Home Based Business Ideas UK: 2018

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Home Based Business Ideas UK: A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not ...

Home Based Business Ideas UK: A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not ...: Loyalty does not pay when it comes to utility providers A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds. A...

A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds

Loyalty does not pay when it comes to utility providers

A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.

After our mortgage or rent payment, utilities I’ll probably one of our biggest
expenses.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the companies which supply your gas electricity, mobile phones
and broadband, it does not pay to stay loyal to them. Same applies to car,
breakdown recovery and home insurance.

They say that it cost many times more to win the new customer than it does to look
after and sell to existing customers. We all know this is the case so why do
these providers take us for granted and offer us poor deals forcing us to take
our business elsewhere? It just doesn’t make any business sense at all.

We hear terms like “loyalty” bonuses, but in reality, we get charged more for the same service than new customers. You also see this with mortgage providers and banks. They will offer
a better rate to new customers than existing borrowers or make your savings
account less competitive by dropping the rate.

I frequently change providers or ask for a better deal by calling them up to asking them for…you
guessed it, a better deal! In most cases, they say yes! After all, they want to
keep you as a customer, even if they go a funny way about showing it!

This simple technique has saved me tens of thousands of pounds over the years.

You know the old saying, “A penny saved is…a penny earned”. Actually, it is more
when you take into account tax on your income.

Right now, I have an issue with Virgin Media who supply broadband to several of my buy to
let properties. When I first started, they were charging me less than £30 per
month per property. Now it exceeds £40 per month, whilst they are advertising
broadband and a phone for £27 per month to new customers.

To make matters worse, I’m not even getting a good service! They don’t even
acknowledge the fact that I’ve got several contracts with them.

In fact, one of the reasons I have not changed sooner is that I can never get
through to them on the phone. I’ve spent hours on endless automated answering
systems - press one for this, press two for that and then out the other end without
speaking to person!

Come on Virgin, you can do better than this! Richard Branson, I challenge you to try
getting through to your broadband service on the phone!

When I had a problem with the router they refused to change it until I went on
Twitter!

I wish they had many people monitoring the phones as they do watching complaints
on Twitter!

You don’t always need to change providers to get a better deal. I was able to
renegotiate the £40 per month saving on my RAC breakdown membership just by
challenging them on offer in a much better deal to new customers When I had
been with them for years.

You may be tied into a contract and unable to change, so you need to diarise key
dates to make sure that you don’t miss out on the best deals or get stuck on an
expensive tariff.

Electricity and gas companies are notorious for leaving you on an expensive tariff when you
could change to a cheaper one just by making a phone call.

Action

Set a target today to review at least three of your utility supplier contracts. Here’s
a list of typical providers:

Gas and electricity
Mobile
phone/landline
Broadband
Home insurance
Car insurance
Breakdown cover

Okay, you may have to wait online for 20 minutes to get through to human being, but
the savings will be worth it.

Have fun saving money, and don’t forget to celebrate!

Check out my new book on Amazon, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness

http://bit.ly/moneykin

Monday, December 10, 2018

Reviewing Your Mortgage Could Save You Thousands, Doing Nothing Will Cost You Thousands

Reviewing Your Mortgage Could Save You Thousands

Not Reviewing Your Mortgage Will Lose You Thousands

The Bank of England and The Fed have both signalled an end to massive money supply, cheap credit and low interest rates. This means that interest rises may be coming soon, so now is a good time to review your mortgage deal.

Some of you might be on the standard variable rate, usually the most expensive rate, while others could be on existing fixed or discount rate deals.

You should review your current mortgage deal and diarise key dates, such as the end of the fixed rate or discount deal.

Lenders normally tie you into a set term on a fixed or discounted rate with hefty penalty charges to come out. At the end of the period, your loan will usually revert to the standard variable rate, which will inevitably be higher. The lender is not going to inform you that they can find a better deal for you, so you need to be aware of these dates and start looking for new deals a couple of months in advance.

Let me give you an example. I bought a buy to let investment property 4 years ago with an interest only mortgage costing £1050 per month. I was tied into the initial deal for two years and there were heavy exit penalties if I switched, paid it off or remortgaged during the two years. Towards the end of the deal term I asked my broker to find a better deal.

