TRIBEathlon Season 3 finale, Happiness and Holiday Scams
This past week I have been travelling around Spain following my eldest daughter in the Oakham School choir. I have seen amazing places that I doubt I would have ever discovered; Salamanca Cathedral, Toledo - the former capital of Spain and Chinchon, home to an amazing square and bullring that has been the setting of John Wayne movies in years gone by. It is fantastic to be back seeing the world again, seeing different cultures and meeting new people. Whilst travel is certainly more hassle than it used to be with lost baggage, cancelled flights and unexpected delays, if you go into it expecting a few problems along the way, it is so worth it.
TRIBEathlon Podcast
Series 3 of the TRIBEathlon podcast has been amazing with some incredible athletes and experts giving us so much amazing content and so many good ideas. So as series 3 draws to a close, Claire and I decided to go back and pick out some of our favourite sections from our favourite interviews in the series. Series 4 will be here in September, with some amazing guests, but in the meantime, check out some of the best takeaways in our TRIBEathlon Series 3 Flashback episode.
What I've Been Reading
Back in June I recommended an episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast, called The Happiness Expert That Made 51 Million People Happier: an interview with Mo Gawdat. Since then, I have read his amazing book Solve for Happy, which I would happily recommend to anyone.
Gawdat is former CEO of Google X - the part of Google where the new exciting things emerge from - and Solve for Happy is a mathematicians approach being happy. It draws on advice from a wide range of areas and people, but is a fantastic collection of strategies for how we can be happier. I challenge anyone to not find brilliant takeaways from this book!
What I've Been Watching
In Skid Row Marathon a criminal court judge starts a running club on LA's Skid Row, where he trains a motley but motivated group of homeless, addicted, and criminal men and women to run international marathons. Film Festival Today described it well by saying “it’s a beautiful, inspiring documentary with lessons on how we can all be better humans.”. It's amazing how running can transform the lives of so many people in the least expected places.
Quote of the Week
“Is there anything ever under our total control? Yes, two things are: your actions and your attitude.”
- Mo Gawdat, Solve For Happy
Finance Theme I've Been Considering
As we enter holiday season, beware of holiday traps. With demand for bookings now increasing, fraudsters too are taking advantage. Holiday scams are said to have increased by over one-third according to research by Lloyds Bank. The bank discovered fraud to be increasing across all holiday values, but most prevalent was caravan booking fraud which rose more than 100% in just one year. Flight booking fraud over the same period increased 13% but with a higher average rate of loss of roughly £3,000 compared to roughly £400 for caravan bookings. Rates of defrauding for holiday package bookings and hotel bookings too were seeing increased levels of of 17% and 18% respectively.
The scammers lure in consumers with fake advertisements on websites and search engines, often impersonating well known booking websites. It was found that in some cases the fraudsters used genuine accommodation listings but persuaded their victims to transfer money directly to their bank accounts rather than route it via the official website platform. Be sure to remain vigilant when booking online.
