Cardeo

Cardeo – My Review of This Credit Card Management App

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Today I’m looking at Cardeo, a new, free credit card management app. It is designed to help save you money on your credit cards.

How Does Cardeo Work?

Cardeo brings together data from all your credit cards into a single app using open banking.

It then gives you insights into your borrowing and spending. Their payment plan works out how long it will take to pay off your cards. You can set a repayment target, decide how to get there, and repay all your cards through a single monthly payment (you can also use it with just a single credit card). Reminders make sure that you never miss a repayment.

You can change the payment plan as much as you like: edit the date, target or the monthly amount, make extra one-off payments, and pause/restart the plan as it suits you.

Cardeo works with most (though not yet all) UK credit cards. You can view the entire list here. All the most popular credit card providers appear to be covered, including Barclays, HSBC, Santander, MBNA, Virgin Money, and so on.

How Can Cardeo Save You Money?

First and foremost, payment reminders from Cardeo help you pay your cards on time each month. That way you avoid extra interest and late payment fees from your card provider. If – like me – you are prone to forget these payments on occasion, this is a valuable money-saving feature in its own right.

The Cardeo payment plan offers a choice of repayment strategies, including the so-called avalanche method. This repays the highest interest rate cards first (after minimum payments are covered). By this means you will minimise interest charges and pay off your cards in the shortest possible time.

Cardeo gives you insights into your credit card usage, helping you make smarter decisions about your spending and saving. Finally, Cardeo also offer deals from other parties which are designed to save you money.

How Does Cardeo Make Money?

As already mentioned, the Cardeo app is free to download and to use, with no in-app purchases or charges.

Cardeo say they make a small amount of money from deal providers each time a customer takes up a deal from the Cardeo app (e.g. a low-interest loan).

My Experience

I found downloading and installing the Cardeo app straightforward – I got mine from Google Play as I have an Android phone.

When you first open the app you have to put in certain details, including your full name and address, phone number (for log-in purposes), and so on. You may also be required to enter an email invitation code. All this took me maybe five minutes at most. I then saw the screen below…

Cardeo screenshot

After that, I clicked on ‘Add a Card’ and selected the name of my credit card provider, MBNA. I then had to follow a link to their website and log in with my usual online security credentials to authorize open banking.

Frustratingly, this took me a few attempts. MBNA required me to answer an automated call from them and enter a four-digit code on the telephone keypad to complete the process. Initially it told me I had got the code wrong, despite the fact that I had copied it from the MBNA site. I persevered, however, and eventually the card was linked to my Cardeo account 🙂

  • As a side note, I am probably not the ideal candidate for Cardeo, as these days I only have one credit card and use it just once or twice a year. The rest of the time, I use my bank debit card instead. I am in the fortunate position of having enough income/savings that I don’t need to borrow on my credit card. On the odd occasion I do use it, it is typically for larger purchases to take advantage of the extra legal protections you get with credit card purchases over £100.

Nevertheless, I am happy to confirm that everything in the Cardeo set-up process went smoothly for me, with the sole exception of the hiccup regarding authorizing open banking with MBNA. The latter wasn’t Cardeo’s fault, and has in fact happened to me before with MBNA. Hopefully you will be luckier!

My Thoughts

If you’re a regular credit card user, and especially if you pay interest on an outstanding balance (or balances), in my view Cardeo offers a great way to minimize the charges you pay and help reduce your debts as quickly as possible.

As I have noted before on Pounds and Sense, credit card borrowing can be very expensive, especially over a long period. So if you are in debt on your cards, it is important to take all possible steps to pay this off as quickly as possible, and Cardeo will certainly help you with this. It can also help build your credit score by ensuring you don’t miss any payments.

A further benefit is that Cardeo will save you administrative time and hassle. You simply make one monthly payment and this is automatically allocated by the app across all your credit cards.

I know some people are uneasy about open banking, and if this is a major concern then Cardeo may not be for you. Open banking is, however, now a well-established option allowing consumers to gain an overview of their financial products. If you’re trying to get (and keep) your finances under better control, this can only be beneficial. Cardeo require your permission to use open banking and you can remove this at any time. Your data is encrypted and your login details are kept hidden. You can read more about the security and privacy protections here if you wish.

