Money Tips Daily by Charles Kelly, former IFA and author of

Why do so many new businesses fail in the first few years?

A few phone calls could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.

After our mortgage or rent payment, utilities I’ll probably one of our biggest expenses. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to the companies which supply your gas electricity, mobile phones and broadband, it does not pay to stay loyal to them. Same applies to car, breakdown recovery and home insurance. 

They say that it cost many times more to win the new customer than it does to look after and sell to existing customers. We all know this is the case so why do these providers take us for granted and offer us poor deals forcing us to take our business elsewhere? It just doesn’t make any business sense at all. 

We hear terms like “loyalty” bonuses, but in reality, we get charged more for the same service than new customers. You also see this with mortgage providers and banks. They will offer a better rate to new customers than existing borrowers or make your savings account less competitive by dropping the rate.

I frequently change providers or ask for a better deal by calling them up to asking them for…you guessed it, a better deal! In most cases, they say yes! After all, they want to keep you as a customer, even if they go a funny way about showing it! 

This simple technique has saved me tens of thousands of pounds over the years.

You know the old saying, “A penny saved is…a penny earned”. Actually, it is more when you take into account tax on your income.

Right now, I have an issue with virgin who supply broadband to several of my buy to let properties. When I first started, they were charging me less than £30 per month per property. Now it exceeds £40 per month when they are advertising broadband and a phone for £27 per month to new customers.  

To make matters worse, I’m not even getting a good service! They don’t even acknowledge the fact that I’ve got several contracts with them.

In fact, one of the reasons I have not changed sooner is that I can never get through to them on the phone. I’ve spent hours on endless automated answering systems - press one for this, press two for that and then out the other end without speaking to person!

Come on Virgin, you can do better than this! Richard Branson, I challenge you to try getting through to your broadband service on the phone!

When I had a problem with the router they refused to change it until I went on Twitter!

I wish they had many people monitoring the phones as they do watching complaints on Twitter!

You don’t always need to change providers to get a better deal. I was able to renegotiate the £40 per month saving on my RAC breakdown membership just by challenging them on offer in a much better deal to new customers When I had been with them for years.

You may be tied into a contract and unable to change, so you need to diarise key dates to make sure that you don’t miss out on the best deals or get stuck on an expensive tariff. 

Electricity and gas companies are notorious for leaving you on an expensive tariff when you could change to a cheaper one just by making a phone call. 

Action....listen for more

If you are interested in developing and improving your money mindset, check out more on this subject in my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

Cyber security and credit protection advice from the real Frank Abagnale, the man who inspired the Stephen Spielberg billion-dollar blockbuster movie, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, who worked for the FBI for 40 years advising governments and corporations on cyber security recently gave a talk at Google. His advice on how to protect yourself against cyber crime might surprise you and even scare you.

The movie tells the story of how a 16-year-old boy managed to con his way onto airlines and fly free all over the world posing as a pilot.  He also defrauded banks out of millions of dollars through cheque fraud and worked as a hospital doctor and a lawyer despite leaving school at 16 never having studied medicine or law at university.

In this episode:

Frank's top 2 cyber security tips.

My top 7 tips for protecting your credit rating 

The world revolves around trust and reputation, so be straight and pay back what you owe ON TIME. If you can’t, inform people instead of burying your head in the sand.

Almost everyone will need to borrow during their lifetime, especially home buyers and entrepreneurs. 

Protect your credit rating with your life, because so much of your life depends on your credit rating!

If you are interested in developing and improving your money mindset, check out more on this subject in my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

When I was growing up in London there were different waves of migrants coming into the country. Many members of my extended family were coming over on the boat from Ireland, where there was little opportunity and widespread poverty. I also went to school with many first-generation migrants from Cyprus, India, East Africa and the Caribbean.

Later on, I saw other waves of immigration from places like Uganda, after Idi Amin literally kicked out all of the Asian population, and the Philippines.

I noticed that many of them bought their own houses rather than relying on council housing, perhaps because this was not so readily available to them as it was to the indigenous population.  

