Jan Vlieghe, a member of the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest-rate setting committee recently made a comparison with the UK’s monetary policy and The Weimar Republic. According to his convoluted logic, we …
Will the gold standard return?
Category Archives: money
Amazon Prime isn’t worth it
Amazon Prime in the UK is £7.99 per month (£95.88 for the year) or £79 for a one-off payment. There’s a whole bunch of internet posts (all paid for affiliates) describing how Amazon Prime is worth it. So here’s my …
How identity theft happens and how to stop it
I remember when you switched on the news they’d nearly always be a story of a post office or bank that had been robbed at gunpoint. Since moving to a cashless society, those days have gone but it means crime …
Videos on the economy worth watching while in lockdown
There’s a lot of talk on mainstream TV about a V-shaped financial recovery (when things bounce right back). This feels fanciful IMO. The other options are “U” (like in 2008), “W” and the dreaded “L”. Obviously, no one knows the …
Behavioural changes and trends caused by coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic is a world-shattering event, the biggest of our generation, dwarfing 9/11 or the collapse of Lehman Brothers. With so much uncertainty, one thing is for sure: there will be lasting political, economic, social and technological change. As I …
How to be a landlord
Time needed: 10 minutes.
Using a letting agent will seriously erode your profits especially in a climate with increasing regulation and cost. Moreover, as I have written about previously, letting agents do such a bad job, not only will
Landlord property inventory with electronic signatures
Paying for property inventory reports as a landlord can become expensive. I could pay up to £415 over 12 months for my 3 bed flat with property check-in and check-out reports. This is a good incentive to do it yourself. …
OpenRent review from a landlord
In this post, I’ll give my honest review of using OpenRent as a landlord. Before moving to OpenRent I was paying PurpleBricks £2,160 per year to manage my flat and before that a similar amount to Winkworth. Both of them …
Letting agents will overcharge and ruin your property
This post is aimed at landlords thinking of using a letting agent for managing their rental property. I’m writing this with 12 years of experience of dealing with letting agents (in London) and speaking with landlords, I’ve also worked at …
Landlord depreciation spreadsheet
If you assume the concept of tracking depreciation is only for businesses, then you’d be wrong. I would encourage you to start tracking depreciation for anything valuable in your rental property. It’s a super simple process and a great tool …