As always if you have any comments or questions about this post, or Cardeo more generally, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. If you click through and download the Cardeo app or perform some other qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive in any way.

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Buy Now Pay Later

Buy Now Pay Later – What Is It and Should You Use It?

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Today I am looking at Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). This is a retail payment option that has grown massively in popularity over the last year or two. It is most often used online but is also available at some physical stores (e.g. New Look).

I am indebted to my friends at HSBC UK for their assistance in researching this post (and the graphics). The stats in the article refer to an online survey of 1,000 people conducted by HSBC UK in March 2022.

What Is BNPL?

Most people’s first contact with BNPL comes when they are shopping online and it appears in the list of payment options.

As the name suggests, BNPL allows you to buy a product (or products) now and pay later. This typically involves paying a deposit followed by a short series of instalments. You may also be offered the opportunity to pay the entire sum after 30 days with no initial deposit.

So if – for example – the product/s in your basket cost £90, with BNPL you may be able to purchase with a down payment of just £30 and two further instalments of £30 at 30-day intervals.

One big attraction of BNPL compared with credit cards is that generally if you pay your instalments on time, you will not be charged interest. The BNPL firms make money by taking a commission from the retailer, which means they don’t need to charge anything to customers.

Another possible attraction of BNPL is that you won’t normally be required to complete a formal (‘hard’) credit check. You will just be asked a few quick questions and will be told there and then if you are eligible. The fact that you applied for BNPL won’t generally appear in your credit file or affect your personal credit score (whereas applying for a credit card certainly will).

  • This is likely to change in future, however, with greater regulation coming to the sector from 2023. Hard credit checks may be required from then on, in response to fears that BNPL is encouraging some people to spend more than they can afford.

BNPL is offered by a range of financial services companies, the best known of which in the UK are Klarna, Clearpay and LayBuy.

Who Uses BNPL and For What?

Research from HSBC shows BNPL has become the second most used form of finance behind credit cards (see graphic below). Women are more than twice as likely as men (43% v 21%) to use it.

Most used forms of finance

The HSBC survey found that BNPL was most popular among 25-34-year-olds, with nearly half saying they had used it in the past year (49%), followed by 18-24s (45%) and 35-44s (45%).

As regards what it is used for, the survey found that clothing was the most frequent purchase type with BNPL, followed by food & beverages, shoes, appliances & electronics, and games & toys. This is summed up in the graphic below.

What Is BNPL Used For?

What Are the Pros and Cons of BNPL?

In the HSBC survey, those using BNPL said they valued it over other forms of finance because of the ability to spread payments (20%). They found it quick and easy to use (15%) and more affordable (13%) – with 87% of people who had used it in the past 12 months saying they were likely to use it again in the next year.

  • BNPL is also popular among people who like to try before they buy (typically with clothing). By buying this way, you may be able to try your purchase without any monetary outlay and return it with no further commitment if you don’t like it.

Sixty percent of BNPL users in the HSBC survey did express some caution, however, saying one of the top three drawbacks was it was too easy to get into debt or overspend. One in five listed lack of availability as a key disadvantage (20%), while one in ten (12%) said the fact it didn’t build their credit score was an issue.

These concerns were also raised by those who hadn’t yet used a BNPL service – with 62% saying one of the main barriers to use was it appeared to be too easy to get into debt or overspend, and nearly one in three (30%) saying that was the primary factor.

My Thoughts

Thanks again to my friends at HSBC UK for allowing me to share their survey results and graphics.

With the current cost-of-living crisis, many of us are feeling the pinch at the moment. So it is easy to see the attraction of BNPL for helping budgets stretch a little bit further.

In my view, BNPL can be a sensible option if you need short-term credit and are confident you will be able to repay the money over the period specified. One big attraction is that most BNPL offers do not involve paying any interest as long as you stick to the terms of the agreement. Neither is using BNPL likely to affect your credit score (though it won’t help build it either). And, as mentioned above, payment-in-30-day offers can allow you to try before you buy without any up-front financial outlay.

