Month: March 2022

It seems every month when I stop and pause to think what I would like to share, the landscape has shifted so abruptly, that I better it get it out there fast before something else comes up! Since I last wrote about moving past the pandemic, we have grappled with the floods and the war in Ukraine. By the time many of you are reading it, we may well be dealing with something else. We are all resigned to uncertainty now, and perhaps it was a certainty that has always been an illusion.

One thing is for certain, when it comes to our coping with our lives, and our money, resilience is going to be a key factor when it comes to success. Without it, life will become harder and harder to navigate.

So what is resilience to you? Is it getting through having covid and getting on with it? Bouncing back from rejection? Coping with an unexpected bill? Finding a solution to someone else’s problem? Whatever it is for each of us, it means having guts, and the mental fortitude and strength to hang in there, and not give up, even when the going is tougher than tough.

No doubt baby boomers learned a thing or two about resilience from their parents about coping after war. We are seeing remarkable cases of resilience and human decency all over the globe on social media as people help other people. Sometimes complete strangers. And I can’t help but think, perhaps all this hardship will help to bring us closer together. Both in our own communities and as a global community as well. These displays of strength and resilience are both inspiring and serve as a reminder of how precious human life is, and how we should take care of it.

So when I extend my theme of resilience out to money, it works the same way. How can you personally plan to make sure your finances are resilient? Are you rebuilding your savings if you have had to spend them in covid? Have you thought about getting a will, or updating yours? Have you looked at your insurance policies? Are they what you need? Yes, I know this sounds boring.

However, this kind of focus on your finances, even one thing, will help you build a financial resilience to shocks down the track – because who knows what else is coming.

So think about your own resilience. Celebrate what you have dealt with so far, and think about who you have helped. As humans, we all need to make human connections and know we are making a difference to people.

It’s been tough and it may get tougher, but knowing we are strong enough to face whatever it is that comes next, is a good place to be. And making a continued effort, even after taking a hit, to reinforce your wall of resilience around money, no matter if it is one brick at a time.

While we are all in this together, more than ever life has shown us that we also have to take care of ourselves and our own families.

Make sure you feel comfortable with your plan B.

Until next time,

Emma was finally sitting across from Thomas, at least one part of her day was going right. He was there in all of his signature all-black attire, the top button of his dress shirt casually undone, the shirt itself draping off him like a cascading silk curtain.

“So I heard from Jed that the bigwigs announced some pretty challenging targets for you guys?” Even Thomas’ velvety voice couldn’t make those sales targets seem more palatable.

Emma slumped a little in her chair. She’d been avoiding thinking about the new hurdles management handed down earlier today. “Yeah, they’re pretty specific and daunting,” she remarked.

Thomas’ dulcet tones continued, “From what Jed was saying, if you did what you did last year, you’ll be fine, and that will be easy with your extra skills, experience and the networks you’ve established.”  Thomas sounded exactly like Jed had earlier today, just more alluring. “From the way Jed tells it, he’s the one that needs to improve, Emma, not you.”

She felt aglow on the inside when Thomas made it sound like he thought she was already something special, like she didn’t need to prove anything to him. It made her let her guard down for what felt like the first time today.

“Trust Jed with the overshare,” Emma rolled her eyes, and Thomas smiled coyly as he took a sip of wine. “I suppose he told you that I checked my horoscope before coming out with you tonight too?”

Mid-swallow Thomas struggled to contain a grin, “You checked your horoscope to see if you should come out with me?” his smile beamed in disbelief at the thought.

“Did you check mine too?” he asked with more than a hint of cheekiness.

She couldn’t stop the pink flushing her face, she had to admit, “Well, I don’t know your star sign, so,” and her words trailed off and her gaze went towards the heavens.

Ever the opportunist, Thomas whipped out his smartphone and seemed engrossed in the screen. He looked across the table at Emma and shot her one of those delectable glances she’d adored from afar for so long.

“Well, it says here,” he said with more charm than she’d thought possible, “that I should inform any auspicious ladies I’m having dinner with, that external forces are not in control of her destiny,” he took a breath and continued on in that dreamy fashion, “and to let her know that any opportunities currently in front of her, are hers for the taking.”

He paused, set his phone down on the table and reached for her hand. There was a tingle upon her fingertips as he took her hand in his, and no break to his adoring gaze.

She averted her eyes in an attempt to mask her shortness of breath in the moment. “So,” she began “we should probably try to make that late movie then?”

