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December 3, 2024

My Investments Update – December 2024

Nick Investing events, reviews, property 0 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my November 2024 Investments Update here if you like.

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

As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £25,822 (rounded up). Last month it stood at £24,799, so that is an impressive increase of £1,023.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £4,157 compared with £3,988 a month ago, a rise of £169. Here is a screen capture showing performance over the year to date.

Finally, at the start of December 2023 I invested £500 in one of Nutmeg’s new thematic portfolios (Resource Transformation). In March I also invested a further £200 from referral bonuses. As you can see from the YTD screen capture below, this portfolio is now worth £818 (rounded up) compared with £789 last month, a rise of £29.

As you can see, November was a good month for my Nutmeg investments. The overall value has risen by £1,221 or 4.13% since the start of November. They are also up by £4,482 or 17.03% since the start of the year.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here. If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my overall experience over the last eight years, they are certainly worth considering. They offer self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs as well.

Note that I am no longer an affiliate for Nutmeg. That means you won’t find any affiliate links in my review (or anywhere else on PAS). And you will no longer see the no-fees-for-six-months offer I used to promote as an affiliate. However, the better news is that you can still get six months free of any management fees by registering with Nutmeg via my Refer a Friend link. I will receive a gift voucher if you do this, which is duly appreciated

Don’t forget, also, that the current tax year began on 6 April 2024. Despite some predictions to the contrary, you still have a full £20,000 tax-free ISA allowance for 2024/25. As from this year, you can open any number of ISAs with different providers in the same tax year, as long as you don’t exceed your overall £20,000 allowance. So opening a stocks and shares ISA with Nutmeg won’t prevent you from also opening one with another S&S ISA provider (should you wish to) later in the financial year.

Moving on, I also have investments with P2P property investment platform Assetz Exchange. These continue to generate steady returns. Assetz Exchange focuses on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £220.04 in revenue from rental income. Capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 12 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 4 are breaking even, and the remaining 18 are showing losses. My portfolio of 34 properties is currently showing a net decrease in value of £44.11, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £175.93. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

The overall fall in capital value of my AE investments is obviously a little disappointing. But it’s important to remember that until/unless I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical, based on the latest price at which shares in the property concerned have changed hands. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I’ve reinvested in other AE projects to further diversify my portfolio).

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

As I noted in this blog post, Assetz Exchange is particularly good if you want to compound your returns by reinvesting rental income. This effectively boosts the interest rate you are receiving. Personally, once I have accrued a minimum of £10 in rental payments, I reinvest this money in either a new AE project or one I have already invested in (thus increasing my holding). Over time, even if I don’t invest any more capital, this will ensure my investment with AE grows at an accelerating rate and becomes more diversified as well.

My investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate]. Bear in mind that, as from this financial year (2024/25), you can open more than one IFISA per year.

In 2022 I set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (then about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie2008 (real name Mike Moest).

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen captures below, my original investment totalling $1,022.26 is today worth $1,315.34, an overall increase of $293.08 or 28.67%.

You can read my full review of eToro here. You may also like to check out my more in-depth look at eToro copy trading. I also discussed thematic investing with eToro using Smart Portfolios in this recent post. The latter also reveals why I took the somewhat contrarian step of choosing the oil industry for my first thematic investment with them.

As you can see, my Oil WorldWide investment is showing a respectable if not outstanding profit of 10.32%. My copy trading investment with Aukie2008 has been doing better, with an overall 25.95% profit. To be fair, I have held the latter investment a bit longer.

You might also notice that I have small holdings in Prosus NV, a Dutch internet group, and South Bow, a Canadian energy infrastructure company. To be honest I don’t understand how I acquired these, but I assume they are some sort of bonus I have been awarded. In any event, I am happy to have them in my portfolio!

eToro also offer the free eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here. Note that it can also serve as a cryptocurrency wallet, allowing you to send and receive crypto from any other wallet address in the world.

I had two more articles published in November on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first is Ten Ways to Boost Your Bank Balance in the Run-up to Christmas. As Christmas approaches, many of us are feeling the pinch, with the cost of gifts, food and festivities adding up. And that’s before you even factor in the cost of living crisis, tax increases, benefit cuts, and so on. So in this article I set out a variety of ways you may be able to boost your income in the weeks leading up to the big day.

Also in November Mouthy Money published my article Get Fit, Make Money – How to Profit from Fitness Apps. In this article I revealed a variety of methods by which you may be able to get fit and boost your bank balance at the same time.

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. From the range of articles published in November, I particularly enjoyed this guide to saving money by selling stuff on eBay and other websites by regular MM contributor Shoestring Jane. Jane writes mainly about money saving and frugal living. You can see all of her articles for Mouthy Money via this web page.

I also published (or republished) several posts on Pounds and Sense in November. Some are no longer relevant, but I have listed the others below.

Here’s Why I Changed My Mind About EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge was a follow up to last month’s Here’s Why I’m Not Doing EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge. I got a lot of comments about my earlier article and – as you may gather – that changed my mind somewhat about the scheme. So in this post I explained why I had a rethink, and what happened when I signed up to the challenge myself in November. Please do read the comments by me and others on this post as well.

In Update on my eToro Virtual Portfolio, I brought readers up to date with how my eToro VP has been doing and discussed what lessons could be learned from it. As I say in the article, anyone joining the eToro trading and investing platform automatically gets a $100,000 virtual portfolio in which they can experiment with different investing styles and strategies. I found it very interesting to revisit my VP a year on. I was pleased to discover that since my previous VP update, and despite the fact I hadn’t really paid it much attention, performance had turned around and the port was showing a good profit (unfortunately virtual as well!). As ever there were winners and losers, and these will inform my real-money trading as well.

With Christmas fast approaching, last month I published What Are the Best Video Calling Tools for Older People? For older people (in particular) video calling can provide a great way of connecting with far-flung family and friends if – for whatever reason – they can’t meet in person. In this article I set out the main options available and shared a few hints and tips for making the most of them.

And in Twelve Great Christmas Gift Ideas for Older People (That Aren’t Socks) I set out 12 suggestions for presents for older friends and relatives that – based on my experience as an older person myself – should put a smile on their faces! If you’re struggling for ideas for gifts for older friends and relatives, check this out

Lastly, a reminder that you can also follow Pounds and Sense on Facebook or Twitter (or X as we have to call it now). Twitter/X is my number one social media platform and I post regularly there. I share the latest news and information on financial (and other) matters, and other things that interest, amuse or concern me. So if you aren’t following my PAS account on Twitter/X, you are definitely missing out.

I have also just joined the new BlueSky social media network. My username there is poundsandsense.bsky.social. For the time being at least, Twitter/X will remain my main social media platform, but I will also post details of my latest blog posts, third-party articles and other financial news and resources on BlueSky for those who prefer to follow me there.

That’s all for today. I hope you are keeping safe and warm in the current Arctic weather. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

Note also that posts on PAS may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!

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November 28, 2024

Here’s Why I Changed My Mind About EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge

Nick Saving Money reviews, energy, events 86 Comments

In this post a few weeks ago I discussed EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ challenge. I explained why I had some reservations about the scheme and wasn’t therefore taking it up.

The post attracted a lot of interest. It actually generated more comments than any other post I have made on Pounds and Sense. Various people (especially Harry and KenM – thanks, guys!) posted in some detail about their experiences with the scheme. As a result I changed my opinion somewhat and decided to sign up when the opportunity arose the following month.

In this update I thought I would talk about why I changed my mind and the results I have achieved myself over the last few weeks. But first, a word of explanation…

What is EDF’s Sunday Saver Challenge?

This scheme is intended to reward EDF customers for switching some of their energy usage away from peak times.

The way it works is that you’re given targets to shift your electricity consumption on weekdays away from peak hours (4pm-7pm). When you hit your weekly target (which is set individually for each user by EDF), you earn free electricity the following Sunday.

