Sunday Story: Internal Locus of Control

Oct20
by TFS on October 20, 2013 at 9:51 pm
Posted In: Philosophy
Clearly has an Internal Locus of Control

Clearly has an Internal Locus of Control 🙂

Seeing as we were talking about the benefits of having an Internal Locus of Control perspective the other day, I thought I would share a quick story about it, from the memory banks of the life of TFS.

If you are brave/stupid enough to watch daytime tv you will this sort of dumb shit on a daily basis:

“Mr BankMan gave me credit limit of 5 grand so I blitzed it and now can’t afford the monthly repayments, why did he let this happen”

“Oh no I gambled all my money away. There should be better laws to stop people like me doing this, and also I want my money back”

“Supermarkets sell healthy food far too expensively, so I feed my kids on 80p chocolate bars and microwave meals instead, it’s their fault we’re all fat… waah waah waah.”

I think everyone can see the folly quite clearly in each of these extreme cases of failing to take personal responsibility for their own lives. But lest us get all high and mighty laughing at these tragic beings, it would be prudent to take a look at ourselves every so often, on the off chance we might be falling into a similar trap ourselves.

There are many examples I could use from my life where I’ve been too quick to blame others when I should have been looking at the man in the mirror but the following story particularly sticks out because it spans the course of about 10 years before I finally actually did something about it.

When I was 18 I went on a “lads holiday” as you do, to magaluf in Majorca. Ick. Anyway the less said about the holiday the better but one night, whilst acutely inebriated, I fell off a wall and kind of jarred my hip. It wasn’t immediately that painful but over the coming months the mild irritation in my left hip and upper thigh grew into a larger problem as I started to change my posture, the way I sat, and before long I found myself no longer being able to sit down in a normal position for longer than about 5 minutes without some considerable discomfort.

Naturally I went to the doctor, who immediately prescribed some strong painkillers. For 3 months. These did nothing for the problem but did cause me to feel sick for pretty much the whole time. Looking back, I really think the doctor should have made a much bigger thing of getting the ligaments and muscles back to full strength around the affected area by taking matters into my own hands and doing some bloody exercise. Sure, there was some mention of doing some stretches and so forth. But really for an otherwise fit and healthy 18 year old lad, the solution was simply to do some running and some squats/burpees, starting off slowly of course but gradually building up speed, intensity and length of workouts as the muscles got back to full fitness. However my Locus of control, which was seemingly still all over the shop at this age, combined with the (multiple) Doctors inability to tell me to get up and work those muscles that were lacking the strength to support my already skinny arse frame, meant that this issue went on for years longer than it should have done.

Seeing as the moral of the story is internalising responsibility we will quickly skip over the doctors mentioned “inabilities”, indeed, they can be forgiven for having to endure many years of patients complaining about suffering which has been clearly been brought on, and subsequently perpetuated by themselves (due to ignoring doctors suggestions) .

No excuses

I will hold my hands up, I sat around complaining about it. For years. I made some lame attempts at finding alternative ways to find “a cure” – signifying an external locus of control once again – but the obvious one of simply becoming a fit, healthy eating and regularly exercising human being somehow eluded me. This would have signified an internal locus of control, which I obviously did not have at this time in my life with respect to my health. This is strange for me to own up to as I’ve always thought of myself as a non-complainer, and certainly someone who believes in the idea that my own actions have reactions and consequences. But looking back at the evidence, I can’t argue… I used to have an external locus of control with regards to my health at best, and possibly in areas of my life at worst. For shame TFS!

The solution

How did I finally internalise my locus of control? Was it some sort of spiritual awakening? Did MMM come round and punch me in the face? The real story is somewhat less dramatic and also kind of by chance, in that it was completely unrelated to this particular issue

I signed up to run the London Marathon.

This naturally forced me into thinking much more about healthy eating (Which I actually pretty much completely fucked up on… a story for another time) and also to exercise a lot more. Hey presto: Within a few months I could sit down again a lot more comfortably*

Lesson learnt

Internal perspective beats external any day of the week. Always look at yourself in case the root of a problem is with you, instead of blaming others. Own up to it and do something about it. Obviously not everything will end up being your fault, and there are many things not in your control, but there are also many things that you can that you probably don’t own up to. Another mini lesson is that signing up to do something extremely challenging can pay dividends you didn’t even imagine, but that is a story for another day.

