Focus on what you can control and reduce your stress levels

Welcome to Finance and Fury – Focus on what you can control

Australia has been cancelled – IMO – The largest overreaction in history – the world of medical martial law

1. Working from home, no public gatherings, not even meant to shake hands –
2. Panic is the disease – The panic is creating the real world effects – shortages, people potentially losing jobs, share market crashing – The fear of the virus is having the real world events – cancelling ANZAC day
3. Can’t change anything about the virus and there are so many stories going around – bioweapon, most deadly disease ever, 5G creating this – who knows what to believe – doesn’t matter – all of these stories serve the same function – of creating fear by putting this outside of your control
4. What is another name for a story? A Novel – In this case – the Novel Coronavirus –
   1. Definition of novel – noun: an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events
   2. Coronavirus – any of a family of single-stranded RNA viruses that have a lipid envelope studded with club-shaped projections, infect birds and many mammals including humans. Coronaviruses can cause a variety of illnesses in animals, but in people coronaviruses cause one-third of common colds and sometimes respiratory infections in premature infants.
   3. Irony here – the stories of the virus are the thing having the real world effects
5. All have the same effect – first is fear – The fear has gone viral – like a viral video or meme spreading in the internet age – I haven’t met anyone with the virus – the news reports on public figures with it – but anyone out there know somebody personally with it? Or who has died of it?
   1. There are over 7bn people worldwide – so there will always be someone to report on
   2. But we have accepted mass quarantine and the cancelling of events – in fear of us getting it – that is the real danger – what legislation can be done to us in response – shutting down of events
6. Second effect is like a magic trick – everyone looking at your left hand in fear while you pick pocket them with the right
   1. The Story – Doesn’t matter if it is a bio-weapon, released by the US government in China, or released by the Chinese Government, or is 5G – all those novels make you focus on the enemy of the disease – not the personal freedoms and loss that is occurring
   2. In the end – the effects of this are coming from the lockdowns, cancellation of events, markets crashing and businesses responding out of fear of the future – all to an invisible killer – that has created the response for massive disruptions in life – 197 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), including 3 deaths
      1. The last one was over a week ago – 82yo man in Aged Care facility, others 95yo woman 2 weeks ago in same Aged Care facility – other was a 78yo man weeks ago
   3. The real killer – fear, despair, depression – Suicide remains the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15 and 44 – fears of losing a job or the depression form that is a bigger killer
      1. Based around annual figures – 192 Australians would have committed suicide over the past 2 weeks – tragically – I know one of these people
      2. But these effects are creating additional fear
   4. Seen a lot of people expressing worry and fear – They’re afraid we’re about to all get sick and die, lose their jobs, the share market is going to continue to crash –
   5. The Stories and media reporting is manipulating people to be in a constant state of fear – When we are scared, we don’t think clearly or act effectively – fight, flight or freeze – most people freeze – so fear over things outside of your control is not a useful emotion. It’s not practical – nor are these solutions – lets the magician trick you out of your wallet
7. Being practical is better – You need to shake the worry off and get control of your thoughts and actions
   1. First, the bad news. There’s not a darn thing you personally can do to prevent the things above from occurring. We are little fish in a big sea full of predators who are the ones that can actually cause change on those levels.
   2. Now the good news. What we can change are our immediate environments and responses to events.
      1. If you are expending a great deal of energy and emotion, focus it on the things that you can change. These are the things that will have the biggest effect on whether you live or die – and whether you can take advantage of bad situations
      2. Event + Response = Outcome – Share markets – Event = market crashing – response is to either sell, hold or buy –
         1. Outcome = Retaining funds or buying when markets are down = regain long term returns
         2. Selling = outcome of guaranteeing losses

So far – this episode has been a bit of a bummer

– I see so many people utterly panicking over things beyond their control. We, the ordinary, everyday people, cannot prevent what governments want to do – but we can make our opinions known but sometimes a public outcry works against you – Actions to take in your own lives –