EDF say, ‘The more you shift, the more you earn – reduce your weekly peak usage by 40% and you could earn up to 16 hours of free electricity per week.’ The challenge takes place monthly, starting on the first Monday of each month.

Why Did I Have Reservations?

As I said above, I had various reservations about the scheme prior to signing up. I have copied below the relevant paragraphs from my original post.

To benefit from this scheme you have to cut your daily energy usage every weekday between 4pm and 7pm. That’s quite a long period (three hours), and coincides with when I would normally be cooking my evening meal. To have any realistic chance of cutting my energy use during this time, I would have to eat either ridiculously early or significantly later than normal. For various reasons, including my health, I prefer to eat between 6 and 7 pm and no later. So that in itself is a big ask and would impact drastically on my normal routine.
Free electricity on Sunday sounds great, but the devil is in the detail. EDF say that you will get ‘up to 16 hours’ of free electricity if you meet their targets, but are very vague about what this means in practice. Specifically, they don’t explain how your energy-saving targets are calculated, how any reduction in usage translates to free hours, or when on Sunday you will be able to use the free electricity awarded.
In addition, they say there are ‘fair usage’ limits to how much free electricity you can have. Again, they are vague about what this means in practice. The obvious way to use your free electricity would be to charge your EV, and I strongly suspect limits would be placed on this. As for me, I don’t have an EV and don’t want one, so my options for benefiting from the free electricity would be limited. I could shift use of appliances like my washing machine to Sunday but doubt if I could save more than a few kw/h this way (obviously the exact number would depend on how many free hours I was allocated, which is anyone’s guess). That means my free electricity would likely benefit me by no more than a pound or two.
Lastly, as a solar panel owner I already get some free electricity anyway. My panels obviously generate less in the winter, but during daylight hours they still produce something. That means any benefit from free electricity on Sundays will be reduced, especially if (as is likely) the free hours are in the day rather than at night.

So What Changed?

The comments and info posted by readers who had signed up for the challenge and (in general) had benefited from it changed my views somewhat. They also addressed some of the doubts I had expressed in my original post.

As regards the free hours on Sunday, depending on how much you reduce your usage you can get anything from 4 hours to a maximum of 16. The free hours always start at 8 am and go on until as late as 12 midnight if you achieve the full target saving.

There are indeed ‘fair usage’ limits for the free hours you are awarded. They are as follows: 11.25 kWh with 4 free hours; 22.5 kWh with 8 free hours; 33.75 kWh with 12 free hours; and 45 kWh with 16 hours. EDF say these amounts are subject to change.

I still don’t know how exactly the saving targets are set, but here is a screen capture showing the ones I was set last week and the results I obtained.

As you can see, that was a successful week! I’ll talk more about my personal experiences with the Sunday Saver challenge below.

I also realised that, while I don’t have an EV, I could use a fair-sized portion of my free electricity charging my home storage battery from the grid. This wasn’t something I had done before (I got my battery mainly to store power generated by my solar panels) but obviously I knew it was possible. As things turned out (see below) it wasn’t without its challenges. But without doing this I’m not convinced I could have used enough free electricity to make the scheme worthwhile.

I do, incidentally, still think that EDF should make the terms and conditions of the challenge clearer prior to signing up. But anyway, based on info received from my readers, I felt it was worth giving it a try. So here’s a bit about my experiences with the November challenge.

So What Happened?

When I decided to do the EDF Sunday Saver challenge, I was clear I wasn’t going to cause myseff a ton of hassle cutting my electricity usage to the bone (I live on my own these days, incidentally). I decided I could probably defer starting my (electric) cooking till 7 pm. That was a minor inconvenience, but so far anyway I’ve been getting around it by eating meals that are quick to cook (yesterday I had gnocchi with pesto and spinach, for example). I’ll admit I’ve had a few microwave meals as well. I did also do some healthier batch cooking on one of the Sundays to produce meals I could quickly heat up during the week.

Shifting my main cooking time has undoubtedly done more than anything to reduce my peak-time energy use. Apart from that I have done little. I wouldn’t normally be hoovering or using the washing machine at peak times anyway. I have made a point of turning off my desktop computer by 4 pm (something I should probably have been doing anyway). I’ve also been a bit more careful about switching off lights when I don’t need them. And obviously I don’t use any electric heating during peak hours (thankfully I have gas central heating and a separate gas fire in the lounge). And that’s it really. For the first three weeks of the November challenge I achieved my targets fairly easily, earning the maximum 16 hours for two of them and 12 hours for the other.

I saved all my hoovering and clothes washing for Sundays to make use of the free electricity. In addition, as mentioned above, I set my home battery to charge from the grid that day. Unfortunately because I hadn’t done this before – and the software isn’t as intuitive as it should be – the first time it didn’t work at all. The following Sunday I got it working but somehow must have set it to charge every day in the evening. So on the Monday the battery started charging at the maximum rate (6 kw/h) at 5 pm. Unfortunately I didn’t notice this until around 6 pm, so that drove a coach and horses through my weekly energy-saving target. At the time of writing, my weekly dashboard shows that I am currently using 97.5% of my electricity during peak hours and – unsurprisingly – am ‘not on target’ to achieve the 14.9% set for me. Obviously, then, I will have to write off this week. I just hope that my poor performance will encourage EDF to set me generous targets in December!

Closing Thoughts

Overall, my experiences have been positive enough to want to continue the Sunday Saver challenge. I will have saved some money by doing it, which will be credited to my account in December.

It will be interesting to see what usage targets EDF set me next month, especially after I messed up the final week of the challenge. But in any event, EDF have also let me know that anyone signing up for the December challenge will get an automatic eight hours of free electricity on Christmas Day regardless of any energy savings they make. So that is another incentive to sign up for December (which I have already done),.

So those were my experiences with the EDF Sunday Saver challenge in November. I’d be interested to hear how you got on if you did it too, and whether you will be continuing the challenge. Also, if you are on a similar scheme with another energy company, I’d love to hear how that’s going for you. Please post any comments below as usual, not forgetting to allow me a few hours to approve them.

As I have said before on PAS, I can offer anyone switching to EDF £50 off their bills if they use my refer-a-friend link at https://edfenergy.com/quote/refer-a-friend/sunny-koala-9462 when applying. I will also get £50 off my bill if you do this (£75 till 12 December 2024), which is duly appreciated

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eToro virtual portfolio update November 2024

November 21, 2024

Update on My eToro Virtual Portfolio – November 2024

Nick Investing events, reviews 0 Comments

A little over a year ago I published this update about my eToro virtual portfolio and some lessons I had learned from it. I originally reviewed eToro in this blog post.

I thought PAS readers might be interested to see an update about how my eToro virtual portfolio is doing today and any further lessons to be learned. As you may know, I already publish monthly updates on my real investments and how they are doing, the latest of which you can read here.

Let’s start with the basics, though…

What is eToro?

eToro is a Israeli fintech company based in Cyprus. The company also has registered offices in the UK, US and Australia. It is a hugely popular platform with 25 million customers from over 140 countries across the world.

eToro is regulated and authorised in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). That means if eToro were to go bust any deposits with them up to £85,000 would be protected. Of course, the FSCS doesn’t protect you if you lose money simply due to your investments performing poorly.

eToro offers a wide range of investment products, from individual shares to cryptocurrencies, commodities to ETFs, currency pairs to copy trading, and thematic investing via smart portfolios. Today, though, I’m focusing on a feature that doesn’t require any outlay at all. This is the facility to operate a $100,000 virtual portfolio on the platform, to familiarize yourself with how it works and test out trading and investing strategies.

I have been an eToro investor for nearly three years now. I started with a virtual portfolio, but I have also invested some real money. I do still use my virtual portfolio, however, and continue to learn valuable lessons from it. So today I thought I’d set out some of these.

I’ll start by showing you some data on how my virtual portfolio has been performing as of November 2024. As I have quite a lot of different investments in my VP, I have taken two separate screen captures showing first the best performing and then the worst performing. As a matter of interest, I am now up by over $17,000 overall. Obviously I can only wish that was real money!

