Today I’m focusing on self-storage. This is hugely popular in the UK, which has nearly half the self-storage sites in Europe (according to their trade body, the Self Storage Association UK).
People use self-storage for all sorts of reasons. They include moving home, when you may have to store your furniture and possessions for a short period. It also includes moving in with a partner, when you need to store some items temporarily until you decide what to do with them (do you really need two washing machines, for example).
Another common reason is people moving abroad – perhaps on a one- or two-year work contract – and needing somewhere safe to store their belongings until they return.
Self-storage can be particularly attractive to older people, such as many readers of this blog. Perhaps you’re downsizing and don’t have room for all your belongings in your new home. Or you may simply have accumulated a large number of possessions over your lifetime and need somewhere away from your home to store them, so you don’t run out of space! You might also have things that for one reason or another – e.g. their size or value – you don’t want to carry on storing at home.
As mentioned above, UK residents are fortunate to have lots of options when it comes to self-storage, and it is of course important to shop around for the best price for the service you require.
A recent study by mystery shopping company ProInsight highlighted the particular importance of shopping around for insurance, however. In particular, it highlighted the importance of not automatically choosing the insurance offered by the self-storage company itself. More about this shortly.
Table of Contents
Self-Storage Insurance
If you are going to use self-storage, contents insurance is normally compulsory. This will cover loss or damage to your stored contents caused by anything from water/oil leaks to attempted theft. Some household contents policies cover this, but the majority don’t, especially if the items will be in storage over a lengthy period.
All self-storage providers offer insurance, typically by arrangement with a particular insurance company or broker. What many people don’t realise, however, is that you can also insure your belongings separately, perhaps using an online insurance provider. As we shall see, potentially large savings can be made this way.
Mystery Shopping Research
The ProInsight study mentioned above used mystery shoppers to get quotes from 165 self-storage branches across the UK, covering 70 firms in total. They were chosen to provide a representative sample of self-storage providers, including large and small, general and specialist, business- and consumer-oriented. They included branches of all the top five self-storage companies in the UK: Safestore, Big Yellow Self Storage, Access Self Storage, Shurgard Self-Storage and Lok’nStore.
The results were eye-opening, to say the least. In all but one case, savings could be made by using a third-party online insurer. In many cases these savings were substantial. For example, a Big Yellow branch in Bromley quoted a figure of £340.20 for a policy covering £5,000 worth of goods for three months. The same risk could be insured for between £21.30 and £44.85 elsewhere.
Richard Hannan of Surewise.com, the insurance company who commissioned the ProInsight study, said: “We were amazed to find that storage companies were charging an average of three times more for the same or very similar policies. Some of the prices that were being charged were highly alarming and in fact, we struggled to find a single self-storage company that was selling insurance for less than their online competitors.
“This means 99% of people who are insuring with their storage units will make savings by spending a few minutes online, and possibly considerable savings at that.”
It follows that if you are using self-storage over a long period, you could end up paying hundreds or even thousands of pounds more in insurance costs if you stick with the cover offered by your self-storage provider.
Obviously it’s important to compare like with like, and the self-storage companies have argued in their defence that online policies don’t always offer the same level of protection as their own. However, Richard Hannan said, “We have always covered a lot of these areas, such as water and oil damage, and ‘new for old’ but our new policies which are underwritten by SAGIC, have added all these additional cover areas such as moth, subsidence or sprinkler damage to combat these messages back from the storage units. SAGIC are The Salvation Army General Insurance Corporation.”
Surewise.com
The ProInsight study mentioned above found that in many (though not all) cases, the lowest cost online insurance cover provider was Surewise.com. Their Household and Business Self-Storage Insurance covers you against loss or damage to stored contents in the event of:
Natural disasters, including lightning, earthquake, storm, flood and weight of snow
Fire and explosion
Leaking water/liquid from fixed water tanks and pipes
Theft and attempted theft, with proof of violent breaking and entering (e.g. broken lock)
Falling trees, telegraph poles and lamp posts
Collision by any vehicle or animal
Impact by aircraft and other flying devices or items dropped from flying aircraft
Rioters, violent disorders, strikes, labour disturbances, civil commotion and malicious acts
Surewise.com say they will replace or repair any stored items damaged (with repair or replacement at their discretion). They provide an instant insurance certificate when you order online. If you are thinking of using self-storage, it is well worth checking their website to see how much you could save.
Summing Up
If self-storage is something you plan to use, be sure to shop around. There are lots of options in the UK, so take some time to research the market and find out which is best for your needs.
In addition – and very importantly – DON’T just accept the insurance offered you by the self-storage company. Assuming your ordinary home contents insurance doesn’t cover you, get quotes from online insurers such as Surewise.com. The great majority of self-storage companies allow customers to use third-party insurers, and in many cases you can save large sums by doing so, especially if you plan to use self-storage long term.
If you have any comments or questions about this article, as always, please do post them below.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Surewise.com, from whom I am receiving a fee.
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Secrets to Saving: The Ultimate Couponing Guide is a book/ebook about saving money on your shopping by using coupons. I had heard good reports about it for a while, so decided to buy a copy for myself to find out more.
Secrets to Saving – as I’ll call it for short from now on – is written by a young man named Jordon Cox (also known as The Coupon Kid). Jordon claims it’s possible for anyone to save over £1,000 a year on their shopping by this method, with larger families obviously having the potential to save even more.
If you’re an oldie like me, the chances are you will already be familiar with couponing. In the past this typically involved cutting out coupons from newspapers and magazines and taking them to a local shop or supermarket to redeem them. The coupon might give you a discount or (if you were very lucky) a free product.
In Secrets to Saving, Jordon reveals that this method is still going strong, but even more offers are available online if you know where to look. He lists a number of websites where you can either access coupons directly or find links to sites where coupons are available. You will clearly need a computer with an internet connection and a printer to benefit from these sites, but I guess most readers of this blog will have those things anyway.
Jordon also discusses smartphone apps, which allow you to make big savings in the form of cashback on selected products. An example is the CheckoutSmart app, which regularly offers freebies from well-known brands. You just have to scan a picture of your receipt with the item in question on it (you can use your smartphone for this) and the price will be refunded to your CheckoutSmart account. From there you can transfer the money to your PayPal account. As long as you wait until you have earned £20 or more, no fees are charged for this.
Secrets to Saving also looks at advanced techniques such as ‘stacking’, where you combine offers to generate bigger discounts or even get items for free. Jordon explains that you can even make a profit in certain cases which can be set against other items in your shopping (though don’t expect to leave the store with more money than when you went in!).
