You can continue to learn a lot in a short amount of time, but in the last 6 weeks I have been reminded of some pretty important lessons I have learned previously. A couple of these points I have mentioned in my previous blogs.
This is a financial book by George S Clason, which I believe every person should read. Everyone in our accounting team has read this book and over the last few weeks we have had a weekly presentation of separate chapters in the book where the presenter was asked to describe the message or principle involved. The book refers to 7 basic principles around building wealth, all based around saving 10% of your income. The lessons below might sound a bit corny, but your financial success depends on your ability to master the following:
If you haven’t read it you should. If you would like to improve your financial situation and you haven’t read this book you should. Are you in denial about your financial situation? You guessed it, read the book. It’s all about discipline. Don’t kid yourself it is something more complex or fancy than that.
The Australian Sharemarket is currently experiencing the worst patch since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). At the time of writing the ASX is down nearly 10% for the month of August 2015. The type of volatility we are currently experiencing tests the resilience of sharemarket investors. But you always need to remember, what is the reason you are in the market? Have you got emergency cash set aside so you don’t have to sell some of your shares? Are you a sharemarket investor trying to generate a growing long-term income stream of fully franked dividends from strong and profitable companies?
Well, I hope you read my last blog which recorded what happened to share prices and dividends in the years before and after the previous GFC. It’s all about understanding the different types of risk (volatility versus inflationary versus investment risk) and then remaining disciplined (there is that word again – discipline).
A few weeks ago some of us from Green Taylor Partners went to the funeral of a man who succumbed to illness after a combination of health battles over a 30+ year period. He was still very young when he passed away and over that 30 year time frame he was never far away from a major health battle.
In all of our dealings with him he never once referred to his own predicament and appeared to only care about the welfare of others or what was going on in other people’s lives. He just always got on with life, keeping his sense of humour and never dwelt on the unfairness of the cards he had been dealt. After my last conversation with him I realised how much he has taught me and just how lucky I am – I will continue to think of him often. We all have so much to be thankful for. Life is too short to waste energy complaining!
I look forward to what I will learn in the next 6 weeks!
