As a bit of fun today, I am running a giveaway for some delicious Bahlsen biscuits. This is (of course) a sponsored post.
Everybody knows the festive season is the season of indulgence when every home and office is well-stocked with tasty treats and guilt-free pleasures. It’s a chance to treat those you love to something they’ll really enjoy and can nibble on all season long.
The brand new Bahlsen Choco Moments are the ultimate treats for Christmas, the perfect way to spread joy to friends and family during the festive season.
Choco Moments from Bahlsen – the experts in chocolate biscuits – are the perfect accompaniment to festive gatherings and cosy nights in. With a thick, luxurious coating of rich chocolate with crisp, satisfying crunch, drenched over buttery biscuit, they are the perfect melt-in-your-mouth treat, and come in two delicious flavours that will fight for space in your biscuit tin.
Choco Moments Crunchy Hazelnut combines smooth, creamy milk chocolate with warm hazelnut tones that are mouth-wateringly moreish, while Choco Moments Crunchy Mint perfectly balances the deep notes of dark chocolate with lively and refreshing mint.
So prepare to spread the Christmas joy and treat your loved ones to a seriously Choco Moment – the perfect moment to unwrap this festive season.
*** To be in with a chance of winning a pack of Choco Moments Crunchy Hazelnut or Crunchy Mint – your choice! – just leave a comment below by midnight on Tuesday 4 December 2018 saying why you love Bahlsen biscuits. I will pick a winner at random on Wednesday 5 December and arrange to send them the biscuits. Even if you don’t win, you can of course pick up Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits from all good supermarkets and grocery shops and online stores including Amazon. The winner will be revealed here and via the Pounds & Sense Twitter and Facebook pages by Thursday 6 December 2018. UK residents only, I’m afraid. ***
Good luck, and let the season of indulgence begin!
Disclosure: as stated above, this is a sponsored post. I am receiving some delicious Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits as a thank-you for posting it 😀
Blogging Secrets is an online course for anyone who would like to earn money as a blogger.
It has been created by UK blogger Jenny Lord, who runs a blog called Midwife and Life. The course is hosted on the Teachable platform.
Jenny was kind enough to allow me reviewer access to Blogging Secrets, so here’s what I found…
Blogging Secrets is a multimedia course organized in 12 main sections, as follows:
Welcome and Introduction
My Blogging Story
Before You Start
Setting Up Your Website with WordPress (.org)
The Business and Legal Side of Blogging
Blog Writing Secrets
Social Media Secrets
Where to Find Paid Blogging and Writing Work
Affiliate Marketing Secrets
Hosting and Running Giveaways
Scaling Up Your Blog Business
Bonus Section
Each section is further divided into anywhere from one to seven parts. Each part contains instructional text and/or a video lecture from Jenny.
As an example, the section titled Affiliate Marketing Secrets is in three parts: Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Networks to Join, which are in written form, and a 16-minute video lecture titled The Secret of Making Affiliate Links Work for You in Your Sleep. I thought all the course content was very well written and presented. There is also a downloadable workbook to print out and fill in.
As you will gather, Blogging Secrets takes you through every aspect of setting up and running a money-making blog. Jenny recommends creating a self-hosted blog using the popular WordPress platform, which I would agree with (my blogs Pounds and Sense and Entrepreneur Writer are both hosted this way).
Be aware that the course doesn’t go into great detail about WordPress itself, though. The section about this includes a recommended list of WordPress plug-ins, but if you are brand new to WordPress you may need to do some additional studying on the technical aspects yourself (see below).
Where the course is particularly strong is about marketing and monetizing your blog. Although I am an experienced blogger myself, I still picked up some valuable tips and discovered a range of free and low-cost resources I hadn’t come across before. I found the sections about affiliate marketing and hosting and running giveaways especially eye-opening. Expect to see more of these on Pounds and Sense soon!
There is also a bonus section containing a variety of useful resources. I have listed these below, although as the course is constantly being revised and updated new ones may well have been added by the time you read this.
Pinterest Magic Ebook
Editorial Calendar
Email Template Swipe File
Blog Checklist
Weekly Blogging Sample Schedule
Pinterest Group Board List
Facebook Mastermind Group
There are some great resources here. I especially liked the Pinterest Magic ebook, which you can download and print out if you like. This explains how you can use this popular social bookmarking service to boost traffic to your blog. I have never entirely got my head around Pinterest , so I found this particularly helpful. Blogging Secrets costs £118.80 at the time of writing. Obviously that’s not cheap, but if it helps you set up a profitable blog that generates a growing monthly income, then it will clearly be money well spent. There is lots of great content on the business and creative aspects of running your blog. Personally I would like to have seen a little more on the technical side, but of course there is plenty of advice about this on the internet. I also recommend this regularly updated ebook by Dr Andy Williams about setting up a WordPress site, which I found very helpful personally when starting out.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about Blogging Secrets, please do post them below.
Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the terms you are offered or the price you are charged.
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Recently I’ve received a number of promotional emails about the Windfall Bonds on offer from the Family Building Society. The emails state, “Our Windfall Bond is a Better Bet Than Premium Bonds”. So I thought I’d take a closer look to see if this claim stacks up.
The unusual feature of the FBS Windfall Bonds is that every month you can win a cash prize, just like Premium Bonds. Unlike Premium Bonds, though, interest is also paid whether you win a prize or not. Interest rates are variable and tied to the Bank of England base rate. Currently they are paying an annual rate of 0.75%.
Each month, every qualifying Bond is entered into a draw for the following set of monthly prizes:
• Ten prizes of £1,000
• Two prizes of £10,000
• One prize of £50,000
As regards your chances of winning, on the FBS website they say:
The breakdown of prizes ensures that each bond has 13 opportunities to win a prize each month – 156 over the course of a year. The more bonds you hold, the greater the chance of winning. Even with one bond, your odds of landing a windfall are 64/1 in the course of the first 12 draws.
How Do Windfall Bonds Compare with Premium Bonds?
The first thing to note is that each Windfall Bond costs £10,000, so that is the minimum investment.
By contrast, the minimum purchase for Premium Bonds is just £100, which is reducing to £25 by March 2019. Windfall Bonds aren’t therefore an option unless you have a fairly sizeable lump sum to invest.
Assuming you do, however, how do the two compare? On the FBS website they say:
Odds of 64 to one are over five times better than the odds of winning £1,000 or more in the course of a year if you invested the same amount in Premium Bonds. And unlike Premium Bonds, the Windfall Bond pays interest, plus there’s no limit to how many Windfall Bonds you can hold.
I am sure that’s true as far as it goes. However, there is a bit more to consider than that.
First of all, Premium Bonds offer lots of smaller prizes than £1,000, including £25, £50, £100 and £500. According to the probabilities calculator on Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert website, with £10,000 worth of premium bonds you could expect on average to win £100 in prizes per year.
By contrast, with Windfall Bonds the guaranteed return at 0.75% is just £75 a year. So if you have one of the 63 out of 64 Windfall Bonds that don’t win a prize in a year, on average you will be £25 a year worse off.
Of course, it’s hard to compare the two directly, as the £100 annual return on Premium Bonds is just an average figure. In practice you might earn more or less than this in a year. You might also earn nothing at all.
A further consideration is that Premium Bonds also pay out larger prizes, including two one million pound prizes every month. The chances of winning a life-changing sum like this are extremely low – a mind-boggling 1 in 35,926,766,878 per month for a single £1 bond – but nonetheless every month two people have to win. The top prize with a Windfall Bond is £50,000. That’s still a handy sum, of course, but at just five times the purchase price of the bond it probably won’t be life-changing.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the interest paid on Windfall Bonds is taxable – so if you have exceeded your PSA (Personal Savings Allowance) you will have to pay tax on it at your highest marginal rate. The PSA for basic rate taxpayers is £1,000 and for higher rate taxpayers £500. Additional rate taxpayers (people earning over £150,000 a year) do not receive a PSA.
Under UK law, both Premium Bond and Windfall Bond prizes are tax-free.
Finally, with Windfall Bonds once you have paid your £10,000 to purchase a Bond you cannot withdraw all or part of it unless you close your account, which takes 35 days. With Premium Bonds you can withdraw all or part of your holding at any time, and the proceeds normally go through in just a few days.
Conclusions
In my view, once you cut through the hype, there isn’t a great deal to choose between Premium Bonds and the FBS Windfall Bonds. In the end it probably boils down to your personal circumstances and your attitude to risk.
If you have at least £10,000 to invest and like the security of a guaranteed 0.75% annual interest rate (variable) plus a small – but not minuscule – chance of winning a monthly prize of £1,000 to £50,000, Windfall Bonds are certainly worth considering.
With a holding of £10,000, with Premium Bonds you will win on average £100 in prizes in a year, compared with a guaranteed £75 interest (taxable) with Windfall Bonds. With Windfall Bonds though you will have a five times better chance of winning an additional prize from £1,000 to £50,000 per year than with Premium Bonds (though you won’t have the tiny chance of winning a life-changing sum).
As mentioned earlier, there are also other considerations, such as the ease of cashing in some or all of your Premium Bonds, compared with the slower cashing in process with Windfall Bonds and inability to make partial withdrawals.
So those are my thoughts, but what do you think? Are Windfall Bonds the way to go, or would you stick with Premium Bonds? Please leave any comments or questions below!
Please see also my 2017 post about Premium Bonds, where I reveal my own experiences with them and set out my thoughts on how they compare with other methods of saving/investment.
