Week 13 : Holidays

It's summer here in the UK, at least it is better than last year! That should not be too hard given the wash out last year, so it is only natural that when the grey winter turns into Spring and then Summer that we get very excited about our holidays.

We have been lucky in recent years to benefit from cheaper flights to Europe, but what I find most people do is try & spend their way through the holiday as if there is no tomorrow. First there are the ones who save, and save, and save each year a set sum of money that is "the holiday fund" then they spend it. Whatever figure they have in their heads is NOT the holiday - it is what they intend to spend. Then on top of their "holiday fund" which seems to be the ONLY thing that will make them happy for a couple of weeks each year is the way this then spirals out of control the minute the alarm goes off at 4am in the morning to get to the airport.

First & foremost, if you are going to travel more than once in a year, save money on your travel insurance and buy it annually --- save around £ 100 per year.

Do you really need to spend £ 9.00 per person on the cheapest, least nutritious, most horrible looking breakfast on earth at the airport, declaring "well I'm on holiday!" Family of four eating horrible rubbish --- save £ 36.00 per breakfast

Do you really need to text/call the friends you saw last night to tell them you are in the airport now? Then tell them again when you have landed that the sun is shining at double the rate because your message has now been beamed into space and back again on your expense. Wherever you go, get a local phone and pay the cheapest call rate.. this alone can save a staggering average of around £ 250.00 per year

Do you really need to buy ALL that duty free, just because it is "VAT free" ask yourself .. IS IT REALLY? D'ya think? save around £ 100 per trip per year

You are bored at the airport, the plane is delayed ( again! ) and so you wander round for a while, buy a ticket for the PORSCHE ( £ 20 ), have a few pints or glasses of wine ( because you're on holiday! ) buy a few packets of crisps, sweets, magazines and newspapers and you have suddenly spent without a conscious thought another £ 60.00 before you have even taken off!

Here is one I learned the hard way, get a timeshare, all accommodation paid for every year, all round the world, then upgrade the flights instead saving no money at all. A phrase I picked up in the USA is one I will never forget.. " Do you HAVE to go to the MOUSE HOUSE?" meaning, Disney World, Florida every year! Don't get me wrong about any of the above, I fully intend to have Mickey as my next door neighbour in the near future, but seriously if you realise what paying off your mortgage, clearing your credit card debt can REALLY do for you and your family FOREVER you would take a hard look at your holiday habits over the next few years & Pay Off Your Mortgage with some of the money instead.

There are HUGE sums on the table here for saving potential, for the Pay Off Challenge this week, I am going to assume that the vast majority of people spend around £ 3000 on holidays each and every year. If you are serious about making those holidays MORE frequent then slash that budget by two thirds, plus stay in control at the airport and you will have Freedom Payment Money in the region of £ 2500.00 per year.

New Celebration Wall!

What I love more than anything is hearing from people who have been successful in their own credit card and mortgage freedom. I am delighted to add the photo of my friends stateside Adam, David, Annette, and Aaron (from left to right) from Indiana, to start our Celebration Wall.

If you would like to be added to the wall and think you have cause to celebrate too, simply send me an email with a few details & I'll be happy to share your story to inspire others.
email: info@controlfreakltd.co.uk

Warmest congratulations to David and his family, I take delight from the joy in their faces at ther moment of "We did it!" There really is no other feeling quite like it. What is very special is their understanding of their future and the future of their sons and being able to live a truly abundant life.

My very best wishes to you all, and thank you so much for sharing your success.
Kind regards
Diane

Week 12 and We Are Going Green

We seem to be concerned with the effects on the environment and ourselves at the moment. Most of us participate in recycling newspapers, bottles, cardboard, green waste, clothing and shoes etc.

I sometimes wonder which planet we are trying to save when it comes to the issue of plastic though. I can only speak for my area, but there is no collection of plastic whatsoever. It is my guess that this is the ONLY way bi-weekly collections can be just about managed because plastic bottles, cartons and packaging FILLS one bin up on it's own every week. Now here's the puzzle, what planet am I saving when I take the SAME amount of plastic as would have gone in the bin - DIRECTLY to the local tip myself every week?

Hmmm .. is not the real problem the packaging? The problem is caused at the source, not with the end user? Without a hint of subtlety intended, the same is of course true with most things, including money problems.

