Welcome to Life-Life Balance
Meditation was first documented around 1500 years ago in ancient India. In 1958, Jack Kerouac published The Dharma Burns, which explored his early experience with Buddhism and increased interest and curiosity in meditation. Up until the early 2010s, meditation was still considered too "new age" for the everyday person. In 2016, everybody seems to be talking about meditation - more specifically mindfulness meditation. Even in the daily craziness [...]
In 2016, UK house prices are now nine times average incomes. Since the 1990’s, property has become a mainstream investment. The 1990’s property crash provided a great opportunity for any potential property investors, not just because of the low cost of housing, but because mortgages were more accessible with more than one mortgage provider offering 100% loan-to-value mortgages (the first buy-to-let mortgages became available in 1996). The Telegra [...]
What I love about the internet is how easy it is to find resources to improve your day and your productivity. I'm often reading blog posts and listening to podcasts where I pick up recommendations for apps and websites that can help me get more stuff done, improve my habits and help me conquer my health goals. Over the last few years I've kept track of these resources and today I share them with you. I hope you find them helpful. Add your own res [...]
As 2015 draws to a close and the hangover from Christmas Day subsides, you may already have a list of resolutions ready for January 1. But since 1 in 3 of us will ditch our resolutions by the end of January because we’re ‘too busy’ we’ve put together a list of tips to help you succeed in 2016. Make just one New Year’s resolution. It’d be great to lose 5 pounds, drink less alcohol, eat more vegetables and save more money but anyone who tries to ta [...]
Funding Circle is an online platform that enables individuals to lend money to small UK businesses for a fixed rate of interest. Similar to crowdfunding for equity, individual investors lend money through the platform as loan parts which are assembled as loans to businesses. Using loan parts helps investors spread the risk of their investment e.g. when investing £1000 an investor does not have to lend that amount to just one business but can use [...]
At the beginning of this month I went to visit a business that I’d lent money to through peer-to-peer lending platform, Funding Circle. What is Funding Circle? Funding Circle is an online platform that allows individuals to lend money to small UK businesses for a fixed rate of interest. Similar to crowdfunding for equity, individual investors lend money through the platform as loan parts which are assembled as loans to businesses. Using loan pa [...]
My younger sister recently moved from London to Santiago in Chile. Since I performed a similar relocation to a very different place (London to Beijing) two years ago, I thought I would give her some advice. What was meant to be a few points ended up ballooning into lots of points. Since I haven't written any posts in a while, this is also a chance for me to relate some things I have learned recently. It's written with a reader in the mid-to-late [...]
We read a lot of stories about how ‘less is more’ and how a minimalist lifestyle can be just as rewarding as (or more rewarding) than owning a big house, nice car and buying luxury products regularly. It seems too good to be true, a little too new-agey and easy to reject outright, but is there any truth to these claims? Can we really enjoy a life where we buy fewer things, consume fewer things and spend less money? And, if yes, why are so few of [...]
A coffee first thing in the morning after a bad night of sleep. A packet of mints after that burrito you bought at lunchtime. An online purchase during the latest Amazon sale. Spending money isn’t wrong. We can’t avoid it, but what’s worrying is the alarming number of us who don’t realise how we’re spending our money. With phrases like ‘retail therapy’ and shopping now a common leisure activity, it’s no surprise that we’ve developed a desire to s [...]
We all remember that feeling we got when we received pocket money as children. The anticipation of getting something for nothing, followed by the excitement thinking up ways to spend the money and a sense of achievement when we bought that special something that we could show off to our friends. Perhaps you didn't always spend it immediately and instead saved it up for something expensive that you wanted more than the immediate gratification of b [...]