Best Performing Investments

Worst Performing Investments

Some Lessons Learned

I hope you found the screen captures of my virtual portfolio interesting. They include most of my current investments apart from one or two in the middle. I can’t discuss every investment in detail here, but as promised here are some of the lessons I have drawn from my experiences to date.

Time in the market really does matter

As my financial adviser, Mike, often reminds me, one of the main keys to successful investing is time in the market. As long as you have a good-quality, well diversified portfolio, over time the inevitable peaks and troughs will even out, and the likelihood of making a good long-term return will increase (though, of course, with all investing there is never any guarantee).

Two years on from when I opened my eToro virtual portfolio, here’s a snapshot of how it’s doing overall…

As you can see, currently my inexpertly-picked portfolio is showing over $17,000 of profit. In my last VP update in July 2023, it was showing a loss of over $3,000. Since then I haven’t made any major changes to the portfolio, but over the last year there has been an impressive turnaround. Apart from my unsuccessful (okay, disastrous) experiments investing in commodities, the profit would be significantly bigger than this. And, as you may have noticed, there has been one other thing holding overall performance back…

Renewable energy companies have performed surprisingly poorly

You might assume that with climate change and the manic quest (in the UK at any rate) to achieve Net Zero, investing in renewables should be a profitable strategy.

I used to think so too, so in my eToro VP I invested in two smart portfolios in this sector. One is called Renewable Energy and the other Golden Energy. As you can see from my second screen capture, both have performed poorly and are at the bottom of the table. Golden Energy (which invests in gold and energy companies) is down by almost 17%, while Renewable Energy is right at the bottom, having gone down in value by nearly 45%. Obviously I am glad I don’t have any real money in these smart portfolios.

In a somewhat ironic twist, my investment in a smart portfolio called Oil Worldwide is actually showing a profit of around 16%. Regular readers will be aware that I also have some real money in Oil Worldwide.

I don’t really know why companies in the renewable energy sector should be under-performing so badly. But it does make the point that what may appear to be ‘nailed-on’ profitable investments can still end up losing money. As I said earlier, there are never any guarantees!

You can read my blog post here about smart portfolios, which allow you to invest thematically on eToro.

IT companies generally have done well in the last two years

As you can see from my first screen capture, my top three virtual investments have all been in the information technology field. At the top is In the Game, a smart portfolio focused on the gaming industry. This has delivered a staggering 68% profit. Not far behind is the Shopping Cart smart portfolio, devoted to online shopping technology, which has delivered a 61% return.

And in third place comes the Four Horsemen portfolio, which incorporates shares in the four leading global IT companies, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google. This has generated a 42% profit, partly due to their involvement in the fast-growing AI field.

Obviously there is no guarantee that this trend will continue. But if you are looking for sectors in which to invest, information technology has certainly been delivering impressive returns recently.

Health is another sector worth watching

As you can see, one of the best performing investments in my virtual portfolio was Cancer-Med (25% profit). I had personal reasons for wanting to invest in this, as my partner Jayne died from cancer and I have been treated for prostate cancer myself. Obviously a lot of research money goes into cancer, and successful treatments can prove extremely lucrative for the companies concerned.

I also invested some of my virtual funds in Diabetes-Med. This is a smart portfolio covering companies in the field of diabetes care, treatment and prevention. Again, as someone who has previously been diagnosed prediabetic, I had a particular interest in this. And with diabetes on the rise across the world, it did seem to me it was a sector with good profit potential. It has also delivered a profit for me, albeit a relatively modest 7%.

Copy trading can be profitable

Also among my best-performing investments have been two copy trading portfolios. As you can see, the most profitable has been Aukie2008 (Mike Moest). Following him has generated a profit of around 16% over two years for me. Regular readers will know that I also invested some real money following this trader and have done pretty well from this also.

Also in my VP I am following two other copy traders, Nezatron and ioatri. Nezatron is showing a modest net profit (for me) of around 8%, while ioatri has made a rather more impressive 23% return, putting him in the top section of my performance table.

I am obviously a fan of the copy trading feature on eToro, though naturally some traders do better than others. Please read my blog post about copy trading on eToro for more information about this feature.

Final Thoughts

So those are five more lessons I have learned from my eToro virtual portfolio. I don’t claim any of them are particularly earth-shattering or that they represent deep universal truths. But I have found all of them valuable in different ways and they will certainly inform my investing in future. Obviously bear in mind that the results quoted above are based on my experiences over the last two years since I opened my VP. Over other time periods, the numbers would no doubt be different.

If you are interested in investing and/or trading, I do therefore recommend setting up an eToro virtual portfolio and trying different strategies with it. I shall continue to do so myself, alongside my real investments in eToro and elsewhere.

To remind you, you can read my article about setting up an eToro account – which automatically includes a $100,000 virtual portfolio – here. You can also read how my actual (real money) investments with eToro are performing in my monthly investment updates, of which this is the latest.

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

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

Please note also that posts on Pounds and Sense may include affiliate links. If you click through these and make a purchase or investment, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the price you pay or the product/service you receive. In some instances bonuses and other promotional incentives may only be available if you click through my link.

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November 19, 2024

What Are the Best Video Calling Tools for Older People?

Nick Everything Else events, reviews 6 Comments

Christmas will soon be here. Touch wood, it looks as though it will be more ‘normal’ than the last few years. But even with memories of the pandemic fading, many older people especially will still be understandably cautious about how much face-to-face socializing they do at this time.

In addition, this year we have a cost-of-living crisis. And many pensioners are even more cash-strapped than usual due to the removal of Winter Fuel Payments for all but the very poorest. Add to that bad winter weather (snow is currently falling here). And, of course, there will be the usual congestion (and worse) on many roads and motorways.

All this means that potentially there may still be less face-to-face socializing this festive season, especially where older people are concerned. Of course, it’s true they are more likely to suffer severe consequences if infected with respiratory viruses such as flu or Covid, so a measure of caution is understandable. But many have been seeing other people less often for several years now. And a lack of human contact – at this time of year especially – can lead to loneliness, depression, and other health issues (physical and mental).

While not a complete solution, video calling can provide a lifeline for older people. In particular, it can provide a means for them to keep in touch with distant friends and family, and especially with children and grandchildren.

So in this post I thought I’d look at some of the main options available. I hope this will help if you are an older person yourself, or if you have older friends and relatives.

What Do You Need?

At the risk of stating the obvious, if you’re going to make video calls, you will need a device with a camera and a microphone.

The good news is that all modern smartphones, Apple or Android, have good-quality cameras built in. These devices can be great for video calling, as you can hold them comfortably in your hand, move around with them, and point them at yourself or at anything you might want to talk about. The one drawback with smartphones is that the screen is relatively small, but for one-to-one conversations they are perfectly adequate.

Other good options are a tablet, a laptop or a Chromebook. All of these devices generally have a front-facing camera that is ideal for video calling (and indeed designed for it). As the screens are larger you will be able to see the other person (or people) more clearly. And group video calls with two or more other people (should you want to do this) are more feasible.

If you’re using a desktop computer it’s not quite as simple. In this case you will need to activate the built-in webcam or else buy a separate webcam (e.g. from Amazon). Standalone webcams normally plug in via a USB port. They may come with third-party software designed to help you control and make the most of them.

The other thing you will need is a video-calling app. There are lots you can use, but in this post I’ll focus on four of the most popular: Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp and Messenger. All of these are free to download and use on wifi. If you are using them with a mobile data service they will eat up your allowance and you may end up paying extra, so it’s best to stick with wifi if at all possible.

There isn’t much difference in call quality in my experience, so it really comes down to personal preference which one you choose.

One other thing to note is that the person you are calling will need to use the same app as you are.

1. Skype

Video calls on smartphones? Yes

Video calls on tablets? Yes

Video calls on Windows? Yes

Video calls on a Mac? Yes

Skype was originally designed for making free voice calls over the internet, but then added video calls too. It’s seen as a little old-fashioned in some circles, and isn’t quite as easy to install and configure as some of its newer rivals. Nonetheless, it still works well, and you can use it for one-to-one or group calls.

