Perspective

I have long considered that the concept of fining someone a fixed amount for a transgression is inherently unfair. If I drive at 95mph on the M25 or park on a double-yellow line somewhere, I will probably receive a fine. It will be for a fixed amount. Whether I am unemployed, retired, on minimum wage, a lawyer or a multi-millionaire is not taken into consideration. The court just wants its ₤100 or whatever, and the fine is clearly not a fair punishment. To be fair, fines should not be fixed penalties, but should be proportionate to net worth or income.

It’s for a similar reason that I tend to keep this blog free of actual amounts won (or lost). It’s meaningless to read that Mr. Apple won ₤20 on an event or that Mr. Banana won ₤20,000 without knowing what the win meant in real terms to each individual. If Mr. Apple has a net worth of ₤200, then his win clearly meant considerably more to him, than Mr. Banana’s did to him, if he is worth ₤10 million.

Extreme examples admittedly, but they make the point. Reading other blogs, it is clear that some people are quite happy to make a few quid a day and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Any increase in your disposable net income is great, whether it buys a pint of milk, a pint of beer, pays for a nice holiday or allows you to give up your regular job.

When I started with exchange betting back in 2004, I was happy with any profit. My bank was at one time ₤21.40 and just a 10p win meant something back then. (Many years ago, when I was still in school, I once won a little over ₤1 during a lunch-time card game. I still remember the giddy excitement I felt that afternoon, as the winning of a whole week’s pocket money sunk in. I was rich!)

So it’s not the amount won that is important, it’s the relevance of that amount to your circumstances that is important. While it is perhaps all too easy to look on with envy as someone claims to be winning thousands, or alternatively to look sneeringly down your nose at people who make ₤2 a day, the truth is that whatever the results are is not as interesting to others as the method or thinking behind the investment decisions.