Now That’s What I Call A Robbery!
I was once called one of the Top Ten programmers in the world and as that was before I wrote Artemis, it is a compliment to the guy who said it, that he spotted my talent early.
I’ve never attempted to steal any money using a computer, but I have certainly had a few ideas, that I’ve kept to myself, or used in the odd unpublished short story. But this report on the BBC about how a series of cash machines were emptied, is completely unbelievable. Here’s the opening paragraphs.
Researchers have revealed how cyber-thieves sliced into cash machines in order to infect them with malware earlier this year.
The criminals cut the holes in order to plug in USB drives that installed their code onto the ATMs.
Interestingly, the crooks emptied the machines of the higher value notes first, so they could be away quickly.
This illustrates one of the big faults of the euro., compared to the pound. There are so many large notes in circulation, that the currency is a criminal’s and a money launderer’s dream. I don’t like large notes anyway!
I suspect it was an inside job, in that someone who worked for either the bank or the cash machine company was the guy behind it all.
But of course, these days, where software is produced under contract by those in far off countries, is it any wonder you get crimes like this?
I wound never put anything more than working petty cash into a bank or building society, as they’re all vulnerable to be taken out by a gang of clever hackers.
And they are a lot less vulnerable if all those in charge of the computer system and those who program it, are actually employed by the company.
Sadly, this is no longer always the case, as various calamities in the banking industry in the last few years has shown.
Analysis Of My 2013 In Zopa
I have been looking at my figures for 2013 for my investment in Zopa. What started as a bit of a fun punt has grown, as I have tended to use it as a dumping ground for bits of money, that I have no immediate use for.
If I look at how much money I have had invested at the end of the last few years, we see the following figures.
2011 – £40870.05
2012 – £103609.57
2013 – £146812.13
Averaging out the amount, throughout the year gives the following figures
2011 – £48962.13
2012 – £57628.61
2013 – £131194.47
The difference between the two figures is because, over the year, I’ve tended to add any unspent money or unexpected monies to my Zopa account.
The earnings for each of the three years are as follows.
2011 – £2862.86
2012 – £2514.18
2013 – £5846.81
Which corresponds to these returns.
2011 – 5.85%
2012 – 4.36%
2013 – 4.46%
Returns are not as high as they were, but that is because rates have softened, since Zopa safeguarded money that has been invested.
But the most interesting figure is how much money has been available to me to take out or reinvest. This is either interest or returned capital. in 2013, I have taken out £4900 and reinvested £76170 back in Zopa. That is a total of £81070, that I could have used to fix the roof, go to the World Cup in Brazil or use for wine, women and song. Obviously once taken out, it can’t be taken out next year.
But it does illustrate one of the advantages of Zopa and I suspect some of the other peer-to-peer lenders. If you need to realise investments to raise cash for an emergency or a long-planned spending, you can withdraw quite large amounts without penalty, by just withdrawing income, income instead of reinvesting it.
There is a corollary to this. If say you have a sum, that you might need, then investing it in Zopa, should give an acceptable return, until you need to withdraw it for another purpose.
It is also interesting to apply Justin Urquart Stewart’s, so-called Rule of 72, that he talked about in this article, in the Daily Telegraph.
There is the old “Rule of 72” which can also help. This number helps you to find out how often your money will double in value. What you do is divide into 72 the rate of return you hope to get. So for example let’s assume you could get 7pc after all costs on your investments in the long term (not an impossible figure) – then 7 into 72 goes roughly 10 times – so your money doubles every decade.
That would mean that as I get 4.5% or so, from Zopa, the money in there will double in sixteen years. I’ll only be 82!
The Anonymous Widower 