Learning Archives - Financial Planning in Surrey

British Sign Language – it’s not an ‘ology’

Debbie Harris
Jan 2025 • 3 min read

British Sign Language – it’s not an ‘ology’

I read a News article last year about plans to introduce a GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL). I would have loved to have had this as a choice when I was selecting my options some decades (*ahem!) ago … what a brilliant idea.

Signing isn’t only used by deaf folk; it has also been a tool for communication for sufferers of autism for many years as well as for people with speech impairments and/or learning difficulties. Obviously it is also used by the carers of these members of our community and by anyone playing a supportive role in their health and wellbeing.

The British Deaf Association estimates that over 150,000 people in the UK use BSL with ‘only’ 87,000 of them being actually deaf.

I have struggled with significant hearing loss for the last 20 years and so this is a subject close to my heart. I benefit from the advancement of hearing aid technologies and am able to manage my partial deafness very well … but I know that I’m lucky.

This new GCSE is a great step towards equality for the deaf and seeks to improve inclusivity and reduce isolation for deaf and hard of hearing children in our Nation’s schools.

I am always in favour of practical exams in useful subjects that can be meaningfully used in adult life and frankly think BSL could and should be taught in our schools earlier than age 14-16, but we have to take the wins when we can.

I have a heart for education and I am always on the lookout to learn new things … perhaps I may even do a GCSE in BSL (likely to be far more interesting than most of the learning opportunities that tend to land in my inbox … being mainly around the financial services industry of course!)

We often talk here about how little ‘financial education’ our young people receive in our schools – many leave the education system without understanding what income tax is; what a pension is; how to budget etc – many of them are going straight into paid work (so have an immediate need to have some decent financial awareness/knowledge) and many of them head off to University (to live on their own for the first time, with no real idea about balancing a budget; or even how much things cost – utilities, council tax, household insurance etc) so it seems to me there’s a gap in the system here for this too; a need to be met.

Many schools attempt to cover some of the priority information in PSHCE sessions but if you have any other suggestions for how we can help our school-leavers; we’d love to hear them. If you have children or grandchildren in this age group, do you think a ‘workshop’ style event would be useful or even just a ‘workbook’ – both of which would potentially have the objective of arming your young people with some of the financial basics?

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British Sign Language – it’s not an ‘ology’Jemima Thomas2025-01-30T13:10:32+00:00

Money management for children

Debbie Harris
Feb 2024 • 2 min read

We don’t need no education…

It is widely recognised and acknowledged that children start forming their spending and saving habits as young as seven years old; yet still we do not teach money management skills in our Primary schools here in England.

Largely therefore our children develop their relationship with money in a very organic way – largely from what they see or hear (from parents, friends, advertising, TV programmes, social media etc); which means it is basically a game of luck as to whether a child learns good habits or bad habits!

The Scout Association has seen this ‘gap’ in the education of our young people and has introduced a merit badge called the Money Skills Award (with some funding from HSBC and consultation with the charity Young Money).

In order to achieve this badge, children have to complete a selection of money-related tasks … anything from creating their own currency to budgeting for a trip.

Bear Grylls, UK Chief Scout, hopes the new badge will help Cub Scouts and Beaver Scouts develop life-long financial skills “in a way that only Scouts can by helping them build their confidence and understanding of money in hands-on format”.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in use of contactless payment methods, young children typically may not see coins and notes very often anymore and instead have a sense of money coming from a ‘magic card’ that seemingly has an endless supply!

Older children are also suffering from the impact of the pandemic – with literacy and numeracy ‘falling short’; the knock-on effect of which is that millions of people have problems budgeting effectively, planning for the future and making informed decisions about their finances.

At Solomon’s we have a real and genuine desire to educate people (regardless of age) around the sensible and wise use of their resources and we often look for ways to impart useful information in an easy to understand format.

For any of our clients with young children (or grandchildren), if you would like to receive any resources from us that might be helpful – please do let us know; we are building a useful ‘bank’ of information from various sources that we could pass on to you.

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Money management for childrenJemima Thomas2024-02-01T09:53:09+00:00

Purpose – how to plan…

I have shelves of books about financial planning, investing and anything that helps me to improve how I do what I do and how to simplify, explain and address issues that actually matter to you our clients.

One of the lessons that I have learned over the last three decades is that planning for the future is often too far into the future to be meaningful. We all hope to have a rewarding, purposeful and enjoyable life, but thinking about the next thirty years (2052) often feels too distant from the present.

TIME TRAVEL

As I write, it is November 2022, and looking backwards is easier. Three decades ago (November 1992) is the same distance backwards as it is forwards to 2052. Back in 1992 we had just had the ERM crisis, unemployment was 2.7m, Charles & Diana were still unhappily married. The same time traveller distance back to November 1962 and 007 premiered Dr No and Z-Cars was first aired. The Cuban Missile Crisis had just happened, and The Beatles had just released their first single ‘Love Me Do’.

Suffice to say thirty years is a long time and much changes, though most of it is barely noticed on a day-to-day basis. As humans we tend to have short memories, often having to relearn the same lessons.

The cashflow modelling that we have been using with you since it was available, suffers from the same problem, projecting decades out into the future. Of course, I remind you that “this is a version of the future that almost certainly will not happen, as life is not linear and stuff happens” or something along those lines.

On the one hand I need to extol the rationale, logic and purpose of having a long-term mindset, and on the other I am aware that we really cannot predict anything. The last five years were probably unthinkable to most of us decade ago.

So we focus on the gradual accumulation of small changes that all add up to a better future. Taking advantage of improvements in technology, lower charges and efficiencies. Yet I still find the daily use of pad and paper something that I am unlikely to give up easily. Even holding a printed document is better than a pdf.

Planning ahead for me means considering the year, quarters, weeks and days. I use a planner and despite all the workflows and tech, the planner is really my personal account and guide. This is really a place for my values and aspirations or goals both personally and for the business. The self-accounting enables me to not simply get things done, but to get the important things done… or at least progressed.

Quarterly planning is nothing to do with investment valuations or market conditions, but ensuring you are taking action to progress towards your goals whilst living out your own values consistently and authentically. Planning with purpose.

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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Purpose – how to plan…Jemima Thomas2023-12-01T12:12:42+00:00