Guest Post - Morality versus Legality

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.

When this cartoon appeared in the Financial Times in August (http://dld.bz/awCmT#), it drew an outraged response.

A reader criticized Ingram Pinn, the cartoonist, for daring to compare bankers, who earned their bonuses legally, with the illegal inflation of MPs expenses and the criminality of rioters.  However, when I saw the cartoon I immediately thought: “At last, somebody put their finger on it.” In my mind the common element in these figures is quite simply a lack of morals. (Oh, what an old-fashioned word.)

As far as I’m concerned, a bank which rewards its employees with cash incentives for giving credit to customers who may be already struggling (and punishes staff with a cabbage if they don’t meet their targets) acts immorally.  Whether it is legal or not is beside the point.  So does an MP who inflates their expenses, no matter whether they’ve “stuck to the rules” or not.  To my mind it seems that the rioters responded to that immorality with their own immorality in the only way they could to vent their rage and frustration.

Now this rage and frustration seems to be expressed in more constructive ways through the Occupy movement, and especially through the camp outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.  The Occupation might be illegal, for instance the Occupation of College Green in Bristol is trespass, but in my opinion it is moral. The Occupiers have been criticized for citing diffuse causes.  Yet, I see the common thread: morality,  because I think most of the causes they cite are based on immoral practices and ideas.

But it seems that the message is finally getting through.  Ingram Pinn published another telling cartoon in the FT.

On the very same day professor Ken Costa (former chairman of Lazard International, “one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms”) wrote in the FT (http://dld.bz/awCkA): “Despite the diffuse agendas, one theme clearly unites them: the conviction that the capitalist system is fatally flawed and past its sell-by date.”  He believes that “resentment at asymmetrical rewards and risks is … justifiable.”

Professor Costa goes on to say: “The cure is not more legislation, or increased regulation.  It is the pressing need to reconnect the financial with the ethical.  Free markets … do not exist in a moral vacuum … they need somehow to be nurtured and sustained by a moral spirit …  Ultimately … economies cannot function and societies cannot flourish without mutual trust and respect, or without fundamental honesty and integrity.”

I can’t put it better than that.  The whole thing reminds me very much of the events in East Germany in 1989, when increasing frustration and resentment with the immorality of their leaders brought more and more citizens into the churches to join the Monday prayer meetings.  Initially their prayers and concerns where just as diffuse as they ones of the Occupiers until they gradually turned into demonstrations and the one cry: “Wir sind das Volk (We are the people).”

I hope that the protesters will be able to create a similar common call to bring about real change and a return to the kind of morality which truly reconnects the financial with the ethical.

Guest Post - How to avoid the Festive Financial Hangover

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.

I have just come across some very sobering research:  According to Michael Ossei, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com 62% of people in Britain struggled to pay for this Christmas, and almost three in ten (28%) ended up in the red.  Apparently, 42% had Christmas on credit this year – 4% even took out new credit especially for it.  On average it will take almost six months to clear the debt.  However, 8% will still be in debt next Christmas.  That’s almost one in ten people.

So what can you do that it won’t happen to you next Christmas?  The best thing is to start planning now.  I have a friend who started shopping for Christmas 2012 even before New Year.  This is someone with a large family who is very organized about the whole thing: everything will be labeled immediately and put away.  Christmas cards and wrapping bought at knock down prices.  Over the course of the year my friend will add to the stash.

How on earth does she have the cash to do that?  She keeps a special “Christmas Fund” to which she adds a bit of money every month.  How?  You can find detailed instructions in my book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich”.  (You can get it from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/)  The book also shows you how to apply the same principles to other regularly occurring events, such as your summer holidays and birthdays.

Other things you can do to have a good Christmas despite a tough economic climate is save up reward points and shopping vouchers.  Savvy use of credit cards can also help.  I advocate paying the balance in full every month anyway to avoid getting into the debt spiral (my book explains what that is).  It also gives you a good credit rating and you can then opt for a card which offers cash back or rewards.  They can then be saved towards next Christmas.
But what if you’re one of those people who ended up in debt after this Christmas?  My advice is, don’t worry about it.  “Making Friends with Money” will give you step-by-step directions how to pay it all back quite painlessly while making sure at the same time that you won’t wake up to another financial hangover after next Christmas.

Guest Post - Cashflow Plan or Budget?

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.

Recently I was asked whether cashflow planning isn’t the same as budgeting.  My answer is an emphatic “no”, even though at first glance they look the same.  However, cashflow planning is slightly different.  It looks at our needs first, and then how we can meet them within our means.  Not at how much money we have and how we can meet our needs within that.  The difference is subtle – and huge at the same time.  Cashflow planning is more flexible and gives you a sense of prosperity, while budgeting usually gives you a sense restriction.

