVELLOUS & SUSTAINABILITYDominic2023-12-01T12:17:20+00:00

First Reformed

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

First Reformed – a Phone Call from God

One of the benefits of being in London is that there is a lot going on. As you probably know, I love the arts and so attending the London Sundance Film Festival is something that I now do when possible. On Friday evening I had the good fortune to see First Reformed, it was a special screening with Ethan Hawke, (who most will remember as Todd from 1989 Dead Poets Society) introducing and discussing the film by Paul Schrader who turns 72 in July and continues to make movies.

Schrader is a writer and Director, somewhat controversial with scripts from Taxi Driver, Obsession, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Mosquito Coast to name a few. This new film is a powerful story about a former soldier, now clergyman coming to terms with some very difficult truths within a complex world.

The Activist Struggle

On the one hand it is a response to the feelings around the collective denial about the scale of the environmental problem that we all face. The story centres around May (Amanda Seyfried) and Michael (Philip Ettinger) who are expecting their first child. As environmental activists Michael despairs at the prospect of bringing a child into a doomed world. Toller (Ethan Hawke) provides counsel and comforts them as they struggle.

Toller has his own struggles, his own family military traditions resulted in him encouraging his own son to enlist, who was subsequently killed, resulting in his own marriage collapsing. This appears to have thrown him into church life and he is given a tiny, historic church with a congregation to match, in stark contrast to the business-like operation “Abundant Life” who have all the advantages that size brings in the form of resources but lack the one meaningful element of intimate connection.

Tradition, Honour, Discpline your Excellence..

The story explores ideas about authority, leadership and tradition set against a backdrop that requires much more thoughtful responses and integration of ethics. Money, greed and avoiding seeing what is discomforting all posed as the “proper” way. There are deep challenges to the American way of life within this film, as there are in Taxi Driver and other Schrader movies. A deep sense of injustice and a desperation to restore the balance of power reside at the heart of this dark tale.

We all have out blind spots. Sometimes these are helpful, they may even enable us to function. However, on occasion we must address difficult subjects and make some changes – hopefully, changes in our actions that are harming our own and only environment can be made in time to spare us from our folly. There are lots of reasons to he hopeful in life, but this movie reminds us of the challenge and perhaps a nagging feeling that there, but for the grace of God…

I did not like the ending at all. It was evidently written by a man, there is a bit when May, a heavily pregnant woman, finds a form of bliss in that awful Terrence Malick kind of way. I will not spoil it for you, but it didn’t work for me, the rest of the film was rather good until that last moment, but then, perhaps that is entirely the point. We all get to make choices each day about our behaviour – whether to recycle or to pollute. In a similar way, each day we get to choose, whether to plan for our future or ignore it yet again. Time waits for no one and ultimately, we will have to live with the consequences of our actions.

First Reformed is due to be released in the UK later this year. Here is the trailer and it may well be one of Hawke’s best to date.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Email me to get in touch

First ReformedDominic2023-12-01T12:18:02+00:00

Downsizing

Imagine a world where your wealth is sufficient for the rest of your life to fully support your lifestyle. Throw in the benefit of massive improvements to the environment and waste reduction and you have the plot summary of Alexander Payne’s new movie “Downsizing”.

This is a movie that is tipped for the OSCARS, given that it will be released in December in the US and January 2018 over here in the UK. Whilst having potential for perhaps both comedy and a sense of hope, this is a film that gets loses itself in a story that is both too big and too small. It’s a pity as the premise is pretty good and the trailer is typically engaging

As a financial planner, my job is to help clients figure out how much is enough to support their lifestyle (as they determine it) for the remainder of their lives. Most people do not appear to have a financial plan, very few have a clear idea about how much would be enough.

Side Effects

Downsizing begins with the scientific discovery that means it is possible to shrink cells without harm or side effect to about 3% of their original size. The one problem being that it is an irreversible process and not available to anyone that has a body with additions (implants, prosthetics, pace-maker etc) as these will not shrink.

Living the Dream

Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is your average American, he was once on the path to a career in medicine, but his dreams were thwarted by an ill mother who needed his care. Now a somewhat frustrated physiotherapist, he is living in his late mother’s home, with wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) and struggling to get by. At the perfectly imperfect setting of a school reunion, he is persuaded to consider Downsizing, the solution to his financial struggles.

Paul and Audrey head off to Leisure Land and receive a masterful sales pitch that extols merely the benefits of Downsizing, ignoring all of the drawbacks. The Safranek’s have assets of $52,000 but in the Downsized world this translates to $12.5million, to live on for life! The numbers do all the talking. Packing a delightful red keepsake box with their family treasures (wedding rings etc) the same box is delivered to the house in Leisure Land, but of course gold wedding rings now appear the size of buoyancy rings. I have to admit, that if I could arrange such a return for our clients I’d be winning every award under the sun. However, as with all things, there are no guarantees.

The Bigger Picture

The plan to save the world is to gradually miniaturise everyone over the course of 200 years. Despite a safe procedure (assuming removal of fillings etc) there are very real side effects in the larger world – economic, political and social. Its all very well that a mansion may now only require the space of a dining table, but property in the larger world still needs to be sold and therefore bought. Taxes need to be paid, production needs to continue and there is a debate about whether the Lilliputians should have a full-sized vote.

The film attempts a stab at all these issues as well as a rather fruitless assessment of a life of pleasure, the poverty divide, immigration and those that remain outside the system, where standards are never the same. Add a touch of impending environmental disaster and the naive, blancmange-like character of Paul Safranek who seems to lack either any sense of self-determination or self-awareness, chasing every ball thrown by anyone willing to bother. Ironically, all of the issues are far too big for the film which becomes as microscopic as its characters, lost in a world of complexity. It’s a pity. Much like Safranek, it appears nobody asked what it was that Alexander Payne wanted from this. Instead it’s a journey of happenstance, rather than any course being plotted. I suppose that this is the reality for most people, who live from day to day, month to month, year to year without any deeper sense of direction, like Safranek, frustrated through not identifying purpose. Nobody asks the right questions and so the thinking is as shrunken as the inhabitants of Leisure Land.

Here’s the trailer, the film is released in the UK in January (following its showing at the London Film Festival this month). Oh yes, the trailer is the best bit.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Email me to get in touch

DownsizingDominic2023-12-01T12:18:21+00:00

Liquid Gold

I came across an item that made me think. You may remember the Nescafe Gold Blend adverts from years ago, well coffee as we all know, has moved on since then. We have a Nespresso coffee machine here at the office, which dispenses some very nice coffee, but I’ve been challenged to think if I should make a small stand by not buying anything from Nestlé. The challenge is acutally two-fold – the recycling of the pods and also the information that I have been presented with about Nestlé.. who appear to have spotted that water is the new gold blend – liquid gold.

The story is a familiar one, large multi-national company, exerting its power in a way that appears to put profit before people or the environment. Nestlé is a familiar giant such a discussion, if you recall the way in which they marketed substitute (powdered) breast milk in poor countries, where breast-feeding was sufficient. This began in 1977 and as far as I can tell continues to rumble on.

This is a story about bottled water, which is probably one of the best scams of modern times – more expensive than oil, invariably sold in plastic bottles that can make the water more toxic when warm (think container ships, lorries, trains, hot days)… when the water in your tap is probably better. Anyhow, Nestlé want to bottle water from a town in Oregon. I don’t know the facts about this case, I am merely sharing them to prompt a few thoughts.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Liquid GoldDominic2023-12-01T12:19:19+00:00