There were a few quick wins; Sky was cancelled as was gym membership and direct debits to lottery syndicates etc. Charities have been shelved temporarily as have anything that wasn’t vital. She then used the comparison websites to source better deals on the home insurance, car insurance and permanent health insurance. In most cases she was able to save a few pounds to chip away at her shortfall.

Source: http://www.permanenthealthinsurance.uk.com/blog/2012/01/27/permanent-health-insurance-one-expense-we-had-afford/

My own worst experience in this matter came, rather strangely, when I went to live in Spain. Expecting a tropical paradise all year round I took over a big collection of t-shirts and baggy shorts but only one jumper. It was only when November kicked in that I realised that it gets blooming cold in the Mediterranean too, and that you feel the chills even more after a warm summer of bare legs and burned arms.

Since that cruel Spanish winter of going to bed at 6pm and keeping a flask of hot coffee by my bed I have become very careful about only staying in houses which will keep me warm without the need to hop to the bathroom whilst wrapped inside the duvet.

Less Heating and a Warmer House

Of course, the other benefit this brings with it is that my fuel bills are lower too. The Mediterranean fridge in which I lived during one winter had old fashioned windows which didn’t seem to do anything at all to keep the cold out. This meant that I had to keep the gas heater on all evening long just to get a little bit of warmth about the place.

With double glazing, on the other hand, you can make sure that the heat gets trapped inside the house while the cold air stays outside. The next property I stayed in once I got back to the UK had cracking double glazing in it and this meant that I hardly even needed to bother about the central heating once I had got the place heated up after getting in from work. It is hard to believe that I enjoyed a more pleasant winter in England than the previous one in Spain but it is true.

It might look like a bit of an expense to get the windows in your house changed over to double glazed ones but it is definitely going to be worth it in the long run. As well as feeling more comfortable about taking your coat off without running the risk of hypothermia you will also find that your heating bills drop dramatically. This can only be a good thing, and before long you should be able to say that the cost of improving your windows has been more than covered by the savings you have made on your utility bills.

Of course, the main benefit of now having a better type of window in your home is that you don’t need to worry about getting frozen ears during the night. If you can do this and make a saving on your bills in the long term then you might be left wondering why it took you so long to realise that there is no longer any need to suffer during a cold winter.

Actually, the Agency Workers Directive was put into motion in order to give temporary and contract workers equal rights in terms of pay, working hours and general working conditions. There are some areas which still don’t fall under these rights such as maternity or paternity leave, but the rules do allow for paid maternity check-ups after the birth. Workers should be allowed the same access to the hirer’s facilities such as canteens and access to job availability.

The AWD applies to those temps and contractors who have been on the job for 12 or more weeks and are still continuously working. Unfortunately, anyone who was hired before 1 October of last year are not protected under the new directives. Recruitment companies and umbrella services such as Pulse Umbrella will help ensure that their workers are treated fairly with respect to the new directives and will provide information which will help workers become better informed.

If you feel that the company you are placed with is not in compliance with the AWD, talk to your contact person at the recruitment agency or umbrella company. They will be able to give you AWD advice and help you through taking steps to be treated fairly with respect to the law.

In actuality, even corporate insolvencies are coming down over peak years, which is good news because it means that measures adopted by UK law are enabling more businesses to stay afloat. Since there are so many ways in which Insolvency Practitioners can help both corporations and private individuals avoid becoming insolvent, it is a shame that more people are not taking advantage of these measures. Of particular note for individuals is an IVA, Individual Voluntary Arrangement.

Unfortunately, too many people are getting IVAs confused with debt management plans and this puts them in a precarious position. An IVA is legally binding to the creditor as well as to the individual debtor, but a debt management plan is simply agreed upon but not legally binding in a court of law. Both an IVA and a debt management plan work out repayment negotiations with creditors, but only an IVA can be held up in a court of law because it takes a court order to finalise it.

Professional certified IPs like debtfreeme can help consumers negotiate either plan and will help determine which debt solution is best for the individual. Finding a solution to avoid becoming insolvent is more possible than ever before so if you are in debt, seek counsel before it is too late.