  • Some BNPL firms also offer longer-term credit up to 18 months. A hard credit check is required for this and interest will be charged, so this is more like a personal loan. Interest rates tend to be high and you may end up paying back considerably more than you borrowed. I do not recommend going down this route, unless you really don’t have any viable alternative.

Of course, BNPL does have the potential for encouraging overspending and drawing you into debt you then find difficult to repay. If you miss any of the scheduled payments, penalty fees and/or interest may be charged and your credit rating may also be adversely affected. Ultimately, a debt recovery agency may be called in. If you think this is a risk, it may be better to wait and save up before making a purchase in the traditional way.

As always, please feel free to leave any comments or questions about this post below. I would also be very interested to hear from any readers who have used BNPL themselves. What did you use it for and why? And would you do it again?!

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My Short Break in Lavenham

My Short Break in Lavenham

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I recently returned from a four-night break in Lavenham in Suffolk.

Lavenham is said to be England’s best-preserved medieval town, with over 300 listed, timber-framed houses (see cover image). But I must admit I had never heard of it until I read that my favourite Pink Floyd tribute band, Darkside, were performing there in August. It seemed a great opportunity to see the band and visit somewhere new at the same time. As I live in Staffordshire I normally head west towards Wales for my UK short breaks, so it felt quite strange to be driving east on the A14 instead!

I stayed in a beautiful, self-contained cottage in the heart of Lavenham, which I booked through Airbnb. I’ll say more about the accommodation below.

Lavenham is around five miles north-east of Sudbury. The nearest large town is Bury St Edmunds. Here is a map of the area from Google Maps.

Accommodation

I stayed in a charming, self-catering cottage called The Hay Loft in the centre of Lavenham. It had two bedrooms and bathrooms, so was actually larger than I needed.

I originally booked it so my sister Annie could join me for some of the time. Sadly she broke her wrist in a fall the day before, however, which meant she couldn’t come after all. So I had plenty of room to spread myself out!

This being an Airbnb property, I am not supposed to say exactly where it is, but I guess I can reveal that it’s in a very convenient, central location. There was plenty of free parking on the road outside and in the village itself. The location was quiet and peaceful (in the evenings especially) and I slept well throughout my stay. You can see a photo of the front of the cottage below.

Cottage

You can read more about the accommodation on this page of the Airbnb website. It had an open-plan lounge/kitchen/dining room on the first floor, and two bedrooms and bathrooms (one ensuite) downstairs. That’s a slightly unusual configuration, but I was actually very grateful for it as my visit coincided with a four-day heatwave. Being downstairs, the bedrooms stayed comfortably cool. Electric fans were thoughtfully provided, though.

The cottage had all the facilities you could want for a short (or longer) stay. The kitchen area was well equipped with a gas cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, toaster, sink, and so forth.

The cottage had free wifi which worked perfectly during my stay (not always the case in my experience). There was also a small garden at the front, down some steps from the gate. This was well tended and pleasant to sit out in (when it wasn’t too hot!).

Financials

As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a word about this.

I paid £550 for my four-night stay, which works out to £137.50 per day. I thought that was very reasonable bearing in mind the size and standard of the accommodation and the convenience of the location. Obviously as this was self-catering no meals were included, but there was more space and better facilities than you would get in any comparable hotel or B&B.

Things to Do

I won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of what I did while I was there, but here are a few highlights.

The Guildhall

Lavenham Guildhall

Lavenham Guildhall is an impressive timber-framed building. It was originally built in the early 16th century for the Guild of Corpus Christi, an alliance of wealthy local merchant families. In later years, as Lavenham’s wool trade declined, it served as a bridewell (prison) and workhouse. More recently in WW2 it housed a social club for American troops and also served as a restaurant around that time.

The Guildhall became the property of the National Trust in 1951 and it was subsequently opened to the public as a local history museum. It has a range of interesting exhibits, though I did find some of the material about the building’s use as a prison and workhouse a little depressing. My favourite room housed an exhibition dedicated to Lavenham in WW2, including posters and other interesting documents from that period.

