Mums Finance » Business/The Workplace

Pensions bill delay works in favour of women in their mid-fifties…

Mum — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:20:24 +0000

Thousands of women in their mid-50s, who could be hit hard by future increases to the State pension age, have been thrown a lifeline after the Government announced a delay in the Second reading of its controversial Pensions Bill. The delay has been prompted by the Government’s decision to consider proposals that would reduce the financial impact of its intended pension changes on women currently aged between 56 and 57. It follows a demonstration at Westminster last Wednesday by many of the women affected. If passed in its current form, the Pensions Bill would speed up the timetable for the equalisation of the State pension age for men and women to 65 by 2018 – two years earlier than the Government had promised.

There will then be an increase in State pension age for everyone to 66 by 2020. But it means 330,000 women aged between 56 and 57 now would have to wait up to two years longer to collect their State pension – losing the equivalent of up to £5,000 in income each year. Age UK claims unmarried women and women who are widowed or divorced will be particularly affected. Many women in this age group are also unable to work because of their family commitments. Today currently women can expect to retire on an average pension income of £12,900 a year compared with £19,400 for men. About 330,000 women aged between 56 and 57 will be hit hardest by the Pension Bill reforms. If you are affected, the first step is to find out exactly when you will get the State pension under the new rules.

The universal State pension, which promises a flat rate income (expected to be the equivalent of about £155 a week) should start in 2016 – thereby benefiting women now aged between 56 and 57. This new pension will remove means-testing so people should benefit from every penny saved. If you are concerned, the best thing to do is to check your employer’s pension provision to see whether you are eligible to join, or if you can increase contributions. See whether your employer offers a salary exchange, which is a tax-efficient way to invest more of your wage in a pension. Review existing savings and investments to see how they are performing and switch where necessary. Don’t take big risks with investments and pensions, particularly in your 50s.

You should spread the risk by investing in a broad range of equity funds, fixed-interest bonds and deposit savings.

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On International Women’s Day a small reminder about lost identity – yours.

Mum — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:28:26 +0000

As we are coming up to Mothers Day as well I thought I would write about those women who feel that somewhere along the way they have lost track of who they are and what they are all about. This, by the way, mostly relates to mothers – in fact I would say it is almost a ‘mother-thing’ to become so caught up in everyone else’s life that you forget who YOU are. Women who go out to work don’t wear odd socks under their trousers unless it’s a new trend, we mothers live in odd socks because we have accepted that washing machines never return a matching pair…ever. But back to that identity thing, have you checked yours lately…?

It happens so slowly that you don’t even notice anything different; gradually – day by day, week by week, etc – your habits change until one day you realise it has been at least 5 days since you touched the bottle of shampoo and the elastic band has become your stock fashion accessory. As you comb the your child’s hair before school one morning, making sure every hair is in place, you recall somewhere at sometime that you too once did something with a can of mousse and spray and the result was wonderful…but that was a long time ago and who uses mousse foam these days anyway? and that stupid lipstick in your bag that keeps lurking at the bottom where your loose change is…how long ago did you buy that, or even wear it?, because the price tag shows a currency no longer in use…and I’m sure that those CD’s you used to love driving along to on your way to work (remember having your own car?) still exist somewhere…or were they cassettes? no matter, Marvin Gaye would only stir up memories of that guy your husband will have hoped you had forgotten. As yet another brochure for the opening of the latest candle-lit-incense-fuelled Day Spa drops through your mail box you think for a brief moment how nice it would be to be smoothed with orange scented oil and covered with warm pebbles as whale-mating music plays gently in the background, but who has 2 hours and £95 to spare for such folly? the one day, all of a sudden, you stand thinking in the middle of it all – the lost moments for putting on lipstick, for looking for that darned matching sock, for blowing £95 on a 2 hour back rub – and you wonder where the hell you went…where YOU went!

Well you know, she’s there. She’s combing other people’s hair, matching other people’s socks, picking out nice outfits for kids to wear for ‘no uniform day’, admiring other women’s hairstyles and outfits. All you have to do is get a shovel and start digging because she is not too far below the surface, she just needs a little help escaping. Identity is something we all have but in order to keep it alive you need to nurture it, and doing that requires time – everyday – and you have to be the one to do it because nobody else can or will. But it is there, in the back of your mind and inside your heart, as crowded as those places have become in the past few years, ‘she’ is still inside you. Give her some attention now and then and she will stay right there, even if you are the only one who still recognises her.

