When the going gets tough

Celebrate.
Yep this is the way forward. Too many people get 'down in the dumps' when things get tough. My feeling is, that this is the time for a party and having it all the more.
Why I hear you ask? Simply, it is because things are only going to get better. If you have hit the wall, then typically you have done so well after you should (we are all quite resilient) and therefore things should have 'bottomed out' on your journey. Therefore the future, as they say, is bright.
Whatever you look at - financial markets, house prices, moods, work performance - they all go in peaks and troughs.
What is difficult is accepting the pendulum when you are in it. Being able to see 'the wood for the trees' and recognising where one is at on the trip is difficult. It is really easy to get too absorbed in ones own situation and not see the wider picture.
The beauty of life is the uncertainty. The willingness to embrace this uncertainty gives us a pulse. We cannot control all things and increasingly as we try to, the peaks and troughs (which will happen regardless) push us to not see 'the wood for the trees' and increases our challenge to enjoy the ride.
So - just in case there is any doubt - I am having a party as things are pretty bad right now.
Hope that it is all better with you and if so, leave me a comment to enable me to then prophesies about the grass being greener.

The real cost of home

Reading the newspaper today, there were a strange couple of articles which got me thinking.
The first was about a 3 bed mobile home near Abersoch (albeit on the beach front) being sold for £500,000 - the same price as a 2 bed flat in Chelsea! (and both would be leasehold and have a hefty yearly management fee - the Abersoch home only has 20 years left on the lease!)
Now there is an arguement which says it would be better and nicer to live in Abersoch than Chelsea, but that is not the issue. This is meant as a holiday home and you could have 10 holidays for the next 50 years (not 20 of lease life) in Barbados for less money!
This is not clever is it?
Then on the next page, was an article saying that 10 years ago, 1 in 5 managers in the workplace did not take their full allocation of holiday due to work pressures. Today this has risen to 3 in 5 managers.
Only a managers salary could consider the luxury of the mobile home in Abersoch, yet they are the ones who are likely not to be able to take a holiday due to work pressures.
Mmmm - what a strange set of values we seem to have.
A thought on property values - the last time values were corrected (in the early 90's), yeilds from the value of the property from renting were about 15%. Currently they are less than 5%!