Futurelearn is a UK-based platform for short online courses from British and international universities. All Futurelearn courses are free and open to anyone in the world.

I thought you might like to know that a course titled Managing My Investments begins on 20 March 2017. It comes from The Open University. It will run for six weeks and you can enrol now if you wish.

Managing My Investments is intended for anyone with an interest in developing their personal financial skills to make good decisions when managing their investments and buying investment products. The course does not require any previous experience of this subject.

On the website, it says:

On this free online course, you’ll learn about different investment choices, the returns and risks associated with each, and the evidence about their historical performance. You’ll explore investment strategies, as well as the practicalities about involvement in personal finance markets. And you’ll look at how to avoid the individual and group behavioural traits that can impair effective investment decision making .

Throughout, the course will provide recent and current case studies on investment issues, to demonstrate how the ideas and issues explored in the course are reflected in the arena of personal investments.

The course is up-to-date and covers the current reforms to UK pensions due to be rolled out in 2015 – changes that will radically alter the way many people will use their pension savings as they move into retirement .

Managing My Investments aims to give you the knowledge and confidence to take charge of your investments and your financial future.

Finding Out More

The course is run by Martin Upton of the OU Business School (previously Treasurer of the Nationwide Building Society). It requires a commitment of around three hours a week.

Futurelearn have lots of other interesting free courses, incidentally. I recently took one called Strategies for Successful Ageing from Trinity College, Dublin, which was informative and thought-provoking. I am currently half-way through a course on understanding diabetes (I was diagnosed as prediabetic earlier this year).

As well as the teaching, another big attraction of Futurelearn courses is the opportunity they provide to interact with fellow students from all over the world. There is often almost as much to learn from the other students as the course material itself!

I am also enrolled on Managing My Investments, so if you decide to sign up for the course, keep an eye out for me on the course website. I try to comment regularly and get as actively involved as I can in discussions 🙂

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please do post them below.

NOTE: This course has been postponed till 20 March 2017 from its original start date of 9 January. I have amended the post accordingly.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

December 6, 2016

How I Scored a £1200 Mattress for just 10 Minutes’ Work as an Amazon Vine Reviewer!

Nick Saving Money 4 Comments

I’ve been an Amazon Vine reviewer for around five years now. In some ways it’s been the most profitable sideline I’ve ever had.

For those who don’t know, Amazon Vine is a programme run by Amazon where they send products free of charge to selected individuals (known as ‘Vine Voices’) in exchange for reviewing them. You don’t get paid for these reviews, but you can of course keep the item concerned.

You might imagine that the main thing Vine reviewers get is books. It’s true that there are plenty of these on offer, but of course Amazon sell loads of other things as well. In the time I’ve been a Vine Voice I’ve reviewed all the following:

lawn mower
saucepan set
vacuum cleaners (two of these)
clothes airer
hair-dryer
back-massager
suitcase
cordless iron
cat treats
microphone
bathroom bin
and many more!

The most valuable item I have ever had as a Vine Voice was a £1200 luxury mattress. Considering that I only had to pen a couple of hundred words about it, that probably counts as my best-paid writing job ever. As you might expect for that price, it is very comfortable! I’ve put a link to the Amazon sales page below:

And here’s the review I wrote about it, in case you can’t find this:

The first thing to say is that this is a VERY heavy mattress. I had to pay two men to manoeuvre it up the stairs and into the bedroom, and was afraid that the younger one in particular would do himself an injury.

Thankfully you don’t have to turn this mattress over, just from end to end, which I might just about manage without having to call for reinforcements…

Another practical point to bear in mind is that this mattress is deeper than most, so on a normal divan base you will be quite high up. If you worry about falling out of bed, therefore, this may not be the mattress for you.

With all that said, the mattress is very comfortable to sleep on. It is described as Medium/Soft, which worried me a little, as I tend to prefer my mattresses on the firm side. It turned out not to be a problem, though. The material moulds itself to the shape of your body, giving even support from head to toe. I have been sleeping very well on it, and waking up without any bed-induced aches or pains.

Overall, as you might expect for the price, it is a very good, comfortable mattress, which I would have given five stars apart from the practical and logistical issues mentioned above.

I see the price has come down quite a lot since I reviewed it. But still not a bad return for the few minutes the above took to write, wouldn’t you agree?

The Downside

Does Amazon Vine membership have any drawbacks? Well, not really, but it has its limitations. For starters, you can’t just pick anything to review. As a Vine Voice you get access to a dedicated web page where a range of products is set out and you can pick any you like to review. As you might expect, there are limited stocks of review products, and popular ones tend to be snapped up quickly. So you have to get in the habit of checking regularly to see what is available, and move quickly when you see something you like.

The other slight drawback is that you aren’t supposed to sell the products you receive. That means you can’t just review a product, then put it up for sale on eBay. Or at least, if you do this and Amazon find out, your tenure as a Vine Voice will be swiftly terminated. For the record, I have never done this myself, although I do sometimes give the products away to friends.

How Do You Become a Vine Voice?

Ah, that’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it? I never actually applied to Amazon – I had reviewed a few products in the past – not a vast number – and received an email out of the blue inviting me to join.

And that’s the thing. You can’t just submit an application. It’s invitation only, so you have to wait for the call to come. New reviewers are constantly being recruited, though, so you can boost your chances by regularly submitting reviews of Amazon products. Obviously you won’t receive any payment for this, but it’s all good practice and effectively represents your letter of application.

At the risk of stating the obvious, you need to create high-quality reviews that gain good feedback and ‘helpful’ votes from customers. Your reviews should be honest, mention both positives and negatives, and answer the sorts of question a potential buyer might ask before buying the item concerned. If you do this regularly, there is every chance you will be invited to join Amazon Vine at some point in the future.

The Vipon Alternative

Alternatively (or as well) there are sites that will allow you to get Amazon products at a discount or sometimes free. It’s fair to say that the vendors hope you will review their products, but since a recent change in Amazon’s terms and conditions they are no longer allowed to make this a requirement.

One of the main such sites is Vipon, previously known as Amzreviews. Once you’ve been accepted for this (and most people are) you can browse their marketplace for products to request. Your application must be accepted by the vendor and sometimes you get turned down for unknown reasons. But usually within a day or two you will be approved and receive a voucher letting you order the product concerned at a discount from Amazon. Note that the site is US-based but they accept people from anywhere in the world. Once you are logged in, you can set the site to show products on Amazon UK only.

Clearly this isn’t as good as getting free stuff with Amazon Vine, but it does have the advantage that you get a wider choice. I’ve had great discounts on household products from Vipon/Amzreviews, though you shouldn’t expect to see expensive items such as laptops and televisions offered here.

As I noted above, there is no obligation to review the products you receive on Vipon, though it is at least a courtesy to the vendor to do so. In addition, all such reviews may help you achieve your ultimate ambition of becoming a Vine Voice.

If you have any questions about Amazon Vine reviewing and/or becoming a Vine Voice, please do post them below and I will do my best to answer them.

Save