Tag: Mike Pitt

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only. This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Have you got the Right Money Mindset?

Make Money Now with These two Referral Apps

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

In this post, I want share with you two great ways of earning money for referring people to businesses. When you recommend a person to a business as a prospective customer you are giving a referral. One of the key challenges for all businesses is attracting new customers; this explains why personal referrals can earn you great rewards. In this scenario, a referral will lead to a positive outcome for all parties concerned; the referrer, the referee and the business. The two referral apps that I have listed below are definitely worth you exploring because the referral reward available is significant. Keep reading if you want to find out more.

Make Money With Referral Apps

Referment

The first app that I would like to discuss is Referment, Referment is an app available for download from the App Store and Google Play Store.

How does Referment Work?

Referment is an app that rewards you for recommending people for jobs that are currently available and listed on the app. In a sense, you are taking the place of a recruitment consultant.

For example, if someone you know is a suitable candidate for the role of Software Development Technical Lead and you refer them via the app, you will receive a small reward if they secure an interview and then £1750 if they get the job and pass their probation. The rewards are listed below the roles available, as you can see in the picture above. Your reward may take a few months to arrive because of the probation period, but the rewards are worth the wait. You can track the progress of your reward within the app.

Image credits: https://referment.com/

Referment is open to anyone and there is no fee to download the app.

Refer Square

Refer Square is another free app available for download in the App Store and Google Play Store. Please note, at the time of writing, Refer Square is only available to businesses. The app gives businesses the opportunity to refer prospective customers to other businesses.

How does Refer Square Work?

If you are working with a client that needs legal advice you could refer them to a company registered on Refer Square. If your client starts working with the company after your referral, you will receive a reward of at least £250.

Image credits: http://refersquare.co.uk/

Both of these apps give you an opportunity to earn extra money without having to do a lot. In the past, I have referred people for roles without a reward so if the opportunity presents itself in the future I will use one or both of these apps. I have downloaded both onto my phone. I hope you get the chance to benefit too.

Have you referred people for jobs before? Will you be downloading these two apps? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

What to do with a Financial Windfall

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

What to do with a Financial Windfall

Do you Have the Right Money Mindset?

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: https://tableforchange.com/

If you are going to be successful achieving your financial goals it is essential that you have the right money mindset. You may be thinking, what does that even mean? In broad terms, A money mindset is your attitude to money, how do you feel about money? What are your emotional reactions to the subject of money? We are all a product of our environments, if you grew up in a mansion with servants waiting on your every whim, you are likely to have a different money mindset to someone who grew up without wealth or many material items.

Your money mindset is given its ‘default setting’ by your parents. If they struggled with money and always mentioned it in the context of having bills to pay or needing more of it, you are likely to have developed a scarcity mindset around money. You may feel that you never seem to have enough money or that saving for the future is not possible with your current circumstances.

Money Mindset

It’s important that you take time to assess your own beliefs around money. Make a list of any beliefs that you have around money and assess them. The opposite to a scarcity mindset is an abundance mindset. It was Stephen Covey who created the term ‘abundance mindset’ in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People People . People with an abundance mindset believe that there are enough resources (including money) for them and others to share.

Fortunately, money mindsets can be changed, you can transform from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset if you work on changing your beliefs around money. This is important because a person with an abundance mindset will be more likely to stick to their financial plans and achieve their goals. Also, they will be less likely to self sabotage.

My objective with this post, is to move you closer to an abundance mindset if you don’t have one already. Following the steps below will help you get there.

Gratitude

Create the habit of expressing gratitude for all that you have, do this on a regular basis. You have a roof over your head and the ability to buy all the food that you need. No doubt you have the love of family and friends and the opportunity to live in a relatively peaceful environment. In many parts of the world, people would love this to be true for them too.

Positive Affirmations

Make a list of positive affirmations that you can recite on a regular basis. The impact of these will be to focus your mind on positivity. You will be able to overcome the obstacles that the day or week may throw at you. For most problems that you face, a positive mental attitude is part of the solution. You must believe in yourself and then act in a way that is consistent with your belief.

