Blue, Red, & Green Thinking

I am grateful for this idea to Nigel May Barlow, author of Re-Think-How to Think Differently.

He talks about three stages of creative thinking:

Blue - Blue is for IDEAS- with the sky being the limit! Blue type questions are Well, why not? and What if we…?

Red - Red is for STOP, like traffic lights. It’s the selection, evaluation, fine tuning and prioritising stage, choosing your best ideas.

Green – Green is for GO, deciding who is going to do what, by when, planning in the milestones.

In any group of people you are likely to find a scattering of all these types. Some will be more comfortable with a particular colour than others. if you get too many in one category you may miss out some of the valuable stages.

For example, a room of Blues may generate some fabulous ideas but never actually get around to putting them into action! Whereas Reds will never allow enough discussion of ideas as they push to get something agreed. And the Greens will be busy planning who is doing what before Blues have finished being creative!

What colour are you? How does it show itself in you?

Jane: Sarah, you are well known for your work with financial information for women, and I’m sure many of our readers will have seen you on BBC’s Saturday Breakfast or heard you on Radio 4.

So my first question is -Why a specialist site for women? Are our financial issues very different?
SARAH: Yes, I think they are – in two significant ways. Firstly, women often have to make different decisions about money because of different working patterns and priorities and secondly, women often approach issues around finance, such as risk and debt, differently.

For example, many women will want to know how much they could lose before they’ll invest whereas men tend to focus more on the maths of how an investment stacks up. Women also typically owe less than men but have debt that charges a higher interest rate (such as credit cards) and also worry about it more.

How did you first get into the world of finance? Was it something you had planned to do from school days? Were you always good at managing your pocket money? (I wasn’t…!)
I can safely say that my burning ambition when I was at school wasn’t to work in personal finance. I wasn’t very good at managing my pocket money (unlike my sister) and would often run out of money halfway through the week.

I gradually moved towards personal finance journalism via a theatre company, an arts centre, catering for rock bands and reporting and producing for local radio. When I moved to London I was offered some freelance work on BBC Radio 4’s Moneybox, filling in for someone who was on holiday. She didn’t come back and I stayed for six years! I loved working on the programme because I felt that – by giving people information – you could make a real difference to the amount of money they had and ultimately to their lives.

It was also a great programme to work on because you had to get all the facts right otherwise you’d be inundated with letters and phone calls (this was before email was popular!).

What was your very first paid job? Do you remember how much you got paid?
My first job, during the school holidays, was working at a fruit machine company filing invoices. I had no idea there was so much money in fruit machines (literally!).  I think I was paid £37 a week, which seemed like a fortune at the time.

You now run your own business. What’s the best thing about being your own boss?
The best thing was being able to set up SavvyWoman in the way I wanted to. I had strong ideas about the content, tone and look of the website – I didn’t want it to be fluffy but was keen to make sure that women felt it was written with them in mind.

It’s really rewarding when you get positive feedback to one of your ideas.  I also have a huge amount of freedom about the topics I can cover on SavvyWoman. Sometimes I’ll write about a topic that’s in the news, but look at it from a female perspective, at other times I’ll pick a completely different subject that I know will be of interest to website users.

What advice would you give to any woman thinking of launching their own business?
‘Go for it’ is the obvious piece of advice. The other one is to say that there are bound to be times when it’s scary so don’t think it’s only you who’s experiencing that. You have to be prepared to work hard and you have to do your research before you start, but it’s a great feeling when you see that your idea has translated into something tangible.

When do you think we’ll have our first female Chancellor of the Exchequer? Do you think the public is less ready for that than they were a female prime minister?
I’d like to think we wouldn’t have to wait too long for our first female Chancellor of the Exchequer but I have a feeling I’d be wrong.  The absence of women in politics – especially at cabinet level – is such a problem and it’s one that parties of various political shades don’t seem that keen to tackle.

Why it should seem acceptable that decisions about the future of this country are led by a cabinet largely representing 50% of the population by gender is a mystery to me.

What was the best piece of advice that you were given when setting up Savvy SavvyWoman?
I don’t think I can pinpoint one piece of advice that stands out. Overall, I was just pleased to get encouragement from so many of my friends. There were times, especially in the early stages when I couldn’t talk about what I was doing because I was waiting to get the trademark on the domain name and when I was trying to choose a web designer when it felt like it was a long way from a business, but in the end it all came together very quickly.