If you have a modern smartphone or tablet it’s quite likely that Skype will be installed already, but otherwise you can download it from the Play Store (Android), Apple Store (Apple) or Skype website (PC or Mac). You will need to set up an account before you start using it, for which you will need to provide either your mobile number or your email address.

To make a Skype video call to a new contact, use the Search Skype box at the top left to search for the person’s real name, Skype name, or email address. If your friend has a common name, you may find there are a number of people to choose from in the list that pops up. Use the profile pictures to find the person you’re looking for, or click on the name to view their profile information. Anyone you talk to will automatically be added to your Skype contact list. Select your contact and click Call. With your audio call running, select the video camera icon to open the camera. During a call you can mute/unmute your microphone and switch your camera on/off by clicking on or tapping the appropriate icon.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article on making a video call with Skype.

2. WhatsApp

Video calls on smartphones? Yes

Video calls on tablets? No

Video calls on Windows? No

Video calls on a Mac? No

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. It is primarily used for text chats and sharing photos and videos, but you can make video calls on it as well.

If you have a modern smartphone it’s quite likely WhatsApp will be installed already, but otherwise you will need to download it from the Play Store or Apple Store. To create an account, open the app and work through the set-up assistant. You will need to provide certain permissions to allow the app to access your camera and microphone and to import your existing phone contacts.

WhatsApp then works in a similar way to Skype. To place a video call, tap the contact you want to talk to, and tap the video camera icon next to their name. The other person can answer the call (swipe up the blue button), reject the call (swipe up the red phone button), or reject the call and send a text instead (swipe up the message button). If they answer, you’re good to go. You can toggle between the front and rear cameras on your phone by tapping on the appropriate icon if you wish.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article on making a video call with WhatsApp.

3. FaceTime

Video calls on smartphones? Yes – iPhones only

Video calls on tablets? Yes – iPads only

Video calls on Windows? No

Video calls on a Mac? Yes

FaceTime comes pre-installed on most Apple devices, so if you and the other person both have devices from Apple, it’s an easy option.

Making a call is (again) very simple. Just open the FaceTime app and tap the ‘+’ button, then type the phone number or email address of the person you want to call. Select audio (the microphone icon) or video (the camera icon) and you’re all set. If you have Apple’s voice assistant Siri you can also just say ‘Contact [Name]’. You can also tap ‘Recents’ to call people you have called recently and/or add your regular contacts to a Favourites list.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article on making a video call with FaceTime.

4. Messenger

Video calls on smartphones? Yes

Video calls on tablets? Yes

Video calls on Windows? Yes

Video calls on a Mac? Yes

Messenger is owned by Facebook but it is a separate app. If you don’t have it on your device already you will need to download it from the Play Store or Apple Store or via the website for PC or Mac.

To use Messenger you will need to have a Facebook account, but this does have the advantage that you won’t need to register the app separately and can start using it straight away. Messenger will automatically connect with all your Facebook friends.

To make a Messenger video call, tap the pencil icon at the top right of the app screen. Enter the name of whomever you want to contact and tap on their picture. You can then tap on the video camera icon to start a video call.

Here is a link to a more in-depth article on making a video call with Messenger (or Facebook).

Making Group Video Calls

All the apps above also allow you to make group calls. These can be great for connecting with multiple friends and/or family members. The number of contacts you can have in a call varies between apps. I have put details for the four services discussed in this post below.

Skype: Up to 100 contacts. In an ongoing conversation click the ‘+’ icon to add more contacts.

WhatsApp: Up to 32 contacts. In an ongoing call, select ‘Add Participant’.

FaceTime: Up to 32 contacts. During a FaceTime call, select ‘Add Person’.

Messenger: Up to 50 contacts. In an ongoing video call, tap on the ‘+’ icon.

Note that video calling apps compete fiercely for dominance, so the maximum numbers set out above may increase.

Finally, you will probably have heard about the group video-calling app Zoom. This is really a meetings app for businesses, but in the last few years it has become very popular with younger people especially. You don’t need any special software to take part in a Zoom chat – just click on the link you receive by text or email and the Zoom (meeting) will open in a browser window.

Zoom is very easy to use, and its Gallery View in particular has made it very popular. You can have up to 100 participants on a free call (there are also paid options for larger meetings of up to 1000 people). Concerns have, however, been raised about some privacy/security issues. One other drawback is that the free version only allows you to chat for 40 minutes at a time, although you can then reconnect in a new chat if you wish. You can read more about Zoom here.

Using a Smart Speaker

Another increasingly popular option is to use a smart speaker with a video display, e.g. the Amazon Echo Show [affiliate link]. In fact both parties don’t even need an Echo Show device, as you can make and receive calls to an Echo Show using a smartphone.

To make a video call using the Echo Show, first ensure the person you want to speak to has the Alexa app set up on their mobile phone or also owns an Echo Show. Then say, ‘Alexa, video call [contact name].’ You may be asked to confirm details of the person you’re trying to reach. Then wait for the person to answer. If you can’t see yourself on the screen, check the camera shutter on your device isn’t closed, or the ‘camera off’ icon isn’t selected. All being well, you can then start chatting to your friend or relative. At the end of the call click the red hang-up button or say, ‘Alexa, end video call.’

For more detailed information about using an Echo Show to make a video call, click through to this useful article on the popular Tom’s Guide website.

I hope you have found this article helpful. As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Note: this is a fully revised update of an annual article.

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November 13, 2024

Are You Ready for Amazon’s Black Friday Sale?

Nick Saving Money events, reviews, shopping 0 Comments

Amazon’s Black Friday Sale is almost with us. This year it extends over 12 days, from Thursday 21 November to Monday 2 December.

Black Friday itself is on Friday 29 November, with the final day, Monday 2 December, being known as Cyber Monday.

Amazon say they will be offering 12 days of epic deals from leading brands including Philips, Tefal, Fossil, Logitech, Oral-B, Braun, Ghd, Bose, Microsoft Surface, Bosch, Shark, and more.

Some of the best deals will no doubt be reserved for Amazon’s own products, such as their Kindle e-book readers, Amazon Echo smart speakers and Ring video doorbells and security cameras. Discounts of up to 60% will be on offer for these products.

What to Expect in the Black Friday Sale

1. Early Deals and Extended Sales
Amazon often kicks off its Black Friday sales early, sometimes starting a week or two before the big day. This year is no different, as early deals have already begun appearing at the time of writing. More will no doubt launch in the coming days, leading into Black Friday itself and extending through till Cyber Monday. Keep an eye out for daily flash deals and special discounts leading up to the main event.

2. Discounts Across Popular Categories
Amazon’s Black Friday sale usually includes heavy discounts across a wide range of categories, including:

Tech and Electronics: Expect significant price cuts on Amazon devices (such as Echo speakers, Fire tablets, and Kindles), as well as popular brands in laptops, smartphones, and TVs.
Fashion: From top brands to Amazon’s own Essentials line, you can expect deals on clothes, shoes, and accessories for every season.
Home and Kitchen: Look for discounts on everything from coffee makers to robot vacuum cleaners.
Toys and Games: With Christmas around the corner, Black Friday is a great time to pick up gifts at a discount.

Tips for Making the Most of Black Friday

1. Prepare Your Wish List
Creating a wish list is a great way to stay organized and track items you’re interested in. Go through your list the week before Black Friday to see if items are already on sale, then you can quickly check back on the day to see if the discount has increased.

2. Use Amazon’s ‘Watch This Deal’ Feature
For time-sensitive deals like Lightning Deals, the ‘Watch This Deal’ feature lets you get notifications when items you’re interested in go on sale. This can help you grab limited stock items before they sell out.

3. Compare Prices with CamelCamelCamel or Keepa
Websites like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa track price history on Amazon, which can help you see if the Black Friday price truly is the best deal. This is especially useful for high-ticket items where discounts may vary.

