“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a f&%king big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of f&%king fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the f&%k you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing f&%king junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, f&%ked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”
Ten years on and I can still hear Mark “Rent-boy” Renton’s vitriolic decomposition of life ringing in my ears, to the stabbing chords and pumping rhythms of Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust for Life’. It was like a cold hard slap in the face. Like you’d been ‘tangoed’, on the coldest day of the year, by a man wearing leather gloves. It definitely got my attention!
Brutally honest in its observations of how callous some parts of our lives had become and scarily relatable for so many people. It hurt, because it was true. Even Renton changed his mind by the end of the movie and decided to settle for the dull and meaningless existence that he so eloquently painted for us. A penniless drug addict’s cynical view of the world might not be the best measure for the state of society as a whole, but there was definitely something to it that has been niggling at me ever since I first saw that opening scene. A wake up call. A call to action. A blinking neon sign that reads “We are ALL addicts”.
Locked into the never ending cycle of consumption which fuels the capitalist machine, we ARE all addicts to varying degrees. Some of us know already, but even if the rest of us were aware, we probably wouldn’t care anyway. The relentless progress in technology and living standards in the developed world has been driven by our insatiable desire (and perceived need) to buy the newest, the biggest, the best…. But where is the money coming from? How are we funding this humanitarian advancement? Life isn’t getting any cheaper and most of us, if we are truly honest, probably haven’t experienced a drastic uptick in our ‘happy meter’ as a whole either.
With the arrival of the Trainspotting sequel, we wonder what those lost boys have been up to over the last two decades, but reflecting on the course of our lives over that time, I am pretty sure that none of us would have predicted where we would be right now. Wherever your political persuasions lie, Donald J. Trump as the ‘Leader of the Free World’ seemed completely implausible. Paddy Power can attest to that.
The world isn’t free though is it? There is a cost associated with everything and a crowded marketplace of businesses and entrepreneurs scrabbling to get their cut of your cold hard cash. It’s a jungle out there and the ground shifts beneath our feet quicker than we can find our footing. Some are better equipped to navigate their way through the wilderness than others, but at one time or another we have all been victims of some sort of scam, mis-selling, fraud or dubious marketing and sales tactics. As a nation we just don’t ‘get’ finance. Unfortunately, it is no different the world over. We’ve been released into our adult lives without the skills to deal with the foundations of our daily existence. Money does unfortunately ‘make the world go round’. Until that stops, whatever that may look like, we need a game plan. We need to be financially literate.
“…the large print giveth, then the small print taketh away.” — Tom Waits, Small Change
Why should we care about financial literacy? The statistics tell the sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in.
- Only 50% of people make some attempt at making an informed buying decision [OECD survey, 2016]
- Of those, only 15% of people shopped around and used independent info/info to make the decision when choosing products [OECD survey, 2016]
- Only 36% of people understand the concept of compound interest [OECD survey, 2016]
- 60% of Americans spend more than they earn
- Payday loans continue to be an issue, with clear evidence that people are making poor financial choices — 78% could have sourced finance from elsewhere [Competition Commission, 2014]
- It also becomes a habit or spiral (or both), as 79% of payday loan customers have taken out more than one loan [Competition Commission, 2014]
- These are full time employed families (69%), often larger households with children and renting privately. They are living day to day and trying to make ends meet. [Competition Commission, 2014]
- Younger people are most susceptible to crippling debt, with debt to income ratios of 40% for those aged 16–24 [OECD survey, 2016]
There is plenty more, but we will leave it there for now. Take away what you like from this, but know that the struggle is real.
Join us and get ON your high horse. Financial literacy matters. For too long we’ve blamed big institutions and what the regulators might have missed for why we’ve ended up getting screwed. It’s time we all took responsibility for turning the tide. Those who CAN, teach. Those who CAN’T, listen up, because this is YOUR call to action. To solve this, we need to stop making excuses for ourselves and our friends and family. We need to change our standard ‘mode of operation’ and what we value as a culture. Breaking habits is hard, but I have faith in us all. Being very British about it all will get us nowhere. Talking about our financial situation, our struggles and lack of understanding of how it works seems to be taboo, despite so many of us being in the same boat. We all need to change that. After all, “it’s good to talk”.
Saddled up on that high horse? What now? Join us in our campaign to improve financial literacy and hopefully have some fun along the way. Follow us here on Medium (www.medium.com/@kakeibo or click Follow below), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/kakeibo) and Twitter (@PuzzlingPieces).
Above all else, I want to leave you with a parting thought. The reason that Renton’s monologue troubled me so much was that I have a different view of life. An existence that isn’t contrived. A life that can be truly fulfilling once you find your own rhythm. Dance to your own soundtrack. Sing to your own melody. Don’t carry on being a puppet held by the strings of banks and businesses, working 12 hours a day just to line their pockets with interest payments. Take control and play the system at it’s own game. To play the game, you need to know the rules, then you can use them to your advantage.
Re-write the next chapter of your story, it could sound something like this…
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose your friends and family. Choose not living from pay cheque to pay cheque. Choose not being a slave to interest and minimum payments. Choose not crying yourself to sleep every night worrying about how you’ll feed your family. Choose not always striving for the next big thing. Choose not waking up in 30 years and wondering how you p#&%ed it all away. Choose accepting that the grass isn’t always greener. Choose saving for a rainy day. Choose second hand. Choose home cooked meals and nights in. Choose quality time. Choose what you already have. Choose a mortgage and lifestyle you can afford. Choose mucking in and community programs. Choose asking for help when you need it and offering it when you don’t. Choose cash over debt. Choose freedom. Choose restful sleep. Choose life…but not as you know it.