At one end of The Guildhall, with its own entry from the square, is the National Trust tea-room. This serves the usual range of snacks and light lunches. It also has a very pleasant garden outside. You don’t need to pay for admission to the Guildhall to use the tea room or sit in its garden.

Little Hall

Little Hall

Little Hall is a late 14th century hall house on Lavenham main square. First built in the 1390s as a family house and workplace, it was enlarged, improved and modernised in the mid-1550s, and greatly extended later. By the 1700s it was giving homes to six families. It was restored in the 1920s/30s.

Little Hall was restored by the Gayer-Anderson brothers, who were both soldiers. They filled the house with art and artefacts collected during their extensive travels, many of which can still be seen there. It is privately owned – by a trust, I believe – and open to the public most afternoons for an entry fee of about £5.

I enjoyed visiting Little Hall and hearing about its long and varied history from the volunteer guide. It also has an attractive walled garden. It doesn’t have any refreshment facilities, but then again the Guildhall tea-room is just a stone’s thrown away!

The Church of St Peter and St Paul

Lavenham church

My Airbnb hostess Sheila told me that the Church of St Peter and St Paul was a ‘must see’ in Lavenham and she wasn’t wrong. To quote from the Wikipedia article about it, ‘It is a notable wool church and regarded as one of the finest examples of Late Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England.’

When I arrived a service was just ending and there were quite a few people milling around. While it’s obviously a beautiful building, it is also a busy parish church. I enjoyed browsing in the second-hand bookshop and spent some time admiring pictures by local artists in an exhibition by the main door. But what really impressed me most were the magnificent stained glass windows, such as the one below.

Lavenham church stained glass window

Final Thoughts

As you may gather, I enjoyed my short break in Lavenham and am happy to recommend both the village and the accommodation where I stayed for a short break.

Lavenham is a lovely place to relax and chill out. It is full of beautiful, historic buildings to admire (and photograph) and several you can visit to get a sense of the village’s long history.

Of course, my initial reason for going was to see Darkside (pictured at the foot of this post), and that was inevitably a highlight for me. The concert took place in a large marquee (‘Lavenham Air Theatre’) in a field between the church and the local tennis club. It was a magical setting as the sun went down and a full moon appeared in the clear summer sky. And yes, the band did perform the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon!

Dark Side of the Moon

Although I didn’t eat out in the evenings, there are some highly regarded pubs and restaurants which if I hadn’t been on my own (and staying in a self-catering cottage) I would certainly have tried. I had lunch at the National Trust tea-room at The Guildhall on two days. Another day I had a delicious light lunch at The Nook, a cosy bookshop-cum-cafe just down the road from the church.

There are also some lovely circular walks from Lavenham (ask at the tourist information office near the Guildhall for more details). And a bit further afield there are other National Trust properties such as Melford Hall and Ickworth, and the historic village of Long Melford. Because it was so hot during my stay I didn’t really want to go out in my car (which doesn’t have working aircon). But if – or more likely when – I return, I will certainly explore this beautiful area a little more widely.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Darkside

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Credit Card Borrowing Set to Boom

Credit Card Borrowing Set to Boom

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Today I am sharing some information and advice from my friends at Smart Money People, the UK’s largest financial services review site

With UK inflation now running at around 10 percent (and forecast to go even higher), many people are feeling the pinch right now. For the large number who have little or no savings to fall back on, borrowing may be their only option to make ends meet.

Research on Borrowing

New research undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Smart Money People shows that the UK’s adults will borrow £101.1 bn on new credit cards, loans, overdrafts and other forms of new credit arrangements in the next 12 months.

The company found that 71% of people currently have less disposable income than they would usually have on average per month due to the current rise in the cost of living. This is leading people to consider other ways to make ends meet:

  • Two-fifths (40%) of UK adults will have some form of credit over the next year due to the cost of living crisis (i.e. rising prices for fuel, energy and food).

  • Borrowers predicted they would look to borrow an average of £5,259 each.

  • 43% of people who will take out new credit are already worried about how they are going to meet the terms of their repayments.

  • A fifth (21%) of the adults who say they expect to take out a new form of borrowing in the next 12 months, will do so to cover day-to-day expenses. This is equivalent to 8% of the adult population as a whole, or 5.5 million people.