Like some of my own family, they rented out part of their house or took in a lodger to help make ends meet. Sometimes, the rent they would and would often cover their mortgage and enable them to save money for another house. It was inconvenient in some ways and not as comfortable as having your own space to yourself, but they did what it took to get on.

They also had a higher tendency to start their own businesses, based on my anecdotal observations. Perhaps because they could not find a job which utilise their education and skills from their own country.

I also noticed that they worked harder than the average person and often had two or three jobs.

Most British people still believed in and depended on the so-called “cradle-to-grave” welfare state brought in after the war. They were told by the government that they will be looked after from the time they were born until they were buried.  

Everything was meant to be free from healthcare, education up to university level to elderly care. People pay taxes and national insurance contributions which was supposed to provide for their pension in old age. They also had the safety net of the benefit system which meant that they were paid if they were unemployed or could not work.

During my early years in financial services, people would often say things like, “the government will look after me if I don’t have enough pension savings”, or “the state will look after my wife and children if I die with no insurance”. In many ways, they were correct. The state does provide benefits for people who retire without any pension, which seems on fair to all of those people who have sacrificed and saved for retirement.

Mature Times Recently quoted a report by Canada life that almost 2 in five pensioners or 38% of claimants receive less than £150 a week.

Can you live on £150 per week? You can probably survive on it but you can’t live comfortably on the state pension or benefits, which is why are you here of pensioners freezing to death in the winter or having to make the choice between food or heat. Most people blame the government but the truth is the vast majority of us have the opportunity to work and save during our lifetime.  

The welfare system is broken and unsustainable. This is why successive governments have had to change the rules and move the goalposts.    

Does all this make you worried? If so, good. We all need to wake up!

What can you do?

Step one, wake up.

Step two, start educating yourself on money and investing.

The same opportunities to invest in property are available to you today and in fact it is much easier to get into property than it was years ago. 

If you like further details a property courses, such as a one-day introduction to property investing, see https://ambassadorshub.co.uk/ambassador/index.php?aid=AMB0427 or drop me a line to [email protected]

You will see that money is everywhere if you have the right 'money mindset, which I cover in my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness. There are trillions of Dollars in circulation right now. This does not include the hundreds of billions in pension funds, venture capital and hedge all looking for places to invest. 

Examples of people who had a different money mindset are two former members of the Beatles pop group, the late John Lennon and George Harrison.

John Lennon wife once asked him for a swimming pool and he said, okay I’ll write you one. 

When the ISKCON Hari Krishna movement approached George Harrison, for help to fund a new centre in the UK in the early 1970’s, he donated money for a property and wrote the album All Things Must Pass to help raise the money for the movement. One of the massive hits from that triple album was My Sweet Lord, which featured the chant Hari Krishna and went on to sell 7 million copies, outstripping sales by his former Beatle colleagues after the band split. The property Bhaktiavedanta Manor in Hertfordshire is still there today. I have visited the manor many times and walked in the commemorative garden opened by his widow Olivia.

You might be thinking, "ok, that's alright if you're a songwriter, but what about me? Fine, you may not be a writer or an artist, but you have talent, knowledge and experience in some other area. 

In another example, a Guru in India, who needed millions of dollars to fund a new temple and centre., was asked, where is the money going to come from? He replied, “from where ever it is now “.

People with this level of mindset realise that when you have a project or a goal money is no object. The money is out there and you just have to find it, attracted, manifest it, ask for it or whatever you want to call it. Lionel Richie said songs and ideas are "in the air".

Billionaires are multimillionaires truly believe that if they lost everything today they would soon be rich again. Don’t forget, only a few years ago Donald Trump’s business empire was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and people were saying he was finished. 

If Richard Branson lost it all today, how long do you think it would be before he would be a billionaire again? Much of his fortune has been made using other people’s money, ideas and work. All they needed was the virgin name. 

Develop an abundance mindset by remembering that there is more money in the world chasing good ventures and ideas than there are ventures available.