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Today I am spotlighting Property Partner, a property crowdfunding platform I have been investing with since 2015.
As I have noted before on Pounds and Sense, I am something of an enthusiast for property investment (and specifically property crowdfunding). Among other things, I like the fact that you can make money from both rental income and capital growth. And investing in property can be a good way of spreading risk when you have equity-based investments.
Table of Contents
Property Partner
Launched in January 2015, Property Partner has swiftly become the UK’s largest property crowdfunding website. They have over 11,500 investors, who between them have invested over £122.7 million in properties across the UK. Non-UK investors are welcome to join Property Partner too, so long as the legal system in their country permits it. Unfortunately US residents cannot invest via Property Partner at this time.
Property Partner offer shares in a wide range of properties. They include commercial buildings and residential ones, including PBSA (purpose built student accommodation). The properties tend to be on the larger side, so you won’t generally find single flats or terraced houses here. Neither do they sell shares in development or bridging loans, as offered by several other property crowdfunding platforms. This is what you might call ‘traditional’ property crowdfunding, where a property is bought on behalf of investors, who then receive a share of the rental income and any capital gains when the property (or their share in it) is sold. Here is a sample listing from their website…
One big attraction of Property Partner is that they have an active secondary market. That means investors can offer part or all of their portfolio for sale at any time. Obviously, to sell your shares in a property you will need a buyer, but Property Partner say that so long as they are priced reasonably (i.e. at or below the current official price) shares normally sell within 72 hours. By contrast, other property crowdfunding platforms such as The House Crowd and CrowdLords do not run formal secondary markets, though they say they will always help would-be sellers find a buyer if required.
Another attraction of Property Partner is that dividends are paid monthly, unlike other platforms which typically pay quarterly, biannually or annually. Money from dividends builds up in your account, and you can either withdraw it or reinvest it in other properties. When you add that you can get started on Property Partner for as little as £250, it is not all that surprising to me that they have enjoyed such success.
For legal reasons explained on the website, you can’t currently invest on Property Partner through a tax-efficient ISA or a SIPP. That means rental income will be liable for tax at your highest marginal rate, and any profits on selling will be subject to Capital Gains Tax (though there is quite a generous annual CGT allowance).
On the positive side, for anyone investing £5000 or more, you can opt for one of three managed plans: income focused, growth focused, or balanced. Your investments in them will be managed on your behalf to ensure good diversification of assets. Property Partner say that the net annual return (capital growth plus rental income) of the dividend plan should be at least 6.5%, the balanced plan at least 7.5% and the growth plan at least 8.5%.
My Experience
I have been investing with Property Partner for three years now, and have shares in a total of 17 properties. My largest single holding is around £2,550 (St David’s Lodge in Hastings, pictured above) and the smallest is £27.90.
I have aimed to build a diversified portfolio within Property Partner. I hold shares in both residential and commercial properties, in London and across the English regions (Property Partner doesn’t have properties in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and they have just one in Wales). To diversify further, I also recently bought a share in some purpose-built student accommodation in Leicester. Although as Leicester is my old university city, sentimental reasons may also have played a part in this decision!
During all the time I have been with Property Partner there have been no defaults or delays, and dividends have arrived in my account every month like clockwork. I understand that is true of all the properties on their books.
All properties on Property Partner are purchased for an initial five years. After the five years are up, all investors will get the opportunity to sell their share (or part of it) at a market valuation made by an independent chartered surveyor. As the platform hasn’t yet been going for 5 years, that hasn’t happened yet. Alternatively, as mentioned above, you can put your share up for sale at any time on the secondary market.
Pros and Cons
Based on my experiences, here is my list of pros and cons for Property Partner.
Pros
1. Fast, easy sign-up.
2. Well-designed, intuitive website.
3. Low minimum investment of just £250.
4. Property Partner take care of all the work involved in buying and managing properties. You just choose which ones to invest in.
5. Possibility to access your money at any time by selling on secondary market (though this does depend on another investor being willing to buy your shares at a price you find acceptable).
6. Guaranteed opportunity to sell at a fair market price after five years.
7. Customer service (in my experience anyway) is fast, friendly and helpful.
8. Charges are reasonable, with an initial 2% fee. There is no charge for selling shares.
9. Potential to profit through both capital appreciation and rental income.
10. Rental income is paid into your account every month. You can either withdraw it or reinvest it.
11. Up to £750 cashback is available for new investors of £2,000 or more via my referral link (see below).
12. Managed investment plans are available for investors of £5,000 or more.
Cons
1. No tax-free ISA or SIPP option available.
2. Rates of return are competitive but not the highest.
3. No development or bridging loans.
4. Some properties are purchased with gearing (loan finance). This makes them riskier if the value of the property should fall.
