Category: Blog

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Doing everything yourself?

There are many reasons why we try to do everything ourselves, from satisfying our need to be in control to trying to save costs, or simply “wanting the job done right”, all of us find ourselves doing too much when we forget, or haven’t learned to delegate.

Taxes and financial planning are two areas that we often feel we can go it alone, but inevitably find ourselves turning to a professional down the line and realise that the mistakes we’ve made can be far more costly than hiring an expert earlier on. For small business owners, this is often seen in tasks like building a website and marketing strategy, or trying to manage our own accounting and bookkeeping. For homeowners we see this happening when we try to rewire the house, fix a plumbing leak or sort out the dishwasher that stopped working several weeks ago.

Whilst these examples may seem humorous and relatable, sometimes the problems we need to fix are not just tangible or superficial challenges, sometimes they’re related to our mental health or close relationships. Sometimes we desperately need someone else to help us spot our blindspots, our unhealthy habits and the red flags that we’re not able to spot ourselves.

If you try to do everything yourself, you could very well be headed for either burnout or a complete meltdown.

Kathy Paauw from orgcoach.net, says that each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Not every task required along the road to success will be enjoyable. New challenges often involve things that are outside of our own expertise. Attempting to do everything ourselves – succumbing to the Do-Everything-Myself syndrome — is not feasible, since it takes too much time for each of us to learn and do everything ourselves.

As Seth Godin says: “You don’t need more time in your day. You need to decide.”  You need to decide what you’re going to focus on, and what you’re going to delegate.

Delegation helps us share the load, and it helps us communicate with others in a way that draws them in and includes them in our journey, whilst making them feel valued and making us feel valuable.

There are three types of tasks that we should identify to delegate:

1 – Tasks we don’t enjoy

2 – Tasks we shouldn’t do (because our time is better used doing something else)

3 – Tasks we can’t do (because we don’t have the expertise)

Remember, you can’t help anyone else until you learn to help yourself first. Delegation is not a lazy strategy, it’s a success strategy. The sooner we can identify the tasks that we shouldn’t be doing, the sooner we can stop doing everything ourselves.

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A bird’s eye-view of your financial plan

Most people don’t enjoy financial planning. It’s a practice filled with stigmas of confusing concepts, complicated products, and expensive choices. But the fact is that none of us can live without it costing us money. Even if we simply want to go for a walk, we need to buy the time to do that.

We need to earn enough money during our working hours to buy the freedom to choose what we want to do in our downtime. And to do this, we need to have a plan (however basic it might be) in place.

You don’t need to know everything, but you need to know some things. Here are some ideas from the team at 22seven to help us hold a bird’s eye-view of our financial plan.

  1. What are my financial goals? 

Save money, have enough money to live comfortably, make work optional… 

These are reasonable goals if you’re taking the broad-brush-stroke approach. Still, it’s vital to have smaller, more tangible goals along the way that will give you a sense of accomplishment and motivate you to continue on your personal financial journey. 

Your smaller goals can’t be vague – they have to be clear and concise so that you know exactly what you have to do to achieve them. For example, your goal might be: ‘I want to save 10% of my income each month’ or ‘I want to increase my net worth by 5% over the next five years.’ 

  1. How much debt do I have? 

Debt doesn’t have to be the millstone around your neck. If you know how much you owe and what the interest on the debt is, you can make a plan to reduce it and ultimately get rid of it.

Make a list of every loan and how much you need to repay each month. If you want to speed up your repayments, allocate extra money to the accounts you wish to pay off quicker – maybe the account you owe the most on or the one with the highest interest rate. From there, you just have to stick to your plan.

It’s not impossible – you can do it! 

  1. What is my net worth? 

‘Net worth’ sounds like a fancy term, but it’s just everything you own (your assets) minus everything you owe (your liabilities). An increasing net worth indicates that your assets grow faster than your debts. That’s what you want! 

Net worth is a valuable snapshot of your entire financial situation, so it’s worth checking every now and then.

  1. Am I covered when things go wrong?

What if something happens and you can no longer work and earn an income? As depressing as it is, you need to plan for the worst. Some examples are disability cover, dread disease cover and income protection cover. 

