Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

Firewalker

It is late and I do feel rather tired – not only cycled to work (about 9 miles return) but also went out with my running club. These are really hard sessions – there is always a young(ish) man, who is tall and slim and runs like the wind. And of course I try to keep up...But tonight was not the evening for straining myself too much given what awaits on Sunday.

On the positive, today was a NSD for us – which is good. Hoped to have another one tomorrow but remembered that if I am to survive the marathon I need gels - will need to buy them tomorrow.

Oh, and little boy announced that he wants to go to grammar school. I had assumed that as someone coming from good socialist stock he will go to the high school where his brothers went. But he claims that it is not good enough for him and that he wants to get really good education. He has already started to arrange the whole thing. As a first step, he asked his teacher about the exams and confirmed that he could pass. Oh dear, dear, dear...We will need to make some money. Or just say no, may be?

Off to bed now, my eyelashes are ringing with sleep.

Firewalker

savingwannabe

hi firewalker

i went to a grammar school. It was a first class education for free. As a parent you dont need to worry about cost. In fact your child might be able to ensure an early retirement!

I obtained 3 degrees and that's about it really. I am so happy i went to the local grammar school. I would not have achieved anything without my education. If the child wants it let them. You wont regret it.

He can go to grammar school and still be a socialist i was! and still am!!!

good luck,

kit:j

savingwannabe

Ps, I walked for an hour today and i thought i was too tired to mow the grass. 9 miles and a run, you have put it into perspective.

I shall admit defeat and go to sleep!!!!
goodnight,

:j

Firewalker

Hi Savingwannabe,

this thing about the grammar school - of course we will do. Like you, I've been through very exclusive education and have quite a few degrees to my name. So, firm believer in good education.

My concern is somewhat different - I don't really believe in equality but am an ardent supporter of equal opportunity. Paid education goes against this very deeply held belief. There are some grammar schools around for which we don't need to pay - but than son will have to do really well at the exam. We shall see...all that is two years away.

Firewalker

savingwannabe

Equal opportunity is great but is not always available. Your son hopefully will have the chance to excel and use his mind and for that he will always be grateful. He should grasp it with both hands. He comes from pretty good stock (!!!) so the local grammar schools will welcome him i am sure.

I went to a play once and one of the lines was 'open the doors of your mind' - some days i wonder what i have done with my life and i cling to that thought at least i have been able to stretch myself and it would not have been possible without my school.

Anyway, self indulgence over. Hope you had a good day. I go back to work on Monday and have not done any marking or lesson prep. Yuk!!!!

Have a good evening.

Firewalker

How I struggled. Remember yesterday I mentioned that today could not be a NSD because I need some energy gels? Well this morning I remembered that tomorrow I will have to go to town for my haircut (more like hair-shave, really) anyway, so can get the gels than. Great, another NSD – I am doing something right.

And than mid-afternoon I opened my desk drawer and...there was no chewing gum. To cut a long story short I did surrender to temptation and bought a pack for 99p. Now, if somebody told me three months ago that I’ll ever spend 10 minutes agonising over the decision whether to spend 99 pence or not, I would have never believed it. But than I never believed that I’ll be spending my life in the UK either. Life...

Now I would like to continue on the matter of the SOA. As I already explained my first problem with filling it in is the small matter of the possible lack of adults in the household. Today would like to discuss my second problem, namely the small matter regarding the distinction between possessions, assets and liabilities.

After asking for some useful information about income and expenditure, the SOA calculator asks about ‘assets’. And here things like cash, house value, shares and bonds, cars and jewellery are mentioned. Finally, the debt is subtracted from the, so called, assets and a positive or negative number is arrived at. As usual with money, positive is generally taken to be ‘good’ and negative – ‘bad’.

All this would have been fine but for one thing – what is presented as assets are actually possessions . And more often than not these same possessions got us in trouble in the first place. To top it all, possessions are passive, they don’t usually work for you and often you need to spend money through or on them. An example of possession that does not work for you is keeping cash – we all need some saving to give us security but apart form that savings don’t make more money, saving just stay in the bank, so that bankers (also known as compulsive gamblers on cocaine) can play with it. And, as we all saw, often they lose...

If we start thinking of ‘assets’ as the possessions that make money for you and of ‘liabilities’ as the things that you spend money on, the picture changes (this is the main thing I learned from Rich Dad poor Dad). Any house you live in is a liability irrespective of whether you have mortgage or not, or how big it is. Property for rent is an asset. Cars are the archetypal liability – they are never an asset.

In fact, if I have to grade the liabilities in my life, I would say: 1) house; 2) children; 3) car. Which immediately brings me to the point that many liabilities are necessary and even embraced – we all need a place to live, we raise our children with the hope that they will be happy and (possibly) better than us...

The important thing is terms of financial health I believe, is to see the possessions in your life for what they are – they can be assets or liabilities. But as Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, said ‘...your house is a liability and if your house is your largest investment you are in trouble.'

Firewalker

savingwannabe

Oh bless you.

I spent money on stamps to post cd's i am selling on ebay.

I am afraid my house is my largest investment. But i also have wonderful friends and i still have my marbles....Just!


Good night,

:j

Firewalker

It was a spending day today and mighty spending at that. The bad news is that I managed to spend quite a bit but the good news is that all of it was budgeted expenditure. So, had my haircut – a very nice, short and pricey one but worth every penny. Than I bought energy gels, of course. And some breakfast from the health food shop – I am allergic to oats so straight forward muesli is no good. Added up to a lot. But a good haircut is my only weakness...

Or may be not. In my last post I tried to distinguish between possessions and assets. Tonight I am thinking about possessions. So possessions...

Yesterday I decided to sort out my shoes – my winter shoes were looking un-tidy and taking too much space in the hall. And the winter is on its way out – or so we all hope. While tidying up my shoes and changing my winter shoes for my spring/autumn shoes I started to count. And I counted 32 pairs of shoes. Now, this might have been OK if they were different and there were quite a few smart pairs. But no – all my shoes with the exception of two pairs are really practical no heal, no nonsense shoes. What am I, a centipede? No. In fact I don’t even wear all these pairs of shoes and most of the time live in a pair of basketball shoes. To make matters worse, I have two identical pairs of basketball shoes.

Yesterday I confirmed that we are not poor, we are just broke. And no wonder given the number of bathrooms we have, the pairs of shoes I have, and generally the possessions that surround us...When did I do it? I used to have three pairs of shoes, a place to live full of books, friends to discuss the books with and enough to eat. And I was happy and rich with experience and expectation.

Firewalker

Firewalker

In less than an hour we will be off to Brighton. Tomorrow will need to do preparation things like 'walk the last mile', rest, eat (but not too much) and on Sunday I am going to have a very long run. A friend helpfully sned me a message to tell me that a marathon is 26.22 miles. Except that more often than not it is longer because the measurement is done for the 'shortest distance'. It is more like 26.45 miles - and how do these last yards metter.

I am not sure whether I will be able to post before Monday evening but I will continue writing. Writing, I noticed, makes me a better, calmer, measured person.

Cool runnings
Firewalker

ninky_2

you write very well firewalker.

just to point out. time is also an asset. of course none of us know exactly how much of it we have left. but in terms of time as 'disposable' income i wonder how much you have? it seems planning expenditure whilst managing all the other day to day concerns can be time consuming and often spending can happen because it is a quick fix (ready meals or restaurants, expensive lunches from popular chains on a daily basis).

are you time rich or time poor?