This Week in Property: The Latest News (24th June 2022)
Take a look at what our CEO Gill Fielding has to say about this week’s property news…
Decide your jackpot
I’ve often commented on the emotional side of money and everybody has a different idea of wealth means and now we have research done by the Universities of Bath and Exeter showing that given a choice of an imaginary jackpot between £8k and £80 billion, the majority of a cross section of British adults, choose £800k. 27% wanted £800k compared to only 5% wanting £800 million. It’s interesting that when people really think about it, what they actually want financially is ‘enough’ to live the life they have or want. People realise that when you have enough to pay the bills, then your time is your own to live the life you want. Then the people that wanted the most were those for the poorer countries (Indonesian people wanted £100 billion) and those that wanted the least were those from politically communist countries like China. Over double the number of Americans wanted £100 billion (35%) compared to Britons (14%). It just goes to show that wealth is purely a function of what you believe, where you live and your current circumstances. It’s a social, cultural and political issue in the main and not a financial one. Fascinating!
Who’s the Daddy!
I just wanted to give a shout out to us older generations of people who are often told by their children that they don’t know what they’re doing and my children occasionally try to protect me from the world outside. BUT, figures just out show that the most commonly scammed age group is the 20;s (25% of all scams are suffered by the 21-30 age group) swiftly followed by the 30 somethings (21%) and those of us in their 60s only suffer 8% of scams. So maybe us oldies are more savvy than the youngsters think and we tend not to be quite so gullible and susceptible to scammers whereas younger people are more likely to believe what they see on social media (which is increasingly where scams start). Ok so maybe I don’t know how to click and flick on my phone like my children but that sounds like it’s a good thing!
Break the bad news cycle
I admit I’ve been feeling overwhelmed when I read the news lately. It’s all negative and depressing and you can’t help but be affected by it. And I’m not alone. According to Reuters 46% of Brits avoid the news because it’s too negative and it brings them down and that percentage increases every year. It’s not that we want to avoid the obvious issues and there are negatives going on in the world for sure, but wouldn’t it be nice if we focused on potential solutions rather than on attacking each other constantly? I think about the Covid vaccine which was produced in record time because scientists pulled together to achieve something we desperately needed. Why can’t we have that mental attitude on other issues: household spending, railways, or energy prices for instance. And of course there are positives going on to but we don’t hear so much about them. The real issue with negative news is that it brings us down and creates mental health issues whereas positive approaches make us feel that things are possible and that we are supported and that leads to better mental health and better outcomes. So my thought for the day is this: surround yourself with positives for a while; you’ll feel better, you’ll make more balanced choices and you’ll be better off financially and emotionally. Create your own negative defence wall and focus on the good news bias – and see how much better your life becomes.
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