Conclusion
Overall, I have been impressed by my experiences with Property Partner. There have never been any delays or defaults, which can’t be said of every crowdfunding platform I have invested with. Property Partner state that the returns generated across all their properties since 2015 average 7.3% a year, taking into account both rental income and capital appreciation. That obviously beats bank and building society accounts by a considerable margin.
As ever, it is important to note that investments with Property Partner do not enjoy the same level of protection as bank and building society savings, which are covered (up to £85,000) by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. All investments are secured against bricks and mortar, however, so even in a worst case scenario it is highly unlikely you would lose all your money.
The lack of liquidity with property investments generally means they should be regarded as medium- to long-term investments, and you should only invest money you are unlikely to need at short notice. The active secondary market on Property Partner does though mean that you should be able to recover your capital quickly if you need it, though there is no guarantee what price you will get.
Clearly, no-one should put all their spare cash into Property Partner (or any other investment platform). Nonetheless, it is certainly worth considering as part of a diversified portfolio. Not only are the rates of return significantly higher than those offered by banks and building societies, they are relatively unaffected by ups and downs in the stock market. Property investments aren’t a way of hedging your equity-based investments directly, but they do help spread the risk.
Welcome Offer
As an existing Property Partner investor, I can offer a special bonus for anyone joining via my link. If you click through this special invitation link, sign up and invest a minimum of £2,000 within 60 days, you will receive an extra bonus as follows (and so will I):
Not only that, once you are an investor with Property Partner, even if you only start with £250, you will be able to offer the same bonus to your friends and relatives and earn commission yourself. There is no limit to the number of people you can introduce through this scheme.
Obviously, this is a generous promotional offer by Property Partner and I assume it won’t be available forever. If you want to take advantage, therefore, don’t wait too long. I will remove this information if/when I hear the offer is no longer valid.
If you have any comments or questions about this review, as always, please do leave them below.
Disclosure: this post includes affiliate links. If you click through and make an investment at the website in question, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This has no effect on the terms or benefits you will receive. Please note also that I am not a professional financial adviser. You should do your own ‘due diligence’ before making any investment, and seek professional advice from a qualified financial adviser if in any doubt how best to proceed.
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RESET is book aimed at mid-life professionals who feel as if they are in a rut and and want to get their lives back under control. I was kindly offered a review copy by the author, David Sawyer, so here are my thoughts about it…
The full title of the book is RESET: How to Restart Your Life and Get F.U. Money. By the latter, David means enough money so that you can say – er – “So long” to your employer if your job is causing you undue stress. The book does, though, emphasize that RESET doesn’t necessarily involve quitting your job, if you enjoy it and it is aligned with your personal goals and values.
RESET is available from Amazon in both hard copy and Kindle e-book versions. The printed version – which I received – amounts to quite a substantial 337 pages (plus a further 34 pages of preliminaries with Roman numbering!). The bulk of the book is arranged in six main sections, as follows:
1. What Matters to You?
2. Going Digital: How to Future-Proof Your Career
3. De-Clutter Your Life
4. Getting F.U. Money – a Plan
5. 11 Core Principles to Guide You in Work and in Life
6. 12 Do’s and Don’ts
Each section is divided into chapters. Part 4, Getting F.U. Money – a Plan, is the longest by some way and divided into 17 chapters. David is a PR professional, and as you might expect his book (which is published under the imprint of his PR company) is well written and presented.
RESET promotes, broadly speaking, the philosophy advocated by the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. FIRE has been largely driven by some influential (mainly US-based) online bloggers.
The general idea of FIRE is that you seek to achieve financial independence at as early an age as possible, by simplifying your life, living more frugally, saving money and investing. The aim is to build up a substantial ‘pot’ of money that you can then use to buy yourself time and freedom. The ultimate aim – in many cases anyway – is to give up your job and retire early.
That doesn’t mean just joining the pipe and slippers brigade, though. It will typically involve spending more time enjoying life with loved ones, and working on projects that you enjoy and are important to you. These might involve anything from starting your own business to pursuing a hobby or interest, learning a new skill to doing voluntary work for a cause close to your heart.
As a money blogger myself I was familiar with quite a few of the concepts set out in the book, but David has done an impressive job of researching them and bringing them together in a highly accessible (and entertaining) way. As a semi-retired 62-year-old freelance writer I am not really in David’s main target readership, but I did still pick up some valuable tips and resources that I shall be using in my own life.
If you are a mid-career professional (roughly speaking between 35 and 60) and feeling stuck in a rut, this book will open your eyes to a range of strategies for regaining control of your life. You may not agree with every piece of advice David offers (I don’t share all his views about investment, for example) but you will almost certainly gain a lot of valuable, actionable tips and ideas. At the very least, it will open your eyes to a method that is increasingly being adopted by people on both sides of the Atlantic to take back control of their lives and achieve their long-term goals.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about RESET, please do post them below.
Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the price you are charged or the terms you are offered.
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Today I’m looking at another possible way of saving for retirement, the Lifetime ISA (or LISA for short).
LISAs were launched in April 2017 with the aim of encouraging younger people to save. Despite some rumours they might be changed or even abolished, in his budget yesterday Chancellor Philip Hammond left them untouched. That’s good news, as LISAs offer some attractive bonuses and tax advantages for savers. They do have one big drawback for older people, though – you have to be under the age of 40 (though over 18) to open one.
Of course, I know many readers of this blog are older than that – but even if you are, this saving scheme may still be relevant to your children or grandchildren. So here are the basics you need to know…
Table of Contents
Understanding LISAs
LISAs are designed for two specific purposes: buying your first home and saving for retirement.
How they work is that you can pay in up to £4,000 a year (lump sums or regular contributions) and the government will top this up with another 25%. As long as you open your LISA before the age of 40 you will continue to receive the bonuses on your contributions until you reach 50.
So if you pay in the maximum £4,000 in a year, the government will top this up to £5,000. If you pay in the full £4,000 every year from the age of 18 to the upper limit of 50, you will therefore get a maximum possible bonus from the government of £32,000.
LISAs are available from a small but growing number of providers (see below). As with ordinary ISAs, you can choose a cash LISA or a stocks and shares LISA (though not yet an innovative finance LISA). Note that the money you invest in a LISA counts towards your annual ISA allowance, which in 2018/19 (and also it’s just been announced 2019/20) is £20,000. So if you were to invest the maximum £4,000 in a LISA this year, you would be able to invest a maximum of £20,000 – £4,000 = £16,000 in an ordinary cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA and/or IFISA.
Your money will grow without any tax deductions in a LISA, and you can also withdraw without having to pay tax (though see below for restrictions).
Where Can You Get a LISA?
There are about a dozen LISAs on the market at present. There are three cash LISAs, available from the Skipton Building Society, Nottingham Building Society and Newcastle Building Society. The latter has only just launched and pays the highest interest rate of 1.10 percent at the time of writing, paid monthly.
If you’re using a LISA to save long term for retirement, a stocks and shares LISA will probably be a better option. Providers of stocks and shares LISAs include Hargreaves Lansdown, The Share Centre, and the online-only Nutmeg. I wrote about my experiences investing in a stocks and shares ISA with Nutmeg in this blog post.
So What’s the Catch?
Unfortunately, there are several.
One is that (as mentioned above) you can only use the money in your LISA for one of two purposes – paying a deposit on your first home or saving for retirement.
While you can access your money for other reasons, you will then lose 25% of the total, including your own contribution and the government bonus along with any investment growth. That means in many cases you will get back less money than you put in. (There is one exception to this rule, which is that you can withdraw all the money without deductions if you are terminally ill with less than 12 months to live.)
Also, unless you’re buying a first home, you can’t withdraw your money without penalty until you reach the age of 60 – unlike workplace and personal pensions, which you can access unrestricted from 55 onwards.
Another drawback may be that unlike pensions, money in a LISA will count if you have to apply for any means-tested benefits. So you could be required to withdraw your LISA savings (paying the 25% penalty) and live off those until your savings are below the means-testing threshold. LISAs also count as assets in bankruptcy or divorce cases.
Pensions Versus LISAs
For most people, pensions are likely to be their first and best choice for retirement saving.
A workplace pension in particular will benefit from employer contributions as well as tax rebates from the government. That combination is hard to beat, especially if you pay tax at the higher rate. Definitely don’t opt out of your workplace pension in favour of a LISA.
Nonetheless, if you have some spare cash you can afford to save in addition to your pension, opening a LISA is worth considering. It’s also a decent option if you don’t have a workplace pension – perhaps due to being self-employed – and you don’t pay higher-rate tax.
In any event, if you want a LISA and are approaching 40, don’t hang about. You can open a LISA for as little as a pound, and can continue to make contributions and receive the government top-ups till you are 50. The money will then carry on growing in your LISA and provide a nice little nest-egg for your 60th birthday!
As always, if you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.
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I recently enjoyed a day out on the Talyllyn Railway, a heritage steam railway in Wales. It was an great day and excellent value as well, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write about it here.
The railway starts in the town of Tywyn in mid-Wales, so I booked a short break there to provide a base for my planned trip on the railway. I stayed at The Arthur Guest House, a B&B on the coast road. Here’s a map showing the area…
Tywyn is pretty quiet, or at least it was when I visited at the end of September! It has a rocky rather than a sandy beach and not a lot in the way of tourist amenities (which may or not not be a good thing, depending on your point of view). I did get to see a couple of lovely sunsets, though…
The Arthur Guest House, where I stayed, is small but comfortable, and the breakfasts were excellent. The price was also very reasonable – about £70 per night for a double room with single occcupancy.
