Cattle
Things are a bit tight for the cattle
with the hot and dry weather continuing. Most days they are getting
their bale of Lucerne which they devour quickly. They are maintaining
condition. So it seems that between the slim pickings in the paddock
which would now be mainly just roughage and the Lucerne they are
getting enough. Today was one of those horrendous windy days with temperatures at 37 degrees C. Great bush fire weather in early Spring.
Hector on the left and Warren on the right, Hector never speaks. Warren is known as whinging Warren. They are never apart. |
Martinique the prettiest heifer. Always keeps her eye on the two boys. They always do as she says and she loves and protects them |
Preparedness
Financial:
One important
aspect of preparedness is money. If you rely on employment to keep
life ticking over it is important to examine what your situation
would be should that employment end suddenly. Can you survive for 6
months or a year? Do you have a back up income earning option?
Throughout our
lives we have always been conservative in the finance side of things
and never taken out too large a house loan and worked towards paying
off the mortgage as quickly as possible. We always kept substantial
savings to enable us to replace the car on short notice without
borrowing and enough money to live frugally for a year should we
both be unemployed. Non of that ever happened but we never ever
experienced worry about the future.
Even with
investments we maintained a conservative approach never borrowing
excessively for investment property. Keeping superannuation balanced
between shares, property and cash. Even the shares were spread across
different sectors. Never ever followed the investments offering those
big returns. A nice steady rate of return in highly dependable areas.
This approach
never made us millionaires. It did not lead us to lose our life
savings in some dubious scheme. It did allow us to cease full time
work a lot earlier and be financially but frugally independent. We
still work part time but that time is at our choosing and at the
intensity that suits us and the money just builds our savings.
I like your attitude. We don't feel comfortable with owing money either. It makes life feel much more stable knowing the rug can't be pulled from under you! The economy feels too uncertain at the moment and I feel it's more shaky than people realise.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda, It's good to know there are other people out there with similar views. I remember someone saying that the only person interested in your financial future is yourself.
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