Author Archives: Kim Stephenson
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
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
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
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
Financial Education 2013
There’s good news, and bad news. The good is that people seem to be realising one of the core messages of this site, the training I do and the book – money isn’t a goal, it’s a means … Continue reading
How far is poverty?
There were some figures in a report (by insurer L & G) recently that make quite scary reading. Essentially, the average household in the UK is 18 days away from poverty. So if the main breadwinner unexpectedly died or … Continue reading
Life skills education
I keep seeing media articles lately about teaching things to children. I’ve seen videos and articles about teaching finance, emotional intelligence, happiness and resilience, thinking skills and entrepreneurial skills. That’s great, except that the curriculum is pretty crowded … Continue reading
Banking regulations and tax loopholes – yawn.
There were a couple of articles in the free London papers on Friday that suggest that the powers that be still don’t understand human behaviour. It would be funny, except for the fact that they show that the … Continue reading
Reward for what?
This article was written for Mindful Money in January 2012. They seem to have taken it off their site, but I think it is still relevant. I wrote it for them rather than putting it here originally because it’s … Continue reading
Ordering people to save or to lose weight.
I saw an article in the Metro the other day (18th April) about how Croydon council is considering banning new fast-food outlets. They’ve had 246 outlets operating in the last year, so I’m not convinced that stopping the … Continue reading
