Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Guinness, stew, four leaf clovers, beating England in cricket and leprechauns are all things that come to mind when we say ‘Ireland’.
Today we’d like to focus on Leprechauns, though. Reason being, there’s actually quite a bit we can learn from these crafty creatures when it comes to personal finance. Don’t laugh, read on…
1. Leprechauns like to hoard and they guard it with all their might. Lesson: save!
Leprechauns are known for guarding their pot of gold like, well, gold. They don’t spend their gold and they even have magic powers to disappear if they get caught and somebody wants to force them to reveal where they have hidden their gold.
From this we can learn that it’s important to save whatever we can. Obviously nobody should be a miser, but saving is important and even if you think you can’t afford to, putting a little bit aside will help. Read more of our tips for saving, there really is no excuse.
2. Leprechauns might have pots of gold, but their clothing is never fancy. Lesson: don’t overindulge on irrelevant material things but don’t sacrifice the things that really matter.
Leprechauns don’t spend their gold on fancy clothes or, anything really. There are two lessons we can learn from this trait.
a) Don’t’ spend on unnecessary material things like designer or brand labels or anything that you don’t really need. Keep it simple, stick with the basics and only spend money on what you actually need, not on your wants.
b Don’t compromise on what is important. Things like medical aid, insurance and retirement. These are three things which you should spend money on. Some things should never be compromised so make sure you have a good medical aid, retirement annuity as well as a good deal on insurance.
3. Leprechauns are craftsmen, usually shoemakers and they work really hard. Lesson: put in the hard yards, be patient with savings and investments.
Leprechauns work really hard to earn their gold and they are willing to put in the effort to fill up their treasure pots. The lesson here is that if you are saving and investing, don’t expect results over night. It takes time for investments to grow and for lump sums to gather interest.
Keep on putting money away and keep working towards your goal patiently. It’ll be worth it in the end.
4. Leprechauns love gold and if they are caught, they have to reveal the location of their pot of gold or give their capturer three wishes. Lesson: diversify your portfolio.
This is a very good lesson to learn from leprechauns. They don’t really hoard any treasures other than gold and legend has it, if you catch one, they have to reveal where they have hidden it. That is, of course, if you can keep your eye on them for long enough.
That’s bad news for leprechauns who get caught, they can lose everything!
The same goes for your investment portfolio. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket, explore different options when it comes to investments. From gold to unit trusts, property and other investments, get a slice of a couple of different pies, just in case something goes bust.
5. Green is a good colour on anyone, even if you’re a ginger.
The most important thing we can learn from leprechauns is that green is a good colour and while it’s never wise to worship money or to say you hate it, money should be respected. We might not all be rich one day, but if we manage our money properly, we can live comfortably and without any stress.
We here at Justmoney.co.za are will always try our best to help wherever we can. And hey, we’ve even got a green pig!