My broker had not informed me that the initial rate was expiring and that my payments would increase, or that I could save money by switching to an alternative rate or lender.

After searching the market, I decided to stay with the same lender and switch to one of their new fixed rates. This saved on new surveys, legal fee and hassle.

How much did I save by switching to the new deal? The new pay rate was almost half the old rate at just £540, a saving of £510 per month! That's £6,120 per annum or £12,240 over the 2 year deal period (for the sake of the example I'm ignoring the lender fee that was added to the loan adding around £5 per month to my repayments). This comes straight off the bottom line and I would've had to earn £18,000 in rent before tax to make the same amount of money. Not a bad result for making a phone call!

Had I done nothing, I would have been paying even more that £1050 per month and would have been exposed to interest rate rises, which have since increased.

Bonus Tip...you don't necessarily have to switch lenders to save money. You can stay with the same lender and switch to a new deal without remortgaging or refinancing. Remortgaging may not be convenient for you, as it involves new credit searches, references and valuation. In some cases you may not qualify for a new mortgage, due to age or income, but will be able to switch deals with your existing lender.

Some mortgage brokers recommend remortgaging to a new lender because this pays them more commission. Yes, your lender pays your broker an introduction fee which is declared on your offer. Action...Check your mortgage offer and papers today or call your lender or broker.

Watch out for my new 'Money Tips' podcast launching in January 2019

See also:

Why Property Is The Best Investment

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Why You Should Invest In Assets Instead Of Leaving All Your Capital In The Bank

I once attended a seminar featuring Robert Kiyosaki of the 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' books fame. They got a very smart 10-year-old boy to stand up on stage and repeat his mantra. They asked him, what is an asset?

“Assets puts money in your pocket “, the boy gleefully replied.

They then asked him what is the liability.

The boy said, “liabilities (e.g. cars, consumer goods) - takes money out of your pocket”.

He’s probably a millionaire by now!

This is rather simplified description of an asset and does not really explain assets fully.

Whilst it’s true that assets can put money in your pocket, like property or shares, not all assets give you regular income and the value can go down as well as up. For instance, gold and silver, or classic cars and watches are not going to give you an income unless you rent them out, but the value generally increases over time but can also decline for many years. You can also enjoy using them.

Assets are not always tangible or physical. They can also be things you create like blogs, podcasts, books, songs, websites, online stores, copyrights, inventions, email lists, Facebook pages and many others including of course businesses. My best investments and greatest assets have been the businesses I started from scratch with hardly any money.

One very sound reason for investing your money in assets, as opposed to leaving it in the bank, is to protect the value of your savings against inflation.

If you are earning half of one percent and your savings and inflation is running at 1%, The rate at which the buying power of your money is going down is double the amount you are earning on that money. Whilst a half percent doesn’t sound much, over the years it will eat into your savings like a moth ridden pair curtains. We all need some ready cash in the bank by the way.

Only about 15 years ago I could buy a flat in my area with a 15% deposit or around £20,000 - £25,000. Today, I would need £40-£50,000 to buy a similar flat with the same percentage deposit. This is because properties have gone up faster than inflation while savings in the bank have lost their buying power.

In other words, if I was sitting with £20-25,000 in the bank for 15 years the value or buying power of that money has diminished and would no longer be sufficient to put down on a flat, as first-time buyers saving for a deposit find to their cost.

Put another way, I have doubled or even tripled the value my money put into the property over a 15-year period. In addition, I also enjoyed income in the form of rentals. Had I left it in the bank I would have earned a little bit of interest, but the real value has gone down. Yes, it requires more effort on my part but the little bit of work itself was well worth it.

Assets can also include stocks and shares, which also provide dividend income and the prospects of future growth.

Today, we’re not even earning half a percent on our savings but less the .25% in some cases and inflation is running at nearer 3%.

You might say, okay everybody knows the value of properties go up and inflation reduces the value of your money. If that is the case, why do so many people leave their money in low interest bank accounts for years instead of investing in real assets?

