Feminine Financial Planning

I'm ambivalent about advice on investing. On the one hand, I don't want to prop up the markets with my money when I'm reluctantly more and more convinced by Marxist feminist arguments that women are materially oppressed through capitalism. (Rather than articulated as heterodox in discourse, as my postmodern leanings suggest.) 

On the other hand ... I was on my way to teach once, when a bloke came up and asked if he could have the Money section of my FT Weekend. Now at that time, I never read the Money section, automatically assuming it had nothing in it I would be interested in. I focussed on the How To Spend It magazine. (I adore this magazine because it doesn't have things in it I can afford to buy. I can safely browse through it, saying to myself: "Gosh, diamonds are so unfashionable, what a good thing I haven't got many. This is a pretty feather cocktail dress, mmmm - only £1,785.00!") Still, I resented the fact that the guy took one look at me and articulated me as someone not likely to be checking out how her stocks and shares were doing.

Unco-operative Capitalism

I see that my local council has moved its account from the Co-operative Bank. I suppose that's one of the many small signs of the beginning of the end. I am truly sorry to see this happening to an institution with whom I have enjoyed banking for about twenty years.Here I'm going to reflect on this in a more philosophical way, while in a companion blogpost I'll look at some practical matters related to banking with the Co-op.

Co-operative Bank worries

From David McWilliams' blog

Well, it looks like it may be curtains for the Co-operative Bank. This is a worrying thing for society in general, since it leaves us with a lot of other free market capitalist banks, many of which have had to be propped up by the government. I don't know why that doesn't prove capitalism is rubbish and a disaster for us all, but clearly Those With Bigger Brains understand and we should leave it all to them (wink). 

Here I shall consider what to do if you have a little money in a Co-op Bank account.