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Month: June 2015

Reasons to retire #2 – There’s a whole other world out there

Reasons to retire #2 – There’s a whole other world out there

Following on from last time’s Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets and the excellent discussion it generated, I thought we could continue with producing a list full of reasons to retire. Many of us take for granted our belief that early retirement is something good to work towards, indeed most of the personal finance information and blogs I come across go into great lengths about how to save money and retire earlier.. without giving too much consideration into…

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Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets

Reasons to retire #1 – Appraisals and targets

Back when I was at university studying Business Management I wrote a lengthy research based article on the motivational aspects of workplace target setting. Ever since we first enter the schooling system we’ve been continually exposed to targets against which our achievement has been measured. Infact almost all jobs I’ve worked in have attempted to use targets as a method of assessing and motivating employees (with the exception of when I was a lifeguard; the only target then was to…

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Who wants to be a Retirement Millionaire?

Who wants to be a Retirement Millionaire?

Although (hopefully) readers here will be aware that they don’t need an enormous pension pot to retire; reaching a cool million still remains the goal for many others. What better feeling than hitting that 7 figures? However there are several things to consider before you get knocked over with a huge tax bill at the end. As the pension freedoms were introduced back in April, there also came a controversial announcement of a reduction in the lifetime allowance – from…

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Saving money with a Staycation

Saving money with a Staycation

I’ve never been a big fan of holidays. I mean; I’ve spent a tonne of money on purchasing a lovely house.. filling it with all my worldly possessions and have picked a location that has everything I need/want nearby. Why then would I want to endure the time, effort and cost of going away on some extravagant foreign holiday? I don’t know what it is about the stressing to ensure everything is packed, stressing about missing the plane, stressing about…

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Retirement investments you may not have thought of

Retirement investments you may not have thought of

Following on from being asked to feature in my first ever article last month on key actions required to retire early, I asked Ryan to contribute towards an article here and he provided one looking at some of the alternative investment options you might consider for retirement. Obviously everyone should do their own research and if in doubt; speak with an independent financial advisor, however it is interesting to hear about some of the other possibilities beyond the typical shares/bonds/BTL….

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Ways to save money by NOT doing something

Ways to save money by NOT doing something

Any time I talk with people who speak about their money problems I keep hearing the same old excuse repeated: It’s too difficult to save money, I cant be bothered to save money, It’s too much effort to save money And really; who could blame them? In a modern world where we are constantly bombarded with advertisements and marketing aimed at getting us to spring into action and spend our hard earned money. Companies who make it as difficult as…

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Thoughts on remortgaging and credit scores

Thoughts on remortgaging and credit scores

Since purchasing our first home back at the start of 2014 we’ve always aimed to have it paid off as soon as possible. With interest rates at an all time low and the stock markets recovering nicely; some have started to question the value of over-paying a mortgage instead of investing to be ‘mortgage neutral’. Aside from the obvious psychological benefit of being mortgage free at a quicker date, one of the main reasons why I’ve tended to focus on…

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