  • One in ten (10%) people borrowing over the next 12 months will do so to consolidate existing debts.

The bulk of this new borrowing is predicted to occur during autumn (15%) and winter (32%). A further 13% were unsure exactly when they would borrow but expect it to be when energy price rises affect them.

Smart Money People’s survey also revealed that the most popular type of credit in the next 12 months will be a credit card: 34% of expected borrowers say this will be their preferred method of credit.

Based on the survey, the other most popular types of borrowing in the next year are expected to be an agreed overdraft (17%) and Buy-Now-Pay-Later (15%), a relatively new form of credit where the method of payment is in instalments with low or no interest rates.

Twelve percent of people stated they would borrow from family and friends.

Other Findings

Other findings from the survey include:

  • 68% of people are more worried about their finances now than during the pandemic.

  • A quarter (25%) of people don’t understand how inflation and interest rates will affect their finances.

  • 36% of people are unsure whether they have the best financial products for the current situation.

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said: “We know that many people have very little, if any, savings to help them get through this period of high inflation, and if they have already made cutbacks, they have almost no choice but to turn to credit.

“Providers will do credit checks for some forms of lending but Buy-Now-Pay-Later schemes do not apply the same rules, and of course, family and friends don’t either, so it is entirely possible to accumulate a worrying level of debt very quickly.

“Anyone who needs to take out a new credit card or another form of credit would be wise to check out the company and the contract and not simply jump at the first provider who will lend to them. Take time to understand if they have good customer service and offer channels that suit your style of managing money.”

Guidance for Borrowers

Smart Money People offers the following guidance for people who are considering taking out a new form of credit:

  • Borrow responsibly: if you miss a repayment your credit score will be affected for six years.

  • Don’t simply borrow from the provider who will lend you the highest amount.

  • Check you understand the product: what you will owe and by when.

  • Does the interest rate look reasonable compared to other lenders?

  • You may be penalised if you pay back the debt early – understand the T&Cs.

  • Find out if the lender has a reputation for good customer service by checking ratings on a financial review site.

  • When borrowing from family and friends, make sure both parties agree on how and when monies will be repaid.

  • If you are struggling to make repayments, speak to the credit provider as early as possible to avoid defaulting on a payment.  They should work with you to find an affordable means to repay.

My Thoughts

Thank you to Smart Money People for their help in compiling this article, and in particular for their valuable tips and advice about borrowing sensibly.

I would say, though, that borrowing to pay bills should only ever be a last resort. At the risk of stating the obvious, any money you borrow will sooner or later have to be repaid, probably with interest. And credit card borrowing, once the interest-free period has elapsed, is one of the most expensive ways there is to borrow money.

if you’re worried about your finances, before taking on any type of credit, my top tip is to ensure you’ve done everything possible to maximize your income, minimize your expenditure, and budget smartly (using your existing resources to best effect, in other words). These are all subjects I cover regularly on Pounds and Sense, especially in the Making Money and Saving Money categories. By doing these things you may be able to reduce the amount of money you need to borrow, or even avoid the need entirely.

Remember, also, that the government has already set out a range of financial support measures, with more promised when a new prime minister is (finally!) in post. You can find a useful summary of support currently on offer from the government and local authorities on this official web page.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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My Investments Update September 2022

My Investments Update September 2022

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Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my August 2022 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).

As the screenshot below of performance last month shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £20,344. Last month it stood at £20,407 so that is a modest fall of £73.

Nutmeg Main Portfolio Sept 2022

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,091 compared with £3,108 a month ago, another modest fall of £17.

Here is a screen capture showing performance since January 2022. As you can see, I have topped up this account several times this year.

Nutmeg Smart Alpha Sept 2022

The falls are obviously disappointing, though August was a roller-coaster month and until about a week ago both portfolios were showing a good profit since the end of July. As I’ve noted previously on PAS, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments. And this year there has been no lack of volatility in world markets, caused by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic (among other things).

Even so, since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016 – and despite everything that has happened this year – I have still made a total net return on capital of 42.12% (or 60.65% time-weighted) on my main portfolio.