I can’t say for certain that if I’d learnt about this “phenomena” – from a charming and witty personal finance blog that also dishes out some common sense advice on life perhaps – earlier I would have taken a blind bit of notice. But I would like to think that I might have done.

So if there is anyone reading this with a problem that they think is outside of their control, be it a health, money, or anything else, please take a long hard look and see if it is all really “their fault”, or are there factors you can change now to make a positive difference yourself. If you think about this and realise there are, take action.

__________________

*It’s still not completely “back to normal” and I’m not sure it ever will be, but maybe with even more exercise, I’m thinking some targeted strength training etc, you never know. This is all up to me of course to take upon myself and is the major reason I want to take up some more physical challenges. Back ↑

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Frugal Food Friday: Home made chicken goujons with sweet salad

Oct18
by TFS on October 18, 2013 at 9:16 pm
Posted In: Frugal Food, Frugality

The weekend is here! Let’s celebrate with a simple and frugal recipe. I think I mentioned way back in July when I started the blog that I love food! More specifically, I love good, healthy, and home cooked frugal food. Anyway, here is an easy meal to kick things off with, and there’s plenty more where this came from in the TFS recipe box.

Chicken goujons with sweet salad

Prep time: 10 mins + 5 mins, Cooking time: 25 mins

Goujon ingredients:

Chicken – roughly 100 grams / person should be enough

Breadcrumbs

1 Egg

Method:

This is so easy I could get my 6 year old nephew to do it. First of all, get some old bread or rolls that have gone a bit crusty (not mouldy though!) and chuck it in the food blender: white tiger bread rolls work really well I find. Whizz it up until you get the desired consistency of what you might call a “crumb”. If you make a big batch of it up it freezes really quite well, so you can store it for months and use in future recipes. Then pour a decent amount of the crumbs onto a plate, and grind a bit of salt and pepper on top to taste. Crack the egg into a bowl, whisk it up (a fork will do). If you bought whole chicken breasts then cut it up into goujon or nugget type shapes, whatever your preference may be. Sometimes there may be an offer on “pre-cut up” chicken so watch out for those deals as always! Either way, chuck your cubed/stripped chicken into the bowl of eggs and make sure they get a good slop of it all over. One by one, transfer them onto the plate of crumbs, making sure they are nice and evenly coated, then place them into an oven dish or tin. You might need a tiny brush of oil on your oven based cooking container! Put them in the oven at 200°C / 400° F and they’ll be ready in 25-30 minutes. (Please cut through with a knife before eating to check they are done: no pinkness and piping hot)

Sweet salad:

While the goujons are in the oven you have plenty of time to chop up some nice fruit and salad. This is just a suggestion of course so make whatever salad you like! Tonight I went for:

Crisp iceberg lettuce, apple, red grapes, carrots, cucumber. I like mine drizzled with a bit of salad cream, try it, it really works!

Here is the finished article, I clearly need to work on my food photography but I can testify that it honestly was very tasty:

Chicken goujons and sweet salad

Frugal Food Friday!

Yea yea yea… how much does it cost though?!

Seeing as this is a blog about frugality, saving and early retirement… the all important thing naturally is cost! Here is a rough run down:

Chicken: £1.50, 1 Egg: 20p, Breadcrumbs: neglible, salad stuff: £1. As you can see we had some oven chips (naughty!) which I guess were about 30p.

The above was for two people so that is a grand total of £1.50 per person.

Compare this to the abomination that is the McDonalds chicken nugget meal for over £4 per portion, which for all we know is still being made from this stuff. By the time you’ve hopped in the car, queued up at the drive in and come back, let’s face it you could have easily made your own; I know which one I’d rather do.

So there you have it! You can eat nice food, on the cheap, that is really quick and easy to make. I’d also imagine even the fussiest of children would eat this meal – well, the nuggets and chips part anyway! And slightly healthier than your average processed and frozen cr*p as well.

Viva la frugal food revolution!

TFS.x

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Internal Locus of Control: Develop one, retire early

Oct17
by TFS on October 17, 2013 at 1:14 am
Posted In: Philosophy

Hello there readers, today we are talking about locus of control, which comes in two forms, internal locus and external locus, and how developing one or the other might help or hinder your plans for Early Retirement and Financial Independence.