Making the move to Contractor

The first step into becoming a contractor is, as obvious as it sounds, find a contract. You may be sat at your desk thinking that this not a smart move, since there are not many jobs available – however, recent years have shown a rise in contract roles for companies are hesitant to employ permanent staff simply because they are not able to support them long-term. Important things to remember when getting a contract:

• Refresh your CV – Highlight key skills that help you look the best as a contractor whilst talking about recent employment and what you achieved.
• Find recruitment agencies that concentrate on your denoted field of work.

Types of Contractor

There are different ways that a contractor can work by – limited and umbrella. Umbrella companies are great for short term, smaller value contracts, whereas limited companies are ideal for longer contracts where the take home money is £25,000 plus.

• Limited – take home pay around 80% of your contract total value – lots of paperwork and legal technicalities to take care of.
• Umbrella – take home pay around 60%.

IR35

IR35 is something you need to take careful note of when you become a contractor. One of the first things you need to check is your IR35 status, find out whether you fall inside or out of IR35 legislation – before you sign that contract. If you don’t do this, you could potentially find yourself in a lot of legal trouble. If you are within IR35, you will take home less money; simple.  If you operate through a limited company if inside IR35, there are true benefits to be had, including; Flat rate VAT scheme enabling you to pay only 95% of your contract. This is where working with a specialist contractor account comes in handy.

Contractor Accountants

It is important to select the right contractor accountant for you. Be specific, don’t just wander down the high street and choose a general accountant – find one in the same field as you who can deal with you on a personal level. Take your time, don’t rush the decision. Always look for accountants who look trustworthy – you can see this from how long they have been established and how many awards they have obtained from top organisations.

A credit score basically is your reliability on paying the credit card company back once the charge has been made. It shows how much outstanding balance you have in regards to credit cards, bank loans, mortgages, etc and shows your history of paying them all back in full and the time length it took you to pay them back. All these are factored together to give anyone looking to give you a loan an idea of what to expect from you past purchasing behavior. Why this is so important is because when you have bad credit, due to whatever reason, you end up having to pay higher interest rate as your punishment. Higher interest means you’re paying extra money on whatever you charged. If you had been able to keep your credit strong, you would have a low interest rate so less money would be wasted on credit card charges.

For those unfortunate enough to have bad credit, there are bad credit credit cards available to help rebuild and take the steps necessary to help get their credit back on track. A credit card for those that have bad credit might be given to those that normally would be declined because of credit problems, and this way they at least can start to show they have corrected their poor purchasing habits. A bad credit credit card though usually comes with the steep price of high interest rates. While high at first, usually after a series and pattern of on time payments and controlled spending, you’ll see the high interest rate brought down to reward and encourage the buyer.

While not everyone is able to have great credit, or might have been young and made a few mistakes, nothing is forever. There are steps in place to help rebuild and make the choices to help show their buying practices are now corrected, and with a bad credit credit card, it is a great first step in the right direction. Rebuilding credit takes time, and one can’t expect it to happen right away.

My wife and I sat down the on Sunday evening to watch Bergerac and half way through the first advert break there was an advert called Permanent Health Insurance. My wife reached for the remote and paused the television program and asked me was that the insurance that our financial adviser had been discussing with us a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure, but after the program I checked through the notes of the meeting he had sent and it turned out to be exactly what he’d suggested that we should take out. As I understand it the policy is designed to pay out a proportion of my wages should I be unable to work through illness or injury and following a set time period. We then logged onto the financial comparison websites to see if what he was offering was indeed good value and whether we could get the same type of insurance any cheaper. What I find so surprising is that virtually no one seems to know about or even heard about this type of cover. I have spoken to friends and colleagues at work and no one has heard of it which either begs the question, if no one has heard about it why not, or am I being given the wrong suggestions by my financial adviser? There could be a third option of course that is that the advice my friends and colleagues have received isn’t as good as the advice I’ve received. Anyway, it seems like a pretty good idea to me as it seems to be one of the few ways that I can protect everything else I pay for.

Source: http://www.permanenthealthinsurance.uk.com/blog/2011/12/16/i-used-permanent-health-insurance/

Source: http://lifeassurancecover.uk.com/blog/2011/12/13/i-use-life-assurance-cover-website-see-if-im-paying-too-much/

Source: http://mortgageprotectioninsurance.uk.com/blog/2011/12/07/i-found-site-called-mortgage-protection-insurance-and-saved-over-123-annum/