So looking on the greener side of life, there are a few savings for your Freedom Payment Table that can be made by going green:-

Turning your heating thermostat down by just one degree can reduce your heating bills by 10% per year. With the average house spending around £ 1000 per year on energy, that is a saving of £ 100 per year.

Switching to energy saving light bulbs in your home can save you another £100 per year, based on 10 light bulbs with average use.

If you are not a high water user, then switching to a water meter can save you up to £170 per year.

Try out local farm shops and market stalls fro fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, ( apart from the fact Gordon Ramsay advocates this at every opportunity on his TV shows ) you not only save money, around £ 300 per year, but you will only have minimal packaging so you really WILL be saving the planet.

All of these small changes will add up to £ 670 in terms of potential money saving and a whole sequence of savings made to help the environment.

Keep Britain Beautiful! ( What ever happened to that advert?)

Finally I'd like to share something that I found hilarious this week. A visitor to this site proceeded to go to Amazon through one of my "widgets" as they are called, my carousels of books you can see on various pages and ordered a book. Nothing strange there you would say, but what tickled me is which book they ordered. Now as you can see, I am sharing this information week by week in the hope that people can see for themselves that there is no "magic" to the process, and that it simply requires exactly the same discipline and focus as I hopefully demonstrate week after week through updating these tips and keeping those who are still awake interested enough to attempt the same themselves.

So I set myself a pretty high target, of 3 years or less, and as you can see the totaliser after week 12 for the 3 year target is just under £ 50,000.

So guess what they bought? " How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 2 Years!" You know the book from the rather ill fated, although "doable" in principle TV series. Someday you wake up and realise that the answer isn't in the book, it's in the activity of what you do with the information that creates the change.

Any savings that you make should be added to your Freedom Payment each month and used to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 3 Years or Less. Anything else & it simply will not work.

Sunday June 15th 2008 - Upside Down Property Developing is Launched

It started on Saturday April 26th and it's taken a wee bit longer than I thought, but at last the Upside Down Property Developing Manual is launched.

For full details see the designated website www.upside-down-property.com

Kind regards

Diane

Week 11 More About The Dreaded Credit Cards

If you are like the vast majority of people who make New Years Resolutions, then did you notice we just reached half time? June is of course the sixth month out of twelve and half a year of time has just passed you by.

If you take a look at one of the news archive sites, check out the predictions for the economy six months ago, then take a fresh look at today's news. The sort of headlines we are seeing today were the same economic forecasts of Robert Kiyosaki & Donald Trump several years ago. I read a quote from Jim Rohn this morning which states, " If you do not like what is going on around you, change it, you're not a tree!"

This week I am revisiting credit cards, but I want to share a couple of different & challenging viewpoints on the effect they can have on your wealth.

Take an average size town in the UK, a population of say 85,000 to 100,000. That town usually has at least one main shopping centre, and the amount of visitors to that shopping centre is on average 130,000 per week. IF those 130,000 people have ONE credit card each each, with an average interest payment of just £ 30 per month on that single card, then the credit card company just made another £ 3,900,000.00 from one shopping centre per month.

Credit cards, when used incorrectly are DESIGNED to keep you in debt, at the minimum payment alone you will take 30 - 40 years to pay off the average balance. That is how they MAKE the credit card companies money, and they make a LOT of money.

Think about what kind of buildings the credit card companies own, they do not exactly run from a four bedroom detached in the suburbs do they? You will find them in prime locations in the centre of major cities, great big expensive buildings all kitted out with YOUR money. I wonder how many kids grow up thinking they might own a credit card company one day, it would be a pretty smart career choice.

Take another scenario, the first time I saw Martin Lewis on TV he had set up a stand in the middle of a shopping centre asking people to sign up for a MACS Credit Card, the interest rate was ridiculous, there were all sorts of useless bonuses to sign up today and HE was still getting "takers." He revealed at the end of the show that the MACS card was in fact the word SCAM spelt backwards.

One last thought, my colleague had swapped her balance to a no interest deal at a High Street Bank and was paying off her small balance each and every month. She never used the card so it was surprise when she found the High Street bank had "given her £100 on her card as a FREE GIFT," very nice of them you would think. The following month she found out she had been charged £ 1.00 in interest on the £ 100 she didn't ask for, I suggested she give them a polite call and ask for her money back, which she did. Why? What if there were 5 million of her, that bank would make an extra £ 5,000,000 a month alone if nobody asked for their money back, and all this was on an interest free credit card, but it does not apply to any new transactions, even transactions YOU choose NOT to MAKE.

