I remember hearing this story at a conference in February 2000, a few months before my first child was due to be born. It resonated with me then and the story was recently told to me again. It is always worth repeating...
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar……..and the beer
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes.”
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. “Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things–your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions–things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”
“The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else–the small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. “Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.
The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers.”
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Friday, 7 October 2011
NEST Update- for employERs
Starting now, October 2012, ALL employers will have to make compulsory pension provision for their employees
But before you panic, don’t worry. This is being phased in over four years. This process is known as ’staging’
At its simplest, the bigger the company, the earlier the ‘staging’ date.
Employers with more than 50 (fifty) employees in their PAYE scheme as at 1st April (yes, really, it’s not an April Fool!) 2012 will have a staging date between October 2012 and July 2014 with the same rule applying, that the bigger you are, the earlier the date.
Anyone with fewer than fifty employees will have staging date after April 2014 but before February 2016
It is possible to bring forward your staging date if you wish to but only to a set number of dates already listed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). There is no facility to defer or delay your staging date
The Pensions Regulator has a reasonably clear website: http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/ if you'd like to read more yourself
As the months roll by, the TPR will be communicating with employers and have promised to do so at least twice in the run up to their staging date.
For all Green Financial clients, I am happy to confirm your date, so you can be prepared in good time, as well as let you know what else, if anything, you need to do.
For me to do this please confirm:
Your PAYE scheme reference number(s) and the size of your PAYE scheme (as above).
Note: If you have more than one PAYE scheme, your staging date will be the one that's earliest.
I can also help clarify any duties you will have under the new rules and contribution levels that will apply
Please contact me if you wish me to help
Ian Green
iangreen@iangreen.com
19th October: I have been asked by a few clients what my fees are for assisting in this area- it will depend on the size of the scheme and the amount of work involved but the first stage(s) are generally just a nominal sum to cover the admin time involved if you don't want to do it yourself
But before you panic, don’t worry. This is being phased in over four years. This process is known as ’staging’
At its simplest, the bigger the company, the earlier the ‘staging’ date.
Employers with more than 50 (fifty) employees in their PAYE scheme as at 1st April (yes, really, it’s not an April Fool!) 2012 will have a staging date between October 2012 and July 2014 with the same rule applying, that the bigger you are, the earlier the date.
Anyone with fewer than fifty employees will have staging date after April 2014 but before February 2016
It is possible to bring forward your staging date if you wish to but only to a set number of dates already listed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). There is no facility to defer or delay your staging date
The Pensions Regulator has a reasonably clear website: http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/ if you'd like to read more yourself
As the months roll by, the TPR will be communicating with employers and have promised to do so at least twice in the run up to their staging date.
For all Green Financial clients, I am happy to confirm your date, so you can be prepared in good time, as well as let you know what else, if anything, you need to do.
For me to do this please confirm:
Your PAYE scheme reference number(s) and the size of your PAYE scheme (as above).
Note: If you have more than one PAYE scheme, your staging date will be the one that's earliest.
I can also help clarify any duties you will have under the new rules and contribution levels that will apply
Please contact me if you wish me to help
Ian Green
iangreen@iangreen.com
19th October: I have been asked by a few clients what my fees are for assisting in this area- it will depend on the size of the scheme and the amount of work involved but the first stage(s) are generally just a nominal sum to cover the admin time involved if you don't want to do it yourself
Monday, 3 October 2011
Client Market Update October 3 2011
Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime, didn’t it…?
This is the first time, since early 2009, that I have had a minus figure of any note to report to clients on a quarter.
That said, given the magnitude of the numbers you will no doubt have heard on the news (‘markets down 12% in quarter’), a reduction that is ‘only’ 4-5% seems OK.
It is important to note that as always, these figures have to be produced at a point on a day – it is just a snapshot in time.
With the current volatility in the markets, had I run the reports a day or two earlier or later, it could easily have shown a small positive or a larger negative.
