The Museum Of Modern Thinking

That is all Make sure you wish everyone you meet a happy St. George’s Day - even Number 10 is is flying the flag!

It’s a good day to be in Morley, West Yorkshire for their celebrations (hat tip to Daily Referendum).

Incidentally, nice to see some good English weather for the day - yup, it’s raining

(click to enlarge)

The above is a 1929 Conservative election poster, which appears to be as relevant today as it was then. This Labour government wants to poke its nose into everything (the “inspectors” above), for example:

• wanting supermarkets to spy on eastern europeans
• a CCTV camera for every 14th person in Brtain (useless though they are)
• speed and motorway cameras monitoring your journeys and sending the information to the US
• surveying Britons on their sex-lives and salaries
• inspecting your house for a nice view or improvements in order to increase your council tax
• wanting to re-introduce road pricing, which involve tracking your journeys (again)

sigh… Obviously Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was correct when he said “To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censored, checked, valued, enrolled, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so”

For those of you voting in the upcoming local elections, don’t let the above statements on privacy influence who you vote for

Just a quick heads-up, I’ve added a PayDate Calculator page from which you can download a futility that calculates the number of weeks in a month for budgeting purposes - go and try it!

PS: It’s called a futility because it’s a 68k application that requires a 22mb Microsoft .Net 2.0 Framework installed Still, not a reason to not try it

Over at the always-excellent Get Rich Slowly blog, J. D. has a very interesting articles on savings and compound interest. The first is an introduction to the power of compound interest, explaining why it’s so important to start saving now (whatever your age) so that time can compound the interest paid on your savings to a ridiculous amount. For example, £1,000 a year over 30 years at 5% will be worth £69,634.11 - interest paid is £39,634.11. As usual, J.D.’s post contains far more than simple facts and figures, but lots of good advice as well.

The second article, which retirement strategy will win?, was of particular interest to me. In it, guest poster G. E. Miller has an imaginary list of people of different ages and different incomes using different savings and investment vehicles. The aim of the article is to see who will win the retirement race, that is, who will have the most money at age 67. Again, it contains helpful explanations of compound interest and savings advice.

(I should mention that the articles are from an American blog, and as such refer to some American investment vehicles, but equivalents exist within the U.K.)

Finally, J.D. has an article which offers advice if you didn’t start saving early (like me). One of the key points each article makes is that is never too late to start saving, and I know I have a good feeling from only having a little amount saved - so far.

As a bonus link, Alice Thomson has an excellent column in the Telegraph about why thrift would be very good for us, containing a good explanation of why we are in credit crunch and what we can do on the cheap instead - a return to Make Do and Mend, perhaps?

One more thing, as Columbo would say: MoneyChimp has an great compound interest calculator. Just enter your starting amount, annual addition, how many years to save for, the interest and how many times interest is compounded a year (365 for daily interest, natch) and it will tell you how much money you will be swimming through Scrooge McDuck-style - give it a whirl!

Last weekend, an old friend came visiting. He’s severely allergic to gluten, milk, wheat, etc., so getting food in was a bit of an issue. Whilst he was with us, we were talking about allergies and whatnot, and I mentioned that my GP had said lactose intolerance may lead to my snoring, which is keep both my wife and I awake. He also said I could do with losing some weight, but I’m not about to take that advice from someone fatter than I am

In a nutshell, I’m going dairy-free for a couple of weeks and see what difference it makes to my snoring and overall health. I’m currently using Lactofree for my milk, and it’s not too bad. I did use a soy “milk”, but it’s quite sweet - and that’s from someone who has a sweet tooth.

The biggest drawback is the total lack of dairy - no cheese (argh! no cheesecake!), no yoghurt, no tuna and mayonnaise, no Cadbury’s milk chocolate… On the plus side, I’m increasing my meat intake (no jokes, please) and looking around for new and different foodstuffs, which is always interesting. On the down side, I’m amazed how expensive the “alternative” foods are - I guess the manufacturers have the genuine sufferers over a barrel.

Also, there appears to be a weight benefit, seeing as I’ve lost a couple of pounds from the weekend. That is a little concerning, as you’re only meant to lose one - two pounds a week healthily, although I did gorge somewhat on peanut M & Ms at the cinema on Saturday night

Anyway, I’ll keep posting progress and what have you as I go along, and see how I feel at the end of the two weeks…

Today, whilst taking my son to Kumon (thanks, Government education!) in the local sports centre, I saw two large-ish ladies waiting for a lift.

It was to go up one floor to their Weight Watchers class… I don’t have the words

As previously mentioned, I’m posting my progress on paying down my debts and building up my savings. I’m feeling a lot happier with some money behind me and paying my debts down, but there’s been a slight change in my circumstances, more on that later.

Total Savings: 34.06% of monthly income - increase of 3.94% (I withdrew some money temporarily, will be replacing it in April)

Total Debt: 9.7 x monthly income - finally coming under 10 x my monthly income!

As for the big change, I’m joining my employer’s (very generous) pension scheme. I contribute 5%, they contribute a whopping 18%, taking my amount paid into my pension pot to 23% (duh) of my income. This will reduce my monthly income by some, but for the contribution by my employer, it’s worth it.

The rule of thumb for pension contributions is half your age as a percentage, e.g. I’m 37, so I should be paying in 18.5% of my income. Thanks to the amazing contribution from my employer, I’m easily making that.

However, this does change my saving regime. I’m 5% down (plus a little more due to a health plan being a taxable benefit), so I have to cut my savings somewhere. I am still considering what to cut, my ISA or my Tracker… I can keep them both going at a reduced rate, but I’m consdering stopping them both and using the money to further pay down my debt. It’s a tough choice, and to be honest, I like having savings!

Something to sleep on, I think.

At last, someone who thinks like me on the subject of climate change:

Think of the polar bears!

Damn hippies

Edit: Goddamnit, it’s an April Fools joke - clicking on any link takes you to a “Save The Planet”-type site… Joking aside, I’m all for conservation and all that stuff, I just don’t believe the climate is changing due to us…