-
Latest Posts on Taming the Pound
Author Archives: Kim Stephenson
Add-ons, warranties and the like
The insurance “add-on” product market is apparently worth £4 billion a year. And the FCA, the regulator for financial services, says that consumers are “simply not getting value for money”. Mind you, Simon Burtwell the head of … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
Leave a comment
Mindfulness and money
There’s a nice article about mindfulness . But why is it “Over nearly four decades, Ellen Langer’s research on mindfulness has greatly influenced thinking across a range of fields, from behavioural economics to positive psychology.”? As I keep … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
Leave a comment
Tell me what you want.
I just went into a supermarket. As I headed for what I wanted to buy I was told, “sir, get a free mug. When you buy these tomato soups. It’s a really good offer”. I thought, “who is … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
2 Comments
Gambling or rent?
The mass media are finally catching up. So are the “experts”. We’ve started to get stories about people borrowing money from payday lenders to pay their rent, such as this in the Guardian. I said a couple … Continue reading
Overspending at Christmas
There’s something about Christmas. It’s a time of giving, being happy etc. And of spending money. There were some figures in the papers last week, from research by the Halifax. They said that why we … Continue reading
Positively avoiding debt.
I had some feedback the other day that recently I’ve been tending to focus on what people do wrong with money. Given that I use positive psychology a lot and emphasise the value of things like hope and optimism, … Continue reading
Posted in Basic concepts
Leave a comment
Greed isn’t good, it’s one of the 7 deadly dwarfs of the apocalypse!
Quite reasonably, people have pointed out that Boris Johnson has got it wrong That’s a good article, although it isn’t as funny as Jeremy Hardy’s brilliant comment on The News Quiz, that formed the title of this … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
Comments Off on Greed isn’t good, it’s one of the 7 deadly dwarfs of the apocalypse!
Payday Loans
There’s lots of furore about payday loans. They’re being blamed for causing debt and depression, being denounced in the House of Commons, the companies offering them are vilified in the newspapers. Now they are a really bad … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
Leave a comment
What do you need?
I read a headline in the Metro the other day, “Families dragged into red by £140-a-month mobiles”. It’s a reasonable article, about how the number of households falling behind on contract payments has trebled since the iPhone was launched … Continue reading
Posted in Current financial events
Leave a comment
Gambling
I got asked to comment for a piece on gambling in Men’s Health magazine. Apparently increasing numbers of people are looking to gambling as a way out of financial trouble. Sadly, the magazine doesn’t hand out copies for … Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Current financial events
Leave a comment