Locus of control is a sciencey-psychology type of theory in which a person is attributed with either an internal or external locus, which basically tells you how they believe things happening in their lives are caused. Either they believe events and outcomes are caused by themselves and their own actions (internal), or conversely they believe that luck, destiny, people more powerful than themselves and perhaps even pixies, fairy dust and other light/dark forces are the real factors that shape their World (external). We’ll dive into both perspectives, but let’s look at how not to perceive your life first, as I find that’s usually the fun way round to do things.

 

External George

George Costanza – definitely an external kinda guy

 

External Locus of Control

Unfortunately, locus of control in all areas of life seems to be gradually being pushed further and further away from individual responsibility. From claims direct et al urging us to sue anything or anyone in the vicinity of the scene of an accident we may be involved in, to politicians creating a nanny state and a nation of whining bitches, the message seems clear:

“IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT”

Quite coincidentally, a person low on the personal responsibility scale makes a perfect credit card customer, for reasons which I am sure do not need explaining. Additionally, the fearful and helpless attitude of a person with an external locus of control will make the perfect consumer; they can’t (or won’t?) think of solutions for themselves, they’ll wait for the boffins at “Corporation X” to build something and then buy it, or wait for someone to tell them what to do and how to live (advertisements). They are more likely to engage in group think, follow the herd, keep up with fashions, and keep the status quo. Is it really any wonder that corporate sponsored TV and newspapers are engendering this attitude in the heaving masses as effectively as they can?

Internal Locus of Control

Now onto the good stuff. A person with an internal locus of control is more likely to be an individual thinker and therefore less likely to succumb to social norms, has more self-confidence, is obviously someone who takes action, or “gets shit done” in laymans terms, and can easily see the benefit of delayed gratification. All of this stuff is solid gold if you want to build up enough savings to retire early. Another seemingly huge benefit is on health, with Internals more likely to not be overweight, and generally healthier, less stressed and with a better job/life satisfaction.

“Sounds good TFS, but how do we develop an internal locus of control?”

I’m thinking that anyone reading this blog already has a pretty decent internal locus, but I’ll play devils advocate and pretend that the reader is currently languishing in external locus land, up to their eyeballs in debt (not their fault of course) and are unhealthy, unhappy, and probably obese with some potentially questionable personal hygeine routines (or lack thereof).

First of all the bad news, studies show that Locus can be dictated somewhat by external factors* such as your parents and upbringing, a lower social class, and other factors such as social unrest in the area you live (unrest = out of control = external locus).

The good news is this: You can change your perspective on life – yes it really is up to you and your amazing human brain! And in case you hadn’t worked it out yet, the opposite loci are both completely self-perpetuating and reinforcing circles.

It follows that if you believe things are in your control, you are more likely to take action and make things happen. Sure, you might fail a few times and make some mistakes, but eventually you will see results and catch a few breaks, which then reinforces this fact that yes, you did all that with all your hard work, you are in control, and there’s no such thing as luck. On the other hand if you just believe that successful people are merely lucky then you have a much greater propensity to not do anything about your situation, you will never catch that break, and your perspective of external locus gets more and more reinforced as time goes by.

Can it really be as simple as picking one or the other perspective on life and believing it with conviction? I personally think yes. Reading* up more on the subject should help too. To make it as easy as possible to either reinforce or re-evaluate your perspective I’ve boiled it down to the two following statements, so all that’s left to do now is to read them both and then pick the one that you think is best. I don’t think it should be too hard:

1. “No matter what I do I won’t be able to get ahead as everyone else has had advantage A or B over my start in life. I might as well sit around and if luck shines on me maybe someday I’ll make it. Or win the lottery. Also I have had health condition X since I was a child and the doctors have never given me a suitable cure for it so what’s the point in trying to live a healthy life. My money situation is totally out of control but everything is too expensive nowadays (damn Economy!). On top of all this I am stressed about it all and this is making my life a misery”

2. “I realise that all of my actions have consequences whether it be directly on my life right now, or in the future, perhaps even years down the line. I will work hard and try to better myself, educate myself and be ready for any opportunities that come my way. I will eat healthily and excercise regurlarly as I know that is the best way to maintain a healthy body, not the latest quick fix from big pharma companies or health food crazes. I will actively involve myself in personal finance matters and learn to live within my means. My general good health and financial security will provide me a stress free and happier life, which in turn will decrease the chances of illness as I get older.”

