The Art Of Ignorance: 'THE BUDGET' EDITION - Politics, News, Speculation and other s!*£ that doesn't matter

It's been a little while!

I got so excited to start writing about money that I went full speed ahead, a whirlwind of fresh ideas and financial puns that hit the internet like a metaphorically boring hurricane. I decided to try and slow it down a bit, if only to give you, dear Budgetopian, a chance to practice the all important skill of delayed gratification (it has absolutely nothing to do with having started a full time hospital placement and being brain dead every evening. Nope, nothing at all).

Today I wanted to take a brief moment to talk about THE BUDGET - the huge, terrifying and disastrously overhyped presentation that people eventually decided wasn't too bad - from our beloved Chancellor of the Exchequer mentioned all kinds of things, from raising the national insurance rate to upping capital gains tax on higher rate tax payers to reducing the cost of pints by a few pence.

If you're anything like me, and enjoy telling other people what they should be doing whilst the majority of the time doing the exact opposite, you might have been wondering how the new government might impact your exciting trip to Budgetopia. You've probably been engaging in intellectual conversations with friends and family, wondering at the excitement and trepidation of a new government and how it'll affect your ability to live the life you want to live.

I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight that there exists a rare skill in this life I want you to try and hone when it comes to anything related to your money...

Or put more bluntly:

To demonstrate what this looks like in relation to your money, I wanted to share a simultaneously sad and hilarious study conducted by Fidelity Wealth Management that analysed all of their investors' accounts to see what 'type' of investors came out best (had the highest % returns) over a 10 year period.

The investors that came out best?

The ones who were dead.

No no, you read it right. The second best were individuals who held investments from many years ago, but who had forgotten those investments existed.

Fascinating, and an incredible learning opportunity. What can we learn from the fact that the best performing retail investors have absolutely no ability (hopefully?) to touch or even look at their pot of money? What do all dead people have in common to achieve this result?

1. They can't watch/listen to the news
2. They can't panic over politics
3. They can't try and time the market
4. They keep invested, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS - Global financial crises, industry crashes, world wars, global pandemics, doesn't matter, the money stays in

Bear with me because I know that last one needs some serious explanation, and I'm going to get you there, I PROMISE, but what you can action, right now, today, is the development of your ability to not care at all about what is going on around you, and to keep doing exactly what you were doing before.

I don't know... A new government, tax changes, crazy property market, stagnant wages, how is it possible none of it effects me?

I hear you, brave Budgetopian. I've been caught many a time lamenting how tough it all is and how much I wish I could afford to just sack it all off and start a farm in some remote mountainous region. The thing is, after feeling sorry for myself for a while, I was able to remind myself of three very important things:

1. Is that really the goal I've set myself in order to be happy?
2. Can I actually change anything about this istuation?
3. Nobody else in my situation can afford to just sack it all off and start a farm either

I don't want to say either of these is more important than the others, as I think they all hold an enormous amount of power, but let's focus on the third point for a minute.

We're all good at comparison. We naturally judge ourselves in ALL aspects of life - our physical appearance, our fitness, our wealth, our career prospects, our athletic or academic performance - against others or a previous version of ourselves. When it comes to, for example, changes in tax rates or a reduction in incentives to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder, every single other person in my tax bracket or who is also a first-time buyer is in exactly the same position as me.

And if that's the case, then have the changes really affected me in any way? If my normal complaint is something along the lines of

Wow, that's mad that X could afford a house, lucky them for that massive inheritance/high paying law job...

then I'm not only complaining about things that are entirely out of my control (including being a lawyer, f*** that!), but also things that have absolutely no dependence on any form of macro economic movement.

Now I'm not saying there aren't things the government or economic disasters can do to cause entire generations to feel completely shafted. They absolutely can. But the point is, we'll all be shafted together, and if you close your eyes and keep going with the basics, you'll leave everyone else wondering how come you haven't been affected as badly as them.

If you live in a community of starving thalassophobics surrounded by a post-apocalyptic dystopia, no amount of external noise will stop a competent fisherman from feeling wealthy. A bleak metaphor, but I've just made it up so feel smug anyway.

The point is, no matter how bad things may be, if you have good habits in place to continue doing the things you know you need to do, you will still win in the end.

But what do I actually need to do?

Absolutely nothing.

It's not a very exciting or sexy prospect, but the truth is, when it comes to spending less and saving more, success looks like a long, slow, trudging upward march towards freedom with your head aimed firmly at the floor.

If you want to buy a yacht when you're thirty, become a private trader, rob a bank or be the child of a billionaire (preferably all three).

If you want to live within your means, find happiness in the small things and enjoy long lasting freedom then stick to the boring basics and board the bus to Budgetopia with me. That means doing absolutely nothing differently, at any time, despite what is going on in the world around you. Stick to the fundamentals, keep your head down, and you will get there.

Next time, we need to talk about investing - the magic word I keep bringing up, and the main tool in your arsenal for long term financial freedom. A lot of what we've talked about in this post - like ignoring the noise and just keeping going - has particular relevance when it comes to investing, and it's where you can seriously get ahead even when everything seems a little bit s***.

So, look forward to that! In the mean time, keep going with the basics, relax, chill, and just keep going.

And, have you had your switch bonus yet?

Until then,

Cheers x