Evaluate Wants and Needs

It should be relatively straightforward to evaluate your financial needs and wants. This post will help you, How to Create a Budget That You can Stick To. An abundance mindset does not mean that money will magically appear but that there will be enough for your needs and the needs of others too.

Think Practically About Money Making Opportunities

An abundance mindset should be rooted in the practical, don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is all touchy-feely. Think about practical ways in which you can make more money; perhaps you could sell unwanted items, this post will help you think of ideas, 10 Ways to Make Money Now. If you own a business, you could make more money by finding new ways to attract customers. Hopefully you are now becoming aware of the many opportunities that are open to you.

Personally, I am using this blog to keep me executing best practice with regards to personal finance. We should all become more intentional about our financial decisions and creating an abundance mindset will definitely help us on our journey towards financial freedom. I hope that you will take the journey with me.

One belief that I have had to unlearn was the belief that money has to be earned as a trade off for time. I now know that it if you create massive value for a large number of people you can be rewarded far in excess of anything you could earn as an hourly rate or salary. Good examples of that are authors, musicians or online course instructors. They create abundance for themselves but only complete the work once and then continue to be paid for it. Before they created anything, they had to believe it was possible and to adopt an abundance mindset.

Have you had to consciously change your money mindset because of limiting beliefs? How do you feel about money now? What changes have you experienced? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

What to do With a Financial Windfall

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: https://injuryattorneyflorida.com/

If we are lucky, many of us will be handed a financial windfall during our lifetime; a financial windfall is a relatively large influx of surprise cash. It could be the result of achieving an unexpected bonus at work, particularly if you work in the financial services sector. Alternatively, it could be because you have received an inheritance after the death of a loved one. In addition, you could have won a competition, the lottery or sold a business. Windfalls are potentially life changing for recipients, if you take the right steps you can set up your family and yourself for life. What should you do if you receive a financial windfall?

What to do With a Financial Windfall

Take Your Time

The money should not be burning a hole in your pocket, take some time to review your current financial situation, net worth and future plans before you do anything. You should probably consult with an independent financial adviser and listen to their recommendations. Also, consider the tax implications of your windfall, if there are any. Be discreet about your good fortune, not everyone will have your best interests at heart, some will want to exploit the situation for their own financial gain.

Pay Down Debt

A great first step after reviewing your overall financial situation and net worth is to pay down debt, start with the most expensive debts first. This is likely to be credit card debt. For details of a very effective debt reduction strategy read this post, What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts?

Make Additional Mortgage Payments

As the great Jim Rohn* remarked, it’s not possible to actually buy time; one of the occasions in life when it feels like you can almost buy time is when you pay off your mortgage early. If possible, arrange to make additional payments against your mortgage, in doing so you will save yourself tens of thousands in interest that you will not have to pay. Depending on the size of your windfall, you may be able to pay off your mortgage completely and take a big step towards becoming financially free.

Emergency Fund

If you have not had the opportunity or funds to create an emergency fund, now would be a great time to do so. Put away 3-6 months of monthly expenses that can cover you in the event that unforeseen circumstances prevent you from earning your regular salary.

Add to Savings

Take the opportunity provided by the financial windfall to add to your savings, ensure that you take advantage of the best savings accounts interest rates available to you. This article will help you decide what to do, What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

Philanthropy

If your financial windfall allows you to help others financially or support your favourite charities or organisations, please do so; your good fortune can have a much wider impact and make a significant difference to the lives of others.

Have you received a financial windfall? What are you planning to do with it? Let me know in the comments section below. Note, I would suggest that use an email address that does not make your identity obvious.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

* ‘Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.’ – Jim Rohn

Why you Should Track Your Net Worth

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: http://www.astrapefinance.com/

I hope those you who did not already have a monthly household budget, have now had chance to create one. If not, this post will help you, How to Create a Budget That you can Stick to. One stage on from creating a monthly budget is to create another simple spreadsheet that records your total net worth.