The magical positive feedback loop that having an internal locus of control provides you with should be so self evident by now that even if you still think you have an external locus (you can check your score here by the way) I am hoping that you can see the benefits of trying to change your perspective to internal, and realize you have a lot of thinking to do about this.

I’d love to hear from views from people either end of the spectrum so let me know in the comments what you are and if you think that is currently the best view to have. And have I been entirely fair to the Externals? (Also please leave what you scored in the test if you did it!).

So what one did you pick?! See you at early retirements-ville soon, number 2 choosers!

_____

*I am assuming you appreciate the irony here of external factors creating your external locus of control, so it’s “something elses fault that you think it’s all something elses fault”. Back ↑

**I find especially if the ideas being read about are actually good self improvement-esque ones, so give it a go and see what happens. I generally hate self-improvement stuff as most of it seems like happy clappy rubbish. However if there is some decent science or maybe some classical philosophy behind the ideas I find them to be pretty, uh… helpful. The old ideas are usually the best (that’s why they are still around). Back ↑

_____

Resources:

The Psychology of Seinfeld (picture credit) – and what a great idea for a blog!

 

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Start your FIRE Part II – Location, Location, Location

Oct13
by TFS on October 13, 2013 at 11:26 pm
Posted In: Property, Start your FIRE

This post is part of a series called “Start your FIRE”. I wanted to lay down a basic framework for new readers of the blog to read through, just in case they’ve never read a blog about Personal Finance before, or are just getting to grips with this idea of Financial Independence and could do with some pointers in how to go about setting up ones life to achieve this. Whereas my first few posts were looking into the possibilities of FIRE available to us in the UK, think of this as the nuts and bolts of how to start “doing it”.

One key factor for making your life and financial matters as efficient as possible is choosing the right place to live, that is a sensibly priced and size house, in the right location.

 Location, Location, Location

A very large thing is made on blogs that are based in the land of the gas guzzler (the USA) about finding a location that is both close to work and local amenities, which naturally cuts down or eliminates car journeys entirely and therefore saves what could amount to large sum of money. Another thing is that you should live in a much smaller house than the average person would usually consider. While this is obviously still solid advice for us folk in the UK and Europe, I think we have it easier in this regard simply due to the fact that most of our population centres were founded pre-combustion engine invention, so they tend to be far more closely packed. That and the fact that we are starting to get pretty short on space on this little island of ours, it is no wonder that we tend to build much smaller dwellings. So the pool of suitably located and smaller sized houses is almost certainly a lot larger over here. One negative for us home seekers in the UK is actually being able to afford the damn things. Prices are substantially higher, coming in at a hefty £242, 415 on average, compared with just $152,000 in the US – £95,244 at the time of writing. Both countries are subject to large regional variations of course, but I think it’s fair to say that we as a nation have to spend more of our hard-earned on housing costs, than our friendly neighbours across the pond.

Key details to consider

Here is a list of things I would include in your calculations when looking at potential a house and location:

  1. Price – in other words, the cost of Mortgage or Rent for 99% of people.
  2. Estimated Council tax and other fixed monthly costs (ground rent, service fees)
  3. Proximity to where you work, or else proximity to decent public transport links
  4. Proximity to at least one decent grocery shop (cheap prices with a good selection of fresh and healthy food*)
  5. Proximity to other local amenities – the town centre, parks, library, or any other places you might usually frequent regularly.
  6. Estimated Utilities and heating / cooling costs – determined by size, insulation, number and type of windows, and whether the property has good exposure to the sun (South facing walls for Northern hemisphere homes).

Running the numbers

As with nearly all things in the World of personal finance, doing some basic calculations up front can pay off huge dividends in the long run, and when choosing somewhere to live this is no different. I would recommend working things into a monthly expenses framework in the first instance; you could then extrapolate these into 10 year or “mortgage lifetime” if you wanted to give yourself an idea of those costs, and no doubt give yourself a bit of a fright at the same time.

Delving into this list further then, points 1 and 2 should be very easy to work out and require no further explanation.