Any criticisms? Only very minor ones. I found out that the link to the Money Saving Expert couponing page didn’t appear to be correct (somewhat ironic as Jordon works for them, but perhaps the URL has changed recently). Anyway, here’s a link that does work: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/
In addition, the book has a very short chapter about entering consumer competitions, which as Jordon says can combine very well with couponing. It would have been nice to see a bit more about ‘comping’, although it’s probably unfair to criticize Jordon for this, as that isn’t what Secrets to Saving is about. Maybe Jordon is saving his advice on this subject for his next book!
Overall, I was very impressed with Secrets to Saving: The Ultimate Couponing Guide. Although some of the methods I knew about already, it opened my eyes to a range of others, including some pretty weird ones (who knew that writing poems about your favourite products could be so profitable?!). As a writer myself, I was also impressed by how well written (and edited) the book was.
With its modest asking price – £10 for the print book or £2.49 for the Kindle e-book version – it shouldn’t take long to cover the cost of buying Secrets to Saving through the money you save on your shopping.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the terms you are offered.
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Today I am pleased to bring you a guest post from my fellow UK money blogger (and freelance writer) Ruth Hinds, who blogs at Ruth Makes Money.
Ruth’s post is about blogging, a subject I haven’t previously got around to covering on Pounds and Sense. But, of course, it’s a major way I make money myself these days, and it’s also an option that is both accessible and appealing to many older people.
Over to Ruth then…
Have you ever thought about starting a blog as a way to create an extra online income stream? Or do you have an existing blog that you write just for pleasure, and sometimes toy with the idea of turning it into a money-making machine?
Though I’ve been a freelance writer for the past seven years, it’s only around 12 months since I took the leap and created my own blog, dedicated to documenting my journey towards creating a full-time income online, and what’s worked for me along the way.
Whilst it’s relatively early in my blogging journey, I’m happy to admit that monetization was on my agenda from day one. As well as help people to create their own freedom away from the constraints of a traditional job, I was eager to learn the ropes quickly and add another income stream to my box of tricks.
It’s safe to say that I’ve reached that goal, and I’ve also learned a ton of valuable lessons along the way when it comes to creating a profitable blog. Here’s what you really need to know if you’re thinking about taking a similar path…
Table of Contents
1. It’s a steep learning curve, and it pays to get started ASAP
I often see people saying that they intend to monetize their blog one day in the future, but they don’t yet feel ready to make that leap. They feel that there’s more to learn, or more experience they need to get under their belts, or they just find it all a little overwhelming. Though I completely understand – because there’s certainly a lot to get your head around – I do also disagree with waiting.
You see, making money from your blog takes trial and error. There are strategies to become familiar with, tactics to master, and you’ll undoubtedly get plenty of things wrong along the way. This is why I believe that it pays to start that learning journey sooner rather than later.
There’s also a valid point here that as you build your audience, it makes sense that they’ve seen your monetization efforts from the beginning. This way, you’re being transparent from the start, and there’s not a point where your readers can suddenly bring your integrity into question.
2. You don’t need a gigantic audience to start making money
We’ve all heard about the big name bloggers who are pulling in hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, and of course, these people often have millions of followers. It’s important to recognise though that there are plenty more bloggers with relatively small readerships who are earning a decent chunk of cash along the way.
What it really comes down to is the methods that you use. I personally decided to really drill down on affiliate marketing, and put my efforts into promoting my favourite matched betting software. By creating content that explained the matched betting process, answered common questions, and gave an insight into my own successes with leveraging free bets from online bookies, I started earning commissions within my first few months as a blogger, and they’ve continued to grow throughout the year.
3. Though some monetization tactics are definitely more realistic than others!
Though I’ve had great results from affiliate marketing, there are still some blog monetization techniques that my readership is simply too small to tap into effectively. A great example of this is running adverts in the sidebar. These typically earn me about $15 per month. They’re never going to make me rich, though they do cover my hosting and domain costs.
When you’re blogging, it can seem like your to do list is never ending. There are posts to write, content to promote, social media channels to keep on top of, and the reality is that you need to selective about what you do and don’t dip your toes into. Based on my experiences, I’d definitely suggest that new bloggers get super focused, and really run with just a couple monetization techniques so they can see the best possible returns.
4. Blogging can be a great way to get started with freelance writing
When it comes to the various money-making methods that go hand in hand with blogging, the possibility of starting a freelance writing business is definitely discussed less often. Perhaps it’s because it’s more hands-on, and couldn’t be classed as passive income. Still though, it’s worth discussing because it can be highly profitable, and also hugely rewarding.
When you’re putting your writing out there online on a regular basis, other bloggers and business owners start to pay attention. They get a feel for your style, your expertise, and the value that you could bring to their own content creation processes. And of course, you’re building a portfolio that you can use to pitch for projects that catch your eye.
I built my freelance writing business without the power of my own blog behind me. With hindsight though, I can tell that I definitely missed a trick. Starting a blog is a legitimate way to start a writing career, whether that be copywriting for businesses, or even feature writing for newspapers and magazines.
5. It won’t make you rich overnight, but building a generous income is very achievable
If you’ve been around the block a few times with side hustles, then you’ll know that things take time. There are no overnight millionaires, and if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. And so if you’ve read income reports from big bloggers who claim to be pulling in massive amounts of money, then you may be a little bit skeptical. Is it all smoke and mirrors? Have you missed the chance to do the same? Or did they just get lucky?
What I know for sure from my year as a blogger is that it’s very possible to start earning money within your first few months, and if you commit to being in it for the longer term, the rewards are there for the taking. It takes time, and a dedication to learning the ropes, but I’m pleased to be in a position now where my blog consistently generates in excess of £800 per month. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s not too shabby for something that I only dedicate part-time hours to!
My only regret with blogging is that I didn’t start sooner. It earns me an income, it’s opened up countless opportunities, and knowing that I’m helping other people with their money-making adventures brings me a huge amount of satisfaction.
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, then why not bite the bullet and get stuck in?
Ruth blogs about genuine ways to make money online at RuthMakesMoney.com. She covers blogging, eBay reselling, and freelance writing, and loves helping people to build profitable income streams on their own terms.
Many thanks to Ruth (pictured) for an interesting and inspiring article.
I have been blogging myself for a number of years, both here at Pounds and Sense and at Entrepreneur Writer and the former My Writing Blog (now closed).
Like Ruth, I would never claim that blogging is a get-rich-quick proposition. It takes time and effort to build a successful blog, and only then will the big rewards start to come.
But blogging is also a creative and fulfilling pastime that can help keep your wits sharp and generate at least a useful sideline income. And it’s something you can fit in as and when you have the time (and energy), so again it can work well for many older people. For all these reasons – and more – I plan to cover blogging again on Pounds and Sense before too long.
As always, if you have any comments or questions, for me or for Ruth, please do post them below.
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A few months ago I came across a smartphone app called MobileXpression. It offered the opportunity to generate a sideline income by sharing some details of your mobile phone usage.
