A Robust View On Homeopathy In The Times
Professor Michael Baum is an amazing doctor and surgeon, who I have had the pleasure of meeting.
In The Times today, he has a letter published about accreditation of homoeopaths to the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA).
He writes this memorable sentence.
From now on they will be able to check if their homoeopathic doctor is a fully trained quack or simply someone masquerading as a quack.
I do not believe in anything that can’t be scientifically proven by rigorous methods. The three at the top of my list are religion, homoeopathy and many of the zanier and animal-unfriendly aspects of Chinese medicine.
Have The New Car Tax Rules Killed The Congestion Charge/Parking Fiddle?
Some years ago, I was selling an old Ford Escort Estate that was definitely a runner with virtually a year’s car tax and MOT, on eBay.
I only wanted a few hundred and I thought I had a deal.
When the lady who’d bought it and I talked over the phone, she said that she’d give me cash and deal with all the handover paperwork to save me the hassle. I said no to the latter and she then said, that I could forget the sale.
So I then looked at her purchase history on eBay and found that she’d bought about twenty or so clean cars like the Escort. All seemed to have a reasonably long tax and MOT and cost just a few hundred pounds.
I e-mailed the DVLA, as I thought the whole thing stank. They informed me, that the car would be sold to someone, who needed to get around London without paying the congestion charge. All of the fines and charges would obviously go to the previous owner.
They asked if I could forward all of the details to them.
I never heard any more from the lady, but the DVLA informed me a couple of years later, that they had mounted a successful prosecution.
Having looked at the new car tax rules, I think that the days of this type of scam are dead.
Before Overground – London Fields
A Station With an Excellent Bakery/Cafe – Rating 3/10
London Fields station is another station on the Lea Valley Lines with no decent access.
As I arrived a Japanese lady was struggling down the stairs with her three-year-old, a buggy and a scooter.
The reason she was coming was to visit the E5 bakehouse and cafe. It was so full, that I couldn’t get my intended cup of tea.
As you can see from the pictures, Network Rail have done a superb job in creating a series of small workshops in the railway arches.
It’s just a pity, that the access at the station wasn’t fixed at the same time.
As the station has only had a frequent service since 2005. was this one of those stations that British Rail hoped would quietly die?
Before Overground – Stoke Newington
A Dreadful Station To Avoid – Rating 2/10
Stoke Newington station was built when people weren’t disabled, pushed buggies or grew elderly and it shows.
In my view it’s one of those stations, that with a creative surface makeover, lifts and perhaps a light-controlled crossing to access buses going north, could be turned into one of the better stations on the line. The station forecourt has what looks to be a decent cafe, so selective development around the station could probably improve matters.
There’s Work To Do On The Gospel Oak To Barking Line
I went to Harringay Green Lanes station and then took a train on the Gospel Oak To Barking Line to South Tottenham.
There is work to do to get round the years of neglect.
The step-free access at Harringay Green Lanes is derisory and the station buildings aren’t the best, but it does look like something is happening at South Tottenham. This document from the the line’s User Group shows a discussion about what might be happening.
Work has already started on the bridge at South Tottenham to strengthen it for the future, but it looks like the one at Harringay Green Lanes is in no better condition.
Managing Zopa As A High-Interest, Almost Instant-Access Deposit Account
The media is full of articles and comment moaning about the derisory rates that you can get on any savings. There is also the related moan, that if you sign up for some higher-interest account, your money is locked away for several years.
So what does the average man on the Dalston omnibus want from a savings product?
1. A Very Low Chance Of Losing Their Money
You’ve worked hard for the money and you don’t want to lose it. One of my friends, a very sensible Irish doctor, put all his savings in an account with an Icelandic Bank. That broke one of the golden rules of saving by which I live – Never trust your money to anybody domiciled outside of where you live. Would I bank with Santander? Of course not!
2. The Best Possible Rate Of Return
Certainly better than you’d get from a reputable bank or building society.
Note the Rule of 72, which says that if you divide the interest rate you’re getting into 72, that gives you the years to double your money. So if you’re getting five percent, that will mean it doubles in 15 years. But two percent takes 36 years.
3. Instant Access Would Be Nice
Obviously, it would be nice to be able to remove your savings from the account without suffering any penalty or charges.
4. The Minimum Possible Level of Management And Paperwork
We all want to put our money, in a place with the convenience of the Bank Of Mattress.
———–
So does a product exist that gives us all we need?
It is my view, that a peer-to-peer lending platform, and Zopa in particular, can be used as a high-interest instance-access deposit account.
In this discussion, I’m using Zopa as it is the peer-to-peer lender I know best. But the analysis could probably apply to your own favourite.
Zopa also has the following features.
1. Your Investment Is Probably Safe
I say probably, as occasionally, one of my loans has gone into default, but now Zopa safeguards your money. Here’s what they say on the website.
Earn great returns on your savings with peace of mind. The Safeguard is a fund designed to step in and give you back all your money, plus interest, in the rare event a borrower cannot repay. Find out more about the Safeguard fund.
But even so, my losses on older loans before Safeguard have been about four percent of the total interest I have earned on my investment.
2. Automatic Reinvestment
If you should so choose, you can re-invest any money that is credited to your account because of interest earned or loans repaid.
I don’t use this feature, unless I’m going away for a few days and probably won’t be checking my Zopa account.
I normally re-invest any money returned manually, as I might need to invest it in something else!
But the automatic reinvestment can be easily switched in and out.
