Last week, Hank from MyInvestingBlog tagged me with the Lemonade Meme. I was delighted to be tagged. The idea is to write about a time when things went wrong and you somehow turned it into something good, a blessing.

My story happened about 9 years ago. Life was sweet, then. I was a part of a social/business community based on personal development. I had started public speaking a couple of years before and found I had a talent for it. I took every opportunity to speak and, before long, the opportunities were lining up… Continue reading →

I read something today that shocked me. I’m not going to put a link in, because I don’t want to send you there. This was specifically for readers in the UK, but I’m sure there are similar things in the US. This article, which pointed to another website (using an affiliate link) suggested it could help with releasing hapless victims of unfair credit agreements. All this in just 5 simple steps!

I went immediately to check it out - anything that could be useful to readers is worth a look. It made fascinating reading - in the way a venomous snake is fascinating… Continue reading →

I stumbled upon a cool tool today. It’s a Time Machine for emails. Sound weird? Whatever would a time machine for emails do?

The mini-app web page is very simply laid out. You fill out the details of the email address to send it to and the date you would like to be it to be sent. When that date arrives, it sends the email out. It doesn’t ask for too many details, like even who it’s from, so… How could it possibly be useful?

It’s advertised as something that could be used to remind you of an event in the future (I already use a schedule for that) or to send someone else a Happy Birthday message that you may forget later, that could be of some use, I guess.

So I gave it a few minutes of my time and thought about how it could really be useful. I came up with a few ideas, but here’s one that specifically relates to debt… Continue reading →

How quickly things change! With lightening speed, words enter our language and trip off the tongue while others are discarded, just as rapidly. The Oxford English Dictionary grants official status to new words with every edition. The British press wait eagerly, for the list of what is in and what is out. I really wonder how they can continue to keep up now. This isn’t just the language of the street we’re talking about either.

Six months ago, if someone had asked you what credit crunch meant, what would you have said? I thought a lot about this. I’m sure I would have thought it was an exotic breakfast cereal, perhaps including some freeze dried strawberries that counted as one of my 5 a day… Continue reading →

The headline ‘Bling Culture Forces Young People into Debt‘ caught my attention recently, partly because I hadn’t really given any serious thought to the issue of bling and debt.

The specific term “Bling” was first popularised in the hip hop community, and has since spread beyond hip hop, into mass culture. “Bling-bling” means expensive, ostentatious jewellery or clothing, or the wearing of them. Bling, however, has a broader definition. It is a set of values that includes playing hard, looking good and lapping up the finest, the sassy/gaudy style - the Bentley, the Jacuzzi, the Cristal, the fur coat, the first class ticket, Gucci, Prada and the Rolex. Not surprisingly, Bling is often dismissed as a crass and shallow celebration of material wealth. Continue reading →