Personal Finance 101
neither a borrower nor lender be
The phrase above comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and actually refers to never lend nor borrow from a friend, but I would expand that to include never lending to nor borrowing from a family member, partner, lover, or anyone else for that matter. Often you will never, ever see a single penny paid back to you. I would also expend that to say never, ever, ever stand as guarantor for anyone either. Because as guarantor you are jointly end severally liable for the whole debt, plus interest, plus charges ~ up to and including losing your home and everything else you own.
- Work out your monthly budget, with hard numbers. How much do you have coming in, and how much goes out, and on what? If you have more going out than you have coming in, then stop fucking wasting money on cigarettes, booze, gambling, drugs, vacations, sex, new clothes and shoes you don’t need…. Or get a higher paid honest job.
- Only ever borrow for two reason; #1 a mortgage to buy your home #2 to buy your car, if you must have a car. (actually student loans to pay for your education sometimes make a third reason) The only borrowing I have ever had, in my whole life, was a mortgage on my home.
- Pay off your debts just as soon as you possibly can, and only take out a loan if that is allowed in the documentation with no penalties. Don’t ever borrow from anyone other than highly respected, and properly regulated institutions. If you have never heard of them, don’t touch them with a barge pole.
- Never, ever, ever borrow on a credit card, for any reason whatsoever. Only buy something on your plastic if you can afford to pay for it in hard cash right there and then, and always pay off all your card debt in full every single month. The interest rates on credit cards are stupidly high. Anyone who says using a credit card / line of credit to consolidate your borrowing is a crook.
- On the other hand, I buy everything on plastic. I do that for 3 reasons #1 I get good points which I can use to get other things #2 because I pay off my card bills in full every month, I get 1 month’s free credit #3 if I have a dispute with the seller, then in the UK the card company will, at the end of the day, refund me in full in the seller will not, or cannot.
- Save for your retirement, however that works in your country and in your company. Save as much as you can afford for your retirement.
- Never ever trust anyone who tries to sell you any kind of financial product whatsoever. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. If you don’t understand it, then it’s a scam. Never, ever believe anything you see on the internet ~ especially on YouTube. Everybody lies sometimes, sales people lie all the time. Often they believe their own lies, or they’re to badly educated to understand their own products. (That applies to all sales people.)
We had a mantra when I worked in Banking and Finance in The City of London; ‘My Word Is My Bond’. Sadly that no longer applies anywhere. The world of Savings, Loans, Credit Cards, Banking, Finance, The Stock Markets, Real Estate….. are today full of the ignorant, dishonest, liars, charlatans, confidence tricksters, and crooks.
We had another saying in the City of London caveat emptor; which is Latin for Let the Buyer Beware.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Burgled
Lying, cheating, and stealing are next door neighbours.
Sometime earlier this week someone got into the garret and stole some of my stuff.
There was no damage to my door, so at first I thought I’d just lost my wallet and cash. That prompted me to spend a whole day searching for wallet / cash…..
But, I’d been robbed of my wallet with a couple of credit cards, my drivers licence, some other identity cards, and about £100 in cash. I also lost my cell phone, a couple of hundred US Dollars, about 5,000 Turkish Lire, a watch, and some other bits and pieces
I’ve spent all morning on the ‘phone sorting out my banks and reporting the theft to the police.
Even then I’m not finished restoring my life ~ for example I need a new cell phone.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I feel sorry for Marmaduke, who was alone in the garret at the time of the robbery
Money ~ Trust Nobody
Even Banks and Credit Card Companies are Dishonest
There is a truism ~ everybody lies. These days, even the people you should be able to trust to help you look after your money will lie to you. Just three recent examples in the news;
- Thousands of staff at Wells Fargo Bank routinely created false customer accounts based on real customers’ email addresses. All told about 2 million fake accounts were created. These fake accounts were allegedly used by staff to meet their sales targets ~ and some 5,300 Well Fargo staff have been fired. Would that it were all ~ trust me, there is more nasty news to come on this one concerning customer charges and wrong-doings higher up in the bank.
- The great credit card scandal continues. Credit cards are a rip-off for everyone except the banks. Despite official interest rates being at an historic low, the interest charged on credit card balances continues to rise to usury levels. And, in Britain Mastercard is accused of setting punitive charges on retailers, resulting in an estimated overcharging of £14 billion between 1992 and 2008. Guess who ends up paying for all this ~ you do. Mastercard are being taken to court in a class action.
- Four ex-employees of Barclays Bank are facing long jail terms for manipulating LIBOR. You may think LIBOR, (London Inter Bank Offered Rate), has got nothing to do with you. As a matter of fact the interest costs of everything you have ever borrowed is based on Libor. If you can’t trust the financial markets, then who can you trust?
Not one of the companies and people you trust to manage your money are completely honest with you. When it comes to your money, trust nobody.
Complete honesty is much more than not cheating, stealing, and lying ~ although banks, insurance companies, pension providers, credit card companies, financial advisers, et al, do more than enough outright cheating, stealing, and lying. Complete honesty means not lying by omission, being straightforward, being open, telling you what you need to know, avoiding obfuscation… None of the financial companies and people you deal with abide by that definition of honesty.
If they wanted to be really honest, then they wouldn’t have you sign a legal agreement which included pages and pages of small print.
What should you do;
- Check your bank and credit card statements for unexpected items, especially unexpected charges.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- If it looks to good to be true it is.
- If you don’t understand something, have it clearly explained until you do understand.
- Never pay for financial advice, never pay an up-front or annual fee for a credit card or bank account.
In high finance there is a concept called ‘counter-party risk’ ~ one of the assumptions in that concept is ‘buyer beware’, never assume that the person or company you are dealing with is telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
George Bailey would be horrified.
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
JackCollier7 
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