That’s Ireland

In the August edition of You and Your Money, Eddie Hobbs hosted this masterclass in eejitry, posing as a schoolboy, a Money Medic and a pensive guru.

But the September edition shows a marked decline in eejitry and an unexpected move towards emphasising financial advice. Take a look:

The front cover shows only mild eejitry, with Claire Byrne whispering into Eddie’s ear and creating the impression that Eddie has a giant deformed ear. In the Money Medic picture, Eddie is admittedly acting the eejit, but not to the same high standards as in the previous issue. And as for the child with the mortar board and gown - well, let’s be honest, in the previous edition Eddie himself would have posed for that picture. And there’s more: >>>

High Expectations

Disappointingly for students of eejitry, there are some well-written articles, including advice on avoiding rip-offs, budgeting for babies and children’s education, a review of online bookstores and a comparison of Irish broadband providers, culminating in a hard-hitting opinion piece about Bertie Ahern and the public sector.

It is as if Eddie has paced his eejitry poorly, creating such high expectations that the standard could only drop. We can only hope that he has not peaked too early, in the same way that Brian has in this year’s Big Brother.

Your Lucky Money Stars

The only ground for optimism is the grindingly consistent financial horoscope, which advises you how to manage your money based on your birthday. I already reviewed last month’s advice, so here are my highlights from this month.

Watch out if you were born in late December or early January:

Capricorn: Uncle Eddie called me last week and said that he reckoned that you Capricorns were spending too much lately. I didn’t believe him until I looked at your Zodiac chart and found out that he was right! Be aware of offers that look too good to be true and say thank you to Uncle Eddie for the warning.

But you are okay if you were born half a year earlier or later:

Cancer: A project that you’ve been working on for ages may become more problematic this month. However, you’ve no choice but to stick with it right to the end. In a couple of weeks, all this heartache will seem seem like a bad dream, as you finally start to reap the benefit of your hard work.

This is exactly the type of thing that Archbishop Brady was warning us about earlier in the week.