The company behind MobileXpression conducts research on mobile internet use. On their website they say:
The goal of MobileXpression is to develop a better understanding of the trends and patterns affecting the mobile Internet. Just as television uses ratings to determine which programs are the highest rated and most watched, MobileXpression uses the knowledge of its members’ mobile Internet habits to determine the popularity and importance of various mobile web sites and applications. Companies can then use this market research to make informed decisions regarding their mobile marketing strategies.
In exchange for letting MobileXpression access your mobile phone data, the company offers incentives. In the US these include a range of vouchers, but as a UK user the only one I have ever been offered is for Amazon UK. Amazon gift vouchers are almost as good as cash, of course, so I am perfectly happy with this 🙂
UK users of MobileXpression receive a £5 Amazon voucher by email after using the app for just one week. After that you are allocated 2 ‘credits’ every week you remain a member. Once you have 20 you can exchange them for a £20 Amazon voucher.
This has been working well for me, and I have now accrued over £100 worth of Amazon vouchers for very little effort. The only problem occurred on one occasion when there was a delay in issuing my voucher. I raised a support ticket about this via the app, and the voucher duly arrived a few days later.
Table of Contents
Pros and Cons
Based on my experience using the app, here’s my list of pros and cons for MobileXpression.
PROS
Rewards arrive reliably.
Anyone can join (you don’t have to be a heavy mobile internet user).
Once the app is set up, there is little else to do (just log in occasionally to claim your credits).
Amazon vouchers are a good reward and can be used to fund a huge range of purchases
MobileXpression will have access to data about your smartphone usage, although they say they don’t monitor your calls.
Some people have reported that the app slows down their phone, although I haven’t noticed this myself.
Summing Up
Overall, I have been very happy with MobileXpression. Clearly nobody is going to get rich from it, but based on my experience it can provide a regular source of hassle-free, passive income in the form of Amazon vouchers.
If you have a suitable phone and aren’t too concerned about the privacy aspect of having your usage monitored, I therefore recommend giving it a go. The app is available for both Android (in Google’s Play Store) and iOS for iPhone.
If you have any comments or questions about MobileXpression, as always, please do post them below.
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Today I am pleased to bring you a guest post by Araminta Robertson, who blogs at Financially Mint.
Araminta is a university student and she writes from a young person’s perspective. Today she shares some of her top tips for eating healthily on a budget.
One thing many older people have in common with students is that they need to watch the pennies. Araminta has some great advice for all of us on how to eat both frugally and healthily.
Over to Araminta then…
It’s not easy to combine healthy, cheap, delicious and quick. And yet, it is still possible. As a student, I’ve always had to figure out the best combination, and through a lot of practice I’ve realised that the methods I used could also be very useful for anyone in a similar situation.
So – here are four steps get that sweet combination of exactly what you’re looking for when you eat. Here we go:
Table of Contents
1. Plan it
The first step is to figure out your ‘magic number’; how much are you willing to spend? What is your budget for food for one month/week?
Start with that number and work your way back. Then make a list of cheap healthy food that you and your family enjoy. Some examples are:
Beans
Eggs
Tomatoes
Frozen veggies
Pepper + onions
Almonds
Lentils
Squash/pumpkin
Oats
Canned goods
Yoghurt and cheese
Quinoa
Carrots
Aubergine
Kale
Sweet potatoes and potatoes
Now you’ve got your magic budget number, some general ingredient ideas. What’s missing? A recipe. And it’s at his point that I whip out Google and simple type in ‘ingredient recipe’, so ‘carrot recipe’ for example. I do a bit of research, look for something simple and cheap to make. Some great websites to find these are BBC Good Food and All Recipes UK.
Do a bit of a rough plan – find some ingredients, do some research and pick some recipes you’d like to try out during the week. Then write down the list of ingredients you’ll need to complete that plan. It’s always fun to try some exciting recipes and do some experimenting. More on this later 😉
2. Shop it
Time to do some exploring! If you want to stick to a small budget, go to discount supermarkets such as Aldi, Asda and Lidl. Bring your ingredients and grocery list and do the shopping!
A little tip: Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry, you’ll probably end up buying unnecessary stuff
What I normally do is one big shopping day a week and then some additional stuff from time to time. Pick a day to do your shopping for the week and buy it all at once. You’ll see batching is a huge productivity booster – no need to do mini shopping trips anymore! It’s also easier to budget week by week, this way it’s easy to know how much you spent on the shopping trip.
3. Cook it
Now to the exciting part.
What prevents most people from cooking is the ‘I’m rubbish at cooking’. We were all rubbish at cooking at one point, and you get better by doing more of it. The first pie you make might be a disaster, but the tenth one will be pretty tasty.
Once again, batching: pick a day to do all the cooking for the week (I like Sundays). Make it a fun activity; include the kids, the family, the dog, even. A proper event, an afternoon where everyone gets together to prepare meals for the week. Of course, if that’s not possible then simply cook it yourself – but an event is always nice.
Have your meal plan ready and then cook and freeze stuff for the week. Soup, rice and beans can last the week – whereas meat and potatoes aren’t very good at that. As you cook more and more you’ll figure out what can be stored and what can’t, and you’ll also end up preparing some more delicious recipes.
I normally produce large quantities of rice/pasta/sauce/ and freeze it or leave it in the fridge. Then when it’s time to eat I just have to make the meat/veggies
4. Try it
The most important when improving your cheap/delicious/healthy meals is to keep experimenting (I even do fancy Money Experiments). Try new ingredients (I’ve got an interesting vegetable called a ‘swede’ in my kitchen), new recipes and new dishes. You’ll slowly get better at it. Now I consider myself an expert at making something out of scraps – stir-fry it all.
Here are some examples of cheap budget meals I like to do:
Soup – mushroom soup, pumpkin, lentil, tomato
Curry – could be vegetarian
Pie/quiche
Tacos/wraps/quesadillas
Jacket potatoes
Chili
Fried rice – literally just veggies, eggs and rice
Omelettes/scrambled eggs
Stir-fry
Also keep on the lookout for discounts, sales and chances to save a little bit of money. Here are some good websites to get started: Money Saving Expert, Super Savvy Me and CheckoutSmart.
There you go! Four steps to eating well on a budget. The hardest part is simply sticking to it and being willing to try new things. But if you make it a fun event every week, you can turn it into a family activity and be held accountable to do every week. Next thing you know you’ll be cooking fancy quiches and amazing risotto. Keep trying!
What’s your favourite recipe? Comment below!
Bio: Araminta is creator of Financially Mint, a personal finance blog for university students written by an actual student. She interviews experts, does weird experiments and a ton of research to help her and others graduate financially intelligent.
Many thanks to Araminta (pictured) for an interesting and useful post. Do check out her Financially Mint blog as well!