This bird’s-eye view is aimed to help you maintain a high-level grasp on your financial plan. Still, each point above has many deeper conversations that help us craft and leverage your financial plan to suit your personal needs and ever-changing circumstances. If you need specific help before our next meeting, please feel free to reach out and let’s keep you in the best position possible to thrive in life!

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Make better powerpoints

Powerpoint presentations have become a vital tool in communication, whether it’s to source funding or support for new business ideas, presenting feedback to management or your team, sharing research findings or creating content for social media, knowing how to make powerpoints that attract, connect and engage with the audience has become a crucial skill for almost all of us.

But it’s more than just a skill, it’s also an art, and this is where most of us struggle. In an age where jobs come and go fast, and finding new work or building a social media presence is part of the lifeblood of our future opportunities, finding a few tricks to create better powerpoints is worth sharing. Chris Munn, who works at Fairfield Company, specialises in buying and selling businesses, and these are some of the tips that he recently shared on Twitter.

DESIGN MATTERS

For a compelling deck, your design matters. From the typography to the colours, using pre-made templates (or hiring a designer) is a great way to start. Canva.com is a super resource for creating presentations, and you’ll find them under the Design tab in the Office section.

USE POWERFUL IMAGES

Most people like to look at beautiful images, clever visuals or simple infographics. Don’t fight human nature. Stunning graphics and visuals are far more impactful than words on a page and can often communicate quicker and be remembered for longer.

FOLLOW THE 10/20/30 RULE

It’s really easy to get lost creating a presentation, especially if the template has 30-40 slides. But – keep it short!

The 10/20/30 rule is as follows…

-10 slides max

-20 mins total presentation time

-30 point font minimum

This helps you focus on the essential bits and keeps your slides easy to engage with, both in the presentation and as a PDF handout or resource (which you can easily share on LinkedIn carousel).

DON’T READ YOUR SLIDES

As Munn says, unless there are blind people in your audience, assume everyone can read. This is slightly easier when you’re using a minimum of size 30 for your font because you won’t be able to put lots of text or even full paragraphs into your slides. The slides are there to support the conversation you’re trying to spark, not to be the entire conversation.

TELL A STORY

This is probably the most fun when crafting a presentation that will be attractive and engaging. Don’t just lay out the facts and the numbers – tell the story of why this presentation journey is important. Try to understand your audience and find ways to make them feel like they’re part of this story – then you’ll not only grab their attention, you’ll keep it.

Being a success is not about keeping our jobs or maintaining a steady career path; it’s about living our truth and constantly exploring how we can add value to the world. We will have seasons where things run smoothly, and we’ll have seasons where we have to rediscover and reinvent ourselves, and hopefully, these skills will help!

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Don’t under-inflate the effects of inflation

When life gets a little out of hand, we might say that things are blowing up! Sometimes it comes out of the blue, and other times we can see it coming, but generally, when we look back at how events unfolded, there were signs of a crisis looming. Inflation is much the same; it’s happening all the time, but every now and then, we suddenly feel the effects. Just like the aging process, it happens slowly and then all at once!

Inflation is a measure of how much more expensive things are getting. And, as we know, things just keep getting more expensive, which is why we cannot afford (literally) to under-inflate, or overlook, the effects of inflation on our financial planning.

As always, when it comes to money, we have two choices: earn more or learn to work with what we have. Whilst we can always explore ways to generate more income, it’s not always possible, which is why it’s so important to remain connected and engaged with our financial plan.

In a recent blog from the team at 22seven, they offered a few ways to address inflation head-on and adjust our financial planning as needed.

Planning

Planning is key to cutting costs and being budget-savvy. Let’s use fuel as an example. By planning ahead, you can save on fuel by driving when traffic isn’t as hectic, going to the grocery store closest to your home or office, or making sure you only make one or two trips a day by writing down all your errands and plotting a strategic route. Many people also realise the benefits of having groceries delivered, finding that they spend less on fuel, save time and spend less on unnecessary items.

Change the way you buy

The first step is to overcome brand loyalty. You might need to look for cheaper alternatives or buy in bulk to cut costs. As economies adjust to the war in Ukraine and inflation at a 40-year high in America, prices are likely to keep rising. 

Cut back on costs you don’t need

It’s sad but true – some expenses will have to leave the building. Rethink your streaming subscriptions and other non-essential expenses. Learning to live more frugally might be what gets you through. 

