Getting the job done

Whenever you embark on a major home improvement project, ranging from a new bathroom to a building extension, one key issue you will have to address at the outset is that of how to manage the work involved.

What is involved
There are a number of things that need to be done:
Plan the work carefully beforehand to make sure that what is eventually completed reflects your prior vision in its entirety
Arrange for all supplies to arrive on site at a time suitable so that those working are not held up by lack of any materials
Make sure the supplies that are bought and paid for are of the right quality and good value
Ensure you have the best tradespeople to do the job, at the right price
Arrange the order of the work so that different trades can carry out individual stage of the work in the right order
Make sure they all understand exactly what you want done, how it must be done and to what standard
Make sure that everyone turns up when they say they will, does the work they say they will, to the standards you expect
Just as an exercise, work out exactly what the stages are in building a new bathroom, from start to finish.
As you can see, this involves a difficult set of interlocking tasks. It takes a lot of time, it is both intellectually and emotionally demanding and requires someone to have a reasonable knowledge – or be willing to learn – about the building process involved in their particular project.
Who might manage this work? There are a number of options:

Use an architect
If you are looking at a major piece of construction, involving a lot of technical detail, you may need an architect. His or her work may involve not only coming up a plan that meets your desired objective, but piloting it through the local authority’s planning stages, preparing a building contract, hiring a builder and then overseeing the work on the site itself right to the end.
The advantage of this is that it should, in theory, mean a professional is taking care of everything for you – in return for a fee. Moreover, most good architects will have a list of good builders they can call on who are able to out their designs into practice.
Also, they should, using their experience, not only be able to price any labour and materials needed far more accurately than you could, but obtain the best rates for them too. So, in theory, you save money too.

How much does this cost?
For a typical loft conversion, think in terms of 12% to 15% of the overall build cost
For a large extension, the cost is more likely to be about 10% to 12%
A complete home might cost about 8% to 12%, depending on the difficulties involved in the build
Can you get an architect to do it for less? Yes: you just ask them to sort out the drawings and the planning application and then either manage the build yourself or bring in the contractor yourself.
If so, you are looking at paying about half of the above amount.

Hire a main contractor
As we have seen, the process of ensuring all trades come in at different times, some of them at staggered intervals, throughout a building project, can be complicated and time-consuming. Getting it wrong can be costly and lead to long delays.
You can hire a main contractor who will take care of all of it, bringing in each sub-contractor as and when he needs them. The advantage is that everything is taken care of for you. The disadvantage is that you are relinquishing control of the project to someone else, who may not have the same vision as you do.
There is also the issue of cost. A main contractor will expect to make money from:
The wage you pay him
A proportion of the labour costs
A proportion of the supplies that he obtains on your behalf
The overall cost can be between 10% and 15% of what the build cost might involve if you were handling everything yourself. This would be in addition to the architect’s fees, assuming an architect were involved right down to the final stages of the project.
Of course, the contractor can still obtain better prices for materials and also for labour than you might be able to find, so you might never see the savings if you did it yourself. Are there cheaper ways?
Yes, you can still use a main contractor but agree that he is responsible only for the labour and build management while you buy the materials. But you would have to ensure that all materials are available on the site as and when they are needed, or risk fracturing your relationship with the main contractor. You would expect to cut between 30 and 40% of the total contractor’s cost in this way.

Do it all yourself
As we have seen, there are many stages involved in the building or home improvement process. You are likely to have to spend several hours a day on managing each stage.
You will also have to be on the site each day for some of the time to address daily concerns as they arise. If you think you can do that, you should expect to save anything up to 25% of the total cost of the project, although 15% is more realistic.
This depends on how good you are at negotiating daily rates with individual tradespeople and what kind of prices you can get for the materials you are buying. The danger is that of getting it wrong, for example not managing costs properly: in that case the project can end up costing more than if you brought in the professionals.

Why Britain fell out of love with DIY

Fast-forward to now, however, and it’s a different story. Home improvement retailer Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, saw same-store sales fall by 1.1% at the end of last year . This followed sales slumps of 8% and 2.7% respectively during the first two quarters of 2006. Changing Rooms has, of course, long since departed from our screens. And as anyone who still watches the adverts on TV will testify, there’s hardly a Ronseal Quick-Drying Woodstain or Black & Decker power tools ad in sight.

This gloomy picture for the home improvement market was compounded with a report by market analyst Verdict Research revealing that the home improvement and gardening sector is suffering a sales drop for the second year running. The report concluded that the home improvement market’s performance over the past two years had been “dismal”.

