Small changes you can make for a big difference

One of my favourite quotes is

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it”.

I think it was H D Thoreau who muttered those wise words. And it got me thinking.  

Thinking about how much life gets wasted on meaningless self-lobotomising activities. 

If you add up the hours you’ve spent watching mind-numbing TV, or waiting in for tradesmen, playing Angry Birds or even sleeping, it would add up to years, even decades of your life.

OK, we’ve all got to sleep and personally I love my bed as much as the next woman (or should I say man?). But I worked out that if I made a few small changes to my life the impact could be enormous.

For example, did you know that:

1. If you get up 15 minutes earlier every day you will gain ninety one extra hours of waking life in one year. That’s days and days of extra time!
2. If you save £1 a day every day for two years, you'll be able to travel anywhere in the world.
3. If you write one hundred words a day in two years you will have a full-length novel.
4. If you show real interest in everyone you meet every day, in two months you could have 60 new friends.
5.  If you over-pay on your mortgage by £20 pounds a month you’ll pay off your mortgage 20 months earlier  - and save £5515 in interest alone. (based on 100,000 mortgage over 25 years at 5% interest)
6. If you do one extra press-up every day you'll double your fitness level in 3 months.
7. If you photograph one small thing every day, after a year you'll have boosted your levels of awareness - and have an awesome photojournal.
   
8. If you donate £1.25 a week to Oxfam you will buy 288 buckets of pure, clean drinkable buckets of water a year for a family.
9. If you cut out one can of fizzy drink every day you'll lose 10 pounds in 6 months (without making any other changes).
10.  If you cut out one hour of TV from your life you would have an extra 7 hours free time a week, or the equivalent of two full days extra every month.

It all adds up doesn’t it? Small changes equal big difference. That’s exactly the philosophy beind our Do Something Different behaviour change technique. People make one small change regularly and they tell us a big shift soon happens in their life.

Today I’ve been talking on the radio about me-time. I was supporting a campaign by Palmolive to encourage women to claim back me-time. Unlike blokes, not many women have a shed to retreat to. So the idea is that we can pamper ourselves for 20 minutes a day in the shower (with their yummy Ayurituelsshower gels) and restore our health and well-being. Scented candles, nice music, petals and a glass of fizz are optional extras of course. But think about it, if you have a pampering experience for 20 minutes in the shower every day, you’ll save the cost of going to a spa…

HAVE YOU ever changed one small thing and found it's added up to a big difference?

10 easy money actions for the financially challenged

...or the financial phobic.

None of these are scary. Or difficult.  But they could make a huge difference to your financial health.

Decide how many of them you will tick off this year: 

1.    Get on-line banking (if you haven’t already). Stick a weekly reminder in your diary to check your statement. Marvel at (or bemoan) where the money goes. Tackle leaks.

2.    Charity shop. Devise a whole new image based on charity shop finds. You can always restyle or dye stuff. Fashion victim = financial failure.

3.    Perform some plastic surgery. Cut up credit cards and just use cash. Slash and burn store cards, show them no mercy.

4.    Learn about compound interest. It’s how investments grow and why debts go ballistic. Spend 5 minutes getting to grips with it here. Feel immediately enlightened. Smug even.

5.    Sweep some money into a savings account. Every month. Do it by direct debit. You won’t miss it going out but you’ll love it piling up.

6.    Ask someone for money. Now. Nag your boss for a rise. Call in debts. Haggle for a discount on your next purchase. Take something back, demand a refund.

7.    Make kids earn money. Stop being their cash cow. Make them get a job or sell old toys on eBay. Threaten to charge them rent. If they’re over 18 charge them rent. Be less tough on toddlers.

8.    Deal with credit card debt. Transfer to a 0% interest card. If your savings earn less interest than you’re paying on your card, use them to pay off the debt.

9.    Play the long game. Give your future self a gift. Boost pension payments (or start one). Over-pay on the mortgage. Take out a 5 or 10 year high-interest investment.

10.  Stem the flow of wasted money. Unused gym memberships. Forgotten magazine subscriptions. Thirsty cars. Taxi/takeaway/smoking/alcohol habits. Put what you save into a separate account, just for you.

It's good to talk sheconomics

I loved talking to the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women in the luxurious setting of the RAC Club (not a fluorescent jacket in sight) on Pall Mall last night. Those RAC people are amazing, they can not only fix your car but also serve up some damn good crudites ….

The TCPW are a feisty bunch of bright, high achieving women of all ages and I learned a lot from their comments and questions during our lively session.

We had fun with some of the behaviour economics problems from Sheconomics. To a woman they got the intuitive reasoning problem right (three out of four women usually get it wrong) but they did let their emotions intrude on the ultimatum game. OK, shows they place high value on fairness and social co-operation so it came as no surprise to learn that many work in philanthropic or fund-raising roles.

On the subject of females asking for money, one woman said she can shamelessly extract millions of pounds from others for her cause, but can’t ask for a pay rise for herself. That captures the tendency of the female money psyche to put the needs of others first. It’s what makes us loyal friends and caring individuals, but if we’re not careful it could make us poor too. 

Don't make an issue out of giving!

A funny thing happened to me as I walked to a meeting in London this week, across Covent Garden and Leicester Square. 

A Big Issue seller caught my eye around Cambridge Circus (I’ll leave you to ponder that image) and, as there was no-one else around (to diffuse my responsibility) I gave in and bought a copy from him.

He had no change. 

I only had a fiver.

So I gave him the fiver and he gave me the BI.

I tucked it under my arm and, spotting it there, the next three BI sellers I passed on my walk all chirped up with happy greetings, like ‘God Bless Ya Luv’. Each one made me smile and feel warm inside. Not like the shifting discomfort I usually feel as I try to sneak past them and not buy. 

It was the best fiver I’ve spent in ages.

Yet the cover price of the BI is £1.70 and, I confess, there was a bit of me that said ‘I’ve just paid £5.00 for something that costs £1.70. That’s generous.’

Not generous. Pretty mean actually.

What I’d done was give just one measly fiver to charity. 
That’s actually a mean-spirited, less-than-the-price-of-a-glass-of-wine, stingy amount to give. And I’d got so much more than a fiver’s worth back! 
Those friendly guys were brimming with appreciation and had brightened up my morning - plus I didn't have to skulk across town avoiding their eyes.

Talking to a lovely friend about this recently told me that whenever he gives money away he ends up having more. He sets up an annual pledge to give and pointed me in the direction of this website

http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/pledge/pledge.php

I was also reminded of the US research study into the link between money and happiness. Students were given $10 to spend, either on themselves or another. When their happiness levels were measured after the study, those who had spent the money on another were twice as happy as those who’d spent it on themselves.

In Sheconomics we stress the do something different approach to giving our money mindset a makeover. So perhaps if we want more money we should  start by giving some away?