Keep on investing 

It might seem counterintuitive to put away some of your hard-earned money when you’re already anxious about cash flow, but investing will ultimately grow your wealth, even if it means that you have to sacrifice certain small pleasures right now. 

At the end of the day, keeping the ship afloat means keeping it balanced. Talk about your financial situation with your family and friends so that they can help and support you. Sometimes it’s as simple as knowing that you can’t eat out as often, or perhaps your regular holiday plans need to be pushed back or changed to something more cost-conscious.

Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the effects of inflation, especially when they’re higher than expected, and you see your monthly budget being worth considerably less.

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Healthier uses for your phone

In recent years our cellphone and mobile device usage has increased significantly. In a recent Irish survey, it was found that the average smartphone user picks up their device more than 50 times per day; a third of people check their phone within five minutes of waking up and 70% within the first 30 minutes. So, if you feel like you’re on your phone a lot, you’re not alone!

One challenge with this 21st-century phenomenon is that many of us, when on our phones, fall prey to “doom scrolling”, the act of consuming a large amount of negative news. We flip through our notifications and then tap on our favourite news or social media app and start scrolling in search of a dopamine hit. This self-sabotaging behaviour can negatively affect our mental health if we are not careful with boundaries or healthier device practices.

Some experts recommend creating boundaries, like taking a break, turning off your device and going for a walk in nature, or deleting social media apps from your phone and replacing them with healthier apps. And these are great, but inevitably, we’re going to find ourselves late-night scrolling or playing one more round of Candy Crush. Perhaps the strategy needs a two-fold approach, one for boundaries and one for better uses.

YouTube is a fantastic platform that can either be an incredible time-waster or a free university. If used strategically, it could turn your phone into a virtual teacher. So, when you’re next sitting down to scroll (after taking a healthy break), here are some ideas of YouTube channels to follow that will make you smarter.

CrashCourse (@TheCrashCourse) – 13+ million subscribers

The Crash Course team has produced more than 42 courses on various subjects, including organic chemistry, literature, world history, biology, philosophy, theatre, ecology, and many more! 

Practical Engineering (@HillhouseGrady) – 2+ million subscribers

Practical Engineering is all about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by civil engineer, Grady Hillhouse.

Y Combinator (@ycombinator) – 450k + subscribers

Twice a year, the Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($500k) in a large number of startups. This channel shares the lessons learnt from working intensively with startups for three months to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.

Skillshare (@skillshare) – 420k+ subscribers

If you’re looking for a random melange of creative inspiration, Skillshare is an online learning community for creatives.

Numberphile (@numberphile) – 4+ million subscribers

This channel is all about making numbers and maths fun, taking on unusual perspectives to help us see how shapes and numbers play an integral part in our daily lives.

Remember – it’s important to have downtime, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you want to spend some time mindlessly scrolling; just make sure it doesn’t become an unhealthy habit that you can’t break.

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Articulate and action

We need to be strategic about growth and not just hope it will happen organically. Through a recent interaction with business coach Grant Newland, the importance of this was brought to the fore of our conversation. But it is not just about growing businesses; it’s about developing people, families, and communities.

It’s easy to think that growth will ‘just happen’ organically, but if we don’t have a growth mindset, it probably won’t happen at all. Change happens organically, but not growth, and change can mean many different things. Dave and Hester Vaughan, business and life coaches at Lifestyle Coach, often say that we need to go through a process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction. This process helps create a high-level view of what a growth journey could look like.

But what does that look like on a practical level? How can we start ensuring that we’re on a growth path? 

Newland suggests that we simplify this process by looking at what’s holding us back and focusing on fixing those things. We articulate the problems, blindspots, biases or stumbling blocks, and then we take action to address them (construction, deconstruction and reconstruction). 

In short, we articulate and act.

 

Understanding this is the first step; putting it into action often requires guidance, help and accountability – which is why advisers, coaches and mentors play such a vital role in our growth journey. In reality, when it’s your life, family or business, you will probably find many things that need fixing.