The Arthur was about 10 minutes walk from the Talyllyn Railway main station, so I was able to leave my car at the guest house for the day.
The Talyllyn Railway
The Talyllyn Railway goes seven and a quarter miles inland from Tywyn Wharf station along the scenic Fathew Valley to Nant Gwernol. Here’s a map of the route, borrowed from the Wikipedia page.
The Talyllyn Railway is said to be the oldest preserved railway in the world. It opened in 1865 to bring slate from the quarry at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, where it would connect with the newly opened Cambrian Coast line and the national railway network. The line was originally owned by the quarry, but unusually it also ran a passenger service almost from the very start. You can read more about the history of the railway, and how it was taken over in 1951 by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, on this page of the railway’s website.
The main station at Tywyn Wharf has a shop and a restaurant, and also a small museum devoted to the railway, which you can look round for free. There is no car park at the station itself, but there is a reasonably priced municipal pay-and-display with plenty of spaces about 150 yards down the road.
For my day out I bought a Day Rover ticket, which lets you travel all day on the line if you wish. I paid the donation fare of £19, which also gets you a £2.85 voucher you can use in the shop or cafes. I knew I would use the voucher on refreshments, but otherwise I could have paid £17.25 for a standard ticket without a voucher.
I went on my own, but if you have children (or grandchildren) the cost of tickets for them is surprisingly low. The Day Rover donation fare for an accompanied child is just £3 which includes a 45p voucher. If you don’t want the voucher, the fare per child is just £2.70.
If you wish, you can pay a £2 surcharge per journey to sit in a first class compartment. I did look at these but they weren’t much different from standard class, just with bigger and possibly more comfortable seats. I guess if you were there in peak season and there were lots of people wanting to travel, going first class might buy you a bit more space. It was pretty quiet on the day I went, though, and I found the standard compartments perfectly comfortable.
If you are a UK taxpayer you may be able to Gift Aid your fare. There is no extra charge for this, and it means the government will give the railway an extra 25% at no cost to you. Unfortunately I couldn’t do this as I don’t currently earn enough to pay tax.
My Day on the Railway
I set out in the morning from Tywyn Wharf station (photo below) and decided to start by going the complete length of the line and back again. I enjoyed the views, while keeping one eye on the excellent guidebook. The latter is available in the shop at a discount to people buying a ticket on the railway, which is a nice gesture.
There isn’t much at Nant Gwernol at the end of the line, but on the way back the train stops for half an hour at Abergynolwyn station (pictured below). There is a nice little cafe here, and I enjoyed a morning coffee and Bara Brith (Welsh fruit bread).
Returning to Tywyn Wharf, I had a look around the shop and the museum, and lunch in the station cafe (a particularly tasty bowl of broccoli and stilton soup with a tuna mayo sandwich). Then it was back on the train again for a trip two-thirds of the way down the line to Dolgoch, where I got off to spend some time walking in this beautiful wooded area (see photo).
Dolgoch has some stunning waterfalls, including this one…
I had a bit of time before the train back, and was pleased to discover a small tea shop offering hot and cold drinks, cakes and ice creams (apparently this is part of the nearby Dolgoch Hotel). As it had turned into a warm afternoon I bought an ice cream and sat outside in their garden to eat it. Then it was time to head back to Dolgoch station to catch the train to Tywyn (photo below).
So that was my day out on the Talyllyn Railway. As I said earlier, a great day and excellent value for money. I went as a single person, but it would also be a good choice for couples and families, if you enjoy beautiful scenery and the romance of steam!
Finally, I should mention that just down the coast road from Tywyn (a 25-minute drive with some great sea views) is Fairbourne, which has a miniature steam railway (see photo below). I took the opportunity of going on this as well before I headed home.
The Fairbourne Railway is much shorter than the Talyllyn. It’s about two miles long. At the far end is the estuary from which you can get a ferry to Barmouth. A trip on the Fairbourne Railway is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two, and again with a day ticket you can travel up and down the line as often as you like (I did it twice). On my return to Fairbourne a volunteer kindly offered me a private tour of the engine shed, so many thanks for that!
Do just be aware that at the estuary end of the line the cafe is only open in peak season. There is, though, a good cafe on the platform at Fairbourne, and they don’t mind you taking food and drink bought there on the train with you.
As ever, if you have any comments or questions on this post, please do post them below.
The article includes advice on managing your money in later life from a number of UK money bloggers, including yours truly. As a matter of interest, here are the tips I provided, both of which are quoted in the article.
What would your main advice be for an older person wanting to manage their money well?
Don’t bury your head in the sand where money matters are concerned. Keep a close eye on your income and expenditure, and always be on the lookout for ways you can maximize the former and minimize the latter.