Points 3, 4 and 5 are simply a ticklist of “wants” – just make sure you can walk to any of the things you regularly might otherwise nip in the car to get to and you can just include the lovely symetrically rounded figure of “0” into your calculations here. If not then you must estimate the costs of running about in the motor, or you could just get a bike of course.

The proximity to work factor is not quite as simple as some other US based blogs make out, where the advice tends to simply be:

“live close to work so you can bike or walk”

This does not take into account the huge variation in house prices even over short distances. An example (let’s call him Jeff) of this would be if Jeff worked in London, let’s say because he had a well salaried job that he couldn’t get elsewhere. Two incredibly simplified housing options Jeff might have to choose from are:

  • Option A – Rent a flat in London for £1000 per month, and walk/cycle to work
  • Option B – Rent a flat in a surrounding county with good public transport links for £500 and spend £250 on transport costs.

Option B would obviously be a much better choice given the extra £250 in Jeff’s back bin** each month, which equates to a not insignificant three grand a year. The numbers other specific examples might just as well be reversed, but the key is obviously to substitute your numbers and do the maths for your own situation.

There is also a third option to consider from the example above which is: Get a lower paying job in a cheaper place to live. If Jeff is in the 40% tax bracket he could move into the house in Option B and get a local job that pays up to approximately £5160 less. This is due to Jeff having to pay the tax and national insurance contributions on the money earnt to buy him the £3000 worth of transport costs, if he sticks with the job in London. So this is another factor you must include in your calculations and don’t forget to include the tax: this makes a big difference as we’ve highlighted here!

Point 6 is something I would imagine most people never even realise it is something they might, let alone should, consider (we certainly didn’t when buying our first place anyway!) but is actually very important. A South facing wall with decent exposure to the sun all day (i.e: no other buildings blocking the sunlight) might save you hundreds of pounds on your heating bills each year. Conversely in a hotter climate, this might be something you’d wish to avoid if possible. In terms of electricity bills, the number of lights installed in the house might even be a factor to consider, and also whether the heating system is powered by electricity – again this is something to avoid as Gas heating works out cheaper and is also more environmentally more efficient (when compared with electricity that has been produced with a gas plant, which is pretty obvious when you think about it). If you really had your Green Hat on you might sign up with renewable energy electricity only plus electric heating, in the knowledge that this will cost you a fair bit more.

We haven’t covered every last detail here, there are whole websites and forums out there dedicated to this subject, but this should give you a good headstart on what you need to consider when choosing a place to live. It is not a decision that can be taken lightly and certainly not one to be rushed as it is one of the biggest factors in determining your savings rate, and therefore your path to wealth and financial freedom. And if anyone has any inspiring “moving stories” it would be interesting to hear about them…

________

*Hint: Lidl 😉  Back ↑

*This is a slang term for pocket. I’m not sure of it’s origins but it doesn’t seem to be from the oft quoted cockney rhyming slang scene. If you like rhyming slang then you could do worse than replacing this term with “Sky Rocket”. Back ↑

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Forget work and play golf instead

Oct11
by TFS on October 11, 2013 at 4:27 pm
Posted In: Fun, Golf

Had a random email from a golf course today in the Inbox and being a huge fan of both golf and not working, I just had to pass it on!

Don't Work, Play Golf

A good walk spoilt perhaps but better than working!

In 1923, who was…

1) President of the largest steel company?
2) President of the largest gas company?
3) President of the New York Stock Exchange?
4) The greatest wheat speculator?
5) President of the Bank of International Settlement?
6) The Great Bear of Wall Street?

These men were considered some of the worlds most successful of their days.Now, 90 years later, the history books tell us what ultimately became of them.

The Answers:

1) President of the largest steel company – Charles Schwab, died a pauper

2) President of the largest gas company – Edward Hopson, went insane

3) President of the New York Stock Exchange – Richard Whitney, was released from prison to die at home

4) The greatest wheat speculator – Arthur Cooger, died abroad, penniless

5) President of the Bank of International Settlement – Leon Fraser, shot himself

6) The Great Bear of Wall Street – Cosabee Livermore, also committed suicide

However, in that same year, 1923, the PGA Champion and winner of the US Open was Gene Sarazen.

He played golf until he was 92 and died in 1999 at the ripe old age of 95! He was very financially secure at the time of his death.

The moral here? 

Forget work, play golf!

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