Looking to make some improvements to your home? Compare rates on unsecured personal loans
Forget DIY, it’s all about DFY
It seems, therefore, that the British love-affair with DIY is well and truly over. The report found that while for many years getting in outside help to perform improvements tasks in the home was seen as a badge of shame by many homeowners, more and more are now ditching opting for DFY – Done For You – improvements instead.
Kingfisher share price chart
The Polish plumber phenomenon
According to the report’s author, Nigel Gladding, one of the major reasons for the decline of DIY has been the arrival in the UK of large numbers of tradesmen from Eastern Europe.
He explained that many Eastern European tradesmen were not only highly skilled, but, crucially, were prepared to work for less than their British counterparts.
“The influx of skilled tradesmen from the new EU states… has reduced the cost of home improvement projects,” he said. “It has made ‘Done For You’ a much more affordable option.”
Sean Gardner, chief executive of financial website MoneyExpert.com, praised the positive impact of Polish workers in particular in making paid-for home improvements more affordable.
“Polish builders are already building a strong reputation in the capital for producing excellent work. It’s certainly increased competition, which can only benefit consumers,” he said.
A recent MoneyExpert study found that more than a quarter-of-a-million Londoners have employed Poles to carry out work on their homes in the past 12 months, adding that this figure was almost certain to rise in 2009.

RBA gets it wrong again.

The RBA has put rates up now on the belief that the financial crisis is behind us, and it has to return to its established role of controlling inflation.

That this decision was likely was flagged by the speech by Anthony Richards last week, which implied that the RBA, having ignored the house price bubble created by private credit growth in the preceding two decades, was worried about the renewal of the bubble initiated by the Government’s First Home Vendors Boost (I refuse to call it by its official name, since the money clearly went to the vendors, while the buyers copped only higher prices).

Needless to say I am all for trying to contain the house price bubble, which I regard as a disguised Ponzi scheme that has sucked Australian households into unsustainable debt levels. It is quite possible that the increase in interest rates (which is sure to be fully passed on by lenders and will add $20 a week to the servicing costs of a now commonplace $400,000 home loan), combined with the phasing out of the Vendors Boost, will be enough to prick the bubble–especially if it is followed by another rise next month.

But the RBA is doing this in the belief that the economy will return to normal after the recent mild recession–normal meaning growing at about 3% per annum in real terms, and faster than that as it rebounds from the recession.

Unfortunately “normal” in our post-War experience has also involved a return to a rising private debt to GDP ratio. Every recession has involved a fall in debt-driven demand, and every recovery has involved a return to debt rising faster than income. As the global financial crisis has made many people realise, this is simply a formula for avoiding a crisis now by having a bigger one in the future.

I doubt that the RBA appreciates this even today. It is still mired in a neoclassical way of thinking about the economy, which myopically ignores the impact of debt-driven demand on the economy. This is why it can put up rates now in the belief that this will merely fine tune the economy’s performance–reducing the likelihood of inflation in the future.

I think it is likely that the RBA will achieve far more than it intends. The last time the RBA put rates up to attempt to control an asset price bubble that was already out of hand was back in 1989. That exacerbated the economic downturn that was already in train as the debt bubble of the 1980s started to collapse. I expect the outcome of this rate rise will be similar: a downturn that is already in train as a debt bubble bursts will be made worse by this increase in rates at a time of greatly heightened financial fragility.

The problem this time is I believe far worse than 1990. Then the household sector had a relatively low level of debt–the mortgage debt to GDP ratio was a comparatively trivial 18 percent, compared to its now record level of 87.5%. It was therefore possible for the financial sector to lend willy-nilly to households, something neoclassical economists facilitated by their enthusiastic deregulation of the financial sector.

Who is there to lend to today? All sectors of the economy except the government are carrying record levels of debt. Thus while the Vendors Boost and other enticements encouraged some additional borrowing by the already massively leveraged household sector–and gave us a household debt to GDP ratio that now exceeds America’s–I simply can’t imagine who (apart from the government) the financial sector can now sell debt to.

As a result, I doubt that we will see any sustained acceleration in the debt to GDP ratio, with the consequence that the debt-financed component of aggregate demand will be anaemic at best. Since that has been the major source of growth in aggregate demand for many years now, I expect that economic growth will be substantially less than the RBA anticipates.

If so, just as it killed a dragon that wasn’t there by its inflation-fighting rate rises up until March of 2008, it may be taming a lion that is sound asleep with its rate rises now. If economic growth does in fact stay well below levels that reduce unemployment in the coming two years, then there will be very good grounds for revoking the independence that the RBA has had in setting monetary policy. We may as well hand it back to the politicians, if the alternative is to leave it with neoclassical economists who don’t understand the dynamics of our credit-driven economy.