Perhaps most important of all is to remember that whilst it is always frustrating to see a minus figure over a quarter, that is a short term piece of data, and your portfolio is managed over the long term to match your life & lifestyle / income requirements.
Looking at the major markets like the FTSE100 and S&P500 – even though as I write the FTSE sits just above the 5,000 mark on news of Greece’s deficit, they are up around 50% since the lows of 2009.
So again, whilst I appreciate seeing the funds go down is never nice, I see no long term concern at all.
In fact this very process of rebalancing now means you’ll be buying into equities when they are low and will therefore see the commensurate gains in future when markets rise again, as they always do.
I hope you read (and enjoy – or at least find of interest) the various investment updates I send out, whether the regular monthly market commentary (MMC – next edition due within a week) or the ad hoc blog posts and emails such as this one.
If you do I am sure you’ll have read my thoughts on what is going on.
As you know, what worries me, is that much of what is reported is ‘selling newspapers’ – For example, when I was in the USA just over a week ago, when markets dropped by 5 points in a day the UK headlines I read online were along the lines of ‘crash’, ‘plummet’, ‘billions wiped off values’ etc
When markets went up by 5% last week, headlines were nowhere near using the opposite language and were quite muted – ‘markets up’, ‘rebound’, ‘rally’ etc
No talk of ‘billions added overnight!’
So that is the first thing, ‘don’t believe (all) the hype’!
And much of what is written then drives markets via investor sentiment – not facts.
I have written a number of times about market movements just because of investor sentiment when an announcement is made but actually there was no new news.
This is why I, as a professional, can take these more rational views when markets move in irrational ways.
But I am not pretending it is sunny when it is raining.
The volatility in markets is real, the problems around the world are real, and I assure you the way we manage the portfolios reflects all this.
In fact this very process of rebalancing now means you’ll be buying into more equities when they are low and will therefore see the commensurate gains in future when markets rise again, as they always do.
That is the very essence of the ‘triangle’ rebalancing process we manage for you. And as I always say, it needs ‘Time’. Those clients who, by their own defined investing timelines, have less time until the money is needed (one example would be approaching encashing a tax free lump sum in a pension), have less exposure to the markets. Those with a longer time horizon (one example would be those starting to save regularly in a pension) can afford to have greater exposure to the markets (see also http://greenfinancial.blogspot.com/2011/02/pound-cost-averaging.html
for the benefits of long term investing regularly in volatile market conditions)
What if you sold everything and went into cash now? If you sold into cash now, you would be doing the opposite of what everyone wants to do, which is “buy low, sell high”.
You’d be “buying high and selling low” – so I really can’t endorse that action.
However, if you fear that markets will continue to fall for the lifetime of your portfolio (ie until retirement and beyond) then of course you may wish to sell – but to repeat myself, that is not something I would professionally recommend in any way.
At the risk of repeating what I have written in the MMC a number of times, it is COUNTRIES that are making the headlines but it is COMPANIES that we/you invest in.
Corporate earnings are high, many companies (certainly outside the financial sector) have cash on their books and the outlook for mergers and acquisitions is positive.
The overwhelming message from leading economists at the conference I spoke at in the USA at the end of September was that markets look cheap at present (as long as you have the time to wait until they rise again)
Looking at earnings compared to equity prices (the oft mentioned p/e ratio) equities actually look cheap.
If anything, arguably now is the time to buy. And you don’t have to believe me, you can look at who many call the world’s greatest living investor, Warren Buffet, for evidence of that.
He is even buying banks!
It is always good to measure your portfolio (ie your pension and ISA etc) against what you want it to do, when you want it to do it (for example: provide a lifetime of income when you retire) rather than match it against an arbitrary index.
This is the first time, since early 2009, that I have had a minus figure of any note to report to clients on a quarter.
That said, given the magnitude of the numbers you will no doubt have heard on the news (‘markets down 12% in quarter’), a reduction that is ‘only’ 4-5% seems OK.
