{"id":1757,"date":"2021-09-03T11:15:38","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T10:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2021-09-10T11:34:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T10:34:17","slug":"your-personal-goals-matter-more-than-keeping-up-with-the-joneses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/2021\/09\/03\/your-personal-goals-matter-more-than-keeping-up-with-the-joneses\/","title":{"rendered":"Your personal goals matter more than Keeping up with the Joneses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Did you know that this expression about the\nenvy of others dates all the way back to 1913, when a New York Globe comic\nstrip <em>\u2018Keeping Up With the Joneses\u2019<\/em> first appeared and created an\nenduring, meaningful expression?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>Even further back, envy was evident in biblical times; the Tenth\nCommandment is proof of that \u2013 <em>\u2018Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour\u2019s house\u2026\nnor any thing that is thy neighbour\u2019s.\u2019<\/em> A TV cartoon about the neighbouring\nFlintstone and Rubble families is less convincing evidence of materialism in\nthe Stone Age!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>A friendly approach<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>More relevant to the present day can be seen from two centuries ago, when\nthe British class system meant that much of the population led impoverished\nlives, with harsh industrial working conditions, poor housing and little\nopportunity for social mobility. That was when mutual organisations became\nestablished as co-operatives, or friendly societies, to begin improving\nordinary families\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>In 1820s Lancashire, a group of workers formed a sickness and benefits\nsociety that later became Shepherds Friendly Society, today a provider of\nlong-term insurance and investment products. As a mutual, owned by its members,\na much-modernised Shepherds Friendly still champions the principles of its\nfounding members, broadly advocating thrift and a caring, sharing community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>Before the Pandemic, Shepherd\u2019s Friendly ran a survey themed \u2018Keeping up\nwith the Joneses: Does it make us happy?\u2019 Among the 2,000 respondents, 52%\nadmitted comparing their finances to those of family and friends; 30% had been\ntempted to buy something because people they knew had done so; 9% had bought\nsomething unaffordable just to impress others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p>More reassuringly, <em>\u2018achieving personal goals\u2019<\/em> was a top-scoring\nresponse to a question about feeling successful, whereas the bottom-scorer was\n\u2018owning expensive items\u2019. Consider what will bring you the most happiness \u2013\nmaybe focusing on your own finances and being realistic about what you can\nreally afford, without damaging your long-term financial outlook, will be the\nright route \u2013 rather than excessive expenditure beyond your means.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"hd-block hd-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong><em>The value\nof investments and income from them may go down. You may not get back the\noriginal amount invested. A pension is a long-term investment. The fund value\nmay fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend on the size of\nthe fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that this expression about the envy of others dates all the way back to 1913, when a New York Globe comic strip \u2018Keeping Up With the Joneses\u2019 first appeared and created an enduring, meaningful expression? Even further back, envy was evident in biblical times; the Tenth Commandment is proof of that \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,38],"tags":[],"hd_content_source":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1813,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions\/1813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"hd_content_source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.contentdeployment.co.uk\/tomd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hd_content_source?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}