Ref: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/

Debt advice – 5 important steps

Source:www.moneystand.co.uk

It’s time for some more debt tips! If you’re at the stage when you know you have to face up to your debt but still find the idea a bit daunting, here’s my FIVE most important Steps:

Step One:

There has to be a lightening strike when you are honest with yourself as to exactly how much trouble you are in. Sit down take a deep breath and open all the bills that are stashed away unopened because you have never dared. Write down a list and work out exactly what you owe and to whom. Read that list and cry, grieve, if you need to, and then decide that you are going to sort it.

Step Two:

Set two is tell you loved ones exactly what a mess you are in. They may be angry, shocked or disapointed to start but they will give you the emotional support you need. Once you’ve told your loved ones you will feel better – a problem shared is a problem halved as they say. Your freinds and family won’t just give you emotional support, they’ll also encorage you and help you in other ways – you just have to ask for their support.

Step Three:

Cut up the plastic and stop spending. I don’t care how hard it is or how much you ‘need’ to buy something – this is about tough love here. No excuses. Start riding your bike to work, walk the kids to school, make lunch before you leave the house, use up your tinned food and freezer food that’s just lying around instead of getting more groceries, change your mobile phone plan, anything you haven’t used for a year – put it on ebay, cancel your gym membership and get fit the old fashioned way – there are no excuses here. You CAN stop spending and you CAN make changes right now to reduce your monthly, weekly and daily budget. It’s the only way things will get better, trust me.

Step Four:

Ring a not for debt advice charity, debt advice line, or debt agency – just make sure it’s free to call first. They will not take a fee but will help you go through the options of how to go forward they will contact your creditors and will help you with a budget suitable for you circumstances. Be cautious if they sound like they are trying to sell you a debt solution – make it clear you are calling for a free intial chat about your options and are calling multiple services to get the best advice and will have to discuss it with your family/partner/friends before you choose what road to go down. When you speak to them do not feel embarrassed – they speak to thousands of people around the UK who are having some money problems.

Step Five:

Remember you are not the only person in this situation. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and now you have taken the first steps your life will seem allot easier with a weight lifted from your shoulders. Take a moment to yourself to congratulate yourself that you’re on your way. Positivity and will power is key to changing your financial situation.

One student’s bid to clear debt

One student’s bid to clear debt

Instead of seeking debt advice, one university student thought that he had found the perfect debt solution by conning eBayers out of thousands of pounds.

In an attempt to settle debt from his student loan, this cunning seller placed advertisements on Ebay for laptops and console games which he never owned. He copied photographs of the items and wrote detailed descriptions of them. Gullible eBayers were impressed with his ads and sent him payment via PayPal. After several days, customers started to get worried when their goods never arrived. They complained to PayPal who looked into this matter for them.

Paypal reimburses bidders

Upon investigation, it was noted that the devious student was pocketing his PayPal payments but not sending out any goods. He avoided correspondence from his exasperated buyers and banked the money. His misleading advertisements netted him profits of over £10,000.

After over 40 complaints to PayPal, bidders have now been reimbursed for the deception of this fraudulent seller.

The student claims that he only wanted to continue the scam until he had settled his student debt.

He has since been forced to sell his home to repay PayPal and has been sentenced to over 200 hours of community service.

He is now banned from Ebay!

A Few of the Best Ways to Save Money

In today’s financial climate it can get very hard to find a little extra money to put away for that rainy day. I did not say that it was impossible just kinda hard to be able to build up the emergency fund when it seems that every day is an emergency. Here are three of the best ways to save money even when money is tight.

Save Your Change

Set up a change jar. I have mine set up at the kitchen counter by our back door where I always empty my pockets. I throw my keys on the counter next to my wallet and I plug in my cell phone and throw all my change (every day) into my jar. Twice a month I empty my jar and take it to the bank sometimes there is only two or three dollars in it and sometimes five or six. It is amazing how fast it adds up. At approximately $8.00 each month it comes to $96 a year. Not a fortune but better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Save Coupons and Use Them

Start to clip coupons or better and easier, just print them off your computer for the brands you use. It is amazing how much you can save on your monthly grocery bills if you just do a little work at it. Of course if you are going to save then the money you do not spend you must put into your savings account. What we have done is set our bi-weekly food budget for the amount we spend to eat each payday. Then we clip coupons and look for deals while shopping so we do not spend our entire budgeted food allowance. Depending on the coupons we find for the two week period we can save $10 to $20 each time which adds up to an average of $30 per month totaling $360 per year. Again not a fortune but $360 plus the $96 comes to $456 each year.