1. Your power ends at the knowledge of these events – and information is not knowledge
   1. When the wheels of the government are already in motion, there isn’t a whole lot we as individuals can do to stop them – We are screaming into the void when we rant about it – they can cancel sporting events
   2. We can be outraged all we want – personally only have the power to point out these things to try and help calm as much as I can. I cannot fix the responses – matter how much I want to do so – I’m not a powerful politician
2. We’re probably being lied to anyway and see through the vested interest of those presenting the information
   1. Ask yourself – Do you really deep down think we get the whole story on any of these events?
   2. We’re probably never going to know – but the “reality” we’re given depends on the agenda of the news network that shows the footage – at lot out of context – all to try and prove that their narrative is as bad as they say
   3. We simply cannot rely on the news to accurately inform us. The mainstream media is the modern-day Ministry of Propaganda – lookup operation mockingbird, the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 or read trust me I’m lying if you want to learn more about this – Through the media, you can get a general idea of what’s going on – but everyone’s got a bias. Everyone’s got an agenda.
      1. Example of this following the numbers in cases – China Feb 12th – China reported 44k – next day went to 59k – so modelling shows exponential growth – and was reported on as such – but wasn’t due to new people getting the illness – but the methodology changing on testing – China started diagnosing patients by ground glass in lungs from CT scans
      2. Testing can’t be trusted in a lot of regions – Many coronavirus patients have ‘ground glass’ in their lung scans. … CT scans are considered less thorough than lab tests
      3. Reading some studies – Of 1014 patients, 59% (601/1014) had positive RT-PCR results, and 88% (888/1014) had positive chest CT scans. In patients with negative RT-PCR results, 75% (308/413) had positive chest CT findings.
      4. Consultant – Paras Lakhani – radiologist at Thomas Jefferson university – all it represents is fluid in the lung spaces – notes that it isn’t helpful – all types of infection – bacterial, viral, or sometimes non-infections cases like someone who vapes appears with these patterns
      5. Also – CDC did admit to – testing has false positives for other types of coronaviruses – SARS, MERS or the common cold
   4. And the little guys lie us got dragged along for a brutal ride on a tidal wave of manufactured panic – by experts working off these numbers in modelling – you can see news, but know that you’re only getting a biased fraction of the real story
   5. Last thing that you can do is see through the magic tricks to distract – Everyone has a vested interest –
      1. World bank and Central banks – World bank with their pandemic bonds (cover on Friday) and Central banks are allowed to expand mandates to take further control over the economy
      2. Media – Reporting is their moneymaker
      3. Experts – get funding from this or are making paid appearances

3. Work out your sphere of influence – as this is what you can control
   1. Then there are the circles that really count the most:
      1. Relationships – your close friends, your family members, your immediate neighbourhoods.
      2. Finances – your investments, cash balances/emergency funds
   2. When you think about where you personally can make the most changes that will have the greatest effect on your survival, where does your power lie? It’s within what you can control – things we can actually do something about so completely freaking out over the news is not productive at all.
   3. The lesson about focusing our energy on the things we can control is the most important thing
   4. My ability to respond is limited to sharing practical tips and advising – wish I could do more but that’s the reality. And you’ve got to live in reality.
4. Your power lies what you can control – and that is being prepared and having emergency planning in place –
   1. This is the Good News – you do have power – Can prepare your finances for these types of events and have good social circles/community in place to become better prepared
   2. Preparing finances – Few things here – but the biggest is making sure you have a few months of cash buffers
      1. Investments – if they go down – control your actions and don’t sell – if you have surplus cash – better to invest
      2. Cash reserves – if you have months of funds to survive being fired or losing business income out of government responses to Corona – less likely to panic and be able to avoid sensationalisms
      3. Insurances – if you get sick and can’t work – make sure covered
      4. But these are all things that should be done anyway – regardless of media creating panic – if you have control and know you will survive – no need to fall into the fear trap
   3. Building a network – You build your community by being a decent human being, by helping when you can, and by looking out for one another – even family members – by building our inner circles, those small intimate circles, we become stronger. Treat others with respect. Seek out those with the same values who are also helpful and respectful. Those are the folks you want around you Bottom of Form.
   4. Looking after your health – be physically fit, eat well, and don’t let these events stress you out
5. is this foolproof? Or course not. But nothing is – at least there is a plan in place
6. Try to focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t

Summary

– the current events can be incredibly overwhelming.

1. When you find yourself getting overwhelmed, take a look at your circles. Are you getting overwhelmed by the big circles you can do nothing about?
2. Be prepared ahead of time – Be aware – your situational awareness is your best defence
3. If you’re letting the news cycles drive you into a panic, then it’s time to take a step back. Turn off the television, phone or computer or wherever you get your news. Focus on what you can do – and there’s a lot you can do – but panicking over things you can shouldn’t be one

Thank you for listening to today’s episode. If you want to get in contact you can do so here: http://financeandfury.com.au/contact/

Correlation of Chest CT and RT-PCR Testing in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China: A Report of 1014 Cases

https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020200642