Mad Money!

I was speaking to someone this week who is so generous with the money that they have.

If they have it and you need it, they will give it to you. They'd left something in their will to a friend, and then when the friend got ill health thought, gosh, what if they don't live to even see this? If I outlive them, they'll never even get the benefit of this. So they then cleaned out their savings, obviously not having much in savings because they're always being so generous to other people, and gave the friend this money.

Now what happens to that money isn't important. What's important is that this person doesn't really have savings anymore.

And because there are some circumstances that have  changed their attitude to money, they were very much living in the moment. And so we had a conversation about how it's really important to have savings.

It's great to be able to live in the moment, and if you want something, you buy it, et cetera, et cetera. But we don't know. We don't know what's coming down the road in terms of our future. And it might be some huge bill that means we have to go and borrow the money if we don't really have it, thereby putting us into debt with all the worry and stress that that causes.

Or it might be that there's something we'd like to do. Some opportunity comes up that we'd love to be able to say yes to. But we can't because we can't really afford it.

Or, and everyone, no matter what their circumstances, should have a bucket list. You know, a list of things you'd love to do before you're no longer here. Places you'd like to go, things you'd like to do, people you'd like to see.

We should all have that list. And, of course, the idea isn't to just have the list. The idea is to be working through it. And that will take...money.

So I was explaining this to this person and saying, money gives you a level of freedom. A level of independence. And so I said to them, do you ever have any money left over at the end of the month?

And, when you had money left over, what was the lowest amount? And they said £200. And I said, well, what was the highest amount? And they said £400. So I said, okay, let's go for the lowest amount.

You know, even if you were to save that money, like in five years, you would have, what, that's £2,000 a year, over £2,000. You'd have over £10,000 in five years, and compound interest.

That would be a roof repair or... it might be a bill, a holiday or lots of lovely things. But the point is, it gives you independence and it gives you freedom.

So they're going to have a go at saving that £200 a month. And I'm going to see how they get on. Obviously I'll be along as well to help, encourage and support them. But it will give them a lot of mental headspace and will lessen the worry that they have around finances when they're able to do this.

At Iremia Wellbeing Courses, we are all about having the strength. Strength to accept what we cannot change. Courage to change what we can and wisdom to know the difference.

This is a scenario where change can be made. So I'm really looking forward to this person making that change and their life improving for the better because of it.