Pay Yourself First

This is a must if you are ever going to build up your emergency fund. Just put yourself in the budget and pay yourself every payday the same as you would pay your electric or phone bills or any other creditor. Make sure that you drop it into your savings account right away or you will spend it on something you really do not need. If you pay yourself only 10% of every payday it will add up fast. Say you bring home $400 per week 10% is $40 times 52 weeks totals $2080 per year. At only 5% it would total $1040 per year.

As you can see just these three of the best ways to save money can put a sizable sum into your emergency fund in as little as a year. Add seven more ways to save and look out world here we come.

Money Saving Tips For People Who Hate Saving Money

Saving money is important. We all know that But knowledge is not the same thing done.

For some people, saving money is like a healthy diet. You get inspired and begin to do so, but after a few weeks, self-pity creeps and you begin to hate it. If you do not usually save money or you think it’s really hard to do, then here are some tips for saving money that can help you.

Save first, then spend the rest.
At the moment you receive your income immediately put aside a portion and put it in your savings account. After that, you can now spend the rest of your salary, without guilt. That is what they call pay yourself first, which is easier and more fun to do than scrimping on your expenses if you have money in your savings and left until the next pay day is. Try it, it really works .

To save money automatically.
How do you make automatic savings There are several ways. One is to go to the bank where your company has payroll and ask if they have an automatic savings plan, or if you can have a place. What this means is that whenever it comes to pay day, the bank will automatically deduct a fixed amount of your salary and deposit it in another savings account.

A few months ago, a blogger friend, writing on the Marhgil BPI Direct Save Up plan that does for him. Personally, I have a somewhat similar UCPB Insurance Cocolife automatically charges a fixed amount on my credit card each months – a “payment” that goes to savings and personal insurance.

Make your savings not readily accessible.
When your savings account is an ATM withdrawal in a row, then you’re more likely to touch. Make it inconvenient for you to withdraw money from your savings. All you need is a simple book of account Banking is a good start. As for me, I have a personal Optimum BDO savings account which allows you up to three over-the-counter withdrawals per month (but not limited to filing).

The Filipino Paluwagan System provides access to your savings. In fact, many have recently started and joined Pinoy paluwagans to “force” to save money in light of the recent global financial crisis.

Always use cash.
When you always use the money, you are more aware of your budget. This will help avoid the accumulation of debts and encourage you to live within your means. Simply put, pay yourself first and always use cash. To do this, and you end up without credit and a savings account that you do not have to touch to pay your debts.

Set a baseline and a reward for saving money.
They say you can save money for “rainy days”. Personally, I think that is a pessimist (and vague) reason to encourage you to save. I am more motivated by saving the money when I put a reward for myself every time I reach a certain amount.

For example, I would guiltlessly dive P2, 000 for what I want when I am able to increase my savings by P10, 000. Other times, I reward myself with a desire for a meal in a restaurant after every three days expenditures.

In summary, if you have trouble saving money, then try to pay you first. Find a way to make automatic and be sure your money is not easily accessible.

Then you can spend the rest of your income, without guilt, but remember to always pay cash and avoid debt. And finally, give you a reward for passing the savings. Make it as often as you can afford.

Wriiten by Fitz @ Ready To be Rich

Back To School Special: Money Saving Tips For Parents

If you’re a parent, then I’m sure one of the things in your mind right now is your budget.

When I was a kid, I would always notice how stressed my parents were during the opening of the school year. They’d go through their finances over and over to check if they’d have enough to cover for the tuition, books and school supplies of me and my brothers.

And now, it’s just a few days before the start of another school year. And for the parents out there, here are some back to school money saving tips that could help.

School Uniforms

• Take inventory of what you have in the closet. Determine which ones can still be used.
• Consider having some of those that don’t fit anymore tailored or altered to fit.
• Trade uniforms with other parents. Maybe their kid’s old uniforms would fit yours and vice versa.
• Buy good quality clothing so they’d last the whole year and maybe even more, same goes for those leather shoes.
• For college students who don’t have school uniforms, then maybe you’d like to read this article on how to save money on clothing.

Textbooks

• Ask the upper grade students if they are willing to sell or maybe even give you their old textbooks.
• Likewise, you might be interested to sell your kid’s old textbooks to those who might need it.
• It might help to ask the school which of the textbooks are required and which ones are supplementary or optional.
• Go to second hand bookstores for old textbooks. Search in online auction sites or maybe post inquiries in parenting forums for used textbooks.