4. Sign Up for Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime members often get early access to some Black Friday deals. Plus, Prime includes fast delivery, which is ideal if you’re ordering gifts. You get a range of other benefits too, including Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Prime Video. If you’re not already a member, you can take advantage of Amazon’s 30-day free trial. You can always cancel once the Black Friday sale is over if you don’t want to pay for a subscription.

5. Be Ready to Check Out Quickly
Some deals, especially on popular items, sell out fast. To avoid missing out, make sure your payment information and delivery addresses are updated before the sale begins. If you’re ready to check out as soon as you find the deal you want, you’ll have a better chance of securing it.

6. Set a Budget
With so many discounts, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and overspend. Set a budget before you start shopping and prioritize items that you’ve planned for.

7. Keep an Eye Out for Coupons and Vouchers
Amazon sometimes offers additional savings through coupons, which are either applied automatically or appear as check-boxes on product pages. Using a coupon can help you save even more.

Key Dates to Remember

Early Deals Begin: from mid-November
Sale Officially Starts: November 21st 2024
Black Friday: November 29th 2024
Cyber Monday: December 2nd 2024 (final day of sale)

Whether you’re looking for electronics, fashion or Christmas gifts, Amazon’s Black Friday sale is an excellent time to find deals on popular products. By preparing beforehand and keeping the above tips in mind, you can get the very most from your Black Friday shopping.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from Pounds and Sense readers!

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 pay or the products or services you receive.

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November 5, 2024

My Investments Update – November 2024

Nick Making Money events, reviews 0 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my October 2024 Investments Update here if you like.

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

As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £24,799 (rounded up). Last month it stood at £24,625, so that is an increase of £174.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,988 (rounded up) compared with £3,954 a month ago, a rise of £34. Here is a screen capture showing performance over the year to date.

Finally, at the start of December 2023 I invested £500 in one of Nutmeg’s new thematic portfolios (Resource Transformation). In March I also invested a further £200 from referral bonuses. As you can see from the YTD screen capture below, this portfolio is now worth £789 compared with £781 last month, a small rise of £8.

As you can see, October was another decent month for my Nutmeg investments, though the last few days saw a bit of a dip. The overall value has risen by £216 or 0.75% since the start of October. They are also up by £3,261 or 11.62% since the start of the year.

Note that I am no longer an affiliate for Nutmeg. That means you won’t find any affiliate links in my review (or anywhere else on PAS). And you will no longer see the no-fees-for-six-months offer I used to promote as an affiliate. However, the better news is that you can still get six months free of any management fees by registering with Nutmeg via my Refer a Friend link. I will receive a gift voucher if you do this, which is duly appreciated

Don’t forget, also, that the current tax year began on 6 April 2024. Despite some predictions to the contrary, you still have a full £20,000 tax-free ISA allowance for 2024/25. As from this year, you can now open any number of ISAs with different providers in the same tax year, as long as you don’t exceed your overall £20,000 allowance. So opening a stocks and shares ISA with Nutmeg won’t prevent you from also opening one with another S&S ISA provider (should you wish to) later in the financial year.

Moving on, I also have investments with the property crowdlending platform Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching every week. I currently have around £833 invested with them in 7 different projects paying interest rates averaging around 7%. I also have £40 in my Kuflink cash account.

To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

There is now an initial minimum investment of £1,000 and a minimum investment per project of £500. Kuflink say they are doing this to streamline their operation and minimize costs. I can understand that, though it does mean that the option to test the water with a small first investment has been removed. It also makes it harder for small investors (like myself) to build a well-diversified portfolio on a limited budget.

One possible way around this is to invest using Kuflink’s Auto/IFISA facility. Your money here is automatically invested across a basket of loans over a period from one to five years. Interest rates range from 7% to around 10%, depending on the length of term you choose. Full up-to-date details can be found on the Kuflink website.

You can invest tax-free in a Kuflink Auto IFISA. Or if you have already used your annual ISA allowance elsewhere, you can invest via a taxable Auto account. You can read my full Kuflink review here if you wish.

Note that after this month I will not be including Kuflink in my monthly updates. I am gradually winding down my portfolio with them, as part of the de-risking process for my investments as i get older. As I’ve said above, I have no particular issue with Kuflink, though I do think increasing their minimum investment was unfortunate for the reasons stated above. But I still recommend them if their offering suits your investment strategy and risk appetite.

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

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £215.02 in revenue from rental income. Capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 13 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 4 are breaking even, and the remaining 17 are showing losses. My portfolio of 34 properties is currently showing a net decrease in value of £43.61, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £171.41. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned (especially after Kuflink raised their minimum investment per project to £500). You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As I noted in this recent post, Assetz Exchange is particularly good if you want to compound your returns by reinvesting rental income. This effectively boosts the interest rate you are receiving. Personally, once I have accrued a minimum of £10 in rental payments, I reinvest this money in either a new AE project or one I have already invested in (thus increasing my holding). Over time, even if I don’t invest any more capital, this will ensure my investment with AE grows at an accelerating rate and becomes more diversified as well.

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen captures below, my original investment totalling $1,022.26 is today worth $1,271.89 an overall increase of $249.63 or 24.42%.

As you can see, my Oil WorldWide investment is showing 5.09% profit. That’s a bit underwhelming, but at least it’s a profit! Obviously my copy trading investment with Aukie2008 has been doing much better.

eToro also offer the free eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here. Note that it can also serve as a cryptocurrency wallet, allowing you to send and receive crypto from any other wallet address in the world.

I had two more articles published in October on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first is How to Cut Your Energy Bills This Winter. With the coldest winter months fast approaching, energy bills can quickly become a significant financial burden. So in this article I set out some tips to help you reduce your energy costs and keep your home warm without breaking the bank.

Also in October Mouthy Money published my article Always Wanted to be in the Movies? Let TV Studios Use Your Home for Money. As I explained in this, you definitely don’t need to live in a stately home to profit from this opportunity. A huge range of properties is required, so wherever you live there’s a chance it could be the perfect location for an upcoming project.

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. From the variety of articles published in October, I particularly enjoyed How to Prepare for a Frugal Winter by regular MM contributor Shoestring Jane. Jane writes mainly about money saving and frugal living. You can see all of her articles for Mouthy Money via this web page.

I also published (or republished) several posts on Pounds and Sense in October. Some are no longer relevant, but I have listed the others below.

In Here’s Why I’m Not Doing EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge I set out my reasons for being dubious about this particular money-saving opportunity. This post has actually generated more comments than any before from readers sharing their experiences. If you’re considering doing this challenge (or a similar one from another energy company) I strongly recommend reading what others are saying about it. I must admit that having seen all the comments (those from Harry especially!) I am now more enthusiastic than I was originally, and will be giving it a try in November. Watch this space!

My post on How to Prepare for Winter Blackouts revealed my reasons for believing winter blackouts are increasingly likely in the UK, from government energy policies to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. I set out a range of tips to ensure that you and your family are well-prepared should the worst happen.

In Will You Get the Warm Home Discount? I discussed this scheme which provides people on low incomes and/or certain means-tested benefits with a discount of £150 on their electricity bill. This is a one-off payment that will be credited to your electricity account by March 2025 (you won’t receive it in cash). The 2024/25 scheme has recently launched, and in this post I revealed who may be eligible.

In my post Should You Take a Lump Sum From Your Pension Now? I looked at the pros and cons of taking a tax-free lump sum from your pension. Retirees can typically withdraw 25% of their pension pot as a tax-free lump sum once they reach the age of 55. At the time I wrote this there was much speculation whether this tax-free allowance would be removed or reduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her budget. That didn’t happen, but you might still find this article informative if taking a lump sum from your pension is on your agenda sometime soon.

My Review of the Simba Orbit Weighted Blanket was a sponsored post. I was sent this product free of charge by my friends at Simba Sleep. In this post I revealed what I thought of it.

