Learn from others’ mistakes

TUNDE OYEDOYIN

Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApponly); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

Learning from one’s mistakes makes a ton of sense, especially when it comes to personal finance. It’s actually proof of being smart. As a matter of fact, learning is a major template for making progress and being wise in life. Hence, a recent piece I crafted. If you didn’t have just ten thousand to invest last year, that was a mistake. Please don’t repeat the error this time around.

Here’s the thing. Learning from other people’s mistakes is even better. A report caught my eyes last month and I’d since taken a closer look at it to even make it the backdrop of this piece

In the metro newspaper of Thursday, March 13 (p.17) was a story: “Couple in 70s evicted from home of 45 years ‘out of the blue’ by council.”

According to the story, “a couple say they are heartbroken after being ordered out of their home of 45 years because council bosses failed to renew their lease.” 70-year old Sue Aylott and her husband, Bill, 71, moved to the Streatham, South London, “property in 1979,” and it was there “they brought up their two children .”

However, things changed just before Christmas, when “they were told Lambeth council had been lending it from a private firm and had failed to get an extension.”

Not surprisingly, the couple said: “It was a total bolt out of the blue,” and that they do not want to move, as they have spent thousands on the house, “including £4000 on carpets and a pond.” Mrs Aylott went on to say: “Our lives have been thrown upside down,” and they are obviously “heartbroken.” Reason, she disclosed, is because her husband “had health issues.” On its part the owner of the property said: “It had contacted the council six months ago, expressing its intention to not extend the lease.”

Now, hear this! “Lambeth Council said it offered to even buy the home at market rate, but this was declined.” Boy oh boy!

Just to unpack the story further, here’s a couple who have lived at a local government house for 45 years. Unknown to them, the local government, Lambeth Council, had been lending the property since that time – 1979. In June last year, the owner of the property told the local government they wouldn’t extend the lease after 45 years.

Please make home ownership a part of your financial goals for this year. Give yourself a five-year plan to save for it beginning from May ending. Please learn from this couple’s situation and be intentional about becoming a house owner.

Is your bank cut with the same cloth as Nationwide ?

Yours truly was doing a routine checking of his account towards the end of last week when I noticed an increase in the balance there. It turned out that the pleasant surprise was from the “Big Nationwide Thank You,” that they had previously written to members – account holders – about a few weeks earlier.

Though just fifty quid (£50), it was good enough to not only move the needle, a fraction of it was also wired to my credit card account to lower the outstanding balance there.

Folks, is your bank sharing their profits with you? Are they cut with the same cloth as Nationwide’?!

• business a.m. commits to publishing a diversity of views, opinions and comments. It, therefore, welcomes your reaction to this and any of our articles via email: comment@businessamlive.com