Friday 22 June 2018

Book: Botswana Time, Will Randall


What a wonderful African adventure Will takes the reader on. He has a marvellous writing style and sense of humour. I will definitely look at getting my hands on his other books too. 

Friday 8 June 2018

Book: The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom ~ Practical & Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying, Suze Orman


I started reading this book years ago, then lost interest when I reached a chapter about planning for retirement; not that I don't think it is important, it was just that Suze makes a lot of reference to American regulations. The other day I saw the book on my bookshelf, and it irks me to have a half-read book 'staring' at me.  What I should have done initially was just to skip over that chapter, which I did this time around. 

There are three key lessons for me from this book: the first part of the book helped me to understand my relationship and thinking about money. She takes you through an exercise that digs down quite deeply to help you understand this relationship. 

The next lesson is the importance of respecting money; this really resonated with me, as 'respect' is one of our core values at Reputation Matters.  This links to Suze's second law of financial freedom: Respect attracts money ~ disrespect repels money. 

The third lesson is trusting yourself with your money. I've had a financial advisor for years, recently I started feeling that I have been taken for a ride; I only hear from him once a year when my investments need to be renewed/reviewed and he obviously gets a commission from it. He does not listen to a word I say, and I am doubtful that after 15 years he actually knows what it is we do. Suze encourages people to listen to their gut feeling, and I think that is the reason this book has crossed my path again, giving me that 'virtual' nod that you need to listen to that inner voice especially when it comes to investments and financial planning.