It is important to note that as always, these figures have to be produced at a point on a day – it is just a snapshot in time.
With the current volatility in the markets, had I run the reports a day or two earlier or later, it could easily have shown a small positive or a larger negative.
Perhaps most important of all is to remember that whilst it is always frustrating to see a minus figure over a quarter, that is a short term piece of data, and your portfolio is managed over the long term to match your life & lifestyle / income requirements.
Looking at the major markets like the FTSE100 and S&P500 – even though as I write the FTSE sits just above the 5,000 mark on news of Greece’s deficit, they are up around 50% since the lows of 2009.
So again, whilst I appreciate seeing the funds go down is never nice, I see no long term concern at all.
In fact this very process of rebalancing now means you’ll be buying into equities when they are low and will therefore see the commensurate gains in future when markets rise again, as they always do.
I hope you read (and enjoy – or at least find of interest) the various investment updates I send out, whether the regular monthly market commentary (MMC – next edition due within a week) or the ad hoc blog posts and emails such as this one.
If you do I am sure you’ll have read my thoughts on what is going on.
As you know, what worries me, is that much of what is reported is ‘selling newspapers’ – For example, when I was in the USA just over a week ago, when markets dropped by 5 points in a day the UK headlines I read online were along the lines of ‘crash’, ‘plummet’, ‘billions wiped off values’ etc
When markets went up by 5% last week, headlines were nowhere near using the opposite language and were quite muted – ‘markets up’, ‘rebound’, ‘rally’ etc
No talk of ‘billions added overnight!’
So that is the first thing, ‘don’t believe (all) the hype’!
And much of what is written then drives markets via investor sentiment – not facts.
I have written a number of times about market movements just because of investor sentiment when an announcement is made but actually there was no new news.
This is why I, as a professional, can take these more rational views when markets move in irrational ways.
But I am not pretending it is sunny when it is raining.
The volatility in markets is real, the problems around the world are real, and I assure you the way we manage the portfolios reflects all this.
In fact this very process of rebalancing now means you’ll be buying into more equities when they are low and will therefore see the commensurate gains in future when markets rise again, as they always do.
That is the very essence of the ‘triangle’ rebalancing process we manage for you. And as I always say, it needs ‘Time’. Those clients who, by their own defined investing timelines, have less time until the money is needed (one example would be approaching encashing a tax free lump sum in a pension), have less exposure to the markets. Those with a longer time horizon (one example would be those starting to save regularly in a pension) can afford to have greater exposure to the markets (see also http://greenfinancial.blogspot.com/2011/02/pound-cost-averaging.html
for the benefits of long term investing regularly in volatile market conditions)
What if you sold everything and went into cash now? If you sold into cash now, you would be doing the opposite of what everyone wants to do, which is “buy low, sell high”.
You’d be “buying high and selling low” – so I really can’t endorse that action.
However, if you fear that markets will continue to fall for the lifetime of your portfolio (ie until retirement and beyond) then of course you may wish to sell – but to repeat myself, that is not something I would professionally recommend in any way.
At the risk of repeating what I have written in the MMC a number of times, it is COUNTRIES that are making the headlines but it is COMPANIES that we/you invest in.
Corporate earnings are high, many companies (certainly outside the financial sector) have cash on their books and the outlook for mergers and acquisitions is positive.
The overwhelming message from leading economists at the conference I spoke at in the USA at the end of September was that markets look cheap at present (as long as you have the time to wait until they rise again)
Looking at earnings compared to equity prices (the oft mentioned p/e ratio) equities actually look cheap.
If anything, arguably now is the time to buy. And you don’t have to believe me, you can look at who many call the world’s greatest living investor, Warren Buffet, for evidence of that.
He is even buying banks!
It is always good to measure your portfolio (ie your pension and ISA etc) against what you want it to do, when you want it to do it (for example: provide a lifetime of income when you retire) rather than match it against an arbitrary index.
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