A quick round up

Hello, dear readers. Did you have a chocolate-filled Easter weekend? We’re full of the joys of Spring here.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will probably have noticed that I haven’t been around much recently. That’s mainly because my mum was taken ill a few weeks ago, while on holiday abroad, and ended up in hospital for a while. It has been a rather stressful time, and has opened up a big old can of worms relating to certain people in my family not taking proper care of their health. The exasperating old dear is now back on her feet, but my sympathy has been worn rather thin to say the least.

Meanwhile, back at Golightly Gardens, we had the whole of the dodgy old garden ripped out. Turned out the previous residents had buried a washing machine, a deep fat fryer, and the remaining contents of their kitchen, so that’s been a bit of a disruption and then some. We now have a nice, simple garden design but I’ve had to do lots of work to improve the quality of the soil – it’s still turning up bits of rusted metal and broken glass here and there but it’s starting to come together nicely. For this reason the usual gardening tips are a bit delayed, but please rest assured that they are on their way.

My interest in the intersection between personal finance and psychology has increased in recent months, and I’ve written a series of articles about emotions and spending behaviour for Totally Money, including outright fear, shame, anxiety and general worry. It’s felt like a very worthwhile exercise, and I’m thinking about maybe doing some related work with the non-profit sector later in the year. Interested parties can contact me here.

I’ve been mostly drawn to the positive psychology side of things of late, the rather complex area where money meets happiness. I particularly like the way that the good quality end of the research seems to blow received wisdoms and conventional ideas out of the water. Stay tuned for more of that sort of thing coming up.