Lastly – as referred to earlier – in October we had Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first budget. This seemed a very long time coming and was the subject of much speculation – and no small amount of dread – beforehand.

My initial reaction was that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Several of the possible measures that had been touted didn’t happen. That includes cuts to the £20,000 annual tax-free ISA allowance, the ending of the old person’s bus pass, and the scrapping of the 25% council tax discount for single-person households. The last two in particular would have been very bad news indeed for older people on top of losing (in many cases) their Winter Fuel Payment. Thankfully these things haven’t happened (yet).

Also on the plus side, the additional investment in the NHS is obviously welcome, though in my view this does need to be accompanied by structural changes to boost efficiency and productivity.

On the minus side, although Reeves presented this as a budget for growth, the rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions and other changes brought in by Labour seem more likely to have the opposite effect. They will discourage investment in the UK and potentially lead to job losses as well. Farmers were particularly hard hit by inheritance tax changes. These will potentially generate huge tax bills for family farms and may result in thousands having to sell up. Any farmers among my readers have my sympathy and support.

We will obviously see how things pan out over the coming months and years, but I can’t say I am particularly optimistic over the direction in which this country is heading. In particular – as regular readers will know – I have serious concerns over the effect the government’s reckless pursuit of ‘Net Zero’ will have on our energy security and standard of living. In my view, far more effort should be put into adapting to the effects of climate change, rather than wasting billions on pie-in-the-sky virtue-signalling schemes such as carbon capture machines and giant flywheels. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now!

As always, if you have any comments or queries about this update, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss. Note also that posts on PAS may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!

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October 23, 2024

My Review of the Simba Orbit™ Weighted Blanket

Nick Everything Else events, reviews, shopping 1 Comment

I was recently offered the chance to review the Simba Orbit™ weighted blanket (see cover photo). This is a premium weighted blanket from the well-known Simba Sleep brand.

Weighted blankets are a growing trend right now. They purport to help reduce anxiety, promote relaxation and improve sleep. Naturally I was pleased to have the opportunity to test this out for myself.

The Simba Orbit™ blanket is available in various sizes and weights. I received the 15 lb (6.8 kg) single bed version. For reasons to be discussed, in my view this would also be perfectly suitable if (like me) you normally sleep on your own in a double bed.

Even though I got the lightest version, I was still quite surprised how heavy it was. It comes with a machine-washable cotton cover and I got a decent workout just putting the blanket in! The cover and the blanket itself are a rather nondescript brown. It might be nice to have a choice of colours to suit your decor. That’s only a minor criticism, though.

The blanket is filled with tiny weighted-glass nano-beads. These are stitched evenly into small pockets (see picture below) to prevent clumping. I can confirm that they don’t appear to move around in the night, neither do you hear any noise from them. As they say on the Simba sales page, ‘Together they form a soothing layer that rests gently over your body, giving you a feeling of light, comforting pressure.’ The blanket and cover are also designed for maximum breathability, so the blanket feels warm in winter but cool in summer.

The theory behind the Simba Orbit™ weighted blanket (and weighted blankets generally) is Deep Pressure Therapy (DPT). This is an actual, scientific thing, with academic studies to back it up.

DPT is a calming process activated through a physical stimulus – like a hug, or the application of some sort of gentle pressure across the body. Some studies have suggested that this pressure works by helping your nervous system switch off its ‘fight or flight’ system (sympathetic) and move to its ‘rest and digest’ system (parasympathetic).

Simba say the Orbit™ weighted blanket is designed to replicate that feeling of soothing pressure. They suggest thinking of it as your ‘off switch’ – a switch that helps regulate your heartbeat, relax your muscles and set your mind at rest.

My own experience confirms this. Admittedly it took a night or two to get used to, but I did then notice I was sleeping longer and deeper and feeling more refreshed when I woke up. One thing that impressed me was how the blanket stays in place and doesn’t move around or slip off the bed once it’s in position. That is why I think the single version is also suitable for people who sleep alone in a double bed. Personally I found it worked best (and felt most comfortable) if I positioned it over the lower half of my body rather than up to my neck/chest. Your experience might be different, of course.

Clearly, weighted blankets won’t be right for everyone. In particular, as SImba themselves say, they aren’t suitable for children, the elderly or anyone suffering from breathing difficulties or circulatory issues (including diabetes). In cases of pregnancy and kidney issues, you are recommended to consult your doctor before use.

If you’re stressed and anxious and finding it hard to unwind, however, then based on my experience this weighted blanket is well worth a try. You can order direct from the SImba Orbit™ weighted blanket web page while stocks last. You can get free next day delivery if you order before 2 pm on the UK mainland, with interest-free finance options also available.

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

Disclosure: As stated above, I received a free Simba Orbit™ weighted blanket in exchange for reviewing it here. This has not influenced my review in any way.

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October 9, 2024

Here’s Why I’m Not Doing EDF Energy’s ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge

Nick Saving Money, Everything Else events, reviews, property, energy 79 Comments

Recently my energy supplier, EDF Energy, has been sending me invitations to sign up for what it calls its ‘Sunday Saver’ challenge.

The way this works is that you sign up to shift some of your electricity usage on weekdays away from peak hours (4pm-7pm). When you hit your target (which is set individually for each user by EDF), you earn free electricity the following Sunday.

EDF say, ‘The more you shift, the more you earn – reduce your weekly peak usage by 40% and you could earn up to 16 hours of free electricity per week.’

The challenge is due to take place monthly, starting on the first Monday of each month.

At first glance you might think this is a good offer. But as I have looked into it more, my doubts have grown. Here are my main reservations…

To benefit from this scheme you have to cut your daily energy usage every weekday between 4pm and 7pm. That’s quite a long period (three hours), and coincides with when I would normally be cooking my evening meal. To have any realistic chance of cutting my energy use during this time, I would have to eat either ridiculously early or significantly later than normal. For various reasons, including my health, I prefer to eat between 6 and 7 pm and no later. So that in itself is a big ask and would impact drastically on my normal routine.
Free electricity on Sunday sounds great, but the devil is in the detail. EDF say that you will get ‘up to 16 hours’ of free electricity if you meet their targets, but are very vague about what this means in practice. Specifically, they don’t explain how your energy-saving targets are calculated, how any reduction in usage translates to free hours, or when on Sunday you will be able to use the free electricity awarded.
In addition, they say there are ‘fair usage’ limits to how much free electricity you can have. Again, they are vague about what this means in practice. The obvious way to use your free electricity would be to charge your EV, and I strongly suspect limits would be placed on this. As for me, I don’t have an EV and don’t want one, so my options for benefiting from the free electricity would be limited. I could shift use of appliances like my washing machine to Sunday but doubt if I could save more than a few kw/h this way (obviously the exact number would depend on how many free hours I was allocated, which is anyone’s guess). That means my free electricity would likely benefit me by no more than a pound or two.
Lastly, as a solar panel owner I already get some free electricity anyway. My panels obviously generate less in the winter, but during daylight hours they still produce something. That means any benefit from free electricity on Sundays will be reduced, especially if (as is likely) the free hours are in the day rather than at night.

Overall, then, I am not much enamoured of EDF’s Sunday Saver challenges and won’t be signing up. Ultimately, I am not prepared to make major changes to my day-to-day schedule in pursuit of what will likely be (in my case anyway) minuscule rewards.

Obviously some will see this differently and I wish them well. And it’s good that EDF (and other companies) are exploring ways to help customers reduce their bills. I do just think this particular one – for me anyway – is a non-starter.

I would be interested to hear any comments from people doing this challenge (or similar ones from other energy companies) as to whether they find it worthwhile, and whether the benefits really do justify the changes you are required to make.

