Archive for the ‘Personal Finance’ Category
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Anyone who has ever shivered through a cold winter in a poorly maintained house knows that the nights can seem very long when you need to try and get to sleep wearing three pairs of socks and a hat.
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.
Tags: Baggy Shorts, Benefit, Central Heating, Chills, Cold Air, Cold Winter, Flask, Fridge, Fuel Bills, Hot Coffee, Jumper, Legs, Little Bit, Pairs, Running The Risk, Sleep, Socks, Spain, Tropical Paradise, Warmth
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Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
With the new Agency Workers Directive there is still some amount of confusion when it comes to recruitment agencies, umbrella companies and temporary/contract workers in terms of ascertaining compliance with the regulations. Of course workers only need to know their rights and what to do if the hirer doesn’t comply with them. This is where the UK umbrella service or the recruitment agency needs to be apprised of the new rulings in order to protect the temporary or contract workers they are representing.
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.
Tags: Awd, Canteens, Check Ups, Confusion, Contact Person, Contract Workers, Employment Agencies, Hirer, Maternity, Recruitment Agencies, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Companies, Recruitment Company, Recruitment Services, Taking Steps, Umbrella Companies, Umbrella Company, Ups, Workers Directive, Working Conditions
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Friday, January 20th, 2012
When looking at the overall statistics for individual insolvencies in the UK, specifically England and Wales, the number has been on the decline. This is interesting to note since the economy is floundering and all but stagnant. When the third quarter of 2011 is compared to the third quarter of 2010, there is a definite decrease in the number of individual insolvencies ordered. In Q3 of 2010 the ratio was 1:349 but in 2011 that ratio was 1:361. According to the Insolvency Service, debt solutions such as IVAs and DROs are highly responsible for this decline in individual insolvencies.
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.
Tags: Actuality, Creditor, Creditors, Debt Free Me, Debt Management Plan, Debt Management Plans, Debt Relief Order, Debt Solution, Debt Solutions, Debtor, Decline, DRO, Dros, Individual Voluntary Arrangement, Insolvency Practitioner, Insolvency Practitioners, Insolvency Service, IP, Ips, IVA, Ivas, Overall Statistics, Peak Years, Precarious Position, Private Individuals, Q3
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Thursday, January 19th, 2012
Being a contractor has always had its advantages. Currently in this economic climate, people who are in permanent jobs are realising that their jobs might not be so ‘permanent’ after all – ergo turning their heads to contractual roles instead. Being a contractor ultimately brings a lot to the table career-wise. As a contractor, you have more control, flexibility, a chance to develop skillsets within a chosen field, financial bonuses and even scope to travel or even work from a home office – just to name a few aspects. What attracts people to permanent jobs is the perceived security combined with schemes for pensions and annual paid leave. Making the decision to turn contractor can be intimidating for some at first who like the comfort of their permanent job, but as once made it is really possible to reap the rewards in all terms of your career.
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.
Tags: Becoming A Contractor, Contractor Accountant, Control Flexibility, Cv, Different Ways, Economic Climate, Financial Bonuses, Highlight, Home Money, Important Things, IR35, Key Skills, Legal Technicalities, Limited Companies, Paperwork, Pensions, Recruitment Agencies, Rewards, Smart Move, Total Value, Types of Contractor, Umbrella Companies, Umbrella Umbrella
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Friday, December 16th, 2011
Credit cards are a luxury, not a necessity. They allow you to spend money that you don’t have on hand or if at all, with the full intention of paying it back to the bank or issuer that is essentially lending you the money. While it may seem hard to believe, there are several people out there that have trouble with the concept of having to pay money back to a credit card company. They usually end up having terrible spending habits and dig themselves a huge hole from a financial standpoint. This can severely impact them the rest of their lives, because they can be labeled with bad credit. Once you have a bad credit score, it can impact other major purchases you would normally be able to get without difficultly.
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. (more…)
Tags: Bad Credit Credit Card, Bad Credit Credit Cards, Bank Loans, Credit Card Charges, Credit Card Company, Credit Cards Credit, Credit Credit Card, Credit Credit Cards, Credit Help, Credit Loans, Credit Score, Extra Money, Financial Standpoint, Full Intention, Interest Rate, Mortgages, Reliability, Spending Habits, Time Length
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Logging onto the computer to check my emails, a task I tend to do with absurd regularity, I noticed that I had an email from my bank suggesting that I take out some life insurance. It was actually something that I needed to do, so using it as a prompt I decided that I would actually do the job properly as the banks aren’t known for offering the best deals around. Logging onto the quote comparison sites was virtually as easy as logging on to my emails and within 15 minutes I’d got the quote I wanted. The reassurance that one gets from seeing the quote you have elected to go with compared to the other quotes from other companies makes the whole exercise well worth it and should almost be a requirement for people taking out financial products as so many people are probably paying way too much money and wasting their hard earned wages lining the pockets of the banks. The banks that were already given lots of our hard eared money a few years ago when some nearly crashed as a result of their absurd lending practices. Whilst I was logged on to the insurance comparison websites I was also able to get quotes for a number of other financial products I was able to get quotes for mortgage protection insurance the best rates for holiday insurance and also critical illness cover.