Part of the reasons are lack of knowledge, poor education, complacency or just laziness – it takes a lot of effort, get up and go and tenacity to travel around looking at properties, doing your homework, applying for finance, dealing with tenants, builders, brokers and estate agents!

Not everyone wants to be a landlord or property developer. My own relatives don’t want the hassle and own one residential property at a time despite the fact that they could have used their equity to build up a sizeable portfolio.

When I worked in the bank, we had clients with substantial savings in an old, obsolete accounts earning extremely low interest rates. When we advised them to simply move the money into a different account, which required no effort on their part, they would refuse and preferred to just leave it where it was.

Investing in assets obviously takes some time and effort and requires knowledge and expertise. There are also risks.

For these reasons, millions of people hand over their cash to fund managers to invest into assets on their behalf – usually into shares and bonds on the stock market.

They do this through vehicles such as pension schemes, unit trusts, investment trusts or mutual funds as they are known in America. Fund managers collectively invest into assets typically property, bonds and shares and the holdings are divided into units.

This all sounds fine, but there are some drawbacks.

Firstly, charges, commissions and fees can have a major impact on investment returns and ultimately how much money you have when, or if, you can retire. Investment houses and fund managers charge fees including an annual management charge and ongoing administration fees. You may also have to pay commission or fees to an adviser for financial advice.

Whilst an annual management charge of say 1% may seem almost insignificant, over time it can add up to a substantial sum when applied to the total value of the fund.

An annual management charge of 1% of a £10,000 investment is £100 a year. However, in 20 years’ time the fund may have grown to £100,000 with growth and additional investments and 1% of that is £1000 per year.

There is also loss of growth on the money that would have been invested had the charges not been deducted.

There are other charges applied within a fund which you need to consider carefully in the information regulated companies have to provide. All in all, charges on managed investments over the longer term will affect the value of funds.

When you go to any major city and look at most of the tall office buildings they are usually owned by banks and insurance companies, the two institutions which largely control our money.

Obviously, nobody expects fund managers to work for nothing especially as they are actively managing your money. This brings me on the second drawback with entrusting your money to someone else. Performance.

Active management in my book means that by picking out the best stocks and shares the managers should beat the average growth of the market as tracked by the indexes, such as the Dow Jones, FT 100 Index or FT All Share index, right? Wrong! The vast majority of active fund managers do not even match, let alone beat, the average price rise of the various indexes. When you consider that the average index by definition includes the best and worst performing shares you would think that by selecting which shares to buy and sell the fund manager would easily outperform the average growth movement. Sadly, this is not the case.

Research published by Standard and Poors in 2017 on US funds reported that roughly 1 in 20 fund managers beat index funds. Over a 15-year period 92.2% of large-cap funds lagged behind the S&P 500 index in America.

When a few fund managers do manage to beat the index, they are hailed as superstars. Legendary investors like Warren Buffett and Charlie Monger have outperformed the index over decades, but they do not run a fund. Their investment vehicle is a listed company called Berkshire Hathaway, which invests in other companies. The share is trading at around $300,000 a share at the moment! You can buy a smaller fraction of a share though.

If you want to invest your money into a managed fund, such as a unit trust, some advisors – I am NOT your financial adviser by the way - say that you could look at an index tracking funds, which track the main indexes and has lower charges due to being largely run by automated systems. There are a number of different types of funds and tracker funds and you should take independent financial advice.

The stock market has made money over the longer term, but it is still notoriously difficult to pick the right share, as even the expert fund managers have found to their customer’s cost. If you are planning to invest directly into shares you should take time to learn how the market works by reading books or taking courses. Then try investing in a dummy account before risking your hard earned cash.

Whilst I have invested in shares over the years, my favourite investment has always been property for three main reasons.

One, I can see and touch property – it’s tangible unlike a managed fund or a share certificate which is basically piece of paper.

Two, it is under my control not a fund manager or the management team of a company in which I am investing. I can rent it out, flip it, divide it into rooms or flats (subject to licensing and planning in some areas) or even live in it if I had to. It is more ill-liquid than shares but usually less volatile.

Three, and more importantly, unlike shares or bonds, I can use leverage or borrowed money to buy this asset class.