I should say as well that I selected quite a high risk level for both my Nutmeg accounts (9/10 for the main one and 5/5 for Smart Alpha). This has served me well generally, but I’m sure investors who selected lower risk levels will have seen fewer ups and downs over the last few months. If you also have a Nutmeg portfolio and plan to withdraw from it soon, there is certainly a case for switching to a lower risk level now.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (as mentioned, my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

My Assetz Exchange investments continue to perform well. Regular readers will know that this is a P2P property investment platform focusing on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated £70.81 in revenue from rental and £85.35 in capital growth, a total of £156.16. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile (as at the moment).

I now have investments in 23 different projects and all are performing as expected, generating rental income and in most cases showing a profit on capital as well. So I am very happy with how this investment has been doing. And it doesn’t hurt that most projects are socially beneficial as well.

  • To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

My investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Another property platform I have investments with is Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have around £2,500 invested with them in 14 different projects. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question. At present most of my Kuflink loans are performing to schedule, though two recently had their repayment dates put back by three months.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than £200 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms in the past. My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now!

  • Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question

Obviously a possible drawback with Kuflink and similar platforms is that your money is tied up in bricks and mortar, so not as easily accessible as cash savings or even (to some extent) shares. They do, however, have a secondary market on which you can offer any loan part for sale (as long as the loan in question is performing and not in arrears). Clearly that does depend on someone else wanting to buy it, but my experience has been that any loan parts offered are typically snapped up very quickly. So if an urgent need arises, withdrawing your money (or part of it) is unlikely to be an issue.

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform (including the one shown above) being IFISA-eligible.

My investment in European crowdlending platform Nibble continues to perform as advertised. My latest investment was in their Legal Strategy. These are loans that are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euros and the minimum period is six months. I invested 100 euros for 12 months initially at a target annual interest rate of 12.5%.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per year. The actual yield depends on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All has  gone to plan so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

As mentioned last time, I recently set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie. My investment initially dipped, but I am now about $21 in profit. In these turbulent times I am quite happy with that. But in any event I’m looking on this as a long-term investment so won’t be judging it yet. I am also considering a further investment with eToro, possibly in one of their themed portfolios. You can read my full in-depth review of eToro here.

Moving on, I had another article published on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This one is titled Earn a Sideline Income From Online Surveys. In this article I set out my five favourite survey sites for generating a sideline income. Surveys represent an easy, stress-free way to give your income a bit of a boost, which clearly we could all do with just now.

I had quite a busy month in August (one reason I haven’t updated the blog for a while!). In particular, I agreed to present a session for The Joy Club (an online social group for retired and semi-retired people) on the subject of budgeting in the cost of living crisis. This involved rather more work than I anticipated, as I had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, resources list and accompanying 7000 word script. But it seemed to go down well and I enjoyed the questions and discussion at the end. I know PAS has acquired some extra readers and subscribers as a result of this event, so a very warm welcome if that includes you!

Also in August I enjoyed a break in Lavenham in Suffolk, said to be England’s best-preserved medieval village. My original reason for going was to see Darkside, my favourite Pink Floyd tribute band (see photo below). But I thought I’d make a holiday of it as well, so I ended up staying four nights.

Darkside

Lavenham is a charming, picturesque place, with various interesting historical buildings you can visit. These include the early 16th century Guildhall and Little Hall, a former wool merchant’s house. I plan to write a post about my Lavenham trip soon.

Finally, I know a lot of people are extremely anxious about the cost-of-living crisis. As I said in my Joy Club presentation last week, though, it’s important not to panic. I recommend a three pronged-approach of maximizing your income, minimizing your expenditure, and budgeting carefully (using your resources as effectively as possible, in other words). Bear in mind, also, that various government support measures have already been announced to try to mitigate the worst effects of the crisis. And once a new PM is (finally!) in place, more will certainly follow.

In the meantime, please do check out some of the other posts on Pounds and Sense for additional advice and resources, especially in the Making Money and Saving Money categories.

That’s all for today. As always, if you have any comments or queries, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers 🙂

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.

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