Autopilots and habits

We have to deal with our inner resistance every time we decide to introduce smaller or bigger changes in our lives (i.e. when we decide to use a personal finance software to discover where and how the hell is our money gone, since we were sure it should have been smiling to us happily from our checking account).

Luckily enough, we can rely on our ability to create habits.

A company asks for a loan: The general criteria by which banks are considering granting credit to an SME.

We all know that is not always easy getting a loan from a bank. It's also true that very often we are not well prepared during our very first meet with the bank or we expose our request in the worst ways, creating the best conditions for receiving a loan request denial. Beyond what may be important the financial strength of the applicant or his being positively known (this aspect can also been taking into account a lot especially the small local banks), the bank evaluates the possibility of granting credit to the company according to criteria that you should know.

First, the bank needs to understand the competitive ability of your enterprise through information on the current situation and forecasts of market development in which it operates, the products or services produced and or marketed and its competitive position in its market, taking into account the characteristics of the sector and the patterns of competition.

Happy with what you have to be happy with...

It is almost impossible to come to appreciate, in every moment of our life, what we already possess without being a practicing Buddhist or Franciscan. 
The (simple?) trick shold just being focussed on the "here and now", to be present, alert and aware. This is enough to appreciate the inestimable value of every single moment, simply because of its uniqueness. 
Easy to say, less to put into practice

Assessing your needs

1) The first step is to shed light on what is really important for you, understanding what your (real) needs are.

2) The next is to define your objectives. Firstly the

Financial independence vs. financial wealth

"When I was young I believed that the most important thing in life was money, now that I am old I know it's true."

Oscar Wilde

After all this fussing and fighting around money? Beyond the necessary amount needed for survival, (and not wanting to bring the famous Maslow's hierarchy up), it is evident that many, for their whole life, live chasing wealth. And among these, many expects as a natural corollary of wealth that much-needed sense of peace and fulfillment that only brings to happiness.
The paradox of this situation is that strenuously pursuing a "feeling of wealth", through the simple pursuit of ever-increasing purchasing power, will never get you anywhere for the simple fact that this kind of feeling is related to the level of recognition that we receive from our environment. So it doesn't come from within, but from the outside.


Despite all efforts,

Tempus fugit...

When you look at low (or "average") income people, you can spot an apparent direct relationship between the ability to generate income and the time needed to produce it. This direct relationship seems, however, to dissolve when you observe high-income people. In fact, in the same time, some people become richer than others. The ability to generate wealth is not, therefore, to be attributed only to the number of hours spent working.

People who are financially independent have not just devoted much of their time to become rich, nor they have necessarily worked more than others. Certainly, however, they have been able to make productive use of their time, concentrating on activities relevant to their goals.
It's always interesting for me to observe how subtle and sneaky is the different (and linked) perceptions of time and money in people, the ability to perceive the flow of time and the flow of money.
In my practice, when a company asks me to implement a budgetary control system,