I guess some of my older readers may be amused by her reference to the “interesting” vegetable called a swede. Swedes are a vegetable many of us baby boomers remember well from childhood, and not always fondly! I must admit I haven’t cooked with swedes for a while, but promise to put them on my shopping list again during the winter months 😉
Like Araminta I enjoy looking for recipes on the internet, and I often use the websites she mentions, and various others. My personal tip would be to take a few moments to read the reviews and comments that are often left by people who have tried the recipes. This feedback is invaluable, especially the ideas for tweaking/improving the recipe.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, for Araminta or me, please do post them below.
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I’ve discussed matched betting a few times on Pounds and Sense. Despite the name it’s not gambling but a genuine way of making a risk-free sideline income.
Matched betting involves (legally) taking advantage of bookmaker special offers. By doing this you can generate a guaranteed profit for no risk, regardless of how the event/s you are betting on pan out.
Although it’s not essential to subscribe to a matched betting advisory service, if you are new to betting in particular it is highly advisable. There are various services, the best known of which include Profit Accumulator and Odds Monkey. Today, however, I want to look at a rival service called Profit Squad, which has its own unique set of tools and features, and in my view is especially suitable for people who already have some knowledge of matched betting. That being said, it also has all the advice, tools and information someone new to matched betting would require.
Profit Squad were kind enough to give me complimentary membership of their service so I could see what they have to offer. Here’s what I found…
Table of Contents
First Impressions
Profit Squad is now owned by the same company that runs MatchedBets.com (which I reviewed here), so you may not be surprised that there are some similarities in appearance between the sites. While MatchedBets.com has a rather garish colour scheme, however, Profit Squad (see below) is more restrained. Personally I prefer this, as it makes the site look more professional, as well as being more readable.
As you will see, the main navigation menu is at the top right of the screen. If you hover the cursor over Offers or Tools, a sub-menu will appear. It’s all quite logical and intuitive.
As with all matched betting advisory services, the site is organized into a number of sections. The main ones are listed below:
Training
Offers
Tools
Calendar
Forum
I’ll look at each of these in a bit more detail below.
Training
This is (of course) the training area of Profit Squad, and is the place where new matched bettors should start. It is neatly and attractively set out. There are 22 articles here, covering everything from how to get started in matched betting to reload offers and advanced strategies (including online casinos)..
The articles consist mainly of text and screen captures, with videos also used in some cases. I found the articles clear and well written. While I am already familiar with the basics of matched betting, I found some of the articles (e.g. on each-way dutching and how to profit from online slots) genuinely eye-opening.
Offers
This is divided into sub-sections, including:
New Customer Offers
Existing Customer Offers
Accumulator Offers
Free Bet Clubs
Horse Racing Offers
Casino Offers
Advanced Casino Offers
These are all pretty self-explanatory. In New Customer Offers, for example, all such offers are listed in order of expected profit, the highest first (see below).
Clicking on Instructions takes you to detailed instructions on how to apply the offer. These generally include a short video plus written instructions. Again, I thought these were very clear, and I like the way the key points of each offer are set out in checklist form at the top of the page.
Offer Calendar
This is a feature of Profit Squad I really like. Just by visiting the Calendar page you can see all the day’s recommended offers, along with the expected profit and a link to full instructions for doing them.
Odds Matcher
Of course, every matched betting service needs an odds-matching tool, which helps you find the best bets for matched betting offers. Here’s a capture of the one provided by Profit Squad.
As you would expect, you can filter results according to sport, odds (minimum or maximum), start time, odds percentage, liquidity available at the exchange, and so on.
One feature I particularly like is that odds are shown in real time, so you don’t have to keep refreshing the screen. This also avoids the situation that can occur using other odds matching software (e.g. on Profit Accumulator) where the information frequently lags behind, so you think you have found a great match only to discover it has already gone.
Acca Backers
As mentioned in this blog post a few months ago, accumulator offers are a particular favourite of mine. These are where you take advantage of bookmakers’ offers to refund your stake if one leg of your accumulator loses. This gives punters an in-built edge and means they should enjoy steady profits so long as they back and lay appropriately.
Profit Squad’s accumulator software offers four different ways to make money from accumulator offers: Lay Sequential, Lay at Start, Lay With Lock-In, and No Lay. All four methods are explained in the Training area, mentioned earlier. This is more advanced than other platforms’ accumulator tools, which typically only offer three options.
As you may have noticed, with Profit Squad by default you see all four types of offer listed according to their expected value (average profit generated). However, if you prefer one particular type of acca (e.g. Lay With Lock In, which I prefer personally) you can set the filter to show only this type.
Horse Racing Matcher
This tool is provided for use with horse racing offers, e.g. your money back if your horse is second to the SP favourite. By careful backing and laying you can generate a good return when a refund is triggered and a small qualifying loss otherwise, hopefully producing steady profits overall.
As you will see, the Horse Racing Matcher is still in Beta at the time of writing, but appears to be working well. As with the Odds Matcher and Acca Backers, the odds in this software tool automatically update when they fluctuate on betting exchange and bookmaker sites.
Calculator
This is another standard feature on matched betting advisory service sites, but the one offered by Profit Squad is undeniably impressive. Although it looks simple at first sight (see below), it is actually a very powerful tool.
As well as standard matched betting calculations for qualifying bets and free bets, you can use it to calculate bonus on win, bonus on loss, enhanced odds as free bets, and several more. Pretty much any bonus situation is therefore covered. You can also use the calculator to work out what to do in the event of incomplete lays, and if you want to overlay or underlay a bet.
Forum
Likewise, every matched betting service needs a forum, where members can ask questions, share offers and opportunities, or just discuss anything matched betting related (or otherwise).
The Profit Squad forum (see below) is neatly set out and works well. It isn’t as busy as some forums, e.g. the one owned by the market-leading Profit Accumulator. There is plenty of good content, though, and staff are usually around to assist as required.
In addition to the forum, Profit Squad has a discord chatroom for members, which is great for discussing opportunities in real time.
Other Features
Profit Squad has a range of other features as well. If I tried to list them all this review would be at least double its already excessive length!
One tool I should definitely mention, however, is the Each Way Dutching Calculator. Each way dutching is a method of backing multiple or all runners in a horse race (or other event) with different bookmakers at their best prices. With suitable races this method can be more profitable than standard backing and laying, and it is also generally less hassle. Full information about how to use the Calculator is included in the training area, of course.
Another thing I should mention is that Profit Squad tracks all your betting activity automatically. It keeps a record of your profits and bet details, and displays them in your account. This makes it easy to see how you are doing overall, and does away with the need to maintain your own spreadsheets (although personally I still like to do this).
One final comment is that the site is fully mobile optimized – so if you like to bet on your smartphone, you should find using Profit Squad a pleasanter experience than with some rival services.