Just one example – use a comparison service such as Uswitch.com to see if you could save money on your energy and other utility bills. By switching to cheaper suppliers you could save hundreds of pounds a year for just an hour or two spent on the computer.
What financial mistakes do you think are most common for older people and what can be done to avoid them?
Sometimes with older people pride gets in the way of asking for help and support. That’s understandable, and in its way admirable. But for older people (especially those on low incomes) there are various welfare benefits they may be able to apply for – from Pension Credit and Council Tax Reduction to Attendance Allowance and Warm Home Discount. Nobody will come knocking on your door offering them, though! You need to be proactive about researching what you may be eligible for, perhaps using an online service such as www.entitledto.co.uk. Don’t then let misguided pride prevent you from applying. This is money set aside by the state for people in your situation and can potentially make later life a lot more comfortable for you.
I hope you enjoy reading the article – here’s the link again – and find the tips (including mine!) helpful. As always, if you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.
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In my last post I shared my Top Ten Time Management Techniques. Today I want to go into more detail about one of the methods I mentioned, The Pomodoro Technique. I find this a great tool for improving my time management, lowering my stress level and boosting my productivity.
The Pomodoro Technique was devised by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. It splits tasks into focused 25-minute sessions called ‘pomodoros’ (from the Italian word for tomato), separated by short and longer breaks.
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Applying the Technique
There are six basic steps to applying The Pomodoro Technique:
(1) Decide on the task to be done.
(2) Set your timer to 25 minutes.
(3) Work exclusively on the task till the timer rings.
(4) Take a five-minute break.
(5) Every four pomodoros, take a longer break of 15 to 20 minutes.
(6) Continue this cycle as required.
Obviously you will need a timer of some description for this. Cirillo himself originally used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, which is how the technique got its name. Cirillo recommended using a mechanical timer, as he believed the physical act of setting it primed the user to start working.
The technique is quite flexible, though, and nowadays many people use timers on their computers or smartphones instead. Obviously, if your work requires the use of a computer, it can make sense to have the timer on this as well.
There are lots of free timer programs and apps you can use. Here are a few possibilities.
Marinara Timer is a web-based app, so it will work on any computer or operating system. You can keep it open in a tab on your browser. There are three different versions: a traditional Pomodoro timer, a more flexible one where you can change the session lengths, and a simple kitchen timer. It’s very flexible, and you don’t have to install anything.
Tomato-Timer is also web-based. If you want a simple, basic Pomodoro timer, this is for you. Just open the website, click the green Start button, and 25 minutes will count down. An audio alarm will sound at the end of the period. You can enable desktop notifications as well.
Clockwork Tomato is a free Android app. Just tap it and get working. At the end of 25 minutes your phone’s alarm will go off.
Arise is available from the Apple Store for iOS/OS X users. It describes itself as an anti-procrastination app. It incorporates the Pomodoro Technique among other methods.
Who Is Pomodoro For?
The technique works especially well for people who have to produce something that has to be reviewed by others. That includes designers, programmers, and (as I can testify myself) writers and bloggers.
But it can also work well for people such as support staff, who may use their 25 minutes to work through a set of tickets, then take a short break to refresh themselves and ensure they don’t get burned out.
And people who work with their hands, such as artists, gardeners and builders, can use the method to force themselves to take a step back at regular intervals to evaluate their work, take a rest, and plan what to do next.
Why Does It Work?
There are various reasons the Pomodoro Technique works so well.
It makes starting a job less daunting. At the beginning of a large project the amount to be done can appear overwhelming. This in turn creates feelings of anxiety and the urge to procrastinate. But if you divide the work up into 25-minute sessions, suddenly it appears a lot more do-able.
It helps you focus on the job in hand. For 25 minutes at a time you are working on one task and nothing else. This is much more efficient than trying to multi-task, which human beings are notoriously bad at.
Each pomodoro becomes a mini-challenge. Completing your 25-minute goal is rewarding and gives you a little boost. It means you can relax and enjoy your breaks more too, as you will feel that you have earned them. All of this can make the working day more enjoyable and less stressful.
It forces you to take regular breaks. Working in the same position (e.g. sitting at a keyboard) for long periods is bad for your health. Using the Pomodoro Technique, you can use the short and longer breaks to move around, get a drink, or even take a breath of fresh air.
More Tips
The rules of the Pomodoro Technique aren’t written in stone. If you get into a good flow, you may sometimes want to continue beyond the 25-minute limit.
Equally, you might find that 25-minute sessions are too long and you work better in 20-minute bursts. Experiment to find what works best for you.
Try to avoid getting interrupted during a pomodoro. If someone asks you a question, explain that you are in the middle of something and ask if you can get back to them in 10 minutes.
