There’s been a lot of discussion about the steady disappearance of cheques. Many High Street companies are starting to refuse to accept them. Shell stopped accepting them in 2005, Tesco and Asda are testing to see if they would lose business by not accepting them and Boots recently started refusing cheques in their stores.

The Which consumer group has published a survey which says that six out of ten people find cheques useful. I’m surprised it isn’t higher. We all use them occasionally. If I want to give son or daughter some money for some reason then a cheque is the easiest way and I can just give it to them or pop it in the post. The alternative would be to make a bank transfer online which works well enough but a cheque is simple and quick to write. If shops and companies decide to no longer accept them though, almost certainly they will disappear completely.

In a digital age businesses prefer digital transactions. For them they are simple and quick. There is none of the Read the rest of this entry

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

I have only recently discovered blogs but they seem to be an established and growing way of getting the message out there. Whatever the message may be.

My message is that we are all sinking into a swamp of debt and it does bother me. I wonder about the future of our civilization if we continue in the way we are going.

It occured to me this morning that the debt crisis that I believe we are in is similar to the environmental crisis that is, at last, being recognised. I have been interested and concerned about the environment since the early seventies though I’ve never been active in doing anything about it. I have been watchful though. I watched as the early activists were dismissed and ridiculed by the “wise and knowledgeable” leaders of our countries. I have seen scientists claiming it was all nonsensical rubbish and I have seen the world as we know it deteriorate while they danced on.

Finally we see that those “wise ones” have recognised that rather than being wise they were demonstrating their ignorance and closed minds. Of course, they don’t admit to that but they are at last listening and paying attention. It remains to be seen whether it is all too little, too late. Time will tell and the planet will go on either with or without us.

So, assuming that mankind survives, what will be our financial situation? I believe that this is a similar situation to that of the environmental lobby in the 70′s. There are a growing number of voices crying out in the wilderness and more and more figures are supporting the claim that we are all heading for disaster and bankruptcy. Yet, the “wise ones” are telling us we have never had it so good. Certainly, most of us enjoy a lifestyle far beyond anything people could have hoped for even 50 years ago. Most of us have a lifestyle that Kings would have envied hundreds of years ago. The question is, who will pay for it. Will our children and their children still be paying the price?
I hope to be able to encourage people to, at least, stop and think about it. We are borrowing at an unsubstainable rate. We must all start to be more realistic in our aspirations and desires. There may be some people out there who “get off” on being in debt and living on the edge but for the majority debt is a worrying noose around our necks. Excessive use of credit cards leads to debts which causes stress and can destroy relationships so just stop and think before you present your plastic.

Sid

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)