I was sorting through old paperwork today including lots of bank statements from my school and university days. Two things jumped out at me:
Changed times.
Earlier this month, I completed the (online) paperwork for the UK tax. All things considered, it was actually a pretty easy system. The online forms from HMRC did actually help you and did do most of the calculations for you.
Today we tackled the US tax paperwork. By the end …
I think I have paid my tax for last year. This is the first time I have actually filled in a tax return for myself, in the past I have always just relied on the PAYE calculations.
Despite the website saying "you do not owe anything", I was still uncertain …
It seems to be a common feature of financial blogs to review their spending at regular intervals1 usually monthly or quarterly. I am not about to try and become a financial blogger, offering saving and investment advice, but I do think it is worth keeping an eye on our …
In the deep distant past when I was fresh out of university and had just entered the workforce, I kept a very close eye on my spending. This was partly due to the fact that my reserve funds had all been depleted during my final summer before starting work and …
A while back I read an article that talked about wealth. The author had initially thought that wealth was the ability to walk into a shop and see all the things that you can afford. Years later they decided that true wealth was the ability to walk into the shop …
On Friday I sorted my car insurance out for the next year. Rather than pay the renewal, I shopped around and ended up saving about £50.
Tonight my wife filled out the form that would let her become a British citizen. The application fee is over £1200.
It will take …
We have now been asked by two seperate people what our youngest son wants for his birthday (later this month) and more widely, what everyone in the family wants for Christmas. In previous years, I have always had a fairly extensive ‘I want’ list. A list of things that I …
This post is a review of One Hour Investor by Vishal Reddy and published by TCK Publishing.
Disclosure: I was sent an electronic review copy of the book.
I was initially put off by the way the book was being markted. "Become an investment genius in just one hour!" - I …
All my employer pensions make the assumption that I will retire at 65. I have realised that if I were to retire at 65, I have just passed the halfway point between my birth and my retirement date.
It is kind of scary when I think about how much the …
Update November 2019
Ratesetter have announced that they will drop the returns for the plus and max versions to 3.5% and 4.0% respectfully on the 2nd of December (I note that they don't mention this on their front page). As a result, I doubt I will continue to …
I have mentioned before that I have started to enjoy reading various FIRE1 blogs around the internet. One of the things that has amused me is the advertising on their blogs.
Generally you want to earn as much as possible, spend as little as possible, and invest the difference …
Last year I attended a pensions workshop at work. After this, I have spent more time reading up about pensions and other financial matters. You don't need to do much reading before you come across the FIRE movement.
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. Essentially, people live well …
Back in November my company offered everyone a half day pensions workshop to explain how pensions worked. It covered what limits you might hit in terms of various allowances and other tax implications. At the end of the session, we were invited to fill in some forms for one free …
After yesterday's pension workshop, I spent some time at lunchtime collecting the various information about the different pension funds and calculating how much I might have at retirement.
It is an interesting exercise, but at the same time, inflation, investment returns, the government ruled and regulations will all change. Many …
I got to attend a pensions workshop provided by my work today. The presenter confirmed that for people my age, the state pension is probably a mirage. They may say that I can retire and collect the state pension at 68, that will definitely keep getting moved and possibly removed …