This is what a reader of my book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” (http://dld.bz/axHMU) says about it: “Cashflow planning categories help me remember through the month what I need more money for – better than just keeping an eye on the balance in the D2D account going down. I can afford Waitrose all month – I decide where the money goes, not the money what I can afford.”

That’s it in a nutshell.  In my work I help my clients identify what their individual needs are, and also to prioritise them in a personal hierarchy of needs, which, incidentally, has very little to do with Maslow’s.  Rather I let my clients work out what matters most to them and what meeting those needs would look like at different levels from “survival” to “luxury”.

Then we work out together how that can be translated into numbers for a cashflow plan.  For instance, in a recent blog a wrote about Jim and Natalie who identified that they absolutely need to take a breather in the supermarket café before heading home with their two small children after the weekly shop.  They know that this costs them about £30 per month, and they are finding ways to generate the cash.

I describe how to do this in practice in “Making Friends with Money”, and, of course, I’m available for one to one sessions to go through the process with you. http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/finance-coaching/

Guest Post - Can You Expand Time? – You Betcha!

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.

Why is a money coach writing about time management?  Because I’ve discovered that we often have the same behaviour patterns around the way we use money and how we spend our time and energy.  For instance, before I got into the habit of cashflow planning my pattern around money used to be “feast and famine”.

It wasn’t until I took part in a CBT-based research project on fatigue in Rheumatoid Arthritis that I realized that I had a similar “boom and bust” pattern in the way I used my time and energy.  Others might find that time “disappears” just as money does.  And just as we can get stressed over not having enough money to do all the things we need or want to, we can easily get stressed over “so much to do and too little time to do it in”.

I’m single, but I need to juggle my health needs with those of my business and my social life.  I suppose this is very familiar to anybody with a family, especially “mumpreneurs” with small children.  But how can you expand time?  After all everybody has 24 hours in the day; no more no less.

Just as having clarity about my needs and desires and what my priorities are help me manage money better, and even expand it, so does having clarity about what I need and want to get done and clarity about what my priorities are, help me manage my time and energy better.

When I draw up a cashflow plan I first need to know what I need money for.  In the same way I need to know what needs to get done and when; i.e. I need a “to do list”.  I like to colour-code mine, so that certain things stand out immediately.  And I use a weekly grid.  Below is an example of one of mine for a recent Wednesday.  Like many self-employed people I sometimes take time out in the week and make up for it at weekends.  Therefore my list includes weekends.  And I use my own personal “shorthand” for the various tasks.

Don’t Forget	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Declutter mydoc (WEFHS)	Blog	Blog	Mutti	Blog	Statements	Blog	My docs > laptop
NL article re SCs	Paddy		Blog		Co-op Statement		Blog
Martin – French pages	LinkedIn/ Facebook – Q&B		10.00 SoleTraders		Commer bank		French
Vision	French		ST follow-up		Blog		Collection money
Boots -specs			IG minutes – print out
Diary of events			PRG actions
Helge flag, Umckalobao			German Book
Website strategy			Week 1 Figures
Update QB Cashflow			Q&B blog
Philip Jones – quote for QPSW			Declutter outlook
Cashflow forecast			Declutter tray
End-of-month QB			Workshop actions
Cleaners	Back-up	Back-up	Back-up	Back-up	Back-up	Back-up	Back-up
Nov/Dec figures		19.30 French class	19.30 Elders				Metho-trexate
IG handover files

I tend to enter things into the grid as I go along; i.e. as tasks present themselves.  Then I create the final list for the following day just before I shut down my computer.

A few years ago I was introduced to the 4 quadrant approach to time management.  I don’t know where it originates, but for me it works very well in conjunction with the “to do” list, because it helps me decide what is really important to me and where I want to invest my time and energy.

First thing in the morning I allocate the tasks from the “to do” list to the various Quadrants.  Suddenly the whole list looks much less daunting and more manageable.  And sometimes certain tasks will get moved to another day immediately, because in the clear light of morning it becomes apparent that it would be unrealistic to expect to do everything on the list.

