Financial Matters

With Akwasi Duodu | akwasi@sterlingandlaw.com | www.sterlingandlaw.com

Financial advice – can I do it myself? Here are five tips

Does everyone need to hire a financial professional to manage their finances? I don’t think so. I have come across many people who have done an excellent job in managing their own financial affairs well. Some of these people have done it all without the assistance of a financial professional. I’ll admit that I see more people who have messed things up, but that’s another story! Financial advice – can I do it myself? At the risk of doing myself out of a job – yes, if course you can! Like any DIY job, getting it wrong can be expensive so here are some DIY financial advice tips.

1) Understand Where You Are Now

This involves having a good understanding of your own financial affairs. Things like knowing your income v expenditure, what insurances you may have and what they are for, an understanding of your mortgage arrangements, the interest you are paying on it and any other loans, your pension and retirement arrangements, and your savings. You’ll also need to understand your tax position and what you’d like to happen to your assets when you die. Knowing where you are is the foundation. Like starting any journey, your starting point is crucial, and you’ll have no chance of getting to where you want to be without knowing where you are now.

2) Know Where You Want To Be

Now that you know where you are, ask yourself how this knowledge makes you feel. Do you feel worried and anxious or content and secure? Do your financial affairs fill you with dread or hope? If they fill you with dread, you’ll need to make some changes. But what changes? This is where you’ll have to visualise your goals and understand where you want to be. This part of the journey is your destination. Scarily, your destination may not be static, but fluid and constantly moving. Don’t worry about that. Once you know roughly where you’d like to be, you can start planning how to get there.

3) What Are The Possible Ways Of Getting There?

25 years ago, you may have had to take a trip to the library to get information on financial topics. Even then, finding the information you needed would have been difficult and even soul destroying. Things are very different today. There is a huge amount of information available on the internet – perhaps too much. Investing, risk, retirement planning, estate planning, taxes – it’s all out there. If you are interested in these topics and have the time to dig in and learn, this could be help you manage your own money.

4) Don’t Over-Think It

It’s one thing preparing your own financial plan. Acting on it is quote another. Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. It takes confidence to act on your own financial decisions and often, we procrastinate and over-think with the worry of getting it wrong. This is the big killer, and it is precisely this lack of confidence that stops many people acting and getting moving. Every day spent procrastinating is another day spent worrying about that thing. Do it now and move on with your life!

5) Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

With a modicum of intelligence, the right amount of time and some dedicated study, you may be able to run your financial affairs yourself. There may however be some gaps in your knowledge, and this is where you could ask for help. No one works for free, and if you engaged a financial adviser, you would have to pay for that service one way or another. Building the foundations, yourself could help reduce the time a financial adviser would take to help you thereby reducing your costs. The experience of trying to do it yourself would help give you a better understanding of your own circumstances, which is a worthwhile investment in time. Time to get cracking!

How To Train Your Cat To Like The Cat Carrier

Pets Corner with Leonie St Clair | www.londondogstraining.co.uk

Late last year, my elderly father sadly lost his beloved cat to cancer. The death of a pet is always distressing but this was made more so because of circumstances. Lockdown meant the vet was unable to visit my father’s home and he was unable, until the final days, to get his cat to the vet. The poor animal was terrified of the cat carrier and would run and hide or attack and bite my father any time it appeared. No cat owner knows when it might be necessary to transport their pet, but at least one journey is likely to be necessary in any cat’s lifetime. A bit of preparation and training can make use of the cat carrier much less traumatic all round.

Your cat may even learn to like it. The first big mistake is to store the carrier out of sight and smell of the cat. The carrier seems alien (cats are intensely territorial and dislike change). If the cat has been forced into the carrier at some point and taken to the vet for a scary examination/ procedure or to be boarded at a cattery while the owners are on holiday, the associations are even worse and may stick for a lifetime. The benefits of a cat carrier are numerous- some like easing the stress of necessary visits to the vet are obvious but there are others, like giving shy cats a safe hiding place around visitors to the home or during thunderstorms and fireworks, or when it is necessary to contain or transport the cat in an emergency.

Key Training Points

• Ensure the carrier is large enough for your cat to stand, turn and lie stretched out, but don’t make it too big. That snug feel increases a sense of security. • Have a carrier where the top can be removed for easy examination/access to the cat. • Plastic airline carriers, with a wire door, are ideal. Put soft bedding inside. • Place the carrier in an area you know your cat chooses as a resting place. • Keep the carrier out and open, all the time. You can remove the door on many carriers. • Next, make the carrier a cat pleasure palace. Scatter high value treats inside for him to discover on his own. Play games near and inside the carrier, use cat balls or feather flirt toys. • Now teach your cat to go in the carrier. Say ‘in’ and toss a treat inside. Wait for puss to eat the treat and emerge again. Keep repeating this game until puss waits inside for another treat, now deliver a few and leave him in there to eat. • Next re-attach the door. Play the ‘in’ game, wait until puss is happily focused on eating treats and shut the door momentarily, opening it again before he stops eating. Repeat and slowly build duration. • Watch carefully for any signs of tension or distress and go back a number of steps, if this happens. • The next stage is to slowly and gently start lifting the carrier with the door closed and while your cat is relaxed. You can dispense treats, if he will eat. Start with just inches off the floor, lifting and lowering and graduate to moving around the room, gently holding the carrier to avoid rocking. • At this stage you can also practise using a towel to cover the wire door. • Finally, practise putting cat and carrier into the car, once he is happy build up to short journeys.

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