In terms of things I’m glad I did, I was very lucky with the web design team – thebrightplace.com – as they were fantastic communicators as well as having the ability to interpret my non-technical speak into a great website. That took a huge amount of pressure off me.

I was also really pleased to get such a brilliant panel of experts lined up for the website, all of whom give their time free of charge. It felt like a great endorsement of the idea.

In your experience, what is the most common dilemma or issue for women and finance?
I think the biggest issue is retirement. I get more questions about pensions from SavvyWoman users on pensions than any other subject. I know that retirement and, in particular, how to pay for it are big issues for both men and women but all the statistics show that women retire on less than men and in around one in three cases, retire on very little at all.

Not all women have career breaks to look after children but those who do invariably put the pension on hold for quite a few years and never make up that lost time.  Even those who work throughout their lives generally earn less than men (sometimes a lot less) and may be less keen to lock money away.

Of women reaching state pension age last year, fewer than 50% received a full state pension compared to well over 90% of men. Changes were introduced in April that will benefit women, but they’ll take quite some time to filter through the system. A pension may not be the answer, but you cannot rely on the state.

Who most inspires and motivates you currently?
I absolutely love working on the website and I’m genuinely really pleased if I’ve come up with something that women can relate to and that will help them get more from their money. One woman said it was the first finance website that didn’t scare her, which I was really touched by.

I hate unfairness and injustice and it frustrates me that some financial companies will treat customers as badly as they think they can get away with and will only behave decently once they’re threatened with the prospect of publicity.

I’m not motivated by money and I don’t advocate thinking about it day and night but neither should you dismiss it as boring or complicated because it’s hard to function without it. Sometimes a relatively straightforward piece of information can make all the difference between a good or bad financial decision.

What’s the best piece of advice you have been given?
From a financial point of view, the best advice I was given was never to combine borrowing and investing. This was when endowment mortgages were all the rage and I was working on Moneybox at the time. It was a favourite saying of one of the producers – but she was right.

In terms of general advice I think the one that’s rung true for me over the years is to trust your instincts. I think I generally have quite a strong gut feeling and the times when I’ve not listened to it I’ve normally regretted it.

And what advice would you give to women re their own financial affairs?
I’d say, don’t be scared of money and don’t think you have to be money obsessed to take an interest in it.  Women often make very good financial decisions but can miss out because they’re put off by the jargon that often litters financial articles or brochures (more so than men, it seems).
The last piece of advice would be to think about what you’re going to live on in retirement. It doesn’t have to be a pension, it can be some other form of retirement saving, but make sure you won’t have to rely on the state.

Sarah, thanks you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.

If you’d like some more information about Savvy Woman, or to sign up for a regular newsletter from Sarah, visit her web site by clicking here

“More than two thirds of the billion people surviving on less than a dollar a day are female”

“Research by investment bank, Goldman Sachs found that women tend to invest their income in their children’s health, education and clothing. Men, the bank found, usually preferred to spend it on themselves, buying cigarettes, alcohol or what it delicately terms ‘female companionship’.”

“More female workers could even help head off the pensions crisis and the problems of an ageing population.”

The article is written by journalist Ruth Sunderland, in The Observer newspaper, and you can read it in it s entirety here. It will make you think…

I’m not sure I’d be as bold as him! My strategy when someone barges into the front of the queue or line, is to give them the benefit of the doubt, politely tap them on the shoulder and ask, (loudly enough for all to hear): “Excuse me, but did you realise there was a queue here?”

I don’t use a sarcastic tone; I ask it as a genuine enquiry and usually they mumble ‘no, sorry’ and go to the end of the line. And if they ignore me I know there’s no point in worrying about it any further!

What do you do?

Take yourself to a quiet spot.

Close your eyes.

Let out a much longer breath than useful.

Notice your breathing for a few moments.

Imagine now, as you take a new fresh breath in, that it is filling with you a beautiful energy. Make it coloured it if you want, your favourite colour.

And as you breathe out imagine all the cares of the week going with it.

Smile.

Have a great week end!

I would recommend that you read her first book before picking up this one though. The first book establishes the principles and the second gives you some great exercises to try out to reinforce your learning.

