The large effect of modest saving
You know how according to my new publishing schedule I am supposed to publish useful and exciting book review and/or discussion today? Well, I have written one; actually I have two because I can’t wait to tell you about the new e-book by my friends at My University Money. But this will have to wait for a day or so because something happened today that took me in a completely different direction. Signs should be respected even by rationalists like me. So, here it goes.
Last night, The Money Principle published a piece on the UK budget; one of the controversial points in it is the withdrawal of ‘child benefit’ – this is a relatively modest payment people with children get. Thinking through the budget and reading through John’s post, I had a niggling feeling that something was trying to come out; something that I have vaguely noticed before but never completely managed to get the grip of.
This morning John and I were having coffee, discussing another sticky point of the budget – the way in which it disadvantages people over 65 – and it suddenly crystallised and took definite shape. We mentioned that the child benefit is £20.30 (roughly $30) which means that we should be getting about £81.20 per month ($128). But I know my numbers and I knew that we have been getting £53.60 ($84) per 4 weeks. This can’t be right! Continue reading
Savings calculator: check out this nifty PF tool
There was a time when I couldn’t be bothered to play with personal finance tools: I bought what I wanted, slapped it on my credit card and thought about how to pay for it later. As could be expected, this got me in a ‘spot of bother’. Now that I am a changed woman, and a self confessed nerd at that, I think about paying first and love playing with different tools that help me plan and organise my financial life.
This is why I jumped at the opportunity to play around with this savings calculator: it is simple to use but nifty. It doesn’t matter what you are saving for, it gives you the answer immediately; and I found it so satisfying to know that I can do this motorbike ride across the USA I was telling you about in two and a half years if I save £200 every month, or if I want to do it in the summer of 2013 I’ll have to rev this up and put aside £400 per month. Makes it more real and achievable somehow!
If you have a blog or website and decide to add another useful tool to the personal finance arsenal you already provide to your readers, just click the link on the bottom of the calculator and follow the instructions; the widget will appear on your site. And the code’s available FREE!
If you are a reader, you can use the savings calculator now. As for future use, I am putting the calculator under ‘tools’; feel free to use it any time you wish. It doesn’t cost you anything!
Junior ISAs vs Child Trust Funds
This is a Guest Post
Times are tough and everybody knows it, no one more so than parents. In the midst of new parenthood is that worrying thought of how the child is going to cope financially in the future and what they, as new parents, can do about it. There are so many terms such as junior ISA and child trust funds bandied about that it is no wonder the subject is confusing. Continue reading
No education means extermination: my most idiotic financial mistake
Have you heard about the Darwin Awards? No, I didn’t think so! Not to worry; neither had I till Harri Pierce from Totally Money invited contributions to their Personal Finance Darwin Awards 2012. Just so that you all know what I am getting myself in for (although it is about winning, of course) the Darwin Awards commemorate people who have exterminated themselves from the gene pool by the most idiotic mean possible. Hence the PF Darwin Awards are about financial idiotism. Could I win this? Let’s see, shall we?
I would have thought that, to the ones amongst you who read my blog regularly, it is probably obvious by now that I have made many idiotic financial mistakes in my life. How otherwise I would have managed to learn so much? Yes, I bought the wrong things, didn’t think about tomorrow, didn’t know how much I earn or how much we spend and didn’t check our bank balance for a decade. You heard me right – for a decade. These were all serious transgressions of the personal finance code of honour but they still don’t convey the level of idiotic disregard that will bag me the prize. Continue reading
