“Excuse me have you got 2 minutes” – ’Millions have less than £100 saved as prices soar’ 

The autumn sun is shining down in Dubai, its great and it’s wonderful to see the family here. Hopefully while we are relaxing, Oscar is enjoying his rainy break in Co. Mayo Ireland with GM and her family.

Well, it appears that SM is struggling to find the proverbial 2 minutes in her busy day to read a blog article.

I guess that is symptomatic of today’s society and much as I alluded to in the initial blog of “Let’s get the show on the road”.

She asked me, and I guess some of you are thinking the same, to consider maybe reducing the Blog to every other day or even less as it was too much! What chance have I got of you lot reading this is my own flesh and blood are unable to take the time.

However, when all said and done, I am doing this for me and not anyone else, it is to try and ensure that I keep my mind active and prevent any likelihood of dementia, therefore if something grabs my attention, I will write about it.

This week there are a number of items that may need to be reviewed, Cop27, Strikes and todays headline that caught my eye…..’Millions have less than £100 saved as prices soar’

Apparently 25% of UK adults are in this boat, not having enough saved to contemplate any issues that a rainy day may bring.

While the BBC appears to think this is purely due to rising worldwide prices and the useless tory government, it is in my view more likely to be because people are no longer prepared to save for anything or live within their means and wanting things, they can’t afford but buy nevertheless on high interest credit cards or loans.

I recognise I am from a different generation, and when SEM and I decided to get married, we only did this once we had saved enough to get the deposit for our 3 bedroom semi and a mortgage we could afford, while also having some modest savings for the unexpected problem that life throws up.

We loved each other so much that we even preferred our new home to having a honeymoon.

Now this was in hindsight possibly ridiculous and a huge regret that we were unable to look back on a holiday immediately after our wedding, but it was our choice not to be in debt and from that day to this we have lived within our means and not yearned unrealistically for things beyond our means.

SEM cheerfully reminisces to others that our honeymoon night indulgence was spent drinking champagne and brandy while watching MOTD…… happy days.

Even when things were tight, and we have been through a few recessions, we never whinged like today’s generation, that expects to have everything now and pay for it later.

That also knows ‘the cost of everything and the value of nothing’.

If many in society just considered things slightly differently then maybe their lives might be a little more enjoyable.

As my recent blog…. Parenting – “Have you a licence to do that?”……highlights, there are many deciding on having families when they are unable to afford to bring them up, and then complain that they can’t provide the necessities in life.

Now as always, it is your choice, but realistically, if you made more realistic choices earlier you would be able to ride out the ups and downs of life.

Let’s be clear “Boom and Bust” occurs in every economic cycle you can’t prevent it you can’t beat it, so don’t ignore it, don’t over reach during the good times and then grumble that mortgage rates are too high in the bad times, and you can’t afford it.

In conclusion, settle for what you can afford, and life may be so much more rewarding….without the worry or moaning ……….and maybe, also provide you with 2 minutes to read the blog advice.