If you are interested in developing and improving your money mindset, check out more on this subject in my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

In this week’s episode, 5 Quick Money Saving Tips.

What’s the funniest money saving tip you’ve ever heard? One of the strangest tips I’ve heard was on a radio show, which had a daily “housewives tips” feature.

A radio DJ would say: “send in your money saving tip on a postcard and if it’s read out, you’ll get a free mug!”

One tip sent in by a listener recommended gathering up all of the small leftover bits of hand soap and then putting them into a saucepan. You would then boil the soaps or bits of soap meld them together to form new bars of soap!

Well if you’ve heard amusing tips one like that let me know, but not on a postcard.

In those days, before the Internet, a popular saving tip was to cut out coupons from magazines and newspapers and take them into the supermarket to get savings on certain items. It was always annoying standing behind people rummaging around in the purse for coupons! These coupons still exist only nowadays they can scan them straight into the tills. 

One of my wealthiest clients used to collect coupons she was worth a fortune in properties, but still looks after the pennies, so the pounds looks after themselves.

Nowadays, you don’t even have to cut out paper coupons as there are there are many deals on the Internet and companies like Wowcher and groupon have made a fortune cashing in on the ground trend to get a deal or save money! It’s almost become a national obsession.

5 Quick Money Saving Tips in this episode.

You can only go so far by cutting costs and saving money.

Grant Cardone says:

“Foundation of building wealth Focus on income…”

In other words, if you want to build wealth you need to first focus on generating income and later on investing.

Money held on deposits won’t make you rich either. If the banks are paying you .25% in your money it will take 40 years to pay you 10% on your cash!

There are hundreds of practical ways to generate more income including:

Take a part time job

Part time business 

MLM or direct sales 

Online marketing 

Online retailing such as Amazon, Ebay, Groupon or shopify 

Facebook 

Affiliate marketing 

Blogging and writing 

YouTube 

Film extra 

Teaching 

Buy to let property 

Property management 

The best way of increasing your income is to keep learning.  I have a limited number of complimentary places at some of the best courses on Amazon, investment and property. If you like further details, such as a one-day introduction to property investing or building an Amazon online business, click HERE or drop me a line to [email protected]  

In my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, there is a section on the celebrities who lost it all. There are countless stories of sports and media celebrities with quickly made and lost fortunes through mismanagement of their money and for advice. I’ve personally assisted form of popstars, I used to see performing on Top of the Pops, who could not obtain a mortgage due to a poor credit history and being behind with their current mortgage. Some had lost their marriages and families. It was sad to meet once wealthy and famous people end up broke.

Check out my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

You may have read that Facebook is to launch a cryptocurrency, which is already creating a stir among world central bankers and G7 leaders.

This is not just a remittance service sending money via a smartphone, but a new currency.

 However, some cryptocurrency purists could argue that Facebook’s new digital coin, Libra, is not a true cryptocurrency, although they admit that it could bring digital money into the mainstream. 

Critics claim the plans for Libra, backed by a consortium of 28 groups including Uber, Spotify, Visa and Mastercard, is not a genuinely decentralised digital currency. 

I’m not a crypto expert or even a fan of so-called currencies like Bitcoin. The price of bitcoin, which has been volatile over the past 12 months and passed $9,000 at the weekend for the first time in more than a year, has been flat since the announcement. Other major cryptocurrencies were also unmoved or only slightly down on the news.

The new currency system will allow users to convert US dollars and other international currencies into Libra, which will facilitate rapid money transfers and online transactions with almost no transaction fees. Which begs the question, if there are no transaction fees why are these companies investing millions into this project?

Facebook, which is leading the project, said Libra will be especially valuable to the 1.7bn people worldwide without bank accounts, who will be able to carry out payments via their phones.   

Phil Chen, decentralised chief officer at phonemaker HTC’s blockchain-driven Exodus project, told the FT.

“This project is the antithesis of bitcoin and is another step towards total control of data and users,” 

Whilst central bankers, like the governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, have given the currency a lukewarm welcome, I’m sure Facebook and its backers have already thought through the potential challenges that lie ahead, not least money laundering regulation.

