Tag: money

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

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

How to Stop Emotional Spending

Investments: Why Saving is Not Enough

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

Image credit: https://www.bankrate.com/

In a few of my blog posts on this website I have reminded you of the importance of saving 20% of your income. Saving is vitally important to give yourself a platform to build towards financial freedom but saving on its own will not be enough. Let me explain, the current rates of interest offered by most financial institutions are relatively low, in most cases they are below 1.5%. This is lower than the current rate of inflation.

Saving into an account that offers this kind of interest rate will not magically produce a large lump sum or provide a regular passive income that will enable you to become financially free. Sadly even many pension funds built up during the working lives of adults in the UK will not deliver the levels of capital growth necessary. In addition to saving you will need to make investments; investments offer the chance for your money to grow significantly in the medium to long term. It is worth stating that investments usually have more risk attached to them; there are usually greater risks and potentially greater rewards.

Investments

Below I have listed several types of investment that could potentially move you closer to financial freedom. This is not an exhaustive list so I encourage you to do your own research to discover the investment approaches that are most appropriate for you.

Property

Property is my favourite type of investment here in the UK. The purchase of a Buy to Let property was until recently a very popular investment allowing investors to benefit from capital appreciation and rental yield. Changes in the tax relief that landlords can claim , introduced to dampen the buy to let market and create opportunities for first time buyers, are having their intended effect. It is now not as easy to set up profitable buy to lets.

For investors with less available capital, property crowdfunding is a way to join other investors and pool resources to invest in properties. Property Partner is an example of a crowdfunding property company that enables smaller investors to participate in property investment without having to buy a property outright. The returns from property crowdfunding are good and it is open to investors of all levels.

Stocks and Shares

By purchasing Shares, it is possible to invest directly in the performance of one particular company. Investors who hold shares in a number of companies refer to them as Stocks. Imagine if you had invested in Amazon or Apple in the early years, the return on your investment that you would have received would have been phenomenal. Investors can benefit from the increased stock price and dividends that the company might declare and distribute.

Unit Trusts and OEICs

Investing in one particular stock can work out well if the company does well but you could also lose all of your money if the company folds. A less risky approach is to use an investment fund to invest in a range of companies. The two most popular types of investment funds are Unit Trusts and OEICs. With a Unit Trust, you purchase units of a fund that is made up of the investments of many investors. This could be a tracker fund or an actively managed fund; a fund manager makes the investment decisions for the fund.

An OEIC is very similar to a Unit Trust except that the fund is run as a company and you purchase shares instead of units. Returns are paid through regular distributions, they could be quarterly or monthly dependent on what the fund guarantees.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Exchange Traded Funds( ETFs ) are a relatively new investment product and are similar to Unit Trusts and OEICs in that they are open ended but the difference is that they are are listed on a Stock Exchange. They also include a wider variety of assets that Unit Trusts and OEICs.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are easily the most volatile of all investments that I have included on this list. It is possible to both make or lose a fortune with cryptocurrency investments in the space of a few hours or days. Many professional investors including Warren Buffet do not consider cryptocurrencies a suitable investment and believe them to be little more than a gamble. However, blockchain technology which provides the platform for cryptocurrencies via its distributed ledger system, is here to stay. To read more about cryptocurrencies, read this post, Has the Cryptocurrency Bubble Burst?

If you have the stomach for it, and can afford to lose what you invest cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin could provide the significant capital growth you will need for financial freedom. Despite what some professional investors thinks cryptocurrencies have made many new billionaires and millionaires in a short space of time.

What Should you Do?

Research the investments or investment approaches that appeal to you. Have you already made some investments? What type are they? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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

Water Bills: Are you Pouring Money down the Plughole?

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

Water Bills: Are you Pouring Money down the Plughole?

How to Stop Emotional Spending

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

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

In my recent post, How to Stop Impulse Buying -10 Ways, one of the causes of Impulse Buying that I discussed was emotional spending. It is a topic that deserves even more attention and is the focus for this blog post. A survey conducted by MoneySupermarket and Mindlab found that 57% of respondents had ‘regretted purchases made whilst feeling overly emotional.’ It is clear that spending as a consequence or our emotional state is clearly widespread. The survey also confirmed that negative emotions rather than happiness were more likely to increase our spending. Given this insight, ‘comfort spending’ could be considered as very similar to ‘comfort eating’. If your objective is to take control of your finances and move towards financial freedom, you will need to stop emotional spending.