Source: http://mortgageprotectioninsurance.uk.com/blog/2011/12/07/i-found-site-called-mortgage-protection-insurance-and-saved-over-123-annum/
Tags: 15 Minutes, Banks, Best Deals, Critical Illness Cover, Earned Wages, Email, Exercise, Hard Money, Holiday Insurance, Insurance, Insurance Comparison, Insurance Rates, Life Insurance, Mortgage Insurance, Mortgage Protection Insurance, Mortgage Rates, Pockets, Quotes, Reassurance, Regularity
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Monday, December 5th, 2011
I had always expected to become a teacher as both my mother and father had been teachers. It didn’t help by the fact that I had never really contemplated doing anything else and upon leaving school with the appropriate A levels for a teacher degree, I duly started at Teacher Training College. Three years later I was applying for teaching jobs in my home town, as I had never really contemplated working elsewhere. I married my child hood sweetheart and started a family with two lovely children and everything was wonderful. Wonderful apart from the fact that I really didn’t enjoy my work, I loved the teaching side of things, but all the form filling and unnecessary rubbish we had to do to support the vagaries of whatever the government of the day had decided that we should do to teach our children in a slightly better way than we had done the year before. This carried on for years and I grew to despise the job and tried to lose myself at weekends in whatever DIY project I had at the time. I loved the way that no one was there to tell me that I had to do it another way or that I had to fill in a form for someone so that they could produce a piece of analysis that would inevitably be used to tell me that I wasn’t as good as someone else, somewhere, and because of this I would to produce another action plan saying how I would improve, and so on and so on.
Anyway, one morning I decided that I would chuck it all in and become a full time do it yourself man and six years later I haven’t looked back. I have am independent in mind and body, I love my work and I’m probably a better person for it. I have had to become financially literate and now know my income protection policy from my mortgage protection insurance and my VAT rates from my National Insurance, thanks to mortgage protection cover.
Tags: Better Person, Full Time, Insurance Cover, Life Insurance, Mind And Body, Mortgage Cover, Mortgage Insurance, Mortgage Protection Cover, Mortgage Protection Insurance, Mother And Father, National Insurance, National Mortgage, Rubbish, Six Years, Small Fortune, Sweetheart, Teacher Training College, Teaching Jobs, Vagaries, Vat Rates
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
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 Mortgage Protection Cover. 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.
Tags: Advert, Advice, Colleagues, Financial Adviser, Insurance, Insurance Plan, Mortgage Protection, Mortgage Protection Cover, Proportion, Sunday Evening, Television Program, Time Period, Wages
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Sitting in an airport lounge waiting for a flight connection is probably the dullest way of spending time I know, apart from waiting for the AA which is also up there in my list of things I would do less than go to have root canal work done by an inexperienced dentist. The process of waiting for a plane however can be transformed by WiFi which if you are lucky enough to be able to access from one of the comfy seats rather than the wooden seats in the Starbucks franchise is all the better almost making the whole process bearable. With two hours to kill I sat down and decided to work though as many emails I could, so reducing the time I would have to spend doing this at home. On this occasion this was all going pretty well with the delete button being pressed at an ever increasing rate until I came across an email from my travel insurance provider letting me know that the cost of my renewal would be about ten pounds more than I had paid the previous year, although the increase was affordable I thought that it would be worth spending a couple of minutes getting an alternative quote as, lets face it, what else did I have to do for a few minutes? As it turned out I could save myself ten pounds on the annual premium I was currently paying. Once you’ve saved a few pounds you get a taste for it. On another table along the top of the web page I could make a comparison using a website referred to as Mortgage Protection Cover, find critical illness cover and other financial products. Saving money or rather stopping yourself wasting any more money is a tremendously empowering feeling and rather addictive.
Tags: Aa, Comfy Seats, Couple Of Minutes, Critical Illness Cover, Dentist, Email, Few Minutes, Insurance Provider, Mortgage Bank, Mortgage Cover, Mortgage Protection Cover, Previous Year, Root Canal Work, Saving Money, Spending Time, Starbucks, Starbucks Franchise, Travel Insurance, Web Page, Wifi
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
The top easy instant access saving accounts are available online by leading providers who are offering 3.15% easy access to your account or 3.6% annual rates. Currently saving account rates are at its lowest peak. Still, there is ways to save money.
You can save money by finding the best easy access savings accounts on the Web. Some of the best deals include 3.15% easy access. You can stash the cash away in your fixed savings and earn up to 4.7 percent.
Easy access rates are:
- 3.15% on average, which includes bonus Read the limits on withdrawals.
- 2.75% clean easy access rates
- 4.25% fixed rates up to two years.
Keep in mind, banks will offer temporary hikes on interest to lure you into opening a savings account. These offers may be temporary and will not last. Read the fine print, terms & condition, and other details before you open a savings.
Before you open, an account be sure you understand what control you have over your money. Easy access can mean short-term, or it could mean that you can only make four withdrawals in a year to get the interest amounted offered to you when you signed up. (more…)
Tags: Amp, Banks, Best Deals, Bonus, Business Days, Cash Withdrawals, Coventry Bs, Easy Access, Income Tax, Instant Access, Instant Cash, Internet Phone, Minimal Deposit, Notice Accounts, Santander, Saving Accounts, Savings Account, Savings Accounts, Taxes, Ways To Save Money
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