Depending on the markets and bank lending conditions, I can buy a £100,000 property for £25,000 along with a £75,000 mortgage. I will of course have to pay the loan back and pay interest, but I am enjoying growth and rental income on a £100,000 property (the rent usually pays the mortgage and leaves me with an income after all costs), not a £25,000 property. Do you see the difference?

If I’d invested my after-tax money into shares I would have a holding of £25,000 and received dividends and growth based on £25,000.

In my experience, most property I have bought has more than doubled over a 10-year period. If I sold the above property for £200,000, I would be sitting on a gross gain or profit, before costs, charges and tax, of £100,000.

Does this mean I’ve doubled my money and made a 100% gain? Actually no, because I only put £25,000 into the deal (with a loan of £75,000), which means I have actually quadrupled my investment of £25,000 or made 400% return on my capital employed in the deal.

In the above example, I am ignoring taxes, legal fees and stamp duty which are costs, but also rental income which are gains.

But there’s another, often overlooked, bonus. When I repay the loan after 10,15 or 25 years, the value of the debt has diminished as inflation is now working in my favour. Governments benefit from periods of high inflation to their advantage when they borrow money through bond issues.

Try walking into your bank tomorrow and ask them to lend you money to buy shares in BT or Apple using the shares as security. Just for fun, when they try and sell you one of their own investment funds ask them to lend you the money. They will usually be surprised by the question and inform you that it is not possible to borrow money to buy these assets. When you delve a little deeper you will discover that they view shares, unit trusts and even their own funds as too risky for them to lend their money on but NOT too risky for you to put your life savings into.

Shares are used as security in ‘leveraged buyouts’ of large listed companies, but seldom for small investors.

In summary, you’re nearly always better off investing in assets over the longer term. However, the price of assets can fluctuate and you could lose your money if you buy the wrong asset at the wrong time or need to sell fast. It is always in your interest to seek independent financial advice, but even better to become educated so that you can be your own financial adviser.

Property has consistently made me money over the years and continues to do so to this day. Buying property and dealing with tenants requires effort and at times a lot of patience, however, the returns more than justify the work. You can easily do this in your spare time. As long as you know what you’re doing and buy locally or in a market you understand, you can run a small portfolio of properties while still holding down a full-time job. You can also use management companies to collect rents and deal with the tenants like the many landlords who never visit their properties.

Before you rush out and buy a property, I would suggest that you learn about property investment from someone who has done it successfully – not your relatives or someone who has a couple of buy-to-lets. Unlike when I started, today there are many courses available which can teach you the basics of getting started in property.

Over the years, I have attended dozens of property courses, but the ones I found most useful and practical are the courses run by Progressive Property. I have also got to know one of the founders, Rob Moore, who owns and controls over 600 properties with his partners. I think you can safely say that they know a thing or two about property!

With Brian Tracy

Progressive offers a free taster course which takes you through the basics of many different strategies from single lets and HMO’s to options and deal packaging. You’ll not only learn from these courses, but they are a great place to network and meet interesting and like-minded people. I attended their beginner course and was sitting next to a man who I later found out owned 140 houses!

Author and speaker Brian Tracy said that only 10% of people ever study after leaving school or university. I find that the most successful people I know are continually learning, attending courses and seminars and updating their knowledge. They stay on top of their game, which is why they remain successful and get richer.

If you’re interested in finding out more about property courses, click on the link below or drop me an email/messenger.

Thursday, November 22, 2018

10 Things To Transform Your Public Speaking

Money Tips Daily

10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Have you been up ever been asked to do a talk at work what’s your club? Public speaking is one of our biggest fears, so maybe you turned down the opportunity because you were scared of speaking in public or not confident of delivering a talk?

My advice is that you should take up the offer make sure, but make you are prepared, rehearsed and polished so that you give your audience value for their time.

Don’t be casual because as Jim Rohn once said, “casualness leads to casualties”.

In fact, we would probably not have heard of Jim had it not been for a talk he gave to a local Rotary Club. He was already a successful businessman and a millionaire when he was asked to give a talk about his career and how he made it from a ‘farm boy in Idaho to Beverly Hills’. Jim accepted the offer and gave a great speech.