School Supplies

• Make a list of the required school supplies. Remember to prioritize and buy the necessities first.
• Consider recycling or using old supplies.
  • Take an inventory of what you already have at home choose which ones are still okay.
  • “Jazz up” old school supplies which are still in good condition to give it a fresh look. This works best for backpacks.
  • Go through your office cubicle and give those extra pens, pencils, memo pads and other supplies that you don’t use to your child. I know these things tend to accumulate on your desk and inside drawers, specially those given by colleagues and clients.
• Buy the plain and simple designs becaue they’re usually cheaper, but also consider durability. Give it individuality by customizing with your own design. I used to do this for notebooks.

Other Back To School Savings Tips

• Be honest with your children when it comes to your budget. Make them understand the situation.
• Be on the look out for back to school specials and sales in your area.
• Hunt for scholarships. Not all of them are based on your financial capacity or your child’s intellect. For example, some organizations give scholarships to children that show good leadership skills.
• It may be good to consider enrolling your child in a school near your home to lessen transportation expenses.
• Prepare packed lunches for your child to save on food expenses.

That’s all the back to school money saving tips I can think of. Maybe you have some more things to add? Please share them below as a comment.

Written by Fitz @ http://www.fitzvillafuerte.com/

5 Ways to Save When Shopping Online

Shopping online can save you a lot of money if you’re smart when going about it. Done correctly, you can get better bargains than in stores and you save yourself the cost of traveling around from shop to shop. To really save when shopping online you need to know the right tricks for saving the most amount of money.

Here’s a look at five ways to save when doing your shopping on the Internet:

1. Shop around. The single biggest advantage that Internet shopping offers to you in comparison with in-store shopping is that it gives you access to a much wider variety of products and brands. Take advantage of that by shopping around and comparing prices on the items that you want to purchase. This is particularly great when shopping for big-ticket items but should also be done when shopping for smaller items that you buy frequently. If you know where to get the best deal online then you’re going to save the most money. Be sure to check out online auctions (such as eBay) as well as overstock stores (such as Overstock.com) and to compare prices there with the sales at other online storefronts.

1. Use discount codes. There are discount codes available for almost any product that you could possibly want to buy online. These promotional codes are free for you to use. Since there’s no cost to using them and they serve the singular purpose of saving you money there’s really no reason not to use them. Before making any online purchase, search through the Internet to see if there’s a promo code that you can enter to reduce your total shopping cost. You can go to a site like ;Promotional Codes or you can simply Google the discount code that you’re seeking (such as “Walgreens discount code”).

1. Get free shipping. You can further save when shopping online by making sure that you don’t pay through the nose for shipping and handling fees. These fees can add a big chunk of change to the price that you’re paying if you’re not careful which reduces the benefits of shopping online. However, you can almost always find free shipping offers if you look around. Check for deals and look for free shipping vouchers online. All major coupon code sites have them and there are certain sites (such as www.freeshipping.org) that specialize in them. If that fails, contact the merchant; many big box stores (such as Walmart and Best Buy) will ship to a store close to you for no charge so that you can save on this expense.

1. Be a reseller. You can save money when shopping online by making smart purchases that you can re-sell later to get some of your money back. One way to do this is to look for great deals on bulk items that you need anyway. You get the item that you need and can resell the excess. Alternatively, resell items on the same site that you bought them from when you don’t need them anymore. For example, resell books on Amazon.com that you bought there after you’re done reading them or re-auction items that you yourself got off of eBay.

1. Use rent or barter sites. You might not even have to pay full price to get items that you want from online stores. There are many options to swap items or to rent them at low or no cost. Using the example of books, you could just avoid buying them from Amazon.com altogether and use a site like Paperback Swaps to get the same books for free. Alternatively, you may consider renting items that you don’t need to purchase. Zilok is an example of a website that will link you with local people who have the items that you need and which you can then rent from them to keep your costs down. You can also rent out your own items for cash on these sites.

When shopping online, you’ll also want to be sure to follow the same smart shopping rules that you use when shopping in the real world. Avoid impulse buying. Don’t shop online when you’re feeling emotional or tired. Ask yourself if you really need what you’re buying. And then use some of these other tips to further enhance the savings that are available to you when shopping on the Internet.

Guest post by Kathryn Vercillo. Kathryn is a writer for Promotionalcodes.org.uk which gives away free discount codes

The credit crisis explained visually

For those still a little bit baffled by how the credit crisis started and then snowballed I recommend you spend 11 minutes watching this video. The concepts are very simply explained including: leverage, collaterised debt obligation and sub-prime. The knowledge will help you become a better investor in the future so that you can better understand the true risk of your investments.

Much kudos to creator Jonathan Jarvis. You can also visit the official website for the videos.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.