Here’s an extract from ‘….and beyond‘:

” Thankfully none of us have to stand alone in this big wide world. Your friends can be an important part of your support system and it is one area of most people’s lives that needs cultivation. But what kind of friends do I mean?

I’m not talking about the kind of friends that try to keep you from moving forward. I am talking about the kind of friends that say, ‘Sure you can do it. Go for it.’…And so on. I like to think of those who hold you back as Lower-Self friends and those who support your growth as Higher-Self friends. And  it’s important to pay attention to the difference.”

There then follows a practical exercise with space for you to list friends that fall into those categories. I must have had that in my head when I wrote my ‘Radiators & Drains‘ post.

Susan Jeffer’s aim is to remove any fear we may have about embracing life and living it to the full. She encourages you to make positive change in your life and gives you a useful toolbox to hold your hand while you do! It’s definitely worth having this book on your shelf!

If you’ve read either of the ‘Feel the Fear’ books I’d love to hear what you think of them.

Try this quick personal development exercise:

Who are you? Describe yourself in a paragraph. Pick three words from that paragraph that stand out.

What do those three words say about your self esteem? Are they positive? Neutral? Or derogatory?

What would you like your three words to be?

Take yourself to a quiet place with a notebook and pen. Just sit for few moments and reflect on what it is you feel you never have time to do. These are usually things that will bring you pleasure, but sometimes they are things you think you ‘ought’ to do.

Don’t over-think this exercise, just jot down whatever comes to mind; it’s for your eyes only. Ask yourself : “What Things Do I Never Have Time For?”

Now look at your list and ask yourself the following:

• Which of these are for me?
• Which of these do I think I should be doing for other people, or because everyone else seems to have done it (like read ‘War & Peace’!)
• When do I think I will do these things?
• What is stopping me doing them now?

So here we are in the dog days of summer, and in the UK at least a bank holiday week end is in the offing. Lost of people are on holiday, you get loads of ‘out of office’ replies, and no one seems to be around to do any meaningful work.

For those of us at work it can be a really dead time, or it can be a time you really make work for you! When you start on the road to achieving your dreams!

Dreams

The end  of August always feels like the end of the year for me – too long in the world of education I guess! September still feels like the start of a new term; all the excitement of new school clothes, bags, pencils, protractors (that dates me, who has those now?) and books full of blank pages to write upon!

Can you use this week to amaze yourself? To put something worthwhile on the next blank page in your book? Take the time to do something for you. To really think about what you want to achieve over the next few months?

In this relatively slack time, can you spare a moment to set yourself some goals this week, maybe one small thing to do each day that will stand you in good stead, and take you nearer where you want to be?

Unfulfilling Work

Maybe work is not fulfilling at the moment, but it pays the bills and it’s a tough economic climate so alternatives are thin on the ground. But now is a good time to take stock of what you really want to do with your life. And get prepared so that when the climate improves, as it will, you are ready to roll!

Love your job

Perhaps you love your work, whatever it is, and want to improve and progress. Where do you want to be? What opportunities might there be for you to progress? If not right now, when things improve? Can you gain some experience that will help? Do you need to sign up for an evening class? Get some mentoring? Shadow someone in the organisation? Join a networking group?

Retirement Dreams

Or maybe you have some long held dreams about what your retirement will be like? Have you done anything practical towards achieving those? Do you know what is possible? Have you shared your dreams with your ’significant other’? Write down what it is you want and then use this week to take those first steps towards achieving it.

You Are Amazing!

Go on, amaze yourself! Make this week count. Don’t waste this time, take some control of your future now and plan to live the life you want!

One such was this report on female doctors hitting a glass ceiling in the UK -this link will take you to the story.

Why?

Splutter over, I mused on what makes it so, particularly the comment that ‘women do not put themselves forward’. There are lots of obvious reasons like child care etc but actually, although most people now would not dispute that women are equally as capable as men, the world of working practices has not caught up.

Change The Way We Work

Work and working practices have been designed by men and suit men. Historically it’s how it happened. Women and ethnic minorities were not around when the basic principles were established. But if we were to design many of our old established professions to suit BOTH genders (not just make them female friendly which sounds somewhat patronising, but really think about a system that is open to everyone in our society), I believe the equality issue would fade. Modern companies that have taken this more inclusive route have found that both women AND men benefit.

What Do You Think?

Do you think your profession/job/career would be significantly different if both genders had devised the working remit? Please do share your thoughts with us.