Money, Money, Money
 

I'm at the sort of age now where I feel I should be more responsible financially rather than squandering the majority of my salary on things I don't need, or worse still; pissing it away.

Over the last 2-3 years I've managed to put away several thousand in savings into a cash ISA, with interest rates being at a historical low of 0.5% for some years now the interest accrued for savers is paltry, my return is currently a meagre 1.75% variable rate.

Fixed rate bonds are as equally pathetic in their interest rates. Therefore I was considering investing instead into a Stocks and Shares ISA or go direct and buy shares in specific companies. A friend of mine bought shares 2 years ago in the House builders Taylor Wimpey and Bovis Homes he has since yielded a 3 fold return on his investment!

Whilst with the Stock Market you can yield greater returns you are also at risk of greater losses.

Does anyone here have any experience in this area?

Also I have recently gone self-employed which means this year I will have to fill out my own tax return, my setup is pretty simple I just work freelance for an architectural practice my invoices are usually only to one company at the end of each month and my expenses are only a handful each month (usually travel costs). Through anyones experience, is the process straight-forward enough to not require the services of an accountant?

This all sounds like grown up mumbo jumbo to me!

just go down to the casino and stick it all on one number! What have you got to lose Eh?

My mam is self employed and she doesn't have an accountant.
It is a bit of a ball ache filing the tax return but it is do-able by yourself.

As for the stocks. Many people get paid to work out this shit and get it wrong countless times. You friend was very lucky.
I think you will need to do your homework on various companies to work out which would give the best chances of profit.
I'd go main stream IT sector preferably in Artificial Technology with the company origionating from middle to Eastern Europe.

Otherwise, spend it on investing in a great website like - www.puaforums.co.uk :)

Get an accountant, it's a ball ache and if you find a good one you'l save more money than it costs you, his expenses are also tax deductible.

I've heard you're best off looking in one of those correctional facilities for the best ones ;)

Kowalski - ¿Qué?

Hustler,

A Stocks and Shares ISA, selected via Fidelity's fund supermarket, has the potential to give much better returns than any cash ISA.

Example - In 2011-12 tax year just finished, Fidelity's fund supermarket reports on the dashboard that I made 12.9% (tax-free due to ISA wrapper) gains on one of my ISAs which consists of two carefully selected funds of high-growth economies.

It's risk and reward. There's also the potential to make a loss, such as some volatile funds lost 30% one year only to bounce back 40% the next year. You hope that by keeping the fund in the medium-term any losses from a previous year are cancelled out by gains in the next year, although it's not that simple.

A cash ISA is very stable, but LOSES money every year due to inflation (at least in the current UK market with extremely low interest rates).

@Kowalski - Awesome, is this how you fund your travels?! Money Saving Expert is a great site I will check out that thread. Sounds complicated though given im not much of a betting man.

@Rebus - Thanks a lot, sound advice. Was this fund graded low/medium/high risk do you know? I was thinking of playing it safe to begin and start investing in either FTSE 100, 250 or All Share funds because then at least I have some vague idea of the companies listed and how the UK market is performing.

Two high growth funds were used in same ISA wrapper. Both of them have the "Lipper rating" rating it 5/5 (best rating) for Total Return and Consistent Return. Generally, ALL equity based products are put into higher risk (on a scale they use, yet another chart), with cash and some of the bond based products put into low risk.

I will PM you details.

Where's a good place to learn how to Match bet that explains it simply etc.

I need a way of making money for doing fuck all.

How much money are we talking to make a reasonable income and are they not just one off deals where you get a free bet?

I've thought about taking advantage of them free bets before, is this what people mean when they say spread betting or just an improvement on it?

Db

Get down to your local job centre and say you want to be a benefits scrounger, I suggest turning up in a track suit, Nike air max trainers and a can of super-strength lager in one hand to make the right impression. They'll happily sort you out.

