Am about half way through Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and wished I'd read it 15 years ago and am currently realising why my better educated friends all went about owning their own business rather than joining a corporation. Hmm, so this is what private education may pay for. They all figured that they were more interested in building their own dreams rather than help build someone else's. My background and parents have taught me to study hard to earn a good education, apply yourself at a job and climb the corporate ladder if you're able. The problem sometimes lies with whether your ladder is leaning up against the building for you.

​At the same time, I haven't drank from the cool-aid and seen a whole new world just by reading a book. There has been nagging feelings inside me for years and I've tried numerous things: writing a book; starting a business; travel; writing blogs. All of which I have enjoyed, all whilst absolutely ignoring financial management because I don't like it. As with most things you don't like, including people, there is a reason, and it's usually fear (or they're a complete dick, that could be true too). For me, it lies in utter boredom of financials - my brain checks out as soon as someone mentions a balance sheet. But this may not be because it's boring, but perhaps I find it difficult and I use the excuse that it's boring. Or it could be boring as batshit, am open to everything.
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​Rich Dad, Poor Dad is not a greatly written book - there are lots of spelling mistakes, some stories should drive home the point and others just tail off. But as a narrative it's excellent in illuminating how the world works without doing anything illegal. If you've been reading the news for the last five years, you'll have seen just how much tax is being paid by the huge corporations: thousands of people employed across tens if not a hundred nations, paying tax to countries that amount to pittance. A great article in The Independent cited that Google paid £36million in the last tax year in the UK, with revenues of around in £1 billion. More on that here, but it comes down to profits, and Google claim on their tax statements they are making very little profits.
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​For us mere humans, this seems wrong when we're taxed on our earnings and then taxed on our savings and then taxed on anything we buy. If then we invest into shares or start a business to make a bit of money, you're then taxed on any profits you make. They key is to keep investing in assets as part of that corporation to then reduce your profits, which means you pay less tax. (The rich really do just keep getting richer). All this is perfectly legal and you're not putting your money into offshore bank accounts, which to me at least is effectively cheating the system but here is the rub: if the system lets you cheat, is it the fault of the people that do the cheating or the people that make the system? The fact that the people that make the system largely own corporations, all went to the same schools (Eton/Harrow then Cambridge/Oxford in the UK, Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stamford) and, at the higher echelons, have entered politics as a hobby or passion project amongst their independent wealth is not to be trivialised. 

​The book, so far at least, has a few recommendations:

• Own a corporation so that you too can invest your profits and pre-tax in assets. If they don't depreciate in value e.g. brand new cars, that's just great. But if they can appreciate in value over the long term, then that is something magical
• If you are in a corporate already (or any business large enough to have different departments), understand the inner workings of a company by working in or gaining mentors in different parts of the company. Embrace finance, technology, legality, sales, operations, communications/marketing and support. Build a broad church of knowledge to help you make better decisions in your current role and guide to where you would like to be in future
• Be confident and be bold. You look at that moron running the White House and wonder how that happened? He sells himself. You don’t have to believe what he sells but clearly many do. The same applies for all those awful advertisements for a new mop, hairdryer, tanning lotion or healthy eating on morning breakfast shows. To me they are the epitome of utter bullshit. And yet, they are still there because it works: people buy those products. As I've sat in countless interviews and told many of my employees, the job is to sell yourself. If you can't do that, you won't get the job. Extract your interview game-face and put that into your life.
• Teach financial management at an early age
• Keep learning, keep reading, keep going to courses and widening your horizons. It's effectively training the mind: athletes don't become the best they can be by skipping training, and neither should you.

 
So I have a lot to ingest and I haven't even finished the book yet. Will keep you posted!

In the last few weeks we've had a barrage of back-and-forths within the much maligned British European Exit.  With just over half of the voting electorate wanting to leave the European Union, HMS Britain stoked its engines  and set off into unchartered waters (apart from Greenland, which left years ago). As with any good break up there is a divorce, and this has become a very public celebrity spat. It hasn't involved deriding one another's mothers yet, but its close. Certainly at the end of this debacle there may well be smashing up of picket fences and the words 'whore!' etched in large letters in a barren lawn.
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Britain, having contributed vast sums of money to the EU over the years wants a quick and easy divorce with access to the kids in future, paying little remuneration and expecting not to have to pay child support. The EU, having given birth to kids, provided money in return, and all around spent years losing its figure whilst greasy Britain was off on its business trips to festooned waters selling its soul for weapons and the occasional hand job, is being very motherly and demanding what it seems appropriate within the divorce case. According to the Leavers, there are well over 27 mothers in Europe. The divorce settlement looks to be it the region of 100b Euros, with money being paid back in reimbursements after the up-front cost, bringing it back to a measly 60b Euros.

