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Category: Saving Money

Does perception affect your financial reality?

Does perception affect your financial reality?

Perception of others and their situations or lifestyles can have a huge impact in how we ourselves feel and act. The recent exposure of Facebook’s secret mood manipulation experiment demonstrated just how easy it is to become affected by the experiences of others. Unfortunately this can also have an affect on our personal finances and financial futures. There are however a number of things to bear in mind which you can use to help avoid letting perception affect your financial…

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‘Essential’ items I’ve never bought

‘Essential’ items I’ve never bought

Looking over the ‘demotivator’ calculator from MSE has made me consider some of the items I’ve managed to avoid wanting or purchasing over the years and just how much of an impact they’ve made on the finances during my reasonably short life so far. The additional bit of this calculator is that it will work out how many weeks you would have had to work to pay off this expense from a given salary after taxes. I thought it would…

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What’s your time worth?

What’s your time worth?

There are many reasons to focus on your financial journey with the aim towards financial independence. No-one’s journey is quite the same and their reasons for starting it are equally unique. However, most people tend to fall within a mixture of a few key reasons: Security – Security from unexpected events and unforeseen expenses. Security from being homeless if you lost your job or child became ill. Happiness – Happiness gained from knowing you’ll never need to be stuck in…

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Be Frugal, Not Cheap.

Be Frugal, Not Cheap.

While focusing on maximising your savings rate and trying to live cheaply, there’s a risk that friends and family may perceive you as being cheap. I believe it’s important to understand the difference between being frugal and being cheap as it can have a big impact on social interactions and lead to resentment. Being frugal to achieve Financial Independence is a great cause and more should be encouraged to take the journey for themselves. However inevitably we will all have…

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Free things that people still pay for

Free things that people still pay for

Every day I come across people willing to spend their hard earnt cash completely unnecessary luxury items which eventually end up discarded and wasted. Frequently these are bought by people who are financing it with debt and using the luxury as a small distraction from their real money problems. Worse than this however are the items and services people pay for despite them being available for free!! Whether it’s paying for the convenience or status associated with a brand name…..

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September Challenges

September Challenges

It’s September which means a return of rush hour traffic and even more rain for us here in the UK. August was a really positive month for me with a totally unexpected and potentially life changing opportunity that I’m still trying to decide upon. We had an excellent month financially which saw a large drop in expenses and steady increase in pensions/stock funds to give a decent overall networth increase. August was also the first month that I’ve set myself…

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Already finished my Christmas shopping

Already finished my Christmas shopping

It’s almost the end of August and only 121 days to Christmas which means I’ve already finished my Christmas shopping! I’m not a big fan of the over-commercialised Christmas we have in this country. I much prefer spending time with people and doing activites together instead of briefly seeing each-other purely to swap gifts neither of us particularly require and are likely to just end up creating more waste. However I do appreciate that some friends and family will still…

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How I saved £1500 and a month of my life

How I saved £1500 and a month of my life

Regular readers of this blog and my comments on other blogs will be aware of my love for the ultimate quick and cheap commuter motorbike I use everyday. When I first moved with with my partner and moved out of the city center, it imposed upon me a necessary commute for the first time in my life. The key considerations were cost and time involved, with enjoyability a close 2nd. I’ve previously discussed the negative impacts of a long and…

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Destroying the world 1 Happy Meal at a time

Destroying the world 1 Happy Meal at a time

Fast food; destroyer of both health and wealth for many decades…  and yet recently I’ve started to notice the amount of waste generated by these diabetes producing establishments as well. This isn’t just waste in the form of over-excessive packaging (Why does everything need it’s own individual box when you’re eating inside?) but all the crappy plastic toys given out with Happy Meals. We recently babysat my partner’s 2-year old niece and she brought with her the remains of a…

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Reminders of why we aim for finance Independence

Reminders of why we aim for finance Independence

Last week I had a very strong reminder of why I’m aiming for financial independence and looking to do it as soon as possible. My company announced that it intended to make several hundred roles redundant in cost cutting exercises. Fortunately the cuts are not in my department and so I won’t be affected at this stage, however many of those who are affected will have been with the company for several decades. It’s these people in their late 40s/50s…

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