As a member of Rotary myself I know that not all speakers really make the effort or prepare.

Someone saw Jim and asked them to do another talk at a different club. Then someone approached him and asked him to give a talk at a corporate event and said he would pay Jim. Jim thought, “wow, I get paid to talk?”.

This is how his multi-million dollar speaking and training career was launched. By saying “yes” and making an effort to do a great talk he was spotted and things just took leading to a whole new career.

I’ve seen many careers launched from one good talk.

That’s right, I’ve seen people promoted because they were noticed giving a presentation to colleagues at work.

I’ve even seen a young guy promoted because he was good at cricket!

Funny as it may sound, my colleague Colin was my admin assistant serving on me when we worked for Legal and General in the 1980’s. Our branch was asked to take part in a cricket match against one of our building society business associates.

Colin been a young fit sporty type stepped up and volunteered to captain the team. He did a great job of organising fielders, selecting batsman and of course bowling people out and scoring a few runs. His prowess and leadership skills on the cricket field were noticed by the branch manager who not long after promoted him.

In fact, he snobbishly commented that he was impressed with Colin, but we just need to teach him not to wear white socks to work!

You might say that Colin got lucky, but the fact is he stepped up to the mark, took his opportunity and did his best. I don’t think for a moment the Colin thought that his performance would lead to promotion. It was just the type of guy that would give his all.

Colin went on to have a wonderfully successful career in financial services. I met him a couple of years ago and we shared a few jokes about the good old days.

Talking about seizing the moment, I’m sure many of us remember Queen’s performance at the Live Aid fundraising concert when lead singer Freddie Mercury stole the show.

Many of the bands who came on throughout the day just played a few songs and walked off, but Queen prepared a brilliant medley. They knew they only had a few minutes to impress the audience and the millions watching worldwide, so they packed everything into that performance. I believe that the performance re-launched their career and turned Freddie into a superstar.

I recently watched a documentary about the legendary Woodstock concert in America where an estimated one million people turned up to watch the great bands of the time.

Frankly, most of the performances were disappointing and a bit of a let down. The poor Soundsystem didn’t help, but the main reason was that they were unprepared and really winging it.

Then a British band came on stage who were completely different. They were professional, well rehearsed and gave an amazing performance. Anyone know who I’m talking about?

The Who. Like Queen, I think they quietly stole the show even though they seemed to have a late-night slot. Roger Daltrey was masterful and they really stood out from the crowd.

What I’m saying is that they seized the opportunity, grabbed the moment and gave it their very best shot. They were not casual. they were professional.

The same applies to any kind of talk or “performance”. Always be prepared and always be professional and give it your very best shot.

Barry Hearn recently remarked (in a podcast interview with Rob Moore) that we get lucky breaks in life, but we don’t always make the best of the luck we are given.

Don’t underestimate the power of speaking. Speakers have moved whole nations, launched businesses and started religions which have lasted for thousands of years.

What do religious leaders do every week in front of their followers? They speak, preach, lead prayers and reinforce the message, the word!

Think about World War II and how two powerful speakers lead their nations through speeches. Adolf Hitler on one side preaching hatred and Winston Churchill rousing his country to take a stand against the far more powerful enemy that was marching through Europe like a hot knife through butter. If you want to hear masterful speaking, google the speeches of Winston Churchill. Listening to him makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Winston was not a great speaker by accident. He spent much time at the BBC learning how to deliver is message on the radio, the leading media at that time. Like many great speakers, for instance John F. Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King, he employed a Shakespearean style of language to inspire his audience.

Learning from an early age. I’m convinced that the reason why so many people who have gone through private education become confident speakers and leaders is that they are taught to speak from a very young age. I went to state school and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I was asked to read in a class, let alone speak in front of an audience. I sent my children to private schools and from a very young age they were taught how to speak in public. They were given short talks to practice and even learned how to emphasise words and not sound monotone. I can remember my son standing in our living room reading out a short speech which he had to deliver the next day. His tone was going up and down as he emphasised important points. I was amazed that he could do this at only seven years old when I was probably in my late teens or early twenties before I had to give a speech.