Calculating Your Net Worth

Net Worth can be defined as the sum of all of your assets minus your liabilities. For many of you, the thought of creating a spreadsheet with all your assets and liabilities recorded in one place might fill you with dread. If you have large student loans or credit card debts, recording your total amount of liabilities and assets might be a painful process. However, this is a necessary step to track your net worth.

Your personal net worth looks at the bigger picture, it’s not just your monthly income and outgoings. You also get the opportunity to track all of your assets as well as your liabilities. Assets include properties, savings, investment accounts, stocks and shares and businesses owned where applicable; liabilities include, mortgages, student loans, credit card debts and loans.

For the sake of simplicity it is acceptable to leave out all regular monthly expenses that are paid out of your monthly salary or wage. When thinking about net worth I always remember a quote attributed to the mathematician, Karl Pearson.

“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”

Karl Pearson

Improvements to Your Net Worth

This is exactly why we are doing this! Your net worth will improve. When you complete your first total net worth tracker spreadsheet, it will take some time. By the way, feel free to think of a more exciting title than Total Net Worth Tracker Spreadsheet. 🙂

When you come to update it after a month, unless you have suffered some financial calamity, your total net worth will have increased. For example, if you have made payments to student loans and or credit cards, their totals will come down slightly and your net worth will have gone up. If you are like me, you will find this incredibly motivating! As an aside, do not compare yourself to others, just track your own progress. In time, deficits will turn into surpluses. Money that was originally to pay debts can be diverted into savings accounts when those debts have been paid. Tracking your net worth is an excellent habit and will help you to transform your finances.

What Should you do Now?

Create your total net worth spreadsheet and update it each month. Here’s a downloadable spreadsheet that you can use.

Are you already tracking your net worth ? If so, what has been the improvement in the last 12 months? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

Have you Saved Enough into Your Pension?

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: https://www.finance-monthly.com/

Have you saved enough into your pension? For a large proportion of the United Kingdom population the answer is no. Most people are not saving enough for their retirement. Does your vision of retirement include freedom to travel and time to enjoy a comfortable standard of living? If we all to have the retirement that we aspire to one day, we will need to make sure that we are on track to achieve it. It is time to get serious and work out how much that will cost.

Pensions: Why Many People Are Failing

There are a lot of assumptions built into pension calculations, assumptions that are not true for many people. For example, the assumption that you will work 40 years of continuous employment with your salary continually increasing by X% and you maintaining your pension contributions at 12% of your salary for 40 years. Some of the realities of life such as redundancies, women taking time out to raise a family, individuals starting businesses, part time work, time out for studying and credit credit or student loan debts don’t exist in this Continuous Pension Saving Utopia.

I think when people realise that they are not on track to hit their pension goal, they give up and hope someone other than themselves will solve the problem. Let me be more specific, if you would like to live on a retired income of £25,000 you will need to have a pension pot of £500,000. That is assuming that you use your pension pot to purchase an annuity giving you the annual income of £25,000. Try this pension calculator to work out how much you would need at other income levels. As you can appreciate, £500,000 is a large amount especially when it’s considered that the average pension pot in the UK is around £50,000.

What Should you do Now?

Pension Pot

Work out the total pension pot you currently have, if you have had several jobs during your career you may need to do a little detective work to track down all of your workplace pensions. This article will help you find your pensions.

Up Your Contributions

Re-evaluate your household budget, can you afford to increase your contributions? If you are in a workplace pension then you should maximise the contributions that you make because these will be matched by your employer. If you are self employed, you should also increase your contributions.

Develop a Plan B

It may be that increasing your pension contributions alone will not be enough for you create a big enough pension pot for retirement. If that is the case, you should develop a Plan B.

Property is a great way to supplement your pension savings, you could downsize your main residence and use the profit for your retirement. Alternatively, you could rent out a spare room and earn extra income that way. There are other ways too, they include equity release and property investing. You can read more about these ways via this link.