If you have to break off a pomodoro due to an unavoidable interruption, cancel it and start a new one (for a full 25 minutes) as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
The Pomodoro Technique works well for many people, but not all. Some jobs/activities clearly aren’t suitable for it, and others may not be all the time. In practice many users find they can only use it for part of the day, before other demands on their time make it impracticable. Often those periods are their most productive of the day, though!
I wish you every success applying the Pomodoro Technique. I hope it helps you manage your time better, reduce your stress level and boost your productivity!
As always, if you have any comments or questions, please do post them below.
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Young or old, we all lead busy lives these days. And even those of us who are retired or semi-retired often juggle a wide range of duties and responsibilities, from part-time jobs to managing our healthcare, looking after our house and garden to babysitting the grandchildren.
Time management is something I’ve always had an interest in, and as a freelance writer I’ve produced a number of articles about in the past. So today I thought I would share some of my top tips on managing your time better…
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1. Know What Your Goals Are
The first essential step for better time management is knowing what you want to achieve, both in your work (if you’re still working) and your life more generally. Knowing your goals will help you plan better and focus on the things that will help you to achieve those goals.
2. Prioritize
One key principle of good time management is to do the most important things first. Every day, therefore, identify the two or three tasks that are most crucial to achieving your goals, and do them first. Once they are done, your day has already been a success. You can then move on to other things, or let them wait till tomorrow.
3. Make a ‘To Do’ List
This isn’t exactly an original idea, but it’s a powerful and important one. Either the evening before or first thing in the morning, make a list of all the things you want to achieve that day. Apply priorities to the tasks (see above) and tackle the most important first. Ticking off items from your list as you complete them is rewarding and will give you a sense of moving forward to achieving your goals.
4. Focus on One Thing at a Time
Human beings are notoriously bad at multi-tasking, so try to focus on one task at a time. A personal favourite tool for this is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in focused, intensive bursts with short breaks between them. Click here to read my in-depth post about the Pomodoro Technique.
5. Batch Process Routine Tasks
According to a recent study, a typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to their email program more than fifty times and instant messaging 77 times. If that sounds like you, one way you can boost your productivity is by ‘batch processing’ these tasks. In other words, set aside specific time-slots in the day for checking email, making phone calls, and so on, but otherwise stick to your priority tasks. Yes, people may have to wait a bit longer to get replies, but at a stroke you’ll be working far more efficiently.
6. Minimize Distractions
There are many ways you may be able to do this. One is to work from a different base where you are less likely to be interrupted. Some possibilities might include a café or coffee shop, a public library, or a meeting room that isn’t being used. Another option might be to ask your employer if you can work from home some days.
7. Have a Low-Tech Day
A further option you might try is a low-tech day. Switch off your internet connection and immediately a wide range of potential distractions will be closed to you. Unplugging your phone or putting it on voicemail will eliminate a further swathe. Obviously, you won’t be able to do this every day, but it’s well worth doing if you have an important project to complete or just a lot of work to catch up on. Even if that doesn’t apply, you should find that designating one day a week as a low-tech day greatly boosts your overall productivity.
8. Use the Four D’s
This is a great time management technique for dealing with incoming emails. The four D’s are Delete, Do, Delegate, or Defer.
To apply this method, the first time you open an email apply one of the Four D’s.
Delete: If you’re anything like me you can probably delete over half the emails you get immediately.
Do: If the email is urgent or can be completed quickly.
Delegate: If the email can be better dealt with by someone else.
Defer: Set aside time later for emails that require longer action.
The Four Ds technique is great for keeping on top of your inbox and reducing the time you waste on it. You can also apply the Four Ds to items on your To Do list generally.
9. Say ‘No’ More Often
For many of us saying no is difficult, especially to work colleagues or family members. Nonetheless, if you have to decline a request in order to focus on what is truly important to you, don’t hesitate to do so. Your time is limited and precious, so don’t waste it on things that you don’t enjoy and won’t contribute to achieving your personal goals.
A good response instead of automatically accepting requests is to say, ‘I’ll check my diary and get back to you.’ This will buy you time to think about offers and decide whether they are worth pursuing.
10. Use Waiting Time Constructively
We all have times in the day when we are waiting for something. This includes sitting in reception areas, doctors’ waiting rooms, queuing at the bank, driving or travelling on public transport, exercising, and so on.
Rather than waste this time, use it constructively. For example, you could listen to a podcast on a subject that interests you. Or just take the opportunity to reflect on your current goals and projects. These ‘down times’ can be great for stepping back and taking a broader view of your life and work. Always carry a notebook with you to record any thoughts or ideas you have at these times.
Finally, although it’s not a time management tip in itself, take care of yourself. That means getting enough sleep (experts say 7 hours a night is the minimum you should aim for) and sufficient physical exercise. None of us can be fully productive unless we pay some attention to these things, so give your mind and body what they need to refresh and replenish themselves.
I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any comments or questions, or other time management tips to share, please do leave a comment as usual.
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