In the journey of articulating what’s holding us back, we need to perform a sort of triage where we identify what we need to address and work with first. The whole point of deconstruction and reconstruction is so that we can build back better. We need to deep dive and do what many coaches call “the hard work”. But, if we try to fix multiple projects simultaneously, we can become overwhelmed and ineffective.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, said, “Choosing the priority is as important as working on it.”

Creating an effective, life-changing plan involves articulating what needs to be done and then putting it into action, whether it’s a business, life, financial, or any other plan. If we don’t, we will not see the growth we hoped for, and we will be in exactly the same place a year, two, three or five from now.

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Do as I say

“Do as I say… not as I do.” This has been a popular phrase for many, many years. In fact, it was first recorded in John Selden’s Table-Talk in the 17th century. Possibly, for as long as we’ve had structured societies, we’ve noticed a disconnect between what we say and what we do.

In the 19th century, this recorded awareness grew with books such as MacKay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, which show how group behaviour and psychology affect us. Still, it was only since the 20th century that we started matching this up with financial planning and how our behaviours often override our intentions. 

Behavioural finance is the study of the effects of psychology on both investors and financial markets. It aims to identify and understand why people make certain decisions based on their biases and irrational thoughts. We could have all the head knowledge and say the right things, but if we’re stressed, feeling vulnerable, insecure or inadequate, we may act in the opposite way, and our actions will not reflect our words.

“It’s understated to say that financial health affects mental and physical health and vice versa. It’s just a circular thing that happens,” said Dr Carolyn McClanahan, founder & director of Life Planning Partners Inc. “When people are under stress because of finances, they release chemicals called catecholamines.” 

Catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine) are hormones made by our adrenal glands, two small glands located above our kidneys. These hormones are released into the body in response to physical or emotional stress. When we make bad financial decisions, our health will suffer.

Over the long term, these affect our mental health and ability to think clearly, impacting our physical health, wearing us out and making us tired. Lack of sleep, poor health and mental state mean we will be vulnerable to making unhealthy decisions in every area of life, not just in our finances.

Behavioural finance can help us understand our own biases and recognise them when they arise. It can also help us engage in conversations that are kinder, more intuitive to the cause of our financial stresses and lead to practical ways to “walk the talk”.

This is why personal financial planning is such a powerful practice in helping us apply broad-based intellectual knowledge to our unique situations in a way that makes sense and can be implemented in our daily lives. We can cultivate healthy habits that reflect our heartfelt intentions.

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Making better money choices

Many important questions in life involve money, and good choices can put us on the road to financial success. Bad choices, however, can lead to years of financial duress.

While the questions we ask ourselves may not involve investing in the latest hot stock, they may likely deal with more basic matters like identifying how we feel about money, managing our money, and what to do when facing financial hardship.

Learning how to make smart money choices early in life is the best way to ensure financial success in the long run.

We believe it’s healthy to begin this journey by identifying what we want. This makes it easier to craft a budget and make better choices. Knowing what we are saving for, and having a personal desire or connection to it, will boost our motivation to save or curb our spending in other areas.

The next time you’re out shopping, pay attention to the cues your body and mind give you. If you’re in the habit of paying for everything with a credit card, you’re more likely to overspend. Using a credit card for a quick trip to the mall doesn’t give you the financial freedom and security you’ll need later. Instead, make a game plan for how you will save money (or use your money wisely) on your next purchase.

Some people who feel trapped by the credit-card-spending-habit go on a cash diet. The basic premise is that you put aside all the cash you need for your budgeted purchases for the week, fortnight or month, and stick to that cash amount. It helps you physically see how much money you’re spending (and saving!!) without the detachment of a virtual transaction through cashless payments.

Setting financial goals is another way to avoid both impulse purchases and buyer’s remorse. Goals allow us to communicate and focus on the reasons why we will hold back from one purchase but indulge in another.

You can also share your saving and investing goals with your family and friends so that everyone can be aligned and offer support on your journey to financial independence.

The economy is suffering from the worst recession in decades. It’s more important than ever to make better money choices to contribute to the financial strength of your future self.

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Are you on the road to burnout?

Are you wondering why some people get burned out while others don’t? What is the difference between stress and burnout? And, what can you do to manage stress and avoid burnout? 

Without a doubt, we are living in a time of significant stress and burnout and we need practical and self-loving ways to address this for ourselves, our family, friends and colleagues.