Stop Emotional Spending

The first step towards a solution is to identify why you are spending emotionally.

Work

Recognise the triggers or patterns that precede an emotional purchase. Is it after a bad day at work? According to research conducted by CV library 55.6% of British employees are unhappy with the jobs that are currently doing and would love to change. If you have experience of a feeling that could be described as Sunday Evening Dread or often find yourself wishing your week days away, this 55.6% could include you. Clearly, there is a lot of dissatisfaction around, work is a common trigger for emotional spending.

Relationships

Have you had an argument with your partner prior to going shopping? Is there a subject that you are regularly disagreeing over? Relationship issues and arguments are strong triggers to emotional spending. Significantly, money is often a cause of arguments in relationships.

Boredom

Boredom can also be a cause of emotional spending, especially if accompanied by a general questioning of one’s life. Sometimes life can seem dull, an endless succession of bills to pay or work to be done. It is in a mood like this that someone is more likely to chase the Dopamine high that a shopping spree can deliver.

There are many other scenarios which make emotional spending more likely including bereavement. Consider your life and identify those that apply to you.

Action: What Should you do?

Talk

The first step you should take is to talk to someone about your emotional spending, it could be a friend or a family member. If you feel it would be worthwhile speaking to a professional about it The National Debtline or Citizens Advice would be a great places to start.

Break the Habit

Now that you know the triggers that precede emotional spending in your life, focus on creating different reactions to the same circumstances. Those circumstances will come again but this time you will react to them differently. Without knowing you personally it would be impossible for me to suggest the best solution for you but the activities listed below are likely to prove beneficial.

*Taking regular exercise

*Going to walks in natural surroundings

* Watching Stand-up comedians

*Socialising with close friends (without spending a lot)

If your unhappiness or other problems persist, definitely speak to a professional counsellor; if necessary plan significant life changes such as a change of job, the ending a relationship or a move to a new location. Do not just accept being unhappy on an ongoing basis.

Can you remember occasions when you have made purchases because of your emotional state? Did you ever have the courage to take the items back? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

Water Bills: Are you Pouring Money Down the Plughole?

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

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

I am convinced that the water supply companies are no more virtuous than gas and electricity suppliers. If you have read my post of a couple of weeks ago, entitled Save Money by Switching Energy Supplier Every Year you will know that my recommendation is to review your energy supplier every year and then visit a comparison website. Your objective is to switch to the best value for money deal available for your post code.

Unfortunately, you cannot do the same with your water supplier. The water supply industry has not been deregulated in the way that gas and electricity has. What does this mean? The water supply companies have localised monopolies and consumers can do nothing about it. For example, I cannot change my water supplier; Thames Water will remain my supplier whether I like it or not.

What can you do?

Install a Meter

If you have been paying water bills as unmetered charges, the chances are that you will save money by switching to a metered bill. Visit the website of your supplier and request that a meter is installed to track your actual water usage. Water companies should inform you that you would benefit from having a meter installed but in many cases they do not. If a meter cannot be fitted you will get an assessed bill.

Reduce Your Water Usage

Below are a list of simple steps that you can take to reduce your water usage:

Limit the amount of time everyone takes having a shower. Shorter showers will mean less usage.

Avoid taking baths for the same reason.

If you have a dishwasher, ensure that you only use it with a full load. If you still wash up by hand, do so once a day with a sink full rather than several times a day.

Limit the amount of washing machine loads you wash per day and per week. Ensure that you wash full loads only.

Clean your car with a waterless instant shine cleaning product like this one, instead of using buckets of water and soap. Click on the text in red to be taken to an example.

Collect rain water in a water butt and use that ( and a watering can) to water your plants rather than using a hose pipe.

Avoid using a hosepipe in any scenario.

In the bathroom, avoid running taps when shaving or brushing your teeth.

Store cold tap water in the fridge rather than running a tap until it’s cold enough to drink.

If you have any leaky taps or shower heads, fix them.