Pricing
Joining Profit Squad currently costs £15 a month. That is cheaper than most other matched betting advisory services, e.g. Profit Accumulator currently charge £17.99 a month. They don’t have a free trial offer like some other services, but for just £1 you can get a 14-day trial giving you full, unlimited access to the service. In many ways this is a better deal than the free limited membership offered by other services, as you can do as many bookmaker offers as you like (or can fit in) during your 14-day membership.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I have been very impressed with Profit Squad. It offers high-quality matched betting training, and a comprehensive range of software tools, tips and information..
In my view it is particularly suitable for people who may already have some experience in matched betting, who are now looking for more advanced strategies to keep the money rolling in.
Profit Squad is particularly strong on online casino strategies, including slots, roulette and blackjack. I know from my membership of various matched betting Facebook groups that this is now a very popular approach among experienced matched bettors who have exhausted the bookmaker welcome offers. There are some risk-free casino offers, and others that may not be risk-free but have a positive ev (expected value). That means by the law of averages if you do these offers you will make a long-term profit, but will likely suffer some day-to-day losses. This is all covered in detail in the training, of course.
Profit Squad also have some of the best matched betting software tools I have seen, covering pretty much the entire range of bookmaker welcome and reload offers and more besides. About the only drawback I can see with it compared with a service such as Profit Accumulator is that the forum isn’t as active, but of course this is likely to change in future as more members join the service.
If you are thinking of giving matched betting a go – or are looking for an alternative advisory service featuring more advanced strategies – I strongly recommend checking out Profit Squad. They are adding new tools and features all the time, and joining now will ensure you have access to them at no extra cost. In any event, the 14-day trial for £1 is basically a risk-free opportunity to see everything they have to offer. Do just one risk-free offer during this time and you should cover your £1 outlay multiple times over.
As always, if you have any queries about Profit Squad or matched betting generally, please do post them below.
Disclosure: This review includes tracked affiliate links. If you click through and sign up with Profit Squad, I will receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the service you receive (or the price you are charged) in any way.
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If you are 50 or over, you will almost certainly at least have heard of Warner Leisure Hotels. The company have 14 country and coastal resort hotels across England and Wales. They have a strict adults-only policy, and appeal mainly to an older clientele (based on my experience, the average age is late sixties or early seventies).
As well as accommodation, they offer a range of leisure activities, including day trips, quizzes, guided walks, archery and bowls, social dancing, swimming, and so forth. Most of these activities are included in the price, as is the evening entertainment.
Accommodation is generally on a half-board basis, including breakfast and evening meal. Guests typically book short stays of two to four days, often focused around a particular headline act. Some of those in the current line-up include Motown, Abba and Franki Valli tribute acts, plus the real Leo Sayer, Paul Young, Russell Watson, Alexander Armstrong, Jane Macdonald, and many others. There are also seasonal breaks, spa breaks (at the Thoresby Hall hotel), bowls breaks, and more.
I have been to two Warner Leisure Hotels, Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales (pictured above) and Alvaston Hall in Cheshire. I thought I would therefore take the opportunity to share my impressions here for others who might be contemplating this type of short break holiday.
My Review
As my partner passed away five years ago, I went to both venues on my own. I am in my early sixties, and felt very young compared with some of the other guests!
In both cases I found the accommodation spacious and comfortable, with all the facilities you would expect at a good hotel. I was on the ground floor at both, and had a small private terrace with a metal table and chairs, which was pleasant to sit out on. Here’s a picture of the accommodation block in which I stayed at Alvaston Hall.
I thought the food was generally very good. The dining area was large and could be a bit noisy, but the waiters and waitresses did a great job of getting meals out quickly. You are allocated a table at the start of your stay and keep that for the duration. As a solo guest I was offered the opportunity to be matched with another solo male as a dining partner. I declined this, as it seemed a gamble whether I would have anything in common with them.
At Alvaston Hall the evening meal is combined with the entertainment. So, basically, you have your meal followed by a show, all the while sitting at the same table. I liked this idea in theory, but in practice I discovered it had a few drawbacks.
For one thing, if you have been allocated a table towards the back (as I was) it can be quite hard to see what is happening on the stage. In addition, for me anyway it felt a long time to be sitting in one place. Really I preferred the arrangement at Bodelwyddan Castle, where you had your meal in the restaurant then went over to the main hall for the evening entertainment (for which you could sit anywhere).
I must admit I was slightly disappointed by the entertainment programme. The evening entertainment in particular was targeted at an older clientele and I didn’t particularly relate to it, despite being no spring chicken myself!
Both hotels seemed very big on social dancing, with guests being invited to ‘take the floor for the foxtrot’ or whatever. Not my thing at all, I’m afraid. I had been hoping for something more akin to cruise ship entertainment, with song and dance shows and cabaret acts, but perhaps that was asking too much.
There were regular quizzes, though again I felt that they were often oriented towards the older guests. I did one quiz about the 1950s, a decade many of those taking part remembered well. As I was only four years old when the fifties ended, I felt at a bit of a disadvantage!
On the positive side, I went on several guided walks, which I really enjoyed. I also took full advantage of the swimming pools, and at Alvaston Hall went to an interesting demonstration of fruit and vegetable carving (see photo below).
I also enjoyed looking around Bodelwyddan Castle itself (pictured below), which is a National Trust property. Warner guests get free entry during their stay, which is a nice bonus.
Prices
As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a few words about this.
I thought both the breaks I took were good value for money, bearing in mind that as well as comfortable accommodation you get breakfast and an evening meal, and a range of leisure facilities and entertainment.
When I checked just now, you could book a two-night break at Alvaston Hall for two people this weekend at prices ranging from £219.48 for a standard room up to £315.48 for a luxury suite. In my experience even ‘standard’ rooms are very comfortable, and the price above works out to just over £100 per person per night. By comparison, I have been charged well over £100 per night for bed and breakfast, with no evening meal or entertainment, in some hotels and guest houses.
If you are travelling solo (as I was) you may have to pay an under-occupancy surcharge. However, the hotels do have some single rooms, and there are also ‘no surcharge’ offers for solo travellers on some breaks. It’s definitely worth inquiring about this with the hotel you want to stay at.
Finally, I should mention that Warner Leisure Hotels often offer special deals and discounts. Once you are on their list, you can expect to be mailed regularly about these!
Summing Up
Overall, while I enjoyed my stay at these hotels, I have to say I did feel a bit young for them. The entertainment wasn’t really my cup of tea and I’m not sure it will be even when I’m ten years older. I saw one review that described Warner Leisure Hotels as ‘Butlins for old people’ and have to admit I think that’s quite apt (it’s owned by the same parent company as Butlins and Haven Holidays, incidentally). I don’t mean to sound snobby about this. When I was growing up I enjoyed regular family holidays at Butlins holiday camps and hotels. But the format does seem a little tired and old-fashioned now. In my view the company could learn a few lessons from the range of entertainment offered on cruise ships nowadays and even in tourist hotels in places like the Canary Islands.