3. You Are In Control
If you want to add more money to your Zopa pot, it is just a simple transfer.
If you want to remove some of the repayments or interest, it is just a simple transfer out and this has got faster recently.
The only restriction, is that transfers must be from and to a UK bank account.
4. You Are Not Part Of The Loan Management Process
On the other hand, you are not part of the loan management process and so you don’t get involved with any tedious paperwork or micro-management. As I have thousands of loans in Zopa, it’s a process I want no part of it.
As a software man of a certain experience, I would prefer to trust well-written software rather than my own judgement.
5. One Percent Fees To Savers
Click here to see what Zopa says about fees to savers.
———-
My use of Zopa is to have a sizeable part of my assets there, balancing it with less risky assets like shares in BP or HSBC. I add money to Zopa, as and when I have spare funds available. Usually, this is around the 12th of each month, as that is after all of my monthly bills have been paid.
Recently, I have needed extra funds for work on my house, so I’ve withdrawn money from Zopa at times, instead of re-investing it.
So to return to using Zopa as a high-interest instance-access deposit account.
1, Earnings From Zopa
I find that I’m earning about five percent before tax on money invested in Zopa.
But what is interesting is that for every £50,000 I have invested in Zopa, repayments, interests and capital repaid come to about £2,500 each month. This figure might be lower for someone investing now, as a lot of my loans are to sensible individuals for five years and weere made a couple of years ago.
2. Balancing Zopa With Your Bank Account
So this money can either be reinvested or if you need some extra funds repatriated to your bank account.
One thing that helps is that a large proportion of clients repay their loans on or about the first of the month. So a large amount of money is received in the first week or so of the month!
By careful budgeting and transferring money between Zopa and your bank account, you can maximise the amount of money, that is earning you more money in Zopa and keep your bank account in what you consider to be the black.
3. Matching Your Agreed Overdraft Limit To Zopa Monthly Cash Flow
I should say that my agreed overdraft limit on my current account, is sensibly matched with the amount of money, I could normally be able to repatriate from Zopa in a month.
This means that in a month with heavy expenditure, I don’t drop myself in it.
4. Flexibility
If say one month, your horse has just come in and you’ve won several thousand in the 4:15 at Kempton, you can leave the money to accumulate.
And if in another, your car needs repair, you can take out everything you can.
5. You Can Cash It All In
I often wonder what would have happened, when my wife got cancer, if we hadn’t had any money or two sons who could drop everything and help. It would have been difficult in the extreme.
But a Zopa fund could have been liquidated without penalty and used as income in the last months or years of my wife’s life.
You can sell on good loans, but I’d have just not bothered to reinvest any money and transferred it all out of Zopa.
6. You Can Start In A Small Way
Most investments require a large sum to get started, but you can flirt with Zopa to see if it for you for as little as ten pounds.
7. Transfers To And From Zopa Are Going To Get Faster
This is something that is happening and will improve all our lives in the future.
But it particularly helps with an investment like Zopa, where you’re effectively using it as a quick-access deposit account.
———-
It wouldn’t be fair not to state the disadvantages.
1. You Can Earn More With Other Peer-to-Peer Sites
There are always other better ways of earning higher returns, but then they usually come with a higher risk profile.
2. It All Sounds Too Good To Be True
I am not a Financial Advisor, but a Control Engineer and a Mathematician. On the other hand, I’m investing my own money! And I’m also prepared to show my analyses to anybody who wants to see them!
———
It’s your money, so do the research and make your choice.
After all we all know the old joke about the best way to make a small fortune! Give a large one to a financial advisor!
A Big Dilemma
Tonight, I can either watch Manchester City or Chelski in the Champions League, as it’s uncertain as to which will give me the greatest pleasure by being given a good drubbing!
We really do need serious Fair Play rules on spending, so that talent rather than money rules.
The Tyranny Of Shopping
Today’s shopping showed how sometimes, it can be a complete pain. I went up to Islington and bought this today.
The Tyranny Of Shopping
My trouble in some ways is that I’m particular in what I like.
1. Bread has to be from Marks and Spencer. Waitrose’s especially is made from cardboard.
2. Only Sainsbury sell my preferred Black Farmer sausages, which go so well in a sausage casserole I’m making.
3. Marks and Spencer doesn’t sell cannelloni beans.
4. I prepay for The Times and getting rid of the voucher can be difficult in some supermarkets.
5. Etc. etc.
So in the end, I ended up going to all of Waitrose, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer, buying a few items in each.
At least at the Angel, the three shops are close together. In Sainsbury, all I bought was the sausages.
Last week, I went to Waitrose at Canary Wharf to try to get everything in one visit, but they didn’t have the sausages, as they’d sold out and their own gluten-fre ones are tasteless.
Bacon Factory Curve At Work
I took this picture from an Ipswich to Cambridge train.
Freight Trains On The Bacon Factory Curve
It shows how the Bacon Factory Curve is working.
The train on the left is held on the curve itself, whilst the train on the right is proceeding towards Felixstowe.
In contrast to months ago, my train was not delayed and went straight past the junction.
Match Seven – Ipswich 2 – Brighton 0
A win, which was down to one scrambled goal and another that looked good, but was a bit of a lucky fluke.
However they all count and Ipswich are now up to ninth.
Bishop was again influential, but the man of the match was Tyrone Mings, who nearly scored a goal with an intended back-heel. His knack of popping up in the box at the right time, reminds me of Chris Lawler from the Liverpool side of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Anonymous Widower 