Using a combination of these methods will definitely reduce your water usage and bill without you having to make any major changes to your lifestyle. Please take action today and let me know how you get on.

Are you already taking steps to reduce your water usage? Have you discovered any other ways? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

How to Stick to Your Budget During Summer: 5 Tips

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

Image credit: https://www.peakretreats.co.uk/

‘Summertime, and the living is easy...’ are the words of DuBose Heyward, he wrote the lyrics and George Gershwin wrote the music for the famous song from the opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. The song has been performed all around the world by thousands of musicians. Summertime can indeed be a wonderful time; better weather brings more opportunities to have fun, more day trips and other leisure activities either close to home or whilst on holiday (vacation). All of this having fun and leisure time can put household budgets under enormous pressure and it is no surprise that so many budgets fall by the wayside during the summer months. It does not have to be this way, below I have listed 5 budget friendly ways to keep yourself on track financially during the summer months.

Stick to Your Financial Goals During Summer

Forward Planning

Time that you take off work for a holiday and your children’s summer holidays from school are predictable events; you know that they are going to happen so you can plan for them and prepare. Ensure that you save for your cost of your holiday and spending money months in advance. Your holiday savings can form part of the 20 % that I wrote about in this post, How Much Should You Save? In taking this approach, you will minimise the financial impact of your holiday. Don’t forget to save for the additional day trips and activities that you will also do at home too. The summer is longer than your holiday in most cases.

Booking in Advance

In nearly all instances, booking in advance will enable you to access discounts and special offers that will enable you to keep costs as low as possible. Contrast that with trying to book hotels, flights and activities at peak time when the costs will be much higher. Make your money go further by booking earlier.

Take Picnics Rather than Relying on Restaurants

Buy yourself a picnic basket like this one, and then get in to the habit of making food for your family the night before day trips. This is a great way of keeping a lid on expenditure; it also means that you will be able to eat exactly when you want rather than having to wait for space to become available at a restaurant or cafe. Queuing for a popular restaurant is not fun, you will be able to avoid that entirely.

Filling up Your Tank

If you are going to visit a major attraction such as a theme park, fill up your car at a local petrol station rather than one on the motorway. Motorway service stations are always much more expensive than filling up at your local supermarket petrol station.

Cash Budgeting at Theme Parks and Funfairs

Theme parks or funfairs often have lots of different rides or attractions for you and your family to choose from, If all rides are included in the admission price feel free to experience as many as you can fit it during the time that you have available. However, some places that you visit will have individual costs for each ride; in this instance its very easy to spend a lot of money very quickly. The best approach is to set a mini budget for your children or yourself, you could allow them to choose 3 or 4 rides for example.

By following these tips, you’ll find that you are aren’t having any less fun than if you hadn’t applied the brakes to your expenditure. The difference is that this time you will not have any guilt as a result of overspending. It just takes a little thought and preparation but is totally achievable.

How do you prepare financially for the summer months? What steps have you taken to stick to your budget during summertime? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

Does Your Choice of Supermarket Matter?

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

Image credit: http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/

Groceries are a necessity for life but it must be remembered that not all supermarkets are created equal in terms of value for money. Convenience is also an important factor when it comes to selecting a supermarket; you are more likely to shop at a supermarket that is easy for you to get to, particularly if you plan on going there on foot. If you are driving you’ll pick a supermarket with a car park over one that requires you to find an available parking meter. This is an entirely natural way of choosing a supermarket and is to be expected. However, if you have financial goals to achieve you should recognise that your choice of supermarket is a huge opportunity to make regular savings and achieve your financial goals more quickly.

Supermarket Choice

Luckily for us we don’t have to guess which is the cheapest supermarket. Food retailer trade magazine, The Grocer regularly conducts secret shopper research to confirm where you should go to buy the cheapest groceries. According to their data, Aldi is the cheapest supermarket. When you click on the link in red text you will see that they have compared supermarkets for a range of everyday items and Aldi has come out on top because the basket of items wash cheapest there.

What Should you do?

If you have an Aldi near where you live, choose Aldi for your grocery shopping from now on. If there is not an Aldi near you, choose Asda because Asda was number two on the list. At the risk of sounding like a grocery shopping geek, when I made this change to my regular choice of supermarket I was saving 30-40% on my regular items when compared to Tesco, for example. I did have to change my routine to make this change, I had to drive slightly further to visit the nearest Aldi but even when I factored the additional petrol cost, Aldi was still a clear winner. The change I made was not a big deal and amounted to an extra five minutes in the car.