Within Facebook — where engineers and product managers are more familiar with optimising advertising algorithms or simplifying photo sharing — creating a new currency was seen as a daunting challenge.  “I’ve been doing this for more than a year, like 20 hours a day, and I’m still wrapping my head around it,” said Kevin Weil, who moved from Instagram to become Facebook’s head of blockchain product in June 2018.  Libra was “unlike anything I’ve ever worked on before”, he added in an interview last week at the San Francisco Mint.  “The technology is basically brand new, and is evolving really quickly. No one has any experience with a global currency before. Any direction you look, it’s new — and that’s exciting.”   

Libra could open up opportunities for small online businesses to lower the cost of transactions, as well ease the process of selling online on Instagram and Facebook.

 The news must have sent shivers through the banking and money transfer community. This will shake up the banks and the likes of Western Union, which takes a large chunk out of overseas workers remittances. They are all crying 'foul' about regulations and money laundering when it's the banks who have been fined for laundering! Apple Pay is not mentioned? This will be another step towards a cashless society, a one world currency and less control of our money and privacy.

Facebook has 2.7 billion active monthly users, and it knows a lot about us. It will know a lot more about us once we start using Libra, but has promised to keep this information separate from the social media business.

Check out my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

Your network is your net worth and net wealth, so get around like minded people who lift you up and get away from negative people who drag you down.

Choose your friends wisely and get around the right people if you want success, happiness and wealth in your life. 

In this episode you’ll learn how to expend your network, where to meet like-minded people and which friends to avoid!

Listen to my 5 tips to help you get around the right people and improve your life!

In my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, there is a section on the celebrities who lost it all. There are countless stories of sports and media celebrities with quickly made and lost fortunes through mismanagement of their money and for advice. I’ve personally assisted form of popstars, I used to see performing on Top of the Pops, who could not obtain a mortgage due to a poor credit history and being behind with their current mortgage. Some had lost their marriages and families. It was sad to meet once wealthy and famous people end up broke.

Check out my book, Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness, on Amazon - http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook

In this week’s episode:

Thousands of buy-to-let investors have sold properties since 2016, when the then Chancellor George Osborne announced punitive taxes on landlords, according to research by Hamptons International.

Find out what a former housing minister told me when I confronted him directly about the anti-investor measures and suggested how mortgages could be more flexible for first time buyers.

And,

Should you pull your cash out of Metrobank?

Are interest-only mortgages set to make a comeback?

Find out how you can have fun investing in the stock market without taking courses

If you like further details a property and investment courses, such as a one-day introduction to property investing, see https://ambassadorshub.co.uk/ambassador/index.php?aid=AMB0427 or drop me a line to [email protected]

First, we had the George Osbourne 2015 finance act phasing out tax relief on buy-to-let mortgages. Tax relief will be gone by next year as will many property owners and landlords as they start to pay more tax and even struggle to show a return on their investment. This is a travesty and goes against all principles of business lending.

The then Chancellor George Osbourne also removed wear and tear allowance, which will cost small landlords dearly.

If that wasn’t enough, the government are now proposing new rules to do away with Section 21 notices, which enables landlords to legally regain possession of their property without having to give a reason or find fault.

Many property owners have already sold up or reduced the size of their portfolio in order to cut borrowing. Property prices in many parts of the country have dropped for a number of reasons, including of course Brexit.

Some see this as an opportunity to buy more property as so-called amateur landlords run for the hills.

Others worry that long term open-ended tenancies may be the beginning of the end for the buy to let business as we know it. The banks will certainly be concerned about gaining possession of their security in the event of a default on the mortgage.

Listen for more details....

If you'd like further details a property courses, such as a one-day introduction to property investing, see https://ambassadorshub.co.uk/ambassador/index.php?aid=AMB0427 or drop me a line to [email protected]

I have a limited number of complimentary tickets to attend an excellent course run by experts, which will give you a clear overview into the market.