Another year is heading to a close and, as always, this makes us look back to see what has occurred throughout the year and the story of the year is probably the same story as it was last year. The banks, bankers bonuses and the taxpayer support for the banks.
Unfortunately we have no say in the government backing the banks at a huge cost to us and to our children in the future. The banks didn’t deserve such support after their carelessness and stupidity and they should have been the ones living with little food, little heating and bailiffs banging on the door. Sadly, in this unfair world we live in, it is the taxpayer who has to pay to keep them in their comfortable lives.
Meanwhile thousands of people who were more careful are suffering at the hands of the banks as they charge them for everything they can think of, seemingly inventing new bank charges all the time and, no doubt, celebrating Christmas with the cheery thought that the Law has been used to get them out of the problem of their blatantly unfair bank charges. They know the charges are unfair, we know the charges are unfair and even the Supreme court ruling which upheld their case accepted that the charges were at best questionable on the judgement of what is fair. Unfortunately the wording of the law doesn’t allow the OFT to decide what is fair. You would quite reasonably assume that the Office of Fair Trading would be able to say what was fair or not but apparently they cannot.
So here we all are, swamped in personal debts, overwhelmed by government debt and all because the banks greedily kept buying worthless, so called, investments in pieces of paper they were told would be valuable which turned out to be worth very little. Now the banks are doing so well they want to pay big bonuses to their staff? Where is my bonus for keeping your business going and allowing you to have a job, Mr Banker? I don’t want a million pounds. Fifty quid would be a nice little treat thank you very much.
So if there is one message to come out of the last year or two it is this. Stop spending money you don’t have. It doesn’t matter if you are a banker, a government or the ordinary guy on the Clapham Omnibus, as they used to say, stop spending money you don’t have. Stop using credit cards and use cash to buy things, instead. If you don’t have the cash put off your purchase.
Happiness does not come from buying the latest gadget, though the advertisers would want you to think this was the case. Misery does come from excessive debts and financial difficulties. It is far better to sleep comfortably in your bed at night, knowing your bills are all paid, than to have a house full of gadgets and a head full of financial worries.
Contentment comes from within. You cannot buy it and nor can you buy happiness. Don’t be like the greedy and self righteous bankers who think the world owes them a living and they should be able to live on government benefits to keep them in the glorious luxury they think they deserve. They may have the outer shell of a human but a cold and wicked heart lies inside! Instead, be someone who cares about other people, share your happiness with your family and friends and be happy to live within your means.
If we were all to start using cash once again and live by the motto that, ‘When you run out of cash stop spending’, we will all be a lot more content within ourselves. We will eventually find ourselves to be more wealthy thanks to not paying enormous interest charges on everything we buy and even better…. We might get a few bankers losing their extremely well paid jobs if we don’t pay them all those billions in interest charges, credit cards fees, default charges and goodness only knows what other fees and charges they may decide to invent.
Lets begin a revolution, let’s start using real money again and when you run out of cash STOP SPENDING!