In an earlier post on this blog I asked the question, Do you have the Right Money Mindset? Small behavioural changes like driving a bit further to a cheaper supermarket can create more abundance in your life. It is so simple to do and yet most people do not do it. Instead the continue to shop at the most conveniently located supermarket despite the fact that it costs them more. Which type of consumer do you want to be? A frugal one who is intentional about their purchasing decisions or someone who regularly spends more than they need to on groceries?

Have you changed your choice of supermarket to take advantage of lower prices? If so, what has the money that you saved allowed you to do? Please let me know in the comments section below.

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

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

Save Money By Switching Energy Supplier Every Year

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

Image credit: https://banglamirrornews.com

For most people, the prospect of assessing the best deals amongst energy suppliers is not exciting. It is necessary for us to choose a supplier for electricity and gas but I imagine most people spend as little time as possible thinking about it. This is exactly what the large energy suppliers want us to do, of course. Their strategy is to capitalise on our inertia or lack of interest to keep us as customers when we would be better off finding a great deal with one of their competitors.

Switching Energy Suppliers

Typically what happens is this, we are attracted by a good 12 month deal advertised online and sign up for it. When the initial 12 months are over, we have become accustomed to logging in to a particular account and receiving communication from one company. As the renewal date approached our existing supplier offers us a chance to renew with their ‘best offer’ for you. In most cases, this best offer is not a good deal and the price will rise if you accept it. Many people do accept it because it seems convenient.

What Should you do?

When you receive your pending renewal communication from your existing supplier, make a note of amount of your current direct debit and energy usage for electricity and/or gas and visit a comparison website. I went through this process yesterday, as I do each year, the website I used for comparison is called uSwitch, you could also try moneysupermarket.com. Allow yourself around 10 minutes to input some details about your existing supplier and contract and then the website will present you with the best choices for your energy supply and you can select one. My selection of new supplier meant that I will save £110 on my energy usage over the next 12 months.

Most people I have spoken to about this are aware of these websites but do not make a habit of visiting them each year. This is exactly what you should do to the best value for money deals. The same also applies for other categories including car insurance and home insurance.

The comparison websites I have highlighted are based in the UK because I live in the UK. If you live in another part of the world please use similar comparison websites to achieve the same results. I would be interested to know some of those websites and which country they relate to, you can let me know in the comments section below. Also, have you recently changed energy supplier? Let me know below.

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

Why you Should Drive and Old Car and Pay of Your Mortgage Early

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

Best regards,

Mike

Has the Cryptocurrency Bubble Burst?

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

Image credit: https://smartereum.com/

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past ten years, you will have heard of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are decentralised digital currencies based on blockchain technology; a cryptocurrency enables value to be transferred from point A to point B without an intermediary; traditionally your bank or a company such as PayPal would act as the intermediary.

The value transfer is validated via a distributed ledger. Blockchain technology, which provides the technological platform for cryptoocurrencies, has the potential to disrupt many industries in addition to the financial services sector. Most people outside of the sector, associate blockchain technology with cryptocurrencies and refer to Bitcoin when thinking about cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies: Origin and Development

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency created. It was created by Satoshi Nakamoto in January 2009, the identity and whereabouts of Satoshi remain one of Bitcoin’s mysteries but what is clear is that Bitcoin has disrupted the financial services industry ever since. Subsequently, many other cryptocurrencies have been introduced with Ethereum being one of the most significant. For more information about how cryptocurrencies work from a technological standpoint, read this article.

A new cryptocurrency is introduced to the market via an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a fundraising exercise similar to Initial Public Offerings (IPO). These ICOs enable new companies to finance their blockchain technology based projects. The company’s founders and development team behind each project will write a whitepaper to explain their vision and plan. Potential investors research projects, read the respective whitepapers and invest in companies via ICOs. This website show’s the current market price for the hundreds of cryptocurrencies now in existence.