I do still recommend EDF Energy based on my personal experiences with them. And as I’ve said before on PAS, I can offer anyone switching to EDF £50 off their bills if they use my refer-a-friend link at https://edfenergy.com/quote/refer-a-friend/sunny-koala-9462 when applying. I will also get £50 off my bill if you do this, which is duly appreciated 🙂

UPDATE 22 OCTOBER 2024 – I am indebted to the readers (especially Harry!) who have taken the time to comment on this article and address some of the points raised in my original post. Based on this I have changed my views somewhat and am considering registering for the scheme when it reopens in November. If you’re still wondering whether to take the plunge, please do take the time to read the comments as (like me) they may influence your decision. I will publish an update in due course if I proceed with it next month.

UPDATE 28 NOVEMBER 2024 – Thanks again to everyone who commented on this post. Sorry I couldn’t reply to everyone individually. You may like to know that I just added a new post about why I changed my mind and registered for the EDF ‘Sunday Saver’ Challenge and how I got on in my first month. Please see https://www.poundsandsense.com/heres-why-i-changed-my-mind-about-edf-energys-sunday-saver-challenge/

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October 3, 2024

My Investments Update – October 2024

Nick Investing events, reviews 0 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my September 2024 Investments Update here if you like.

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

As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £24,625. Last month it stood at £24,525, so that is an increase of £100.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,954 (rounded up) compared with £3,937 a month ago, a rise of £17. Here is a screen capture showing performance over the year to date.

Finally, at the start of December 2023 I invested £500 in one of Nutmeg’s new thematic portfolios (Resource Transformation). In March I also invested a further £200 from ‘Refer a Friend’ bonuses. As you can see from the YTD screen capture below, this portfolio is now worth £781 compared with £772 last month, a small rise of £9.

As you can see, September was another decent though unspectacular month for my Nutmeg investments. Their overall value has risen by £126 or 0.43% since the start of September. They are also up by £3,045 or 11.57% since the start of the year.

Note that I am no longer an affiliate for Nutmeg. That means you won’t find any affiliate links in my review (or anywhere else on PAS). And you will no longer see the no-fees-for-six-months offer I used to promote as an affiliate. However, the better news is that you can still get six months free of any management fees by registering with Nutmeg via my Refer a Friend link. I will receive a gift voucher if you do this, which is duly appreciated

Don’t forget, also, that the current tax year began on 6 April 2024 and you have a full £20,000 tax-free ISA allowance for 2024/25. In a change to the rules, you can now open any number of ISAs with different providers in the same tax year, as long as you don’t exceed your overall £20,000 allowance. So opening a stocks and shares ISA with Nutmeg won’t prevent you from also opening one with another S&S ISA provider (should you wish to) later in the financial year.

To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £208.97 in revenue from rental income. Capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 11 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 5 are breaking even, and the remaining 17 are showing losses. My portfolio of 33 properties is currently showing a net decrease in value of £42.75, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £166.22. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned (especially after Kuflink raised their minimum investment per project to £500). You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

As I noted in this recent post, Assetz Exchange is particularly good if you want to compound your returns by reinvesting rental income. This effectively boosts the interest rate you are receiving. Personally, once I have accrued a minimum of £10 in rental payments, I reinvest this money in either a new AE project or one I have already invested in (thus increasing my holding). Over time, even if I don’t invest any more capital, this will ensure my investment with AE grows at an accelerating rate and becomes more diversified as well.

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen captures below, my original investment totalling $1,022.26 is today worth $1,305.31 an overall increase of $283.05 or 27.69%.

As you can see, my Oil WorldWide investment is showing 7.30% profit. That’s okay but not spectacular. Obviously my copy trading investment with Aukie2008 has been doing much better. The Oil WorldWide port was recently rebalanced by eToro, so I hope this may boost its performance. The investment team at eToro periodically rebalance all smart portfolios to ensure that the mix of investments remains aligned with the portfolio’s goals, and to take advantage of any new opportunities that may present themselves.

As a matter of interest, since I wrote the above war has effectively broken out in the Middle East. This has led to fears that oil supplies from the region will be compromised and the price of oil will rise. As a consequence of this (I assume) the value of my Oil Worldwide investment has gone up. I say this not to gloat over the tragedy that is unfolding in the area, but to highlight the fact that a diversified portfolio can often help to hedge against economic downturns resulting from world events.

You might also notice that I have a small holding in Prosus NV, a Dutch internet group. To be honest I don’t understand how I acquired this, but it may be connected to my copy trading investment with MIke Moest (who is Dutch). In any event, I am happy to have it in my portfolio as well!

eToro also offer the free eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here. Note that it can also serve as a cryptocurrency wallet, allowing you to send and receive crypto from any other wallet address in the world.

I had three more articles published in September on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first is Are Electric Boilers Better Than Heat Pumps?. As you doubtless know, the government are pushing heat pumps hard as a means of achieving their Net Zero goals. They are definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution, though. In this article I highlighted an alternative that may be more suitable for some, electric boilers. These are cheaper, smaller and quieter than heat pumps (though their running costs may be higher). You can read all about the pros and cons of heat pumps versus electric boilers in the article.

Also in September I revealed How to Get Free Stuff Online. In this article, I explained how you can get your hands on a wide range of freebies online, from samples and giveaways to promotional offers and rewards programmes – all without having to spend a single penny!

Finally, in September I discussed How to Save Money With Cashback Sites. If you ever buy anything online, you can almost certainly save by signing up with these sites. In this article I revealed how they work and set out some hints and tops for making the most of them.

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. From the variety of articles published in September, I particularly enjoyed Secondhand September: Good for Your Purse and the Planet by regular MM contributor Shoestring Jane. Jane writes mainly about money saving and frugal living. You can see all of her articles for Mouthy Money via this web page.

I also published (or republished) several posts on Pounds and Sense in September. Some are no longer relevant due to closing dates having passed, but I have listed the others below.

In Can You Still Make Money From Matched Betting? I discussed this tax-free money-making opportunity. As I said in the article, this is something I did for several years and earned about £3,000 from. I am not doing it nearly as much these days, for reasons explained in the article. But if you’ve never done it before, I do still highly recommend it as a way of making some quick tax-free cash. The article explains what matched betting is and how to get started.

The price of stamps is rising again on Monday 7 October 2024. That is the second price rise this year, after they also went up in April. So in How to Beat the Postage Stamp Price Rise, I revealed just how much (some) prices are rising and suggested ways to mitigate this.

In case you didn’t know, October is Free Wills Month. So in Get Your Will Written Free of Charge in October, I discussed how you can use this no-strings scheme to get your will written free at a range of participating solicitors across the UK. There are only limited slots available, so I recommend moving quickly if you want to take advantage of this opportunity.

Also in September I published How to Save Money on Your Heating Bills This Winter. As you doubtless know, gas and electricity bills have gone up considerably in the last year or two. And many older people will no longer get Winter Fuel Payments, as the new Labour government have opted to restrict this to just the very poorest pensioners (those in receipt of Pension Credit). So in this article I set out a range of ways you may be able to save money on your heating and energy bills. Following these tips could save you hundreds of pounds in the months and years ahead.

Finally, I published Amazon Big Deals Day is Almost Here. This annual event extends over two days, Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th October 2024. It is is a special event for Amazon Prime members only. Amazon say they will be offering members their lowest prices of the year on selected products from leading brands including Philips, Logitech, Oral-B, Braun, Tefal, Ghd, Swarovski, Bosch, Shark, and so on.

Next, some odds and ends. First up, Trading 212 recently reopened their free share offer, so I have updated my post Get a Free Share Worth Up to £100 With Trading 212. This explains how, if you haven’t done so already, you can get a free share when you open a new Invest or Stocks ISA with Trading 212. Note that opening a Cash ISA with T212 alone will not qualify you for a free share, but of course you can do both. My advice is to start by opening a Stocks ISA or (non-ISA) Invest account to qualify for your free share and apply (if you wish) for the Cash ISA after that. This new free share offer closes on 6 November 2024.

