Understand the essence of something!

2012-12-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

First a bit of advertising - I get commission if you sign up - otherwise please carry on reading the content Bullionvault - Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices

Forget what you are told, understand the true nature of something, anything and everything.

What is the true nature of school?
to baby sit children
to teach (teach what?)
socialise children

Greece debt deflation

2012-05-27T13:17:00.001-07:00

First a bit of advertising - I get commission if you sign up - otherwise please carry on reading the content Bullionvault - Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices

Debt and corruption are evil.

Regarding Debt, in the good times, the economy booms, in the bad timess it busts. This is the process of the bust (Greece etc)

1) Dramatically shrinking economy, leading to
2) Soaring defaults, leading to
3) Massive bank losses, leading to
4) Severe contraction of lending, leading to
5) Further shrinking of economic activity, leading to
6) Collapsing tax receipts, leading to
7) Exponentially increasing budget deficit, leading to
8) Higher taxes, leading to
9) Further horrendous contraction of economic activity, leading to
10) Huge political pressure for easier credit and bank bailouts, leading to
11) Further dramatic expansion of the money supply, leading to
12) Runaway inflation and currency depreciation, leading to
13) Skyrocketing prices and long term interest rates, leading straight back to 1) in a vicious circle of biblical proportions

I say Greece, when in fact it's virtually every country, either private or public debt.

Money - live within your means

2012-05-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

First a bit of advertising - I get commission if you sign up - otherwise please carry on reading the content Bullionvault - Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Just save a few pennies saved is better than over spending by even a penny.

WHO overspends?

Not me, but virtually everyone else! The last 10 years+ has seen some very silly activity. The number of people with savings is small, and they are very quiet about it.

WHAT do you overspend on?

Quick pick-me ups? Food, drink, shopping/luxuries, presents for loved ones?

WHERE do you overspend?

Shopping malls (shopping is a hobby/passtime apparently), through friends, buying luxuries (handbags, makeup, shoes) and paying off a little each week, maybe shopping channels - preying on people when they are vulnerable.

WHY do you overspend?

Guilt, status, instant gratification / happiness. Easy availability of credit, confusion over true cost, delusion that it is an investment when it will just be a cost or a bet.

WHEN do you overspend?

When you feel guilt for not spending enough quality time with kids, showing off to friends, family or neighbours? Habit through being in a shopping location. Peer pressure (buying from friends, as part of a group, keeping up).

HOW do you change?

Realise that things are NOT important, PEOPLE are IMPORTANT. Friends and family are not competition - they are your loved ones.

Understand how people are planning on taking away your money. Merchandisers, usurers, salesmen, accountants are looking at how to take your money and overpay for their goods and services. It is a game, they are predators, don't be the prey!

No one is perfect, certainly not me. It has taken me a long time to understand that people aren't logical, why they're not logical and what the outcomes are.

Many people's lives are made worse by debt, drugs, drink and brands.

I had to think about how humans evolved to help me understand the present.

Humans were hunter gatherers living in small groups. Survival of an individuals's DNA (genes) depended on successful breeding. In nature most individuals animals do NOT reproduce. Those that do can reproduce have multiple offspring.

So what helps an individual reproduce? For a woman it includes surviving hazards, having enough food to survive, meeting 1 or more men, having enough food and care to bring one or more children to adulthood.

For a male - it is surviving hazards, food, finding 1 or more females to mate with who will be able to raise children to adulthood, possibly with his help as a provider.

Life is hard, nature is unforgiving. Most animals do not reproduce, most predators target the weak including the young. There are droughts, natural disasters, disease.

For a woman'd DNA to do well, she needs to find a mate who will ensure a child is provided for, a mate who can produce children who can also do well...

For a man, he needs to get a good share of food and women!

Both lead to a single aspect that I believe is pushing most of us in a direction - maximising status.

The brain has evolved to reward us with pleasure chemicals when we improve our status and possibly to either punish us with bad feelings when we see that others are higher status.

If our status was low in bad times, we would starve, our children would starve or no-one would mate with us - the old evolutionary pressures pushed us into recklessness in order to avoid a low status where our DNA would be unable to reproduce.

Now we live in a different situation, but with the same primitive drivers on us.

We look around, see neighbours or family with brands, toys, TVs, cars, holidays and we feel bad. We see our chilfren without some of these, feeling bad, teased. In days gone by - perhaps even now - chances of them reproducing themselves might be lower.

STATUS, always status.

BUT - how do you define status? Seemingly mostly through brands and possessions.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Understand that we have a brain, we can overcome our primitive programming.

Save a little, buy bargains, avoid brands, smile at fashion victims. Be logical.

If you have a plot of land - do you build a big house? Or do you build a house and a business? Another house could be a business if you rent it out - so build 2, not 1.

Buy at markets, ebay, car boot sales (UK).

Buy smart, buy good quality unbranded goods. Buy at sensible times, when prices are low (after Christmas).

Reduce what you buy. Don't buy a small child electronic toys - buy them bricks and play WITH them!

Get out of debt fast. Default, become bankrupt, threaten to be bankrupt and settle for a fraction of what they say you owe (get them to accept any payment as 'full and final payment/settlement of all debt obligations').

Then sell what you don't need.

Start hating the manipulations and knowing that to avoid them is a battle won.

Avoid debt, open a savings account - put a little away. Buy bargains, bulk buy tins of meat if longlife.

Add your ideas below!

Live A Better Life!

Understand the essence of something!

Greece debt deflation

Money - live within your means