Cryptocurrencies as Investments

The success of ICOs and the emergence of Bitcoin millionaires attracted many individuals motivated purely by financial gain. Bitcoin, once priced at just a few cents in United States currency ( Pre 2012) experienced a rise in price up to $19,783.06 in December of 2017. It’s current price is $6,672.98.

In a lot of cases, ICOs were launched with no intention of delivering on a project, they were money making scams; the people behind them disappeared after the process. In recent years, the vast majority of new coins are worthless. Buying cryptocurrencies is akin to gambling at a casino or at betting on a horse. Extreme price volatility is standard as is the chance that the promising coin you bought with be worthless in 12 months.

Has the Cryptocurrency Bubble Burst?

Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, it is no coincidence that the start of the current bear market coincided with an influx of institutional investors trading bitcoin futures on the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the CME Group exchange from December 2017. Many of these professional investors began ‘shorting’ bitcoin. In layman’s terms, this means they bet on the price of bitcoin going down. Large financial institutions have now investments in bitcoin, it appears that cryptocurrencies are now part of the investment landscape; they are not in a bubble. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been down before and bounced back. My guess is that this will happen again and like many I hope to be in a position where I can capitalise.

What Should You do?

First of all, do your research and if you are still keen to buy cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is a relatively safe place to start. You can sign up for Coinbase here and because I referred you, when you sign up and buy or sell $100 of bitcoin or more, we’ll both earn $10 of free bitcoin!

Have you bought any cryptocurrencies? What has been your experience? Let me know in the comments section below.

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

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

What to do with a Financial Windfall

Why you Should Track Your Net Worth

Best regards,

Mike

Why You Should Drive an Old Car and Pay off Your Mortgage Early

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

Image credit: https://cars.usnews.com / Car pictured is a 2007 Honda Accord

I get it. Most of us like nice things, especially nice shiny new things that get us from A to B. There is no denying that driving a brand new car sends a signal to the world that we are on the right track and can make us feel good about ourselves, but at what cost? Car payments are often the second or third largest items of expenditure on most people’s monthly household budget. If you are serious about pursuing financial freedom you will need to stop making ego-driven financial decisions.

I have noticed something, lots of people with immense wealth drive extremely ordinary cars. They often pick fundamentally sound cars that have good reputations but then they hold onto them. For them, impressing the neighbours is not a priority. They are more interested in increasing their wealth generating assets.

A Car is not an Asset

Money in the right savings account will be compounding for you, whereas money spent on a brand new car will evaporate day after day as your car depreciates. Let’s be clear, only the rarest of classic cars appreciate; most cars depreciate in value. Whilst you’re busy impressing the neighbours, your money is leaving you.

Similar to savings, property is also an asset that will appreciate over time. In most parts of the United Kingdom and many places around the world, property increases in value year upon year. If you are a homeowner, you can further increase the equity in your property by making additional payments against your mortgage. This means that you will pay off your mortgage in a shorter period and as a consequence will save thousands in interest on your home loan. You will be able to own your home outright many years earlier than originally agreed. Your mortgage provider would prefer that you do not do this because they will lose thousands of pounds. If you can afford them, making additional payments against your mortgage is one of the best financial decisions you can make in your life.

Trade Down Your Car

In many cases, a car is necessary; to get to work, or pick up the children from school, plus all the shopping trips and errands that you use it for. I’m not advising you to make do without a car; simply downgrade the latest model or forego the latest model to focus on your financial goals. In doing so you will be trading down your car to bring you closer to financial freedom. If possible, buy a much older car and pay cash for it. The money you save on car payments can go towards additional payments against your mortgage. You would be surprised how much difference an extra £200 or £300 per month will make.

I realise that for many people this kind of approach will require a mindset shift; choose this approach because it suits your financial goals and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. You never know, the Joneses may be up to their necks in unsecured debt. By being disciplined, you will soon be far ahead of them anyway.

Making extra payments against your mortgage will increase your net worth. You should be tracking your net worth on a regular basis, this post explains the why and how, Why You Should Track Your Net Worth.

Have you considered buying an old car? Have you made additional payments against your mortgage? Let me know in the comments section below.

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

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

4 Obstacles you Will Face on Your Financial Journey

What to do with a Financial Windfall

Why you Should Track Your Net Worth

Best regards,

Mike