If you own a business, this could become your Plan B. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to sell it and contribute money to your pension savings after the sale.

Don’t Lose Heart

The fact that you are reading an article like this is a positive in itself. You still have time to improve your level of preparedness for retirement and there are a number of ways you can do so.

Are you on track with your pension savings? If not, what are you going to do about it? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

Are you and Your Partner Financially Compatible?

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: http://thepayoffprinciple.com

If you are going to be successful and achieve your financial goals you will need to face up to obstacles head on rather than wait and hope that they disappear of their own accord; usually, they do not disappear of their own accord. Are you financially compatible with your partner?

First of all, a quick definition, when I use the use the term financially compatible, I mean to share the same financial goals, vision and habits. Are you both saving regularly and maximising investment returns? Is your discretionary expenditure linked to value for money? I do not mean that you need to be earning the same salary. It is great if you are but it is not essential for financial compatibility. The key word in this context is together, ideally you need to be able to plan your financial future together and work towards it. This could mean saving to buy a home, a goal of becoming debt free or financial freedom (retirement) at an early age.

Financial literacy is not a skill-set everyone has, some are willing to learn whereas others are more interested in living for the moment instead of having a financial plan. Not everyone approaches personal finance and their financial responsibilities in the same way.

Are You Financially Compatible?

Disagreements over money remains one of most common causes of divorce. If one person is a disciplined, lifelong saver and the other is frivolous with money, there will be friction between the two. In my opinion, if these differences are entrenched there is no chance of achieving your financial goals together. It does not seem very romantic to consider a partner’s financial compatibility when you are just getting to know them but if you don’t, you could be storing up problems for yourself later on. Hopefully, if you are in a relationship you have already taken an opportunity to discuss money with your partner.

Depending on your starting point, following a budget for a prolonged period can be hard work. To achieve financial freedom for example, you and your partner will need to work as a team and to be consistent. You need to be in alignment.

Create a Financial Plan Together

If there are only slight differences between you then thankfully, with a calm approach, compromises can be agreed upon.

If that is the case, the following steps will help:

Arrange to have regular money meetings with your partner; during these meetings discuss financial goals and budgeting and agree a way forward.
If one of you is the natural saver, take the lead in these meetings but be careful to avoid being judgemental.
Build in quick wins on your financial journey together, this could be paying off a credit card with a low balance or saving for a planned weekend away.
Allow yourself small celebrations when you hit your financial milestones, be creative with these and do not spend a lot of money on them.

By working together you will dramatically improve your financial health and you will strengthen your relationship. Well done! Your future is looking bright.

Have you sat down with your partner and discussed finances? How did the conversation go? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

Why Choose a Gold IRA?

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: abc.net.au

An individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a particular type of savings account that helps people prepare for retirement in the United States. There are tax advantages to saving in an IRA account. In the United Kingdom, the equivalent savings account is called a Personal Pension. A 401K is a company backed retirement plan (Workplace Pension in the UK), whereas IRAs are started by an individual.

IRAs can be subdivided into Roth IRAs and Traditional IRAs. With Roth IRAs, there is no tax deduction for contributions but when your investment earnings are distributed in retirement this is done tax and penalty free. Traditional IRAs by contrast, do offer deductions for contributions but when your funds are distributed at retirement taxes on investment earnings have to be paid.

IRA funds can be invested in individual stocks, bonds and cash. There are also many mutual funds that you could choose from. Either on your own or after receiving advice decide on an asset allocation that you are happy with for your IRA.

What is a Gold IRA?

Gold IRAs were created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. A Gold IRA account is a way to diversify your retirement investments further. A Gold IRA gives the investor the chance to own physical Gold, Silver, Platinum or Palladium.

To invest in a Gold IRA, you will need to set up a self-directed individual retirement account (SDIRA), this is an IRA in which the investor is in charge of making all the investment decisions.

What are the Benefits of Gold IRAs?