I P O R T A N C E		More Important Less Urgent GENERATION/STRATEGY (if procrastinated over may end up →) Mutti Blog ST follow-up PRG actions German Book Week 1 Figures Workshop actions	More Important More Urgent FIREFIGHTING (beware might be someone else’s agenda!) 10.00 SoleTraders Back-up 19.30 Elders
		Less Important Less Urgent TIMEWASTING (try to delegate) IG minutes – print out Declutter outlook Declutter tray	Less Important More Urgent DISTRACTION (usually someone else’s agenda!!) Q&B blog
		U     R     G     E     N     C     Y

For most of the actions in the right upper quadrant I use what I call the “piecemeal” approach.  Most of them are bigger projects.  Instead of stopping everything to get on with the one(s) where the deadline is closest I do a little bit on a variety, preferably all of them.  I might either give myself a time limit or just carry on until I come to a natural pause.  Then I have break, and when I return to my desk I’ll get on with something else.
However, I will tick off the task I have been working on, even if the project is incomplete at this point.  I once read that ticking things off on a list releases endorphins (the hormones that make us feel good) in the brain.  It certainly works for me.  It gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

I use the same approach with those annoying things in the lower right quadrant, since I haven’t got anyone to delegate to.  For instance, if the trays on my desk are overflowing, or I have a huge backlog of emails in my inbox, I will just take one piece of paper, or one email, and do something with it, that is enough to get this task ticked off, and eventually they, too, will get cleared up.

At the end of the day I look at my list and am constantly amazed at how much I have achieved in the day and how quickly I do complete the bigger projects, usually ahead of schedule.  Thus I expand time.
“But”, I hear you say, “what if I’ve got a feverish child at home, who’s kept me up all night and needs my loving attention?”  When these things happen I remind myself of the German proverb “Papier ist geduldig (paper is patient)”.  The items on my list are not going away and can wait.  I just make sure that if I have to miss appointments or deadlines that I send my apologies in good time.  Then I “give in” graciously and go with the flow.  It’s actually quite nice to have a break from lists and schedules once in a while.

I’d love to hear how you expand and manage your time, and what you do when life happens and things “go wrong”.

Guest Post: How to Live According to Your Needs?

Sanni Kruger, of Holistic Money Manager, is a finance coach helping people to become competent and confident money managers who live within their means without stressful money concerns. She assists her clients in reducing their debts whilst building up savings, as well as clarifying their desired long term vision and learning how to expand their resources to reach it. Her self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich” is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/ Sanni is also a motivational speaker with over 30 years experience of speaking to groups of any size on a variety of subjects.


In my last blog I quoted Imran Khan saying that he lives according to his needs, which he believes to be the secret of contentment. But how do you actually identify what your real needs are?

Oddly enough seeing what we actually spend our money on can give us the most important clues. Here are a couple of examples from my finance coaching work:

The first is a young student, who I’ll call Karen. We worked together during the summer before she went to university. Karen was in the habit of buying cans of soft drinks here and there when she was out and about. Like all my clients she was encouraged to start keeping a record of all the money coming in and going out. Instead of adding the amounts she paid for the soft drinks to her “grocery” category she created a separate one, because she was curious to find out how much she actually spent that way.

After 4 weeks we sat down together and added up the small amounts, varying between 40 and 60 pence. She called out the amounts and I added them up. When we were finished I said something like: “£46.80”. She burst out spontaneously: “WHAT?!?! – I’m not paying that!” In that instant Karen realized that she didn’t need those drinks to quench her thirst. Instead she started refilling a small plastic bottle with tap water and carried that around with her.

The other example involves a young couple, which I’ll call Jim and Natalie. At the time they had a 2-year-old and a new baby. Because of some health issues Natalie needed Jim’s support and they would do the weekly shop together as a family. Once they had loaded up their trolley after going through the checkout, they would stop in the café for a cup of tea and a scone before heading home.

Just as Karen did, Jim and Natalie recorded the money they spent in the café separately from their grocery shopping, and we added it up at the end of a month. This time it amounted to something just under £30. On hearing that, they both said: “Our sanity is worth it! We’ll find that money.” They had identified that they needed that time to recharge their batteries before bundling the kids back into the car, load the shopping, go home, unload the kids and shopping, and then stow everything away.

In the process they also discovered that our real needs are much more than a roof over our heads, food in our bellies and clothes on our back. That there are emotional and spiritual ones, too. And that almost all of them involve money at some point. That’s why I always encourage my clients not to change their spending habits when they start keeping a record of their money. That it is a fact finding mission, and that nobody, but themselves, will make any judgments on their spending habits.

You can find detailed instructions about creating and keeping records in my self-help book “Making Friends with Money – How to start feeling wealthy without waiting till you’re rich”, which is available from http://www.holisticmoneymanager.com/self-help/



Thanks Sanni!