“Only if we leave it up to the cashier to decide if we get to sit together,” he offered with a false demeanour. Emma laughed at his devil-may-care answer.

Unlearn principal – Belief

Knowing what you can control, and understating what you can’t, are a big part of managing your finances successfully. It’s also important to determine if what you’re trying to control really matters. Emma can’t control the sales targets her employers have introduced, but she can control her actions towards making the sales. Investors aren’t in control of markets, but they can control how or what they invest in, to ensure it suits their purpose. Allowing external influences like a performance regime, stockmarket performance (or even worse, the horoscope) to shape your own beliefs is handing over control of your situation to an unknown that won’t have your best interests at the forefront.  Unlearning your beliefs as to who is in control, and what you need to control can unlock your sense of self-power and achievement.

Reference:

Psychology references an individual’s ‘locus of control’ – entrepreneurs and generally successful people are more likely to have what’s known as an internal locus of control, where they believe that they can change their own situation; while people living closer to the poverty line are more likely to have an external locus of control, where they believe that outside events and situations are hard to manage or are external to their level of control.

Hammond, C (2016), Mind over Money.

The recent flooding in the Northern Rivers has made me grateful for the Plan B in our pantry.

Now, there’s not much that could have been planned for around the devastating and unexpected levels of flooding in Lismore and surrounding towns. The repercussions for those communities will play out for a long time to come.

Where we live, just a little further down the coast at Yamba is isolated by flood waters from those same weather events.

There’s only one road into our little town.

We are at the mouth of the Clarence River (Biirinba in the local Yaegl language) and there’s a lot of water still yet to come down past us and out to sea. The roads have been closed since Sunday and we are not expecting to get out until next week at the earliest.

What does all of that mean for us?

Well, along with many other hospitality venues we’ve closed our business because we can’t get access to food supplies. There is no milk for our coffees, no fresh produce, no eggs and the local bakeries are running out of bread flour.

The shelves are empty at our supermarket, and the roads may need repairs before any trucks can get in to resupply. There is talk around town of a helicopter resupply from the State Emergency Service, and a barge that may be able to gain access, but those will be small deliveries and should go to the folk in our community that need them the most.

We’ve done our best with what supplies we had but we’re closed for now.

While businesses are putting things on pause, it’s up to all of us in town to get by with the things we have in the fridge and pantry at home.

I’ve already worked my way through the leafy things in the vegetable crisper and we’re down to a couple of spuds, a small sweet potato, a bag of onions and the random contents of the freezer. We do have plenty of relish, mustard and other condiments, so that’s a bonus!

The pantry – the real star of this Plan B – is full of things we can use to get through the next week or so (fingers crossed).

I’ve always shopped on a budget, and I’ve always followed the advice of my Grandmother to keep something in the pantry that I know I can use, in her words ‘to pad things out’ and make things stretch a little further if you need them to.

Pasta, rice and beans are cheap, last almost forever and are vital to any pantry plan B. Serving something saucy with a plate of pasta or rice will easily fill bellies without much trouble.

A few tins of tomatoes can be used in Italian food, curries, Mexican or soups.

There’s a sweet potato curry, or pasta sauce in our immediate future. There are ingredients there to make gnocchi or potato salad. I’m sure there’s a lonely steak of some minced meat in the freezer we can make into something yummy.

As far as the dry ingredients go I’ve got flour and sugar and a few packets of dried yeast, so we’re good for bread.

I keep a backup block of butter in the fridge in addition to the one we’re using, but the eggs went into a frittata with the last of the spinach and cheese earlier in the week.

There are a couple of litres of UHT milk we can draw on, and there’s a pack of powdered milk I would normally use in some baking recipes we can crack into if it comes to that.  For now I’ll drink my coffee black, and switch to tea if that runs out.

There are lots of options in the spice rack.  It’s relatively easy to jazz something up with a sprinkle of chilli flakes, or some well placed cumin and coriander.

The mindset I have around the pantry plan B is to keep one back up of everything, just in case. Adding a can of tomatoes, or chickpeas to the trolley every week keeps thing topped up and ready to go, without feeling like a doomsday prepper with a basement full of canned tuna.

Being sure to use things periodically from your stash and then replenishing a little at a time also ensures things are within their use by dates and safe to use when you need really them.

There’s something strangely liberating about being forced to go to the pantry for dinner rather than ordering a takeaway or popping out to the shops.

I can’t get to the supermarket at the moment anyway, there’s water over the roads, but getting creative with what we have at hand is almost fun.