I also think Warners could do a lot more to welcome solo guests and get them involved. At times I found staying there surprisingly lonely. Again, my experience with cruises has been that they do a much better job for solo guests, with regular meet-ups, social activities and even dedicated staff members to look after them. It would be nice if Warners did something similar. There are lots of older people who live alone, and I think the company are missing a trick by not reaching out to them.
But to be fair, I do think Warner Leisure Hotels offer an appealing combination of comfortable rooms, good food, a full activities and entertainment programme, and good value prices. I’m not planning on going again soon, but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out in future.
So those are my impressions of Warner Leisure Hotels, but what do you think? Have you stayed at one yourself, or would you even consider it? I’d love to hear your views!
For a wider range of all-inclusive holiday options in the UK and abroad, check out this article on Over 60s Discounts 🏖
Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links, so if you click through and make a purchase I will receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the terms you are offered. Neither has it influenced in any way this review!
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Some of you may know that for more years than I care to remember I made my living as a freelance writer. Nowadays I am semi-retired but still take on writing work from time to time, alongside running this blog, of course!
I know many people are interested in freelance writing, and it often appeals to older/retired people, as you can do it part-time and it doesn’t require any expensive tools or equipment. Writing is also something you can do even if you have health issues or disabilities.
So today I thought I would share a few of my top tips about freelance writing for money, based on my years of experience. To be clear, I am talking mainly here about writing for editors and other clients, rather than books or ebooks (which I previously covered in this post about books and this one about ebooks).
I hope this article may be of interest to younger people, as well as my core readership of over-50s.
Table of Contents
1. Don’t Worry About Not Knowing Everything
When I was starting my writing career, I worried a lot about what I didn’t know.
Every time I came across a word I hadn’t seen before, rather than view it as an opportunity to learn something new, I took it as a further sign that my vocabulary wasn’t wide enough to succeed as a writer. (In fact, I now realise that while having a good vocabulary is definitely an asset, you could go through an entire writing career without ever knowing the meaning of palimpsest, clepsydra, ursine, and many more…)
It wasn’t just vocabulary either. I worried that I didn’t know whether I should use “toward” or “towards”, “forever” or “for ever”, “continuous” or “continual”, and many more. And I could waste a whole morning agonizing over whether I should use a dash or a colon in my opening paragraph.
What I realise now is that most of these things matter little. Quite often, either choice will be acceptable. My advice to a new writer today would be to get a good dictionary and style guide, and refer to these whenever you’re in doubt. But if you’re still not sure, just make your best guess and move on. The chances are that whatever you choose, your editor will change it anyway!
Our American friends have a very good expression for this: Don’t sweat the small stuff.
2. Specialize
There are lots of other would-be freelance writers out there, so you need to do whatever you can to make yourself stand out. For me, anyway, that has meant specializing.
Specializing has all sorts of advantages for a freelance writer. If you are regarded as an “expert” in your field, editors and publishers will turn to you when they need a writer on the subject in question. In addition, because of your perceived expertise, you may be able to charge a higher rate than an “ordinary” freelance.
Don’t just stop at one specialism, though. Try to develop a number. My specialist subjects over the years have included self-employment, advertising and PR, careers, the Internet, gambling for profit, popular psychology, English grammar, writing for profit, personal finance, and several more. At least then, if there is a fall in demand for one of your specialisms, you have other strings to your bow.
My advice to a new writer would be to start with an area you know a lot about, or have a particular interest in, and make it your business to become an “expert” in that field. Write a few articles about it, perhaps for low-paying markets when you’re getting started. Once you have published some work on your specialism, people will start to regard you as an expert in it, and more work is likely to follow. By researching more articles and talking to “real” experts, you will build up your store of knowledge, until you really are something of an expert in your chosen field. It’s worked for me, anyway
3. Don’t Take Criticism Too Seriously
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to constructive feedback on your work. However, you should evaluate it carefully and be prepared to reject it if you don’t agree with it.
Remember that judgements about quality (or otherwise) are often subjective. There’s a story I tell in my CD course Write Any Book in Under 28 Days (more info here if you’re interested) about a time when I regularly wrote careers information articles for a large UK publishing house. These were basically four-page articles about different jobs.
I submitted my articles to one particular editor at the publishing house. Invariably they came back to me covered in red ink, with insertions, deletions and transpositions all over the place. I tried to learn from her comments and improve, but still every time the articles came back changed almost beyond recognition. She still put the edited articles through, but I honestly felt like a schoolboy whose report card read, “Could do better”.
Then I got a new editor – a man this time, as it happens. I submitted my latest article to him, and waited for it to come back to me covered in red ink as usual. And waited. And waited. So eventually I phoned him up and asked what had happened to my article. “Oh that,” he said, sounding surprised I had even mentioned it. “It was fine, so I put it through for publication.”
The truth is that in writing, as in life, everyone has different views of what is good and what is bad. So listen to criticism by all means, but try to evaluate it objectively, and always feel free to reject it if you think it’s wrong. And never, ever, take criticism personally.
4. Put Yourself About
However good a writer you are, no publisher or editor is going to beat a path to your door. Especially when you are starting out, you must be prepared to send off torrents of query letters, emails, book proposals, and so on. I first connected with one of my longest-standing clients, Lagoon Games, after I replied to an advertisement they placed in the Guardian newspaper twenty years ago. I am still working with Lagoon today, incidentally.
Put yourself about in the flesh too. Join your local writers’ circle, go on writers’ courses and conferences, volunteer to give talks, and run classes in adult education. In the online world, set up a writing homepage and/or a blog, and join at least one writers forum. And sign up at social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. All of this will help raise your profile as a writer, and make it more likely that potential clients will get in touch with you.
And also under this heading I’d add, build up your network of useful contacts. These can come from all sorts of places: fellow writers you meet, proofreaders and editors you work with, folk you meet on courses, people you interview for articles, people you connect with via online services such as Twitter, and so on. Many of the new writing opportunities that have come my way over the years did so as a result of networking.
5. Don’t Rely Solely on the Internet
Don’t get me wrong, the net is a wonderful thing, and there are lots of great resources on it for writers. However, there was no internet at all when I was starting out, and it didn’t hold me back!
If I was starting today, one thing I would certainly do is approach potential clients directly offering my services, including local companies, agencies and organizations. I would also read the job ads in newspapers and magazines, not only looking for writing jobs, but for businesses who are hiring in the fields of information management, PR, and so forth. They might well be in need of freelance writing assistance as well, and a speculative application could turn up a regular source of writing work. Again, this is a strategy that has worked well for me in the past.
6. Be Reliable
This is one of the most important qualities any client needs in a writer. He (or she) wants to be confident that you will deliver your article (or whatever) by the agreed deadline. If the deadline arrives and your article doesn’t, it can create all sorts of headaches for them.