A few months ago I invested just over £1,000 in a Scottish wind farm project via a platform called Ripple Energy. The way this works is that you pay a fee towards building the wind farm, and in exchange receive lower-cost, ‘green’ electricity once the wind farm is up and running. This will continue for the life of the wind farm (an estimated 20 years). The original closing date for this was the end of May, but the date was extended and the share offer is still open at the time of writing. You can pay by 12 monthly instalments rather than a single lump sum if you like. If you’re interested in learning more, you can visit the Ripple website via my referral link. If you decide to invest, you will get a £25 bonus credited to your account when generation starts (and so will I). Note that you will need to invest a minimum of £1,000 to qualify for the £25 bonus, but you can invest from as little as £25 if you wish.

Speaking of energy, a quick reminder that if you switch to EDF Energy via my refer-a-friend link (below) you can get a FREE £50 credited to your energy account (and so will I). For more info and to sign up, click on https://edfenergy.com/quote/refer-a-friend/sunny-koala-9462

Finally, I wanted to highlight (again) the decision by the new government to abolish Winter Fuel Payments for all pensioners except those on pension credit. Like many others, I feel this is a terrible decision that will badly impact some of the poorest people in society and quite likely lead to increased deaths by hypothermia in the winter ahead (and others to follow).

it is therefore more important than ever that older people who may be eligible for pension credit apply for it. I recently updated my blog post about pension credit in light of the announcement. If you have older relatives, friends or neighbours, please encourage them to apply if they may be eligible. The application process is not as straightforward as it should be, so they may well appreciate some help with it

Even so, be aware that only the very poorest pensioners qualify for pension credit. If you get the full new state pension, even with no other source of income, you likely won’t qualify. I do therefore recommend writing to your MP and asking for this Draconian decision to be reversed. You may also like to sign one of the various petitions that have sprung up, including this one on Change.org and this one from Age UK. The former has over 100,000 signatures now and the latter over half a million.

That’s all for now. If you have any comments or queries about this update, as ever, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

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September 24, 2024

Get a Free Share Worth Up To £100 With Trading 212

Nick Making Money, Investing reviews 4 Comments

Offer reopened 24 September 2024!

Today I’m featuring a way you can get a free share worth up to £100 by signing up with an online share trading platform called Trading 212.

Trading 212 is unusual in that it offers commission-free and fee-free share trading. As a special offer, until Wednesday 6th November 2024 they are offering people new to the platform a free share just for signing up via a referral link (such as the links in this post). The share you will get is chosen at random, but could be worth up to £100. You can either keep this share or sell it.

How to Sign Up

Signing up with Trading 212 is pretty straightforward. Just visit the Trading 212 website via any of the (referral) links in this post and follow the on-screen instructions to register. Note that you will be required to provide various items of information, including your date of birth, National Insurance number, annual income, employment status, and contact details. I understand that this is to meet their legal ‘Know Your Customer’ duty.

You will also need to indicate the type of account you want from the options available (see screen capture below).

As you will see, the four account types on Trading 212 are Invest, CFD, Stocks ISA and Cash ISA. You can apply for any or all of these if you like.

CFD stands for Contract for Difference. CFDs are quite complex financial instruments, and unless you know what you’re doing I recommend giving them a miss.

If you just want the free share my suggestion would be to tick the Stocks ISA box. An ISA is, of course, a tax-exempt Individual Savings Account. As from April 2024 you can open any number of ISA accounts in a year as long as you don’t exceed your annual £20,000 allowance.

If you have already used up your entire £20,000 this year, you should choose Invest instead to open a general investment account without any tax benefits. Obviously if you don’t want a Stocks ISA with Trading 212 for any reason, you can choose this option as well.

For more information about the new Trading 212 Cash ISA, see my review here. Be aware that you must open either an Invest account or a Stocks ISA account to qualify for a free share. Of course, there is nothing to stop you opening a Cash ISA account as well, but my recommendation would be to open an Invest or Stocks ISA account first.

Getting Your Free Share

There is one more step you will need to take in order to get your free share. You will need to deposit a minimum of £1 into your account. There are various ways you can do this, but i just used my debit card. There is no obligation to invest the £1 (or whatever you choose to deposit) and if you wish you can withdraw it once your free share has been credited.

The next business day you should receive an email confirming that a free share has been added to your account. As mentioned above, this is allotted at random. If you’re lucky you might get one worth up to £100. Even if you get a less valuable one, though, it’s still a share for free. If you choose to keep it, it may rise in value. There may also be dividends payable in future (and credited to your account).

Already have a Trading 212 account? You can also get a free ETF share worth up to £200 (and now guaranteed to be worth at least £10) with new DIY wealth-building app Wealthyhood. A minimum investment of £50 is required to get the free share (although if you’re not bothered about this you can start investing on the platform with as little as £20). Click through here for more info.

Selling Your Share

You can’t sell your share immediately. You have to wait three business days before doing so, but it is then just a matter of clicking the Sell button on your member’s dashboard.

The money will be credited to your Trading 212 account but you will have to wait 30 days before withdrawing it. So there may be a case for waiting to see if your share’s value goes up in that time. Of course, it could also go down!

In my case, I received a free share in the Ford Motor Company worth just under £8 at the time. Obviously this wasn’t as exciting as I might have hoped, but it was still – in effect – free money for almost no time or effort 😀

How Safe Is Trading 212?

Trading 212 is registered in England and Wales and authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. In addition, all clients’ funds are kept separately in segregated bank accounts which are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. So even if the company itself were to go broke, any cash in your account would be protected up to a value of £85,000.

Of course, the FSCS guarantee doesn’t apply to the value of your stocks and shares, which can go down as well as up. All investments carry a risk of loss, although in the case of your free share you can never lose any more than the original cost, which was of course zero!

Referral Scheme

Any Trading 212 member can also refer new members. In this case, both you and the person concerned will receive one free share worth up to £100. Obviously, the links in this blog post include my referral code – so if you register and get a free share, I will receive one also. Under the terms of the current offer you can get up to five free shares in this way. Five is the limit per person. Although you can still refer new members who will get a free share after this, as a referrer you won’t receive one as well.

Final Thoughts

I first heard about Trading 212 a while ago, but wasn’t initially sure whether it was legit and here for the long term. And I thought the free share offer was, frankly, too good to be true. However, my own experiences have been entirely positive. My original free share in the Ford Motor Company was credited the next business day as promised and I received an email notifying me about it.

I can log in to my Trading 212 account any time to see how my Ford share is doing. I have also collected a few other shares from referrals as well. These include a share in AMD (the semiconductor company), which is currently worth £117.92, and one in Nike, which is worth £105.83. I still have my original Ford Motor Company share and it has risen in value to £8.16. I also received an annual dividend payment from them a while ago. I haven’t sold any of my free shares yet but could of course do so any time I choose. I am not in any rush, as Trading 212 do not impose any platform or inactivity fees.

Although in this post I have focused on the free share offer, Trading 212 is worth considering as a share-dealing platform too. In particular, the fact that it’s fee-free and commission-free means it is well suited for people who are dipping a toe in stocks and shares investment for the first time. By contrast, the dealing fees and commissions charged by some other share-trading platforms can make small share purchases prohibitively expensive. This review by Money Savvy Daddy looks at the pros and cons of Trading 212 as a share-dealing platform in a bit more detail.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that Trading 212 pays interest on any uninvested funds in your ISA or Invest account, currently at a rate of 5.1% AER. You can also make money allowing your shares to be lent out. Rates on offer for this vary according to investor demand, with the process handled automatically by Trading 212 once authorized. You can read more about share lending on Trading 212, including the risks and safeguards provided, here.

In conclusion, I hope this post has inspired you to consider registering with Trading 212 to claim your free share. If you do, I hope you get a valuable one! Please let me know what share you receive in a comment below. And, as always, any other comments or questions are very welcome too.

Don’t forget, the current free share offer ends on Wednesday 6 November 2024.

Disclosure: The links in this post include my referral code. If you click through and register as described above, I will receive a free share (as will you). Please note also that I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as individual financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek advice from a qualified financial adviser if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investment carries a risk of loss (although not in the case of free shares, obviously).

This is an update of my original post about this special offer.

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