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  • Pocket money: yes or no?

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    Réka

    Réka Koszta

    Valuable lessons on the way to”financial adulthood”

    Pocket money:

    • Should we or should we not give it to our kids?
    • Should we or should we not open a child bank account? 
    • Should we or should we not give authority over the money we allocate them?

    Yes, to all three. Let me explain why. I am an economist and for decades I dealt with multi-million dollar accounts. I allocated funds, budgeted, and approved or denied colossal transactions. And when shuffling around large sums of money like I did, I had to have confidence in my craft, as much as my employer had to have enormous trust in my ability to forecast accurately. As a result assessing the longterm consequences of any decision became my lifeblood. And because it was hammered into me, I cannot help but forecast the impact of every major action, financial or not.

    So my professional experience gave me the great opportunity to pass this financial acumen on to my son, Tamás. Tamás is now 22, but I still remember how much he was looking forward to having his “own money”. From the age of 8 to10 he was constantly pestering me to open a bank account for him so he can have his own “chi-ching” card as he called the bankcard. And once he has it, he will pay with it everywhere and listen to that chi-ching sound.

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  • Does marriage really matter? It does.

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    Réka

    Réka Koszta

    About the (subtle) impact of commitment

    Recently Andrew and I had our wedding. Surrounded only by our immediate family members and a handful of friends, the day was amazing. We wanted to keep it small and eliminate the stress that usually comes with weddings. From the organization of it all to the event itself.

    We already knew a while back that we are committed to each other and are planning to spend our lives in each other’s company. Even before the wedding day we were discussing that the marriage will not make a difference in our lives. As we already knew that we wanted to share our lives. It was more for the family to celebrate us. 

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  • Deciding to change my life: Leaping without a net

    By

    Réka

    Réka Koszta

    Deciding to change my life: A journey into purpose and coaching

    There comes a point in life when staying the same feels more uncomfortable than changing.

    Starting this blog is the result of such a moment for me — a conscious decision to change my life. For several years, I had been quietly playing with the idea of making a more direct, meaningful impact on people’s lives. I wanted to help others recognize their potential and navigate change with greater clarity and confidence.

    My academic background is in law and economics. While psychology has always fascinated me, the idea of returning to university for a third degree felt excessive. What I was really searching for wasn’t another qualification — it was purpose. Somewhere along the way, I had reached a professional dead end. What I missed most was a sense of meaning in what I did every day.

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  • Be the Change: Why personal growth begins with choosing change

    By

    Réka

    Réka Koszta

    Looking at life as a learning experience and at change as a gift.

    Change feels uncomfortable because it leads into the unknown. Discover why personal growth requires change — and how to face it with clarity and ownership.

    When I started to write about change one morning, I jotted down some ideas that came to mind. Later in the day I thought: let me check what other people have said about change. I immediately found one of the most well-known quotes about change:

    “Be the change that you wish to see in the world“

    Mahatma Gandhi

    One thing is for sure: not all of us are able to make such monumental changes in the world as Gandhi and several others have made who truly believed in the importance of change.

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  • Benchmarking – Is it useful?

    By

    Réka

    Réka Koszta

    The importance of establishing healthy standards


    According to the Oxford Dictionary the meaning of a benchmark is:

    “A standard point of reference against which things may be compared or assessed.”

    This all sounds so simple, but who sets the standard?

    We are all exposed to “benchmarking” at some point. My first experience with benchmarking is from my childhood, though at that time I was not aware what exactly was going on. I only had a strong feeling that something is very unfair here. 

    My parents often asked me after receiving my school report card how other kids did in my class. They mentioned a few by names, and I shared their results. If my answer was that the particular kid got the same result or worse than myself, their response was: “I don’t care about other people’s kids. Mind you, you just asked 5 minutes ago. I want to know why you didn’t deliver to a higher standard”. The standard being my parents’ expectations, not what I wanted to achieve in a particular subject. If my answer was that another child had done better. My parents immediately gave me a lecture about how it is possible the other kid could learn the subject and I couldn’t. After all, they provided everything, and I only had to study. So how come my performance wasn’t exceptional every time? Well, I could have listed the facts that would have my case, but I learned soon enough that there was no point to that.

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