If you can see you’re going to have problems meeting a deadline, therefore, DON’T just cross your fingers and hope for the best. Tell your client. Given sufficient notice they may be able to make alternative arrangements, e.g. bringing another article forward and postponing yours till next month. But if you don’t tell them in advance, it may be too late for this. Don’t then expect them to offer you any work in future.
7. Be Available
Clients sometimes need to contact writers at short notice, e.g. to check a fact or request a partial rewrite. You don’t have to be always just a phone call away (though that won’t hurt), but it should be possible for an editor to contact you by some means and get a reply within 24 hours. Always aim to have your mobile with you, therefore, and check this and your email regularly, preferably at least twice a day.
And if you’re going away on holiday for more than a day or two, it’s a courtesy to let the editor know, especially if you have just sent them some work!
8. Don’t Argue
OK, this one is a bit controversial. If you disagree with a client’s decision, you can say so. But don’t push it. At the end of the day, it’s her neck on the block, not yours, if she publishes your article and it goes down like a lead balloon with her readers.
Here’s an example from my own experience. In my capacity as a newsletter editor I was pitched an idea by a semi-regular contributor. Normally I liked his ideas, but for various reasons I couldn’t use this one, so I turned it down with a polite explanation. I then received a long, aggrieved email telling me quite forcibly that I was wrong and he was right, concluding with words to the effect, “I think I know our readership by now.” As you might guess, I didn’t commission many more articles from him after that…
9. Be Friendly but Professional
It’s good to build relationships with clients and editors. Over a period of time you will inevitably get to know one another quite well, and genuine friendships often result.
However, remember that the client is also – in effect – your employer, so it’s important to remain professional in all your dealings with them. Don’t assume that because ‘John’ or ‘Mary’ is your buddy, they won’t mind if you palm them off with inferior work or take other liberties with them.
Another example here (all names changed to protect those concerned). A few years ago one of my regular clients, a guy I’ll call Phil, was looking for an additional freelance writer. I recommended a woman named Clare to him, whom I’d worked with on a couple of projects.
All seemed to go well at first, and then I heard that he had dropped Clare quite suddenly. As I knew Phil pretty well, I asked him what had happened. He was a bit reticent at first, but then he told me, “We’re a family company, Nick, and we choose the people we work with very carefully.”
A little more probing finally revealed that he had been on the phone to Clare one day, and she casually dropped the F-bomb into their conversation two or three times. Phil hadn’t said anything to her at the time, but I guess he was a bit shocked by this. Anyway, he decided that he couldn’t work with her any more.
I must admit, I don’t know why Clare did this. Maybe she wanted to show she was “one of the boys”, or maybe she’d just been watching too many Hollywood movies. In any event, it was exactly the wrong tack to take with Phil, who abhors bad language in any form. And so it cost Clare the opportunity of a continuing source of well-paid work.
That’s perhaps an extreme example, but it does illustrate an important point. A good, friendly relationship between writer and editor/client can be very rewarding for both parties, but you should never let it become an excuse for behaving unprofessionally.
10. Be Enthusiastic!
One final thing experience (mine and other people’s) has taught me is that enthusiasm will carry you a long way as a writer. I’m sure it’s true in other fields as well, but clients generally are more inclined to hire writers who are enthusiastic about their work rather than those who seem simply to be going through the motions.
Obviously, you DO need in addition the writing skills and other qualities to deliver a good job. Without enthusiasm, however, you will probably never get the chance to demonstrate that you have these skills and qualities.
Look at it this way. If a client gets two applications, one from someone who is relatively inexperienced but brimming with enthusiasm and ideas, the other from someone with an impressive CV who sounds as though they could barely be bothered to get of bed this morning, nine times out of ten it’s the writer with the enthusiasm who will get the gig, even if they may not have as much experience. It’s human nature that we all respond better to people who radiate a positive attitude themselves.
So before sending off an application for any writing job, ask yourself honestly: Do I really sound as if I want this job? Do I appear excited by the prospect of working with this company? Can the client see that I am bursting with ideas and raring to do a good job for her? Or, conversely, does my application sound half-hearted? Does it sound as though I don’t really expect to get the job, and don’t much care one way or the other? If the latter is the case, hit “Delete” and start again. You MUST, MUST, MUST convey enthusiasm in all your applications and proposals!
I do hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any comments or questions – or any other useful tips for new writers – feel free to add them below as comments.
Happy writing!
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Today I am pleased to bring you a guest post from Cora Harrison, a UK blogger and vlogger (video blogger) whose website is called The Mini Millionaire.
Cora is a successful ‘comper’ who (as revealed below) has won over £20,000 worth of prizes from free-to-enter consumer competitions. In her article she explains how anyone can follow in her footsteps and shares her top tips and resources.
Over to Cora, then…
Twenty years ago my dad, a former miner, spent most of his night shifts listening to the radio answering tie-breaker questions. He won a number of prizes, his favourite of which was a cash lump sum that allowed him to purchase a greenhouse for our garden.
Twenty years later and in my young adulthood I’ve found myself with the same hobby of entering competitions to win prizes. Albeit, things are slightly different now. That’s of course due to the internet, which has seen radio and postal competitions decline in favour of email and web-based competitions – after all, this is a marketing promotion for businesses, and they are interested in creating product awareness and getting you to buy their product.
While I’ve only been a true ‘comper’ for the past three years, I’ve managed to win upwards of £20,000 worth of prizes, including a television, a number of nights and weekends away, a family trip to Universal Studios in Florida, a games console, and much, much more…
Today I want to present a basic introduction to what I believe to be one of the greatest hobbies ever – comping!
Table of Contents
Where To Find Competitions
Finding competitions has been made much easier since the birth of the internet. That’s thanks to database websites listing competitions, the answers to any questions asked, prizes on offer, closing dates, etc.
As well as checking these websites regularly, I also subscribe to Compers News. For £4.95 a month I get a monthly magazine posted direct to my door with a directory of great competitions, news articles from the world of comping, and an online forum providing me with connections to people who share the same interests as me.
How To Enter Competitions
There are a number of different ways in which competitions can be entered. Prior to the internet the main ways were phone calls and the post. And while these methods of entry still exist, they are much less common now.
Instead, as I mentioned in the introduction, you’ll find many more competitions that are online based. They may require you to sign up for a free account for a website, for example, or even to comment via your social media account.
My favourites are known as ‘creative competitions’. These often require you to make or design something. They can sometimes require a specific skill and take longer to enter than other competitions due to the effort required. But of course this has the effect of reducing the number of competing entries, and gives you the opportunity to use your skills to give your chances of success a big boost.
Here’s my girlfriend’s entry to a recent competition hosted by British Heart Foundation charity shops. This required you to use your sewing skills to upcycle an item of clothing from the store.