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We decided to repair…

Mum — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:23:47 +0000

Just recently I wrote about the situation in our home with regards to my teenage son’s laptop being out of order. Ever lived with a teenager whose access to Facebook has been interfered with…? it’s not nice believe me. However, we were tossing up whether to repair his laptop or replace and so we decided to repair it as the cost turned out to be less than what we expected. So he is now a much happier bunny.

I have decided though that he does need a replacement machine sometime this year and I looked at some desktops while I was at the repair shop. The guy had some nice reconditioned machines that actually would suit my son really well as he likes to play online games and of course laptops are really not suited to online gaming. Now I know what to get him for his birthday…

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To buy or to repair…?

Mum — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:29:49 +0000

It’s very annoying and inconvenient when your laptop decides to give up the ghost and that is what has happened with my teenage son’s laptop. Very annoying indeed as it is only 18 months old and just out of warranty, which always seems to be the way.

The battery refuses to charge and there’s another problem so I have to decide whether to have it repaired or replace it. He told me there’s the cheaper option of buying reconditioned machines so we have been considering refurbished netbooks as a change from what he currently has. There are few sights sadder than a teenager without access to Facebook so I have to make a decision pretty soon.

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Never buy a man a piece of technology for a gift!

Mum — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:14:44 +0000

I bought my man a lovely new printer for Xmas in 2009 and boy did I go to a lot of trouble to get it too. Basically his old printer, while still in good order, was too slow and did not do a lot of extra stuff such as develop photographs and was not wifi enabled. So I spent the better part of a month looking at printers and accessories – cartridges, the laserjet 3600 toner, paper, scanning capabilities…

I found what I assumed would be the perfect machine and bought it from Amazon and had it delivered while at the same time trying to hide this huge box where he could not find it. Either way it was all for nothing to date he has not used the darn thing – first thing he said when he opened it was ‘does it have a slide scanner…?’…no, it did not, the very thing he wanted in a printer and the one I went to so much trouble to purchase did not have it. So, it sits unused – that’s the last time I buy anything to do with technology for a man ever again!

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A picture sometimes speaks volumes

Mum — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:13:48 +0000

Very often you can get a message across more effectively by using a picture, photo or a logo than by simply using words. This is certainly the case in marketing and advertising where images carry more weight – consumers are very image-aware these days and remember a product for the way it appears. Just take the Coca-Cola logo as an excellent example; there is not a country anywhere in the world where you will not see this famous trademark and even if you cannot understand the local lingo you will certainly know what that little bottle means. That logo is one of the best and most successful marketing stamps in advertising history.

Even small businesses need a special ‘stamp’ on their product or service which makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd and this is where, if you own a small business, you should set aside a chunk of your marketing budget to explore some Logo Design Tips from experts in the field. What you need is a logo that is particular and exclusive to your business, one that catches the consumers eye and one that other’s will be inspired by but not able to reproduce themselves. Many companies have a team which specifically looks after the visuals in their marketing strategy, but when deciding on a logo – either new to replace and existing one – outside sourcing for this purpose can offer you a whole different perspective on what you wish to achieve.

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Every small business owner needs a helping hand

Mum — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:35:33 +0000

The words ‘success’ and ‘failure’ have never been more painfully clear for all those business owners who struggled through the recent credit crunch and are only just managing to claw their way back to balance. Sadly many excellent small businesses failed during the recession, not through poor management but often through just not having the essential back up and support that would have seen them through the darkest period of that time. With hindsight it is easy to say “We should have done this/that”, but having the foresight to arm yourself for the future is an asset that your business needs right now. Every small business owner needs a guardian angel, to put it simply, and one with the experience and the equipment that you will benefit from.

Deluxe supports small businesses and has been doing so successfully since 1915, offering a array of services and products that remain current and up to date with modern industry trends. Take, for example, checks; all businesses need a secure system of issuing company checks that are safe and protected against fraud. Unfortunately as technology tries to make things safer for the business owner the fraudsters also keep up to date with how to get around these things and this is why Deluxe ensure the company checks they provide to small businesses are inclusive of 22 different anti-fraud features. Of course there’s a dizzying array of software systems available – Quickbook, SAGE, Accpac – their checks are compatible with all of these. If you are looking to expand on your business now that the economