What Would Happen if Someone I Didn't Know Actually Ever Read This?

A question that's often popped up and then been dismissed on the grounds that, with more blogs in the world than there are people it's unlikely to happen. But supposing it did, that one little post I'd knocked off at breakfast time might be the one chance the PMC is gonna get to make any kind of impression.

This is something my big brother Seth Godin has already posted about, and he's even seen strangers looking at his blog in a cafe, oblivious to the fact that the blog's author was sitting but metres away from them. How cool is that?! Maybe one day it'll happen to us at the PMC (if we can sneak in and type in the URL on someone's laptop whilst they're distracted).

Saving Needn't Mean 'a V sign'

 There was a time when 'saving' for me really did equate to the above anagram, something so unspeakably dull and depressing that piggy banks existed purely to get smashed open.

I now realise that my former disdain for saving, whilst largely misplaced, was not entirely so, though for very different reasons than the rather short sighted examples given above.

Conventional wisdom (ever read one of the Alvin Hall books? Now he is conventional) had it that you saved 10 per cent of your income, regardless of what that was, presumably on the grounds that this was do-able for even the most weekend-oriented of people and, in due course would result in a nice little nest egg instead of  an unmarked plot on the edge of town.

Still, not very exciting. And it overlooks the fact that you can get taxed on savings. Furthermore, the continual erosion of the value of all the currencies is such that in real terms your savings can often be dwindling faster than you'er accruing them; that's before we even get on to pensions, which are often linked to the stock market, which we're advised always goes up, but in fact has an annoying habit of coming down at inopportune times. Since putting money on the likelihood of something improving over time is really gambling, you might be better off doing just that on a regular basis, it'd be more enjoyable anyway.

The best approach to this rather demoralising subject I've come across is this: get yourself not one, but rather three piggy banks (literally if you wish). One of them can be marked 'savings'. After all, it's no bad thing to have a little tucked away for a rainy day, something you can get your hands on quickly if need be.

Number two piggy bank is for 'tithing' in other words, giving to charity. If you're of a religious bent that could be through the organised religion you subscribe to; indeed alms-giving, zakat, is I understand one of the five pillars of Islam. If you're not, just give to a charity of your choice. I don't believe that there are many people out there who genuinely believe supporting a charity, provided it's done quietly without too much fanfare, and there may be some instant karmic benefits of forgoing a good chunk of your money.

Then the third one is for investing. Investing in something is where the fun really starts. Not for capital gains, that's gambling as already noted. But for income. Put some money in an investment trust for example, you should get some dividends on a regular basis (not a lot though). This is where you actually start to make money rather than share it or let it lie dormant.

Real estate is a big one for a lot of people and yet there are so many amateurs out there, I should know, I've been one until recently. But if you pay attention to your portfolio and live somewhere where you can have control over the properties (i.e. not in another country where you have to give fifteen per cent of the takings to an agent before anything even happens, then it's sixty quid every time a light bulb needs changing); even if you're not a DIY person (I'm not) you may know someone who knows someone who is...

Setting up a business is often seen as the only way to riches, at least by those that have successfully done it, but again that's not for everyone, the hard work, frustration, fact that nine out of ten businesses fail in the first five years apparently (so just set up ten businesses!). Buying a business that's already established at least takes away some of that effort and you can see from the recrods what's been going on there.

These last three are all for income, not capital gains but if you really share the contemporary obsession for the latter, why not go for silver; although its price can be quite volatile, it may continue to rise (for example it was 12 USD and ounce a year ago, and these days is fluttering around the 17-19 USD mark) whereas gold, as well as being much more expensive, is currently disproportionately high compared with silver, historically speaking (about 64:1 compared with the historical average of 47:1). In fact the PMC posted at length about this some months ago, so we ought to preach at the level at which we practice here!

Finally, how much do you put in? Many people are going to grate at giving ten per cent of their money to someone else (in the case of tithing) and even for saving and investing. The answer is to start small. You don't have to set aside fifty per cent of you take home pay and never go out again. You could start off with just one kroon, dollar, pound etc a day, or even less if you want, most people could probably manage that. What may happen over time is that it becomes habit forming, and that small amount per day gets bigger and bigger, in each of the three piggy banks, and, hey presto, one's presence on this planet suddenly has some kind of justification.

Disclaimer: the PMC knows nothing at all about personal finance and was merely thinking out loud with this piece.

Friday Afternoon Labour

Anyone still worrying about Estonia's population problems need go no further than the PMC - this afternoon/early evening there was a whole lot of wailing going on in the flat downstairs thus heralding the arrival of its latest inhabitant (and the third baby this year, in a house of 6 flats!). I haven't ventured down just yet, the noise was unearthly and just like on the telly, but hope everything's ok in any case..

