We cannot be sure as to who invented the knife and fork. But according to research, a manuscript from 1004 CE tells the story of Maria Argyropoulina. A Greek niece of Byzantine Emperor Basil II, who would use a certain golden instrument with two prongs to eat her meals. However, this didn't catch on in the rest of Europe until the 17^th century.

There is also no definitive time period that can be attributed with the invention of the spoon. However, archaeological evidence suggests that spoons with handles were used for ancient Egyptian relig...

There’s many an example where people have been heard to say ‘if only I’d done that’.

It took me some time to realise that in doing so, it serves little purpose. You cannot turn the clock back. And you can only move forward from where you are at that particular point in time.

Experiences we encounter, can be good or bad. Good in the sense that we may have progressed professionally as we planned. And bad in that we chose the wrong dish from the menu, in that new restaurant that was recommended.

The best we can hope for is that we learn from...

I recently discovered that someone had somehow/somewhere likely intercepted an item of post. Pretending to be me, they then successfully reported my credit card to the provider (which I had in my possession) as lost. Being able to amend the address and contact details, taking delivery of the new credit card, they then happily spent close to £10,000 in around six weeks.

Not least for professional reasons, I’ve been subscribing to a credit referencing service for a number of years. Meaning that I regularly review that all is as it should be. ...

From the beginning of the year and as I've already touched on within the past couple of articles, I'm going back to basics. To re-explain in detail, what lifestyle financial planning is and why it is so important.

If you'd like to recap, jsut view the articles in this Thoughts section.

And late last year, I was invited to record a podcast. Discussing the same subject. It's only a 35 minute listen, and I hope that you find it clear and concise.

To listen, just click here.

It can also be found on other podcast providers. So just search One...

We often look at what we’ve achieved in life in monetary terms. What we have, what we earn and what we expect to receive.

But what is all this worth? And what value can we place on money, if it doesn’t give us the life we really want?

Perhaps by not being able to do the things we want to, if we don’t know what that is. Or where we might want to help our children or loved ones, as they might require or need.

For most human beings, we value what lies in our aspirations, desires and wants. Not how much we have. The latter is vitally relevant...

Last month, I talked about the first phase of lifestyle financial planning. By establishing the individual’s purpose.

Initially, we identify where the person has come from, where they are now and where they want to end up. More importantly, by when.

It’s also helpful to understand what relationship they’ve had with money. What they experienced growing up and how things have unfolded for them since then, to be where they are now.

But what’s as important in establishing the purpose is the ‘why’. What this ‘why’ means and what the effects ar...

In lifestyle financial planning terms, we always ask as to ‘what are your goals, ambitions, and aspirations’. I’ve never been comfortable with these terms, as I feel that they’re too generic and meaningless to most people.
 
My first mission for 2023 is to encourage the use of more appropriate and relevant phrases to replace. All part of the process of educating people of the deep-seated significance of ‘true’ lifestyle financial planning.
 
Searching on Google, other words pop up. Such as aims, intentions and purpose to name but a few. Any ...