A Fool and His Money

On Monday the government announced its plans to cut child benefit for the higher rate taxpayers. Chancellor George Osborne announced that child benefit would be removed from families with at least one parent earning more than about £44,000 a year – from 2013.
David Cameron has since admitted that the decision will not make them popular with voters but “profoundly believes” that it is the right thing to do.
The governments plan would result in one-child families losing £1,055 a year whilst parents with three children could miss out on £2,500. It is expected that 1.2 million families will be affected by the cut.
What is really bizarre about the decision is that parents, who have a combined income of just over £80,000, or where each earns just under £44,000, will still receive child benefit.

For more information on child benefit please click here.

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As the UK still struggles to cope with surviving a Credit Crunch it looks like we could be on the verge of another one.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has reported that taxpayers could be forced to help plug a £25bn-a-month funding gap. Despite an estimated £1.2 trillion which has already been pumped into the banking system, we might once again see the banks begging for government help.
This prediction is based on the NEF’s report “Where did our money go?”, which warns that the industry is on a collision course for a severe funding crisis when current financial lifelines are withdrawn.
The report also states that, if the government is aware of this it would therefore explain the severity of its’ inevitable cuts. i.e. they are preparing government (taxpayer) funds for a further round of bail-outs.

To read the report in full please click here.

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Petrol and diesel prices have been increased to a level that almost matches the 2008 record high, this time by 1p a litre.
This has obviously been condemned by motoring companies and transport companies fearing that it could seriously damage an already delicate economy.
The AA has also joined the argument against such a ridiculous price rise, suggesting that motorists will find it very difficult to cope with the extra cost and also blaming it for a 5.8% fall in petrol sales.
AA president Edmund King has stated that this increase is a major contradiction by the government.
He also added: “Petrol and diesel prices today are at least 10p a litre higher than this time last year, already generating an extra 1p a litre VAT windfall for the Treasury.

“Hence we question why this fuel duty rise is needed.”

Paul Chapman of the Freight Transport Association stated that: “With economic recovery still so fragile, now is not the time to compound the problem with artificial price hikes.”

For petrol prices in your local area please click here.

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Google is set to launch a new service where you can call another person throught it’s Gmail email service and it is set to launch in the USA with it being free calls to other people in the same country.

Google has said that calls to Europe, China & Japan from the USA will cost as low as 2 cents per minute

Eventually they will move this to the rest of the world but for now it will have it’s trial in America..

I am unsure as to why you would want to call other countries when you can just Skype for free but sometimes you don’t want to see the other person do you…

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It has been announced that discount store Poundland is looking to open 50 new stores in the UK which means there will be up to 2,000 new jobs for unemployed people.

Poundland currently have 263 stores in the UK and employ around 7,500 people and they have around 3 million customers visit their shops per week.

The sell items such as food, health and beauty products, cleaning products and much more and most items just cost £1 (the name sort of gives it away).

I know lots of people that go there for weekly items and they say it is the best thing that has happened to our area  as it saves them a small fortune over a period of time.

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Asda have dropped their fuel prices to 111.9p a litre at at-least 180 filling stations and they have said it will last until the end of the bank holiday later on this month.

They are also knocking at least 2p off their diesel making it 114.9p a litre.

these prices will be welcomed by the british motorists who saw petrol rising to 120p in April this year.

you can go online and find out cheap petrol prices in your areat to www.petrolprices.com and at the moment the cheapest in my area is 112.9p a litre and the most expensive is 117.9p a litre..

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It has been reported that Virgin Media is to sell its half share in the UK TV is estimated to be worth £350 million.

They own the TV Channels listed below:

• Dave
• Gold
• Dave Ja Vu
• Yesterday
• Eden
• Home
• Good Food
• Blighty
• Alibi

BBC Worldwide (who own the other 50% of UKTV) have first refusal to buy out it’s partner and if they dont it will go on the market.

It is reported that Channel 4 is in the bidding and so is the Satellite broadcaster BskyB.

Who will buy it is anyones guess with the current market but i am sure we will find out soon.

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If you won the lottery would you have your photo taken and go in the local paper or would you keep quiet and not tell the tabloids???

I have been having this discussion today at work and we have mutually decided that it would be best not to go in the papers and announce that you have just won however many millions..

The reasons were that:

• we would not want letters off the public asking for money as they are sick or in debt
• we would not want people we have not spoken to in years getting in touch just because we had money
• we would not want to be a target for getting robbed or conned

Let me know your opinion on this and whether you would or not!!

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Does the internet and owning a website mean money money money? Well unfortunately, let me tell you.

A lot of people have the misconception that having a website means you are making millions of dollars! This is funny and a load of rubbish. A website does not mean a lot of money.

But as time goes on and more people become familiar with the internet and websites and what is involved in making a website and how many websites are successful in the world, those people who originally thought a website means money start to realise that is not the case!

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Does the size of the business mean money? Many people think to themselves that when they see a business and company that employ 200 people, they are a bigger and more successful business that someone who employs 50 people.

This is not the case. You will find many examples of businesses that are very small in size but have a very high profit income and other businesses that are very large but have minimum profit!

So, it’s not about size and the number of people employed by a business or the number of offices a business has, it’s about the income and the profit!

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