If you have been following the Challenge, you should have paid off at least one credit card balance by now, saving you the interest. This process will can save you £ 100's of £1,000's of pounds in interest alone.

For this week's Pay Off Saving, we will use the average of £ 30 in interest from one credit card, even though the vast majority of people now have multiple cards.

Any savings that you make should be added to your Freedom Payment each month and used to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 3 Years or Less. Anything else & it simply will not work.

Forming Strong Young Attitudes When It Comes To Money

I was recently contacted by a gentleman from the USA who was on his way to take his final mortgage payment in person to the loan company's office that coming week and was asking for some lasting celebration ideas for his sons aged 8 & 9. I offered some Kids Money Packs as a gift and suggested opening a Future Financial Account for his sons on the same day as paying off his mortgage, amongst warmest wishes for the future.

Without a doubt the USA and many other countries around the world have a much better understanding of allowing children to develop young strong attitudes and become involved with money at a much younger age than in the UK. I was reminded of this most recently when the gentleman from the USA had introduced some excellent principles to his sons already, including a regular donation to the Lord. I believe that being able to give is one of the greatest assets of wealth, it does not necessarily mean money, but time and experience too.

I have also noticed that the list of customers who have been able to resonate with the principles of Kids Money Packs so far are hardly ever British. I have been privileged to speak to people from Africa, Italy, India, Canada and of course the USA and am left wondering whether the culture here is more different than we realise ourselves. Unlike a lot of other countries, we do not have a strong religious base, sure we are for the main part Christians and there are many other religions with a strong following in this country. but we do not have the community spirit, a joining together, a place to say thank you for everything you have already and in general sharing and giving.

I was in a restaurant last night surrounded by extremely polite, well behaved children, truly their manners were impeccable. The restaurant is set in a wonderful country setting and the food is sublime so it is very popular. We arrived at an earlier time than usual as it is an adults only environment after 7pm and there is a notice outside stating the rules for entry when bringing a child. It quite clearly requests that children should be well behaved at all times for the enjoyment of others. Now as a mother myself, some may take offence to this, but if you bore witness to the effect of those rules, you would be amazed. It is a vibrant, enjoyable atmosphere of talking, stories, laughter and good food, whether you are young or old.

The reason I mention these thing together is the question of rules. If you are brought up to regularly give money to charity or your church, you will always do so. If you place yourself amongst other like minded people, you will adapt yourself to the environment around you, and if you handle money well at a young age, you will always be able to handle money. It's all a matter of following the right guidelines, whether they are spiritual, parental or something within you.

Week 10 If You Are Going To Spend Anyway, At Least Make The Wisest Choice

If you simply have to replace something, top up on the essentials, book a holiday or spend some time and money in the garden at least choose the wisest option first before parting with your money.

Women are often referred to as "great shoppers", perplexing as it is for our men folk when they get dragged along, we really do want to go into every shop in the Shopping Centre or especially the Outlet Malls just to see what bargains we can find.

Then after we have looked in pretty much every shop, we have completed our bargain research thoroughly and even though it seems like we always go back to the first shop we went in, we only carry out this crazy ritual because by then we NOW know where the best bargain is!

So the same thing must surely apply to everything we buy ? It would appear not. How many of us book our holiday through places like Quidco for cashback. A £2000 holiday can get you several hundred pounds back, just by using the system. In fact Quidco has cashback available on most things.

How many people have reward cards, points, club cards, nectar cards and other reward schemes and never use them? Or simply save them up to spend, or to buy an extra treat every now & again?

At Christmas, birthdays and other events with gifts, why not ask for garden centre vouchers, DIY vouchers or other Gift Vouchers from your favourite stores to use later in the year to save you some money.

The idea this week is to obviously acknowledge that you simply have to spend money along the way, that's life, but when you are serious about Paying Off Your Mortgage you have to accumulate every additional few hundred pounds you can by making wiser choices when you have a purchase to make.

