Rainy Days

Debbie Harris
May 2024  •  2 min read

Can anything good come of the cost of living crisis?

Writers block hit me hard today.

Any of you who have ever communicated with me will know, I rarely struggle with this!

So I did what any self-respecting chatterbox would do … I took to the internet!

My working title for this blog post was ‘has anything positive come out of the cost of living crisis?’ and despite a very specific search, ‘the Google’ had nothing positive to say about the cost of living crisis whatsoever.

As an aside – I got distracted and went down the proverbial rabbit hole and happened upon ‘the 100 most googled questions’ – THAT deserves a blog post all of its own to be perfectly honest; but for now, the answer to the question “why were chainsaws invented?” will have to wait. (FYI – more than 200,000 people a month on average google that question worldwide!)

So anyway … I had to return to my own thoughts and reflections about the cost of living crisis and (as an eternal optimist who can find a silver lining in most grey clouds) try to figure out why I even thought this working title would give me ‘stuff’ to talk about!

And after much deliberation I am pleased to tell you that from my own personal experience of the cost of living crisis (which I do realise isn’t quite over just yet); there are indeed some positives (if you look hard enough for them!)

So here goes – my list:

  • An increased awareness of my own spending (and waste)
  • Re-evaluation of my priorities and those things I class as ‘essential’ (fewer ‘things’ than you might think … although ‘coffee’ stays!)
  • Finding creative ways to save a few pennies – ‘rainy days’ is my latest exercise … I shift £5 to my savings account every day it rains … since the beginning of this year alone, I have set aside more than £200 (which says more about climate change than my saving-savviness I think!)
  • Being resourceful in finding costs to cut and ways to cut them
  • Fixing things rather than replacing them – less waste; better for the planet; a little self-righteousness (how clever I am to glue/stitch/tape this xyz back together!)
  • An appreciation for all the things we DO have
  • An attitude of gratitude to be in gainful honest employment (doing a job I love by the way!)
  • A genuine mindfulness and concern for others who have been hit much harder than me by the cost of living crisis and a commitment to help friends and family whenever I can
  • A sense of community and connection with others in a shared experience.

If you can think of any others, we’d love to hear from you!

Rainy Days2024-05-24T15:40:51+01:00

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME – A TALE OF A SIMPLE MIND

TODAY’S BLOG

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME – A TALE OF A SIMPLE MIND

Reminders on my phone are a necessity. This singular function is one that I use to organise my life, attempt to not forget to do things, and often be in the right places at the right times. I truly believe that I would be lost without this very simple tool. However…

Setting yourself reminders is a very manual process – you create them, set the date on which whatever the task is must be completed. Most crucially, it is all too easy to change the due date on these reminders and push them back over what is, inevitably, a multiple-month stretch. If this process were automatic and unchangeable to prevent procrastination (which over the years I have come to believe is something of an art-form) I am sure that I would achieve more, all within a much more reasonable time span. We are creatures of habit, however, the discipline required in the early stages of forming GOOD habits is crucial in maintaining them for the longer term. This got me thinking about automated finances, which is a concept that I have been hearing and reading about a lot during my studies.

AUTOMATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Andy Hart, in his excellent podcast ‘Maven Money’ which I would highly recommend, states that automating your finances is one of the most important things that you can do. This means setting up standing orders or direct debits (whichever is more appropriate for the scenario), in order to ensure that your money goes to the places that you want and need it to go. One of the main focuses of this technique is saving, whether this be for a house, other large projects or emergency funds, though the same technique can be used to help yourself in many other ways – desired monthly pension contributions, for example, is another goal that this technique could be used for.

Not only will you never forget to make these savings/contributions ever again, but you are likely to become even better at budgeting for all other aspects of your lifestyle without these funds even coming into consideration – with the comfort of knowing that these funds have contributed towards achieving your financial goals and strengthening your financial plan.

MONTHLY SAVINGS HAS SOME OTHER ADVANTAGES

Some of you may have already seen our short video that explains pound-cost averaging. In a very clear way, this video explains how there can be a great benefit to making contributions to investments on a monthly basis, essentially meaning that you will always end up paying the average price over a particular period of time rather than being at risk of paying over the odds.

It’s ironic how we often forget the things worth remembering but remember the things worth forgetting. I have included our video above about monthly budgeting and setting up your bank accounts, to help make this entire process much easier.

Daniel Liddicott
Trainee Financial Adviser

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 Dominic 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?

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?

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME – A TALE OF A SIMPLE MIND2023-12-01T12:13:05+00:00
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