One For Last Thing At Night..

A great clip from yet another one of my favourite bands of all time.. I can't help thinking that the clip could have ended up on Soviet TV as an example of the degeneracy of the west, or at least I hope that was the case.

Thought For the Day No. 12 - With the Rabbi Anders Weiss

.religious leader, psychologist, spiritual guru and arbiter of good taste..

 

Heaven is angry at us for our sins and the world is angry at us for our virtues.

Be more concerned with the quality of your friends than with their number (Facebook? - ed!)

Lev Tolstoy

Slow Down and Speed Up at the Same Time - Walt Gleeson

Canfield, Proctor, Nightingale, Zagler, Hill, Robbins, Tracy, Aaron... step aside please..there's a new success guru in town! Walt Gleeson is a highly successful, internationally renowned author of motivational books and CDs and other products. With a career spanning over half a decade, he has enthralled readers all over the world, from Alaska to Florida and from Hawaii to Rhode Island, with such titles as You Can Do It!, You Can Do It! Too, Literally Make Your House Work For You and Become a Billionaire Whilst On The Toilet, Walt is the Puumaja Crew's personal realization and fulfilment coach, whatever that is. 

Hi, Walt here again. I've suddenly decided that you'll be immediately successful, if you'd only do this one thing that your uncle Walt asks of you. I'm sure some of you won't (in which case you'll have no children and die in bad ways) but if you do, you'll definitely be joining the likes of me at the high table in due course.

What you gotta do is you gotta slow down, stop rushing around everywhere like a jackass, and start doing each individual task as it comes to you.

Remember, we all have the same number of hours in the day, even the President of the United States (actually due to a quirk in the constitution the President actually gets 25 hours, but most Presidents have used this extra hours sleeping). 

So don't be pleased with yourself if you 'multi-task', there's no such thing, it's impossible to multi-task, just as you can't have multi-anything.

Having said that, you must, must, go much much faster than you already do.

You complete peasant, I've seen you, sneaking a three minute nap in front of the TV after arriving home from a ten hour stint at work, or using the time that you five children are eating to quickly read the newspaper - loser! I personally don't have any children, but that actually makes me more qualified to lecture others that do, 'cos I can objectivitize and appraisalize the situation mroe easily.


So speed up, god damn you, make sure every task takes no more than two minutes maximum, and if you find yourself over-running this, I've found that hitting a metal tray over your head helps; you can buy one inexpensively at the corner store if you're reverting to your innate peasant tendency to look at everything in terms of how much it costs.

I hope this has clarified what you need to do if you don't want to end up a total loser on welfare in the ghetto, so start doing it immediately!

Walt

It's Not a Competition - Seth's Blog

Good post from my older brother the other day - essentially that all these 'average person does x, y and z' is not really relevant. There isn't really such thing as an average person. As he points out, even if the average american supposedly only buys one book per year, there are plenty that don't; then he himself buys about 400! The PMC is a little way behind, though in our defence we say that we also read all the books we buy, all the way through! Though as we said, it's not a competition - we're all different.

Why I Don't Like Facebook - Part 3

If we get to a part 4 I'm taking down my profile!

I don't like the way it seems to encourage some people to grass on themselves. I'm talking the kind of 'so and so is feeling guilty because he/she (almost invariably she, though I suppose there is a male equivalent) has just devoured a packet of revels/bottle of Sauvignon/entire box set of Desperate Housewives' variety. We all have facebook friends like that...

It seems harmless enough and the people aren't under any obvious duress to put up these little entries, and presumably welcome any attention that might be garnered (which is a little bit sad in itself really). However it smacks of something darker. It's the confess-all-at-the-town-square approach, to be found in red China and other totalitarian states, and organizations which can mimic that (various religious cults, alcoholics anonymous - check out this article on the 'us stupid drunks' conspiracy etc). It may be over-indulging in chocolates or alcohol one day, but who knows what you're going to be confessing and to whom if you keep up the practice. Remember, Catholic Priests, admittedly not a sector of society held in particularly high esteem at the moment, have to take a vow of confidentiality and, along with therapists and counsellors (good ones anyway) have years of training and expertise at their disposal.

You don't need to tell a load of strangers about your little foibles, they have their own, and it's none of their god dammed business.

You never know who is reading your seemingly harmless little confessions or might, consciously or unconsciously, use one of your pecadillos in a hurtful way, so for god's sake don't do it, or at least be very careful about privacy settings and the like.

Presumably twitter is more and more of the same, I have steered clear of that so far so I may be misrepresenting it a bit, but I doubt it.

You can view the previous ramblings here and here.