Home, House and your biggest asset

Make the most of our most highly sought after asset...that is your home. Is your home a house or is your house a home. Is it an asset or liability.

The first time home buyer perils

mortgagehomes

The percularity of the UK housing market get stranger and stranger. Rents are rising, but the economy is faltering, record numbers are out of work and the biggest letting agent in the country stated that in April, rents are the strongest they have been in years. This is all very bad news for tenants who are [...]

What is a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and what it means for you

Mortgages and NewBuy

REIT’s are tax wrappers for investing in real estate. There is no corporation tax payable form the company provided they distribute 90% of the taxable income back to investors – who might be shareholders such as you and I. The REIT is rather analogous to a mutual fund and something that both institutional and private investors alike can [...]

House builders offer partial loans for home purchases

Should you take a loan on your new home? For example Linden homes is offering at 20% loan on their homes. This means the mortgage is smaller. But a personal loan, say for 10 years means that you will have to find the money then and this could be tricky unless you have some strategies [...]

Mint and Money Dashboard – the new way to save and budget?

Forget the days of trawling through reams and reams of receipts and paper. The new way to manage your finance is online with the services of companies such as Mint.  Mint aims to be the one-stop shop for your finance needs from budgeting and planning to handling your tax and receipts. Smart services such as [...]

Are you being forced to rent your home?

The current lack of availability for mortgages is causing many families and would be buyers to rent. This in turn is driving up rental yields making it more profitable for landlords to invest if they have the capital. So we seem to have that familiar situation where first time buyers are in competition with landlords [...]

5 steps to buy that dream car

1. Stop spending. Yes that’s right, stop spending on money on things you don’t need and don’t require.  That’s the whole damn dirty secret. See spending money as a sin. The whole damn thing is a sin. 2. Get more money. You can’t just shave costs, you need to improve the amount of money coming [...]

Is Gold a bubble? Sell now before you are ruined?

Many are suggesting that gold is a bubble and that’s its not an asset at all. Here is what we think. GOLD IS THE ULTIMATE BUBBLE Here is why: 1. Greater fool. The price relies on someone else buying gold from you at a higher price. 2. It has no intrinsic value. It does not [...]

We are all investors now.

wallstreet

Sometimes the word “investing” gets bad press. Fact is we are all in someway investors. We decide where to put time, resources and money. Some of us choose education other choose to invest in building up a different skill set. Whether we like it or not investing is about matching; matching expectation with outcomes, for [...]

Is Britain not working?

Labour-Not-Working

Recent figures are suggesting that 87 % of new jobs are secured by migrants rather than the UK populace at large. Is this down to: Costs. Could the cost of living me too high in the UK to make it worthwhile to take an entry level job and retain standards of living. Ethics. Could it [...]

Investment in Solar Energy

solar-panel

One way you can save money and even actually make it back is with solar energy. There are two types of solar energy: one that generates electricity and the other that generates hot water. Both can have very good payback period, by which the system has paid for itself in a short number of years. [...]

The end of the ISA?

Paltry rates of interest and long tie ins could be the demise of the ISA, some suggest. Banks have long used lures to reel in unsuspecting consumers and take advantage of their need to generate actual real returns. However this author has yet to find any ISA deal that is above inflation that offers a [...]

Famous investor Warren Buffet says buying his home was one of his best buys.

Warren Buffet considers the purchase of his home one of his best investments. Despite having turned around numerous companies and with assets totalling over 200 billion dollars, Mr Buffet still considers his home, bought for $31,000 his best investment. The house, he says, his given him over 50 years of pleasant memories. So here we [...]

House prices on decline?

homes_landing

Many analysts are thinking that the housing market will suffer another downturn as buyers fail to materialise. What does this mean for mortgagees and investors? Is it a good time to buy or is the market going to follow its tail downwards? One thing is for sure as far as we are concerned, some house [...]

Installing solar: hear this!

solar

There are plenty of companies out there offering free solar photovoltaic installation in return for a share of the surplus electricity generated sent back into the grid. The Sunday Times warns you to be careful as one customer has lost most of his sizeable deposit of 2500 pounds which is wrappered as a survey fee. [...]

Interest rates are still 0.5%

Interest rates are still at record lows but mortgages are only starting to get reduced, but not enough. There still is uproar amoungst many that the banks are charging large amounts for their loans and mortgages whilst offering paltry returns for savers. At the latest MPC meeting where interest rates are decided, it was unanimously [...]

Cash Loans offered by National Housing Federation

Cash loans are being offered to people wishing to borrow around £500 at reasonable rates of interest. It is in response to the high prices that door step lenders are charging, who can charge several hundred percent. Probable rates of interest are thought to be no more that 30% aer and payable weekly. So far [...]

Home equity

home-accessories

Home equity is the difference between the value of one’s home and the amount remaining to be paid on the mortgage; essentially, how much of the house one owns. After a time, equity accumulates and there are several options one can use to make the most of it. First of all, let’s go over specifically [...]

Approval Loans and Payday Loans