Might try and give this a go, could do with a little extra beer money ;)

Yeah I'm going to look into it further, I would certainly try it with a couple hundred see if it worked out worthwhile.

ive just stuck £200 on a horse thats 500/1... whats the next step?

Give me £80 of that 200 first you cunt!

Right, so just in case I'm missing something, the main deal with matched bets its covering your bet with another bookie so that you don't make a loss, and then using a newcomers incentive / free bet to increase the gain on that. Assuming the free bet is only offered to new registered users, how can you continue this process without expending all the bookie's available? Or is there just that many offering first-bet incentives? or those offering incentives to existing registrations?

Not trying to get convinced, just getting my head round it, anything that sounds like a sure thing or a 'too good to be true' type of deal, usually is, there is no such thing as free money, or at least in my experience anyway maybe I'm just sceptical.

Would love to give this a go though, not for making a living, but maybe for just a few extra pennies each month. I was just unsure if bookie's continue to make these offers to existing users or whether you have to cycle new email addresses or something.

Yeah I'll ask him about it on Thurs, probably better than shooting over to Barcelona hah! Cheers man

This sounds quite complicated for a not-too-good mathematician like myself.

However, I'd start off low (due to my own funds) then work up. I've always considered this to be an easy way to make money but never given it a go.

I'm gonna do my research, study the information and then give it a whirl.
"You have hardly anything to lose but perhaps a lot to gain..."


Is the the correct thread to find the relevant information?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2658533

I just dived head first into the matched betting game. My first bet is on Celta Vigo's game tonight, Im almost certain I got it right but I literally only started looking into it today, I put 25 quid into one bookie and 35 into another to lay with.. As it works out I will do better if they lose because who I'm using to lay with have a promotion to cover your deposit only if you lose your first bet so I've tried to work it out to maximize the chance of losing without a huge float

So all in all I'm 60 quid in and restless to see if I done it right! I should lose either 2quid or a fiver depending which way the bets go, should they lose I should unlock £50 in free bets, win then only £25.

Will update on how I get on later :p

Db

Nice man.

I must admit, I'm taking my time reading through the information and once I've done that I'll start betting.

Interested to know how you get on.

all seemingly went well, they won in the end but i had it the wrong way around so that was the best outcome..

however the exchange has yet to credit my free bet, going to call them tomorrow and be like WTF! so that should all sort itself out and william hill credited my free bet straight away so my balance over there is just over 22 quid more than my total investment..

so thats appx 60 quid in 80 quid out so far (57 in & 79.50 out to be exact), and I should be getting another 25 quid one off from the exchange on top of that..

all good so far :D

db

EDIT: Already withdrew the 52.50 winnings with no problems so Im currently down a net of 5 quid with a free bet of 25 and another of 25 left to cash out and 2 pounds left on the exchange.

this seems WAY easier than I imagined, just worried about when I run out of offers now!

Awesome man keep pushing through! :)

I've nearly completed all the information jargon and I've already got my 'pot' ready.
Just waiting for the green light.

Messed a bet up today by not looking at the Liquidity before placing my bet, all in all I ended up only getting about a Tenner from my first free 25 pound bet, I've got 25 pound cash back and another 25 free bet still from it though.

So if you try match betting you ought to keep an eye on the liquidity before confirming as I think this was only briefly mentioned and not fully explained in the mse guide, the liquidity is the £x under the odds of the lay, it must be equal to or higher than your stake for your bet to be accepted.

Db

Started reading about this yesterday - keep the updates coming ! :)

Matched betting is good if you're mega careful and do everything right. If you cock up you can lose £100 easy (I did).
Once you run out of free bet offers though, it pretty much dries up.

Make sure you sign up through Quidco to the bet sites though, some pay £30 when you open an account.

stock market can be easier than it seems
its possible to get 10% with almost no risk
study it or pm me for more details

on the other hand, if you're an earning machine, then why risk your money
buy something safe like a house to live in