Trends – Political and Social (Part 2)

Those within the Financial Awakening understand two life rules:

1. Nobody is going to act in your best interest, all of the time.
2. When you find someone who acts in your best interest most of the time – stick with them.

In sickness and in health, till death do you part.

The same can be said for politics. No politician is going to act in your best interest, all of the time. So it is your job to take an interest in your political environment and understand who the key players are. This includes determining parliamentary members and the political parties which most closely and most often, represent your values.

Regardless of how well you know your local member though, political trends can begin quickly and they won’t always benefit you. Now this might be an acceptable outcome on occasion, as the government may indeed be acting in the interests of others who genuinely need assistance. At other times questions concerning motive, reason and effectiveness of government spending should be asked and the key players held accountable.

Whether these new political trends are good for you or bad – you want to be able to spot and assess them early. Once you complete your assessment – as an ordinary, yet financially savvy individual, you generally have two active options available:

1. Work within the laws and regulations as best you can, to maximize your financial opportunity; or, limit the financial damage.
2. Lobby the government to keep the laws and regulations working in your own best-interest.

Early lobbying may stop bad policy trends immediately. Ineffective lobbying has been known to lead to many an emotionally charged election. For you, the Financial Awakened Political Practical, it is simply another day at the office.

So the following are my 4 tips to help us in our quest to be informed and unemotional Political Practicals.

1. Stay up to date with political news. Some will be happy reading newspapers, local through to national levels. Me, I can never seem to find the time for this. So my preference is conservative talk-back radio. Turn off the morning music and start listening to the so called ‘shock-jocks’. The good morning hosts have already read the newspapers for you and will invite the key players onto the program to explain their points of view.
2. Take your time. Not much moves fast in politics. Politics is compromise and compromise takes time. So you have time to do your research, plan your strategy and get to work. A warning though, if a policy looks like it is being pushed unusually quickly, there is a high chance it is not going to benefit you. In these circumstances you may need to lobby fast.
3. Adjust your finances if needed. With legal and regulatory change being flagged months, sometimes years in advance, an awakened and financially savvy individual is sometimes able to restructure their financial affairs well in advance of the legislative changes coming into effect. Should you determine that the change is inevitable – there should be time plan and execute your restructure.
4. Seek professional advice – tax agents, accountants, solicitors, investment advisers. Good professional advice should pay for itself threefold at least.

This post should be considered an introduction and theoretical guide to developing a practical approach to politics. Staying informed about your current political, economic and social environment will help you identify the political trends. An understanding of who the key players are will assist you to gauge the strength of the trend and likely outcome. Ultimately it will be your perseverance and practice which will determine the level of success you achieve.

Going forward, it is my plan to report on the specific political trends I am witnessing and hopefully you will share your observations too. Together, we should be able to make the assessment process easier and more accurate – thereby increasing our likelihood of success.

Until then – enjoy your politics.

GOLDSMITH

Photo by Rosemary Ketchum on Pexels.com