While stress and burnout are often confused, they are different. Identifying the differences is the first step in addressing the unhealthy thoughts and behaviours in our lives. Stress is a normal adaptive reaction to adversity, while burnout is a result of uncontrolled or excessive stress.

In both cases, the person suffering from the symptoms will be unable to function normally, however, the signs of burnout will include anxiety, mood swings, lack of concentration and brain fog. 

According to the American Psychological Association, heightened work-related stress is a significant contributor to burnout among U.S. workers. In a recent survey of 1,501 U.S. adults, researchers found that 79% had experienced some form of work-related stress in the month prior to the survey. More than half of these employees had felt the negative effects of work-related stress, including a lack of motivation, interest, or effort in their jobs. Among those who experienced work-related stress, 36% reported feeling tired, fatigued, or emotionally worn out, while 44% reported feeling physically exhausted.

In many cases, prolonged stress will lead to exhaustion and a diminished sense of satisfaction. Other early signs of burnout can include procrastination, taking out frustrations on others, and skipping work. The signs of burnout can be subtle, but it’s time to address them if you’re starting to experience these symptoms.

Burnout can occur for several reasons, but a poor work-life balance is possibly the most common and easiest to address. 

Finding creative outlets is one of the most important aspects of self-care, as is making time to investigate, explore and engage in things we enjoy. While work may seem like a grind and leave us feeling exhausted, having a hobby, sport, or other activity to unwind and spend time with family and friends can help us avoid the pitfalls of burnout. 

Identifying triggers for stress and preventing them is a helpful way to reduce the chance of returning to a burnout track. Try writing down the exact time and place when you experience a stressful event or activity. Review your notes regularly to avoid repeating the same behaviours, relationships, or situations. If you are experiencing chronic stress, it’s time to reassess your priorities and prioritise the things that matter.

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Diversify. Amplify.

Diversification is not just an approach to adopt during market volatility; it’s generally good practice. And, if you want to create a portfolio that mitigates risk and beats inflation, diversification offers one of the best ways to increase your portfolio growth and amplify your savings.

There’s no single “correct” way to diversify your investment portfolio. The overriding principle is to mix assets and classes in a way that helps minimise risk while achieving a higher rate of return. Some people prefer to invest in stocks, bonds or equities because they offer different rates of return and provide compensation for losses in one asset class. But in recent years, ESGs and other alternatives have arisen to provide investors with non-market-correlated vehicles.

The best way to diversify and amplify your portfolio is to work with your personal financial adviser, but here are some popular thoughts around diversification.

Often, the best way to diversify your portfolio is by purchasing a mixture of investments of different types. A diversified portfolio generally has no more than fifteen to thirty various assets, and stocks should be spread across several different industries. Bonds, index funds, and savings accounts are also common and should be part of your overall portfolio. Depending on your personal investment goals, you may consider investing in real estate. This way, you will have a more comprehensive selection of investment opportunities.

Diversification in investing helps minimise risk. Investing in various assets reduces your risk by spreading your money across many investments. For example, investing in multiple areas, countries, and industries is an excellent way to mitigate the risk of one investment going down. Diversification also allows you to balance your investments and reach your financial goals without being swept away by one particular investment’s volatility. For example, if one investment loses ten or even twenty per cent of its value (as we’ve seen many times over the short term), you will still have other funds to fall back on.

It also helps minimise risk by spreading your investment portfolio across different asset classes (not just different assets within the same class). With a balanced portfolio, you’ll benefit from a lower risk profile, and you’ll be better positioned to withstand the inevitable downturns while enjoying increased returns when you diversify.

The idea of investing in various stocks is to spread your investment risk across different industries. Large companies often perform better than smaller ones, and smaller companies, on the other hand, have more volatility. By distributing your investments across different industries, you balance the risk of a volatile industry while maximising your chances of earning a steady income. In addition, diversification can reduce the risk of liability due to an industry crash. It’s important to remember that investing in different industries does not guarantee total financial safety.

Diversification means holding a variety of assets. Depending on the current economic situation and the sentiment of the markets, a diversified portfolio will behave differently. It’s healthy to keep a long-term view on your investment horizon and prepare for steady growth – lottery winners grow rich overnight, but prudent investors grow wealthy over time.

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