The School of Life (12) - Banks and Financial Institutions

By chrysolite, 25th Oct 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/183.xnes/
Posted in Wikinut>Health>Mind & Spirit>Self Help

This is part 12 of a series of 12 articles about what they should have, but didn't teach us in school! Today: How to and how not to deal with banks and financial institutions!

• Always talk to your bank manager first!
• Are credit cards a good thing?
• Should you get a mortgage to buy a house?
• What about other "investments"?
• Were the Chinese philosophers right after all?
• Fear and greed, can we eliminate those feelings?
• What if we all thought like that?

Always talk to your bank manager first!

In essence this chapter is the complete opposite to what I was stating in the communication page. Why? - Well, because you want their money or their services and since banks are undoubtedly very powerful, you have to play their game.

First of all, your bank manager wants to be asked BEFORE you start playing with the bank's money. So many people just go and overdraw their bank account considerably without having opened an overdraft facility and then they wonder why the bank manager gets stroppy or they have to pay enormously high interest. Now, you wouldn't want anybody to play like that with your money, would you?

Ok, so you go and ask for a £ 100 or £ 200 overdraft. Wrong. For reasons only known to banks themselves they are reluctant to hand out "small fry". If you qualify (!?!) you can get £ 600 or £ 1000 pounds overdraft facility and then you are at least a "number" in their books.

Same with a loan. It's far easier to get £ 100.000 loan from a bank (with security to back it up) than a £ 500 loan (with only a salary to back up).

Are credit cards a good thing?

That depends what sort it is. If it's a plastic card that saves us carrying money around and our purchases get paid off by the end off the month, all dandy. But if we don't have the money to actually buy something we want and want a "loan" on a credit card, then that means we can't afford to buy it anyway. We just "play" with the idea that we can and if we fall for this idea, then the best offer and the best deal will get very expensive by the time we've paid those high interest charges on the credit cards. Credit cards are just an illusion that we got used to, an illusion that we can "still afford" to buy when in reality, we cannot. The problems that are arising from such illusions can readily be looked into with any so-called "debt agency".

Should you get a mortgage to buy a house?

You want a mortgage to buy a house? No problem, just inform yourself and buy the house if you have taken care of "9 to 5". If only it was so easy. The recent developments in this market have shown us that not all mortgage offers are "good" offers and not everybody who has a mortgage is able to pay it back. Financial crisis, job security doubtful and yet banks offer mortgages and people take them up. But what worked well for the last 60 years does not necessarily work now or for the next 60 years. In my opinion it is not feasible at the moment to take up a mortgage with only a salary to back it up.

What about other "investments"?

Investments, pensions and insurance? - Puzzles me how they are still in business with the bad press they are getting daily in the newspapers. The business with "fear", false security and the fact that it simply is good business to get £ 5 per month from e.g. 1 million people especially if you don't have any business risk with it and can always argue that there is no "liability to pay out" in this particular instance.

All the above doesn't apply to rich people, of course, but then again they are educated to deal with money, money attracts money and so forth, but these "money laws" simply don't apply to a moderately salaried employee. A society can only support a tiny number of very rich people, a small number of rich people and a moderate number of people who are well off. And therefore you are supposed to play the lottery if you want to get rich, live in hope and in the secure knowledge that playing the lottery only makes its organizers rich.

Yes, the generation of MY parents got a good deal with their pensions and investments and insurance because economy was rising! Now in the financial crisis world-wide, we would need to be totally blind to not see that the rich take first and the poor get nothing. I'm not trying to criticize here, it's a fact of life and the sooner we learn it, the better!

Were the Chinese philosophers right after all?

Many thousands of years ago, when the Chinese invented the money, they KNEW it wouldn't work and warned against this system which is open to so much fraud. Still, we have it to this day and we'll have to deal with it. And unless we are brought up with money or get a proper education on how to deal with it, there's only one way to learn: Self-study. The knowledge is freely available and there isn't any excuse for NOT KNOWING.

Fear and greed, can we eliminate those feelings?

I think we can if we pro-actively make ourselves aware of it, find new strategies for our life that will work even in a world of "crisis" and get on with "it". The business with our "fears" is very big, you need an insurance here and an insurance there, but well, in my own experience, if I don't have all those insurances and I've informed myself properly and live a "straight" life and I'm aware of the business with "fear" in advertising, well, I can't complain now at all! I live a simple (!!!) and healthy lifestyle without fear. I know it's possible because I live it.

Greed is another one of those "hidden" feelings we all have. Everybody wants a bit more and something for free or a "good deal" and this "more" or "free" or "good deal" simply doesn't exist! We just like to believe it, that's all. But what if we "dug out" this feeling "greed", made a simple list of the essentials of maintaining our life (I can assure everybody that this is very little!) and give this simple lifestyle a try. No greed, no necessity. And then, when we've got used to it and we are secure in the knowledge that it's not so complicated and difficult after all, then we can look out again for little gadgets or things or services to make our life easier. But now, we know we can afford them and we are not influenced by advertising or our peers. And really, it doesn't matter, this new "thing" would be nice to have, but well, if not, the world won't go to pieces after all.

What if we all thought like that?

Well, we don't and my suggestions above are my personal experience, because I fancied looking into all the problems of the world and somehow wanted to get out of it. Whatever we propose to ourselves and then DO with enthusiasm, even passion, we will succeed in. I think I just wanted to write this article to show that there is another world we can choose and that there is "always another way" to deal with anything.

As always, working for

A SUCCESSFUL, HAPPY AND HEALTHY FUTURE

laluls212 moderated this page.
If you have any complaints about this content, please let us know

Username

Can't login?

Password

Wikinut search

Wikinut options

• Help
• Contact us

Page categories

• Star pages
• Wikinut
• Health
• Mind & Spirit
• • Addiction
  • ADHD & ADD
  • Alzheimer's & Memory
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Mental Health
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Phobias
  • Positive Thinking
  • Self Help
  • Sleep
  • Stopping Smoking
  • Work Issues & Stress