If you're reading this the chances are that you are old enough to remember the 70's and 80's and when a certain Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister and inflation was rampant. In 1979 inflation was running at an incredible (by today's standards) 27%. By 1981 Mrs T had started cutting costs and raising taxes. Sound familiar? It lead to strikes and riots.
So today we should be really grateful that our inflation rate is only around 3.5%. Still a bit over the Bank of England's target rate, but not too bad. Or is it? Are we becoming a little complacent? Those of us reliant on modest incomes should spare a thought for the future. Even at 3.5% inflation, your savings will be worth close on 20% less in real terms within 5 years. And it doesn't look as though interest rates are going to increase any time soon to compensate for the erosion in the value of your cash.
We might need to consider ways of making a few extra pounds to see us through to a half-reasonable retirement.
As they say in the North; "Think on".
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The Only Four Ways to Make Money
Essentially there are four ways that you can create an income:
you can be an employee and have a job
you can be self-employed
you can be a business owner
you can be an investor
When you think back to your school years you will probably remember being told to get a good education so that you could move on to a good job or career. I don't recall any of my school teachers telling me that ‘JOB’ stood for Just Over Broke or that the best way to become seriously rich was to be entrepreneurial and run my own business. The teacher's job is to take the risk out of your future and the
you can be an employee and have a job
you can be self-employed
you can be a business owner
you can be an investor
When you think back to your school years you will probably remember being told to get a good education so that you could move on to a good job or career. I don't recall any of my school teachers telling me that ‘JOB’ stood for Just Over Broke or that the best way to become seriously rich was to be entrepreneurial and run my own business. The teacher's job is to take the risk out of your future and the
A Million Pensioners with a Mortgage
According to the Daily Telegraph more than 1 million people are going to have to repay their mortgage after they retire. it would seem that nearly 250,000 people aged over 65 are still paying off their mortgage and many experts agree that a further 1 million homeowners approaching retirement age have still not paid off their mortgage.
Many of us bought endowment policies back in the days when they were supposed to guarantee paying out, not just enough to cover the mortgage debt, but a good deal extra to supplement our pensions. What a shattered dream that has turned out to be. The net result is that many pensioners are going to face financial hardship as they struggle to pay off their debt from a pension that has failed to live up to expectations.
It can only be a question of time before interest rates are seen to rise again and this can only make matters worse for cash strapped pensioners. So called quantitative easing (banks printing money) has given stock markets around the world a bit of a boost and this must help pension funds, but it's only a short-term fix and may in any case be too late for those approaching retirement.
I have to admit that it's a bit depressing and it is becoming ever more apparent that people are going to have to retire much later in life, or are going to have to come up with some method of supplementing their pension to overcome their financial difficulties.
The Retirement Revenue website has a number of ideas to assist the baby boomer generation with with ways to increase their income and there are other sites too, such as Cash in Retirement, that offer helpful advice. With a bit of research and determination it should be possible to create a modest additional income that will help to pay off the mortgage.
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Many of us bought endowment policies back in the days when they were supposed to guarantee paying out, not just enough to cover the mortgage debt, but a good deal extra to supplement our pensions. What a shattered dream that has turned out to be. The net result is that many pensioners are going to face financial hardship as they struggle to pay off their debt from a pension that has failed to live up to expectations.
It can only be a question of time before interest rates are seen to rise again and this can only make matters worse for cash strapped pensioners. So called quantitative easing (banks printing money) has given stock markets around the world a bit of a boost and this must help pension funds, but it's only a short-term fix and may in any case be too late for those approaching retirement.
I have to admit that it's a bit depressing and it is becoming ever more apparent that people are going to have to retire much later in life, or are going to have to come up with some method of supplementing their pension to overcome their financial difficulties.
The Retirement Revenue website has a number of ideas to assist the baby boomer generation with with ways to increase their income and there are other sites too, such as Cash in Retirement, that offer helpful advice. With a bit of research and determination it should be possible to create a modest additional income that will help to pay off the mortgage.
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