Switching your mortgage can benefit you in the long run

Switching your mortgage can be a hassle but is it worth it?

Yes. Switching your mortgage can save you tens of thousands, it soon may be less of a hassle as well.

The Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is realizing the benefits of switching and are looking of ways to take the hassle off the consumer. They currently are researching on how to make the process easier. They are taking focus groups from Dublin, Cork and Galway currently.

Of the research, the main drawbacks to people who switched were the amounts of paperwork, complicated, and too much time. Of those 35 percent estimated it took between one to two months while 24 percent said it took longer than two months. The CCPC proposed to start e-conveyancing with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. It also proposed a start of automated switching process with the CBI and …

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The Economic Naturalist, Robert H. Frank (book review)

Robert H. Frank of Cornell University wrote a great book called ‘The Economic Naturalist, why economics explains almost everything‘, it has been an absolute winner of a read, and kindly Robert (Bob) took a phone call from me to talk about his book (more on that later).

Regarding the book, it is excellent if you are not actually into economics, because it takes everyday things and tries to use economic foundations for explaining them, the questions are simple every day occurrences and the answers are often surprising!

Here are a few simple examples, ‘why are cans of fizzy drinks round and milk bottles are square’, ‘why do animal rights activists throw paint at women in fur but not bikers in leather’, ‘why do taxi drivers stop working early on rainy days’, ‘why are plane tickets purchased at the last minute more expensive’, and many …

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Financial road maps

Having a plan is important in many areas of life, I would feel it is vital in personal finance, yet a surprising amount of people totally fail on this matter and go through life in an ad hoc manner and they are often wondering why some people seem to do better even though they don’t earn as much as they do. Animals in the forest don’t worry about finance, they do worry about food though, hence they gather for winter, squirrels have figured this out so it is disappointing, given the superiority of human intellect, that many private individuals have not planned for an ‘economic’ winter.

A simple method is a budget, it can be complex or it can be crude but in either case having a crude one is better than having none. Sometimes this is worked out using percentages, for instance:

After tax income x 60% = all expenses (mortgages, bills, food, entertainment etc.)

After tax income x 10% = discretionary expenses (something you may have buy from time to time)

After tax …

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What affects your investment planning

Did you ever wonder why some people seem to be doing better in the investment arena than you? Or why certain people seem to always lose or consistently win? The truth is that there are very few ‘superstar’ fund managers, like in any industry there are those that are the best and they totally outshine the millions of others who do the same job but never to the same degree.

If we were to look at some of the factors that may have an effect on your investments you can quickly identify that there are those which you cannot control, and therefore can only hedge against, and those that are within your control for which you are responsible and must consider, these will now be considered:

1. Being too conservative: If you stayed only in the safest areas of the market you would actually lose money over time as the effect of inflation grinds down your investments. This would be because the deposit interest rates would likely not give positive returns when you …

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Debt reduction & personal finance weekly blog Aug 25th 2008

Today I will give you a tip about the single best way to reduce and avoid debt, it is perhaps the most effective method known to man. Here it is…

“Don’t borrow any more money”

Simple enough to almost make you feel conned I bet? The fact is that debt begets debt and if you enter into a lifelong debt cycle it is something that is virtually impossible to free yourself from. The very first step towards financial freedom and a life out of debt is to realise this fact and to come up with a solution.

Some people think that if they consolidate loans that they will then have more money, but what do most of them do with this ‘extra money’? Save it? Or do they then get more debt and the extra money thus goes into the debt vortex as well?

All good ideas have an exit plan [one of the very reasons Iraq was such a terrible idea to begin with], and you can make yours. To do this you have to decide how you will …

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Debt reduction & personal finance weekly blog Aug 25th 2008

Today I will give you a tip about the single best way to reduce and avoid debt, it is perhaps the most effective method known to man. Here it is…

“Don’t borrow any more money”

Simple enough to almost make you feel conned I bet? The fact is that debt begets debt and if you enter into a lifelong debt cycle it is something that is virtually impossible to free yourself from. The very first step towards financial freedom and a life out of debt is to realise this fact and to come up with a solution.

Some people think that if they consolidate loans that they will then have more money, but what do most of them do with this ‘extra money’? Save it? Or do they then get more debt and the extra money thus goes into the debt vortex as well?

All good ideas have an exit plan [one of the very reasons Iraq was such a terrible idea to begin with], and you can make yours. To do this you have to decide how you will …

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How a hacker will help you today, money hacks and life hacks

The word ‘hacker’ generally has a fairly negative connotation, hackers (traditionally) are the people who somehow get your credit card details and then buy lots of things without you knowing, the get into Pentagon missile systems and do all the things that are taboo electronically. Accepted that there are white and black hat hackers, white hat means they hack on the side of good (most of the good ones didn’t start out that way though!), black hat means they are on the side of evil (generally speaking). Damn hackers….

That was until ‘hacking’ became a good and positive thing in the form of ‘lifehacks‘ and ‘moneyhacks‘. This new phrase describes a ‘hack’ in its original meaning, a ‘hack‘ is a clever or quick fix, and it applies to more than square-eyed phreaks who get into your pc and rip-off your identity etc.

Lifehacks or moneyhacks are simple ways of doing everyday things with less effort or quicker, and they have dedicated followers and sites that share that information. …

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How to beat a recession. Simple ways to avoid the pinch.

I think the point has been reached, certainly from public sentiment, where we are seeing more negative news than positive news, the see-saw has well and truly tilted, good news seems to be brushed over to focus instead on the financial equivalents of four car pile-ups on the M50. The money market stops to stare and the slowdown of the on-lookers causes everything else to back up.

One thing I might ask, is in that case, then why stay on the proverbial M50? In today’s post we’ll look at some simple ways to beat a recession and reduce costs so that you can keep a good standard of living and even profit from a downturn. Some is simple common sense, some might be about things you haven’t considered.

1. Stop driving: Oil prices have risen and they don’t look likely to fall any time soon, I am a cyclist myself, and sometimes people look at me funny when as Operations Manager of a financial house I turn up to meetings in a high-vis jacket, and admittedly sometimes I feel out …

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