session 4

Session 4

Financial habits

-          Charles Dickens

-          On financial options

-          Mr. Micawber's famous recipe for happiness:

-          "Annual income twenty pounds,

-          Annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness.

-          Annual income twenty pounds,

-           Annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

-          “Something will turn up”

-          Spending less than you earn – consistently, over time –

-          Will lead to at least some degree of financial success.

-          Spending more than you earn will lead to financial misery,

-           Which is likely to negatively affect other areas of your life.

-          If you can't live The Micawber Principle no other financial advice matters. 

-          It is the foundation of personal financial success.

-          “Excellence then is not an act

-          But a habit”

-          Money “per se” bring little well being

-          Studies with lottery winners

-          The country of Bhutan

-          In terms of spending:

-          Better spend on experiences

Saving could lead to investment and more income

Some analyze the amount you can save per day

Which would then translate into enormous sums

Over the years

Rat race

-              This is a habit which is learned in school and from parents

-              The emphasis is on good grades and results

-              Instead of learning to Love learning

-              Children become used with the rat race from an early age

-              They fight for a good grade; they do not enjoy or even hate school-

-              And they get the habit of always asking for more and new satisfactions

-              Without ever getting happy except for brief moments

-          Stoicism, Zen Buddhists, Consumerism

-          Dalai Lama in the supermarket – wow…

Ancient thought systems teach many valuable lessons

             wish for what you already have

            do not get overwhelmed by desires

            Be resilient!

-              One of the generally accepted activities in the science of happiness is

-              Expressing Gratitude

-              Whether every day and then for three or five things, people, events

-              Is sometimes disputed

-              Sonja Lyubomirsky argues that we need to express gratitude

-              Less often, at the end of week –for instance in order to keep

-              The interest alive and not fall into a routine or worse, make

-              The exercise a burden a task that we grudgingly perform

-             

-          Tests and Research

-              Tests have proved beyond doubt the benefits of the

-              Gratitude exercise

-              But there is a logical explanation as well

-              People tend to be unhappy because they want more and more

-              Things, clothes, a better car, etc. without even noticing the good

-              Things they have-for instance, if they are healthy, they tend to ignore it

-              And the phenomenon is called “the hedonic treadmill”

-              Whereby, even when we get a better car, we want another one

-              We are never satisfied and keep looking for new objects to

-              satisfy a vain need for more

-          Serenity Now!!