Skip to main content

Pope favours simplicity

Pope Francis has encouraged people in developed countries to live more simply.

At Christmas Eve mass the Pope encouraged people to live "not by devouring and hoarding, but by sharing and giving".

He continued: "Let us ask ourselves: Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?


"For many people, life's meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects. An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive."

It certainly makes me think. We do spend a lot of money on relatively meaningless things while so many of our fellow human beings have so little.

News source: BBC World News

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My October challenge

Decluttering can be overwhelming. I've been stuck. Shelves and boxes and drawers full of stuff I should go through but not sure where to start. Aaagh - there's so much of it. The solution? So for myself (and for you if you want) I've developed a strategy. I've picked 31 categories in advance. I plan to tackle one item per day of October. If I miss a few that's OK. The point is to overcome overwhelm. To focus on one thing at a time. To move forward instead of being stuck. My favourite way to declutter is to sell online . (I even wrote a  free ebook of tips for selling online). I also like to recycle or upcycle things. Wanna join in? I've chosen categories where I think most people would have excess. If there's a category you have already dealt with, that's cool. Have a rest day - or go even further in one of the previous areas. The list Ok so here's my plan for this October. Bookmark this post or download the picture of my notes. For each category I ...

The magic of compound growth

Compound Interest. Described by Albert Einstein as the 8th wonder of the world. Many people don't fully grasp its power and miss out on the magic. Here's a quick example For 30 days, would you rather (A) get $100 per day, or (B) get 1 cent doubled every day (ie. 2 cents on day two, 4 cents on day three, 8 cents on day four). Quickly. What's your immediate answer? On intuition, lots of people go for Option A. Why? Because $100 sounds so much more than 1 cent. How do they compare? Do the maths, and Option B wins by miles. By Day 15, the 1 cent per day has grown to $163.84 per day. Over the first 18 days, Option B accumulates $2621.43 (compared to $1800 for Option A). It just snowballs from there. By the final days, Option B is getting millions per day and ends up with a total of $10.7 million. Meanwhile the total for Option A is just $3,000 ($100 x 30 days). (Sidenote: Even if Option A was $100,000 per day, option B would still win.) Life in slow motion Investing can be much ...

The real cost of owning a car

It's been about 10 years since I've owned a car. My wife doesn't own one either. "You must save a lot in petrol" That's one of the frequent reactions when someone discovers we don't own a car. "Of course, but it's just the tip of the iceberg" is the usual theme of my reply. Many people I've talked to just aren't fully aware of the real cost of owning a car. Or even that there are six different costs of owning a car. Six? Really? Yes. Occasionally a work colleague or friend will boast their car only costs $X per week. Of course it turns out only some factors have been counted. Sometimes it's just petrol alone. To some people, that feels like the only cost they pay each week. Why does this matter? You might be questioning the need for a second car in the household (or even having one at all). Or you might just be choosing which car to get next. Either way, to make an informed decision we need proper information. So let's look at...