It seems to be a bit of a "British" thing to ignore savings to be made by using discount coupons. If you have ever been in a queue at the Supermarket and someone of older and wiser years is just checking out & reaches for their purse to produce a handful of coupons, do you roll your eyes and think " Oh for goodness sake, coupons!" or do you think "I wonder how much they save every week by doing that." For the most part Supermarkets tend to make it easier these days with their own schemes, but if you can add a pound or two to your next freedom payment -- do it!

My husband came in the other evening and declared that he would have been home hours ago if "the elderly lady in the shop hadn't wanted her free packet of sweets." He went on to say that it held up the whole queue while the assistant went off to get the free sweets, the lady turned to my husband and apologised for the delay, and went on to explain she had promised the sweets to her grand children and didn't want to leave empty handed.

It just goes to show that the right way to save money has been around for generations, and I'm sure they could tell me a thing or two about today's society, in fact I suspect most of them could pinpoint the solution in less than 5 minutes.

So the Pay Off Challenge this week is all about saving money as you spend it, a slight contradiction in some ways but can be profitable if you know how.

If you receive vouchers of various kinds to the value of say £ 200 per year, and you receive cashback on one holiday of £2000 plus a couple of home items of around £ 400 each that would be a total cash equivalent of around £ 480.00 per year. This is money back on things you were going to do anyway, it's what they call a "no brainer".

Any savings that you make should be added to your Freedom Payment each month and used to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 3 Years or Less. Anything else & it simply will not work.

Week 9 : Moving House ? Add it up !

With the pending launch of our Upside Down Property Developing Manual approaching next week, we have got houses on the brain. During my own Pay Off Challenge we were midway on a renovation project so moving was not an option. If you are a home owner at present, if you need to move house in this current climate, then do you really know the costs?

Stamp Duty has given the government revenue of 31 billion pounds in the past ten years according to some analysts, and that has come from people just like you and me.

London stamp duty alone has gone up by 807% in the last ten years, so think about how much money you would save if you didn't move.

If you are going to move, I would guess that the vast majority of people are looking to move up the housing ladder, and will probably be entering the next Stamp Duty bracket of £250,000 to £500,000 given the cost of house prices at this moment in time.

So on top of all the money you will be spending getting your house ready for selling, paint, soft furnishings, plants, even a new kitchen or bathroom if you are really serious about selling your house these days, so that's an average of around £ 7000 to start the ball rolling.

Then you have your Estate Agents fees to pay when they sell your house,

£ 2450.00 plus VAT ( £ 2878 ) for say 1% of £245,000

then stamp duty on your new house £ 8250.00 3% now of say £ 275,000

Plus solicitors fee, say around £ 600 ( unless there are complications ) plus moving costs to your new location , a further £ 600 - £ 800

All in all if you are thinking about moving house ( bear in mind this does not include the money you are going to be spending on your new home ) you are committing yourself to expenditure of at least : £ 12428.00 PLUS the £ 7000 spent sprucing up your house to sell and you would be looking to spend £ 19428.00 just to move house.

If my goal was to Pay Off My Mortgage as quickly as possible, I would be using the money that I would have been spending on moving to pay down my mortgage.

The double edge sword to the process is that even if most people said to themselves, we'll stay where we are, in most cases they were intending to move because they have outgrown their current property, so the temptation is to make some sort of home improvement instead. ( Average cost per year is likely to be in the region of £5000 )

There really is no right or wrong in any of these everyday choices in life, but I was contacted just last week by a family from the USA who had spent the last 5 years paying off their mortgage and were celebrating this week.

To them, as it was to me at the time, paying off your mortgage early is a matter of choice, but it is only important when it is part of your overall plans, ambitions and goals in life.

This week is one of those BIG weeks, these figures are big enough to make anyone sit up and take notice.

For the purpose of the Challenge, I will be using £15,000 saved in one year by NOT moving house. If you made that decision 3 years in a row, you would be looking at saving £45,000. If you are serious about this Challenge then you will have no problem in coming to terms with that, as you will know that the bigger picture will catapult you past the finishing post at warp speed.

For the Pay Off Challenge I have used HALF these figures to represent commitment to the Challenge. ( £ 7500 saved per year x 3 )

Any savings that you make should be added to your Freedom Payment each month and used to Pay Off Your Mortgage in 3 Years or Less. Anything else & it simply will not work.