What would be excellent is if the people that voted to leave then offer to foot the bill. Of the few friends I have, and even fewer of them actually voted Leave, this suggestion hasn't gone down well.
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With our sisters in the EU flashing their 100b knickerbockers, they've been branded treacherous whoremongers that should be thankful we exist at all...because....<tadahh> Britiain won the war, you know! Nothing like a slight agitation to ignite stroking of Empiric moustaches and jumping on a high-horse clutching the reins of xenophobia, which many of the Leavers have constantly pledged it's not at all about. Well, until now anyway. But now it's on: its dig up the garden for the bomb-shelter, rejoinder to the War Room (garden shed) for a strong cup of Bovril and listening to those gruff speeches of Churchill!

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The EU is run by five main institutions: the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Court of Justice.

We'll go for the easy ones first. The European Court of Justice, ECJ, in Luxembourg, interprets the law and settles disputes, same as with any court. There is one judge per member state. Each member state nominates a judge whose role is then ratified by all the other member states.

The European Commission (EC) is where the laws are drafted and managing every day business of the EU. They sit in Brussels. Each country (28) has a nominated representative, and they vote on the leader - the current president is Juncker. The President then allocates roles to all the others and they get interviewed before being given those roles e.g. one for Energy, another on Competition etc If they're rubbish, then they can either take another portfolio, or the president can request the member state to give another candidate. The EC is accountable to Parliament.
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All seems very sensible so far, two down three to go. 
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Then there's the European Parliament. There are 751 members, and together with the Council of EU and EC, it exercises the legislative function of the EU, but also controls the EU Budget. President of the European Parliament (speaker of the house) is Antonio Tajani. The EP sits in Luxembourg, Brussels and Strasbourg. Becoming an MEP differs between different countries, but essentially there is either a vote in the country or they are directly appointed.
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Three down...boredom to go...
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The Council of the European Union and the European Council sound like something out of Monty Python - Judean Peoples Front? Fuck off! We're the Peoples Front of Judea! In all honesty, when I read it, my mind glazed over and I wanted a cup of tea and a hug. The opening line I read said "it is part of the essentially bicameral EU legislature"...right. Good. Am glad. Bicameral? That's what I thought you said.
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The crux of the matter is that in most cases you didn't vote for them, forgetting that of course that you don't vote for your own Prime Minister either, you vote for the party, and they elect the Prime Minister. They in turn put their representative forward to Europe. All these members seem to get their jobs through either direct nomination or through voting, or perhaps through pure bribery with truffles and foie gras.
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​According to the Telegraph (not really a paper to be trusted, but anyway) Britain sends 12 billion pounds per year to the EU. Then we get a great deal of money back, almost 6 billion in EU payments, private organisations, EU Agricultural Policy etc. So effectively Britain is out of pocket by about 6 billion pounds a year. Apparently when we compare that to other countries in the EU per head of population, Britain aren't even in the top 5. The fallacy that I think is often cited is that if that money isn't spent on the EU, it will undoubtedly be spent where we think it should be spent: more policeman; more teachers; more hospitals. Unlikely one would imagine. It's more likely that the money would be spent paying off the national debt (currently 1.85 trillion pounds, or 5000 a second as http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/) put it. In fact it's 89.1% of Britain's GDP, very, very close to 90% where Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, together with Carmen and Vincent Reinhart, believe economies stall. Countries that are economically absolutely screwed sit well above (Japan 250%, Greece 179%, Italy 132%) whilst others sit below (Germany 68%, Australia 36%, UAE 15%, Brunei...ermm...3%). The UK sits at about 17th worst.
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Interestingly, Britain collects 750bn in tax each year. Imagine all the good you could do with that money. In Germany you get a tax receipt of where all your money was spent and you can elect to spend more on different things. Isn't that transparency wonderful?

In the last week we've just seen the Manifestos of both major parties in Britain being launched, without much fanfare or anyone apparently reading either of them, which says a great deal for the political institutions and indeed public interests in the UK. Either way, a great deal of people shall be miserable in the coming weeks whichever way the decisions fly, and since that may well involve the hardening of feelings to abandon the European Union, I am left with little choice: I shall calmly collect my things, find an English garden and prepare my etching material.
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