10 Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

This is not a definitive list of how to speak in public. You can read many books and take courses on the subjects and mastering speaking can be a lifetime’s work. But these few short tips will get you started.

1. Never pass up an opportunity to speak in public. If someone asks you to give a short presentation or talk say yes and then learn how to do it, as Richard Branson advises.

2. Speak up at meetings at work or in public. Public speaking is not just about making speeches and becoming an “orator” - “speak to the back of the stalls dear boy” and all those cliches! Public speaking can involve delivering a speech on stage, but it can also involve speaking at a meeting, giving a short presentation to your work colleagues, selling, one-to-one presentations were just speaking to someone in public and a networking meeting.

3. Learning to speak in public well could be one of your greatest assets. And by the way, we are all involved in selling in one where another directly or indirectly. The organisation you work for run has to sell to customers. Governments, councils and politicians have to sell policies to the public. We have to sell ourselves to others ifyou want to get on in life. I don’t have any complete loners limits that are successful in life, whether that be in business relationships. Almost all of this involves speaking, even if you’re putting that speech in writing to be sold off a page.

4. Practice your talk in front of a mirror open to still film it on your phone. Practice makes perfect as the old saying goes.

5. Never wing it. Even if you are asked at the last minute to stand up and speak, take a few moments to make some bullet point notes.

6. If possible, avoid reading out a speech word for word. Instead make some bullet point notes and practice your talks so you can deliver it naturally.

7. Use PowerPoint sparingly. I can’t tell you the number of speakers I see standing in front of PowerPoint and then turning the back on the audience to read out the points on the screen, which everyone can read anyway. Another mistake is to put too many points on one slide, which nobody can even read.

8. Time your talk and don’t over run. If you’re given 10 minutes, stick to it. It always shows. professionalism to finish on time.

9. Take a course in public speaking. There are thousands of courses and public speaking, but I think one of the best to start with is the joining organisation called international Toastmasters. I started with them and as a non-profit organisation I found them extremely cheap and good value for money. They have regular meetings where you be in courage to speak in front of a receptive and sympathetic audience. The program takes you through different levels of speaking, preparing talks and leading, eventually leading to becoming a Toastmaster and beyond. If you want to be a professional speaker you may want to take more advanced courses, for instance in tonality, projection, using mics and cameras and so on, but Toastmasters is a great place to start as it gets you on your feet talking!

10. Stand up and Speak. In my experience, nothing beats actually getting up and doing it! We learn from our actual experience, like learning to ride a bike. You can read about it all you want, but you will never really learn until you get on the saddle and start pedalling. The more you stand up and speak, the more you will overcome your nerves and get better at it.

Finally, remember that a large percentage of people who are in prison have a limited vocabulary, as well as reading ability. They can only see the world through their own limits. Once people become more educated and learn to speak, they are less likely to reoffend.

If you want to improve your vocabulary read more books and google the words you don’t understand. You can also learn a word a day and we that into your conversation so that you memorise it.

How does this relate to money tips? Nearly all of the money we earn and all of the relationships in life involve speaking to people. The better you are at speaking, the more chance you have of leading a happy and successful life.

Home Based Business Ideas UK: 10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Home Based Business Ideas UK: 10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking: Have you ever been asked to do a talk at work or in a social situation? Public speaking is one of our biggest fears, so maybe you tu...

Home Based Business Ideas UK: 10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Home Based Business Ideas UK: 10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking: Have you been up ever been asked to do a talk at work what’s your club? Public speaking is one of our biggest fears, so maybe you tu...

10 Quick Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Have you ever been asked to do a talk at work or in a social situation? Public speaking is one of our biggest fears, so maybe you turned down the opportunity because you were scared of speaking in public or not confident to deliver a talk?

My advice is that you should take up the offer but make sure you are prepared, rehearsed and polished so that you give your audience value for their time.

Don’t be casual because as Jim Rohn once said, “casualness leads to casualties”.

As a member of Rotary myself I know that not all speakers really make the effort or prepare.

I’ve seen many careers launched from one good talk. That’s right, I’ve seen people promoted because they were noticed giving a presentation to colleagues at work.