Unfortunately, she didn’t win the top prize of a European break for two. However, she had a fantastic time creating the outfit!
Hints and Tips
Now we know where to find competitions and how to enter them, I want to set out some basic hints and tips that should help you to enjoy your new found hobby of comping.
1. Only Enter Competitions For Prizes You Want To Win
Believe me when I say that there are thousands upon thousands of prizes available to win in the UK alone each and every month from competitions. And while some people choose to enter the competition regardless of the prize, I’d advise you to focus instead on a couple of items you’d like to win and enter those competitions specifically.
Spending more time on one entry rather than rushing through to enter as many competitions as possible is certainly going to increase your chances of winning those prizes you really want.
2. Don’t Get Discouraged
It’s easy to get discouraged in comping when you haven’t won a prize in a while. However, remember that everyone goes through a dry spell and absolutely any competition win is a great blessing.
Keep entering competitions for the prizes you want to win even when you’re feeling discouraged, though. You’re only going to win a prize if you enter the competition.
3. Get Creative With Your Entries
As I mentioned earlier, getting creative with your entries is a great way to extend this hobby into other areas of your life. We’ve created some fantastic photo entries, built forts from cardboard boxes, baked cakes, sewn outfits. You name it!
4. Hold ‘Comping Days’ With Friends And Family Members
Comping doesn’t have to be a lonely hobby. There are a number of comping clubs scattered across the UK and some national events hosted by the community. Even if you can’t attend one of the events in person get active within the online comping community in one of the many forums or Facebook groups.
Even consider having ‘comping days’ with your friends and family members. There are competitions exclusively for children that require them to be creative for a chance to win prizes. So consider getting some competitions for the children (or grandchildren) to do the next time they visit, for all the family to join in with.
Many thanks to Cora Harrison (pictured, right) for some great tips and resources.
When I was younger I entered quite a few competitions and won various prizes, including a crate of beer for devising a slogan for a brewing company. I also won third prize in a local radio competition where the top prize was a luxury Mediterranean cruise. Sadly, the third prize was just a leather passport holder and a book of travel tips. So near yet so far!
I do nevertheless think comping is a great sideline earner/hobby for older people. Age or disability are no barriers, and the costs are minimal. You can do it from the comfort of your home with the aid of the internet. It can help keep your grey cells active, and the lure of cash and prizes is hard to resist. So why not check out the resources in the article, including Cora’s own Mini Millionaire site, of course.
Good luck, and happy comping!
As always, if you have any questions about this article, for Cora or myself, please do post them below. And if you have any comping success stories or helpful hints and tips, do share them also!
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I recently decided to take the plunge and put my personal pension into drawdown. As I know many Pounds & Sense readers will be thinking about doing this (sooner or later), I thought I would share my experience of the process here.
To give you some background, I am 62 and a semi-retired freelance writer. I still do some writing work – and run this blog! – but that doesn’t in itself produce enough income to live on. I am fortunate to have some savings and investments, but won’t qualify for my state pension until I am 66 (in about three-and-a-half years).
I do have a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) with Bestinvest, though, so I decided I would put this into drawdown to give me another source of income. As you will know if you read this recent post, drawdown is one of the options open to you if you have a defined contribution pension. Once you are 55 or older, you can withdraw a quarter of your pension pot tax-free and (if you opt for drawdown) take a taxable income from the remainder. The balance stays invested until you withdraw it, and hopefully continues to grow.
Mine is not a massive pension pot – it came to about £56,000 – but my financial adviser and I worked out that if I draw £200 a month, assuming average growth of the remaining investments in my portfolio, it should last me until I am well into my 80s. I will also have the option to reduce the amount I draw once my state pension kicks in and/or to top up my pension fund to a modest degree in later years (see below). Yet another option will be to use the balance in my pension pot 10 to 15 years down the line to purchase an annuity, by which point the rate available on this will be higher.
The Process
I have been managing my SIPP online for over 10 years, but there wasn’t much on the Bestinvest website about how to put it into drawdown. So I phoned them up and asked.
The woman I spoke to said they would email an application form. This duly arrived as a PDF. I was pleased to discover that I could complete it on my PC (I use the free Foxit Reader for reading and editing PDFs).
The form had 10 pages. As well as the usual personal information, it wanted to know how much I wanted to draw from my pension and at what intervals. It also asked whether I wanted to take the tax-free lump sum straight away (I said yes).
The other things the form asked were a bit less predictable. There were quite a lot of questions about other pensions I might have. This didn’t apply to me, but they have to ask in order to check that you aren’t exceeding your lifetime allowance of just over a million pounds (I wish!).
The form also asked whether I had taken advice from the government’s Pension Wise service and/or an independent financial adviser. This did strike me as a bit nanny-ish, but as it happened I was able to say yes to both.
Clarifications
There were a few things I wasn’t clear about, so I phoned Bestinvest back and asked them. Here’s what I discovered. I hope this information may be useful to anyone who is in this situation or will be soon, as it doesn’t seem to be widely known.
First of all, I assumed that when paying out from my pension, my provider would simply sell off funds on a pro rata basis (I have about a dozen funds and shares in my pension account). This turned out not to be the case, though.
The woman at Bestinvest explained they don’t do this, as people often have their own views on which funds they want to sell and which they want to keep long term. So she told me I should sell enough funds via the BI website to cover my lump sum and also to cover my monthly payments going forward. To avoid delays she advised me to do this as soon as possible.
I therefore sold around £15,000 worth of funds from my account, to cover the lump sum I was withdrawing and the first few monthly payments. As the months go by I will obviously need to sell more of my holdings, but hopefully the cost will be balanced to some extent by the value of my remaining holdings going up.
I also discovered that my online account would continue to function exactly as it did before going into drawdown. The only difference is that the government imposes a lower limit of £4,000 (including tax relief) for any further investments in a SIPP after you have “crystallised” your pension (i.e. started drawing a taxable income from it). This rule is to avoid people withdrawing large sums and immediately reinvesting them to get another big chunk of tax relief, which I guess is fair enough. In any event, it’s good that I will have the ability to top up my pension from my other savings and investments by a few grand a year in future if my remaining pot starts to shrink too much.
After all this I submitted my form, and everything so far has gone as promised. It took about a month for the tax-free lump sum to appear in my bank account, and around six weeks to get my first monthly payment. I had heard some horror stories about large “emergency deductions” being made from the latter by HMRC to cover any possible tax liability, but discovered they weren’t applying any deductions at source to my payments. Of course, I will have to add this money to my total taxable income for the year, and if it exceeds my personal allowance I will have to pay tax on it.
So that was my experience of putting my Bestinvest SIPP into drawdown. As of August 2018, I can legitimately describe myself as a pensioner! If you have any comments or questions, naturally, please do post them below.
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Many thanks to Cora Harrison (pictured, right) for some great tips and resources.