Welcome.
“Whatever you do Don’t Mention Money in polite company!” It could have been your mother or father or someone else that told you that. There were a number of topics people weren't suppose to bring up in conversation. Let alone admit that you may or may not understand something! Those days are over and there was never a better time to put old attitudes about talking about money aside. That is what Money Skill Building and this Blog is all about.
Don’t Mention Money is a space where we can discuss some of the issues raised today in teaching and learning about finance and economics. I hope you find it useful and that you will post comments and ask questions so that can keep posts relevant and interesting. Questions about finance or learning about finance are most welcome. There are no celebrity economists here. No one to look cross and point out the error of your ways. Just information about issues that effect you and how you see your finances. The future gets more complicated by the day and the last thing we need is another space that takes our questions about our financial future and gives us sound bites for solutions. There is also a lot of pain created by the collapse of the financial system. For that reason, I ask that posts be respectful and serve the purpose of advancing answers to questions. We can all learn from each other and our experiences.
It is my belief that railing against a system that is now dysfunctional won’t in the long run make life better for anyone caught in its aftermath. Neither is demanding its destruction. While it may make those left hurt and devasted by its wrecklessness feel better in the short run, it won’t empower their financial decisions in the future.
Education is the only way to navigate the financial system. You will be able to understand how interest and inflation can increase or decrease the value of your savings, how to limit the influence of capital markets on the value of your most important asset – your home, and the trade offs between renting and owning on your financial future. Take the time to really understand what influences your finances and you will be able to manage them rather than have them manage you.
Money Skill Building is really about putting you at the center of your financial decision-making. There are no products involved and no advice given. Money Skill Building isn't affiliated with a bank or building society, or government body. This is not a get rich quick scheme. You will know nothing more about stock and shares than you may know now. Yes I have traded stocks and I continue to trade stocks. No I do not manage other people’s money. I would never ever encourage anyone to trade the stock market. Especially now! (Anyway it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of learning and doing before you can be any way proficient (ie not lose a ton of money))
And please don’t say to me “I have about €2,000 that I don’t mind if I lose. I may as well put it in the stock market and see what happens” I am quite literally good for 20 minutes of lecturing on about how you have almost 100% chance of doing just that - losing it Safe to say we will avoid that topic altogether except in its most general of terms as a type of asset on your personal balance sheet.
I do have qualifications in financial services. I have received the Accredited Product Advisor designation and enrolled in the CPD program with the Institute of Bankers, Ireland. I am working towards my Qualified Financial Advisor qualification. I also have studied for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. But those were to enhance my own knowledge and to keep my education up to date as best I could. Sometimes I do research on topics that are very boring to the vast majority of people and not really relevant to what I am doing in Money Skill Building.
I have also worked for a number of years in community development where I helped tenants acquire, own and manage 265 unit urban housing development. That project alone involved numerous sources of financing, legal documents, and management issues. I worked with community organizers, tenant groups, neighbourhood groups, lawyers, architects, and builders on a number of other projects to move them on to the next stage of development. All the while ensuring tenants had an affordable place to live when market rents were beyond their reach.
The only service and purpose of Money Skill Building is education. You decide the pace of the course and you are encouraged to ask questions and receive answers. There will be a classroom space on the web for you to apply those concepts that may seem hard to come by in the classroom environment alone. And this is not an online course. While there is nothing wrong with online learning and it serves a very good purpose for people who can’t access education any other way, Money Skill Building believes that shared learning, listening and, very importantly participating in, classroom discussion will increase one’s confidence in tackling concepts that at first may seem new and perhaps remote.
Thanks for reading this and my hope is that you will return for many great discussions to come.
If you want to know more about Money Skill Building, myself and the courses offered, please see moneyskillbuilding[dot]com.
And now about that interest rate cut and not passing it on to consumers…Cheers