Pros

Investors have created Gold IRAs because they perceive them to be a counterbalance to what is happening with their more traditional investments. If paper based assets such as stocks are trending downwards, Gold tends to move in the opposite direction. Adding a Gold IRA will diversify your retirement investments. Since the financial Crisis of 2008 Gold IRAs have increased in popularity because of this investors’ desire of investors to spread risk with their retirement investments.

You can potentially benefit from increases in the price of Gold, of course this cannot be guaranteed. Between 2000 and 2012 the price of Gold increased for 12 consecutive years. While stocks can literally become worthless, the price of Gold will never be worth zero.

Remember, it is possible and advisable for an individual to have more than one IRA. You could hold one mutual fund IRA and a Gold IRA, for example.

Cons

Setting up a Gold IRA is quite a complicated process. First of all, you need to find an approved custodian (Broker) for the IRA and an approved Depository, where the Gold will be stored. Then you buy the Gold and have it transferred to the Depository.

Historically, some Gold IRA companies have not are not completely transparent about their fees and investors have experienced surprises after they have invested. Before you create a Gold IRA or rollover an existing IRA into a Gold IRA ensure that your custodian has confirmed all costs and fees.

If you are thinking about setting up a Gold IRA, Regal Assets is one company that you should consider. Click here for a free Gold IRA guide.

Do you have a Gold IRA already? How do you think your investment is performing? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike

The owners of this website may be paid to recommend Regal Assets. The content on this website, including any positive reviews of Regal Assets and other reviews, may not be neutral or independent.

How to Create a Budget That You Can Stick To

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: https://business.mega.mu/

Creating a budget is like eating healthily, everyone knows that they should do but that does not mean that they will. I recommend that everyone who has regular earnings, or pocket money if they are children, creates a budget. Why do I recommend that? It’s about one word – control. Spending money without any sense of how much you have left or what other outgoings need to be paid for is a fast track to stress and ill health. Think of all those celebrities and ex professional sports people who ended up broke; they clearly were not in control of their budget. I do not want you to find yourself in the same position.

A Budget that You Can Stick To

Mindset Shift

I want you to start with a mindset shift, budgeting is something that will stay with you for the rest of your life. The right budget will give you peace of mind and a sense of well being. If we return to the food analogy, I want you to think of budgeting as eating healthier forever rather than going on a ‘financial diet’ for the short term. We all know what happens when people come off diets, they usually regress and lose the gains that they’ve made.

Start of with a Simple Spreadsheet

I know you do not want to start from the very beginning so click on this link to download a free household budget template. Print off your last two monthly bank statements and examine all your expenditure. If you do not know your monthly income, print off your last two payslips. Now record all the details required to complete your spreadsheet.

Image credit: http://www.excelfunctions.net/

You can download this budget template to use here. To change the currency on the template follows these instructions.

I always find it helpful to list mandatory expenditure above discretionary expenditure and savings. Mandatory expenditure includes your mortgage / rent and bills. Your mortgage or rent is likely to be the largest single expense in your budget. Discretionary expenditure includes entertainment and non- essential shopping items, saving is self -explanatory.

Budget For A Better Future

There are far more complicated spreadsheets available, but this is a good place to start. Having a plan for the month financially will make a big difference to how you feel. Sticking within your allocated amounts for each category will make you feel good. In time, you can add in additional considerations as you grow more confident working with your budget.

Apply the 50/30/20 Rule

It was US Senator and academic Elizabeth Warren who popularised the 50/20/30 budget rule in her book “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.” She co authored her book with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. Once taxes have been allocated, the rule is to spend 50% of your net income on needs, 30% on wants and to transfer 20% to savings. Above, I have referred to these categories as mandatory, discretionary and savings.

I have great news! Once you filled out your budget, you have done most of the actual work. In the future, you will need to refer to it, tweak it, add extra details about new income or items or expenditure, but on the whole it won’t change very much. In most cases, it is possible to live within your budget and to plan effectively for future additional expenditure around Summer or Christmas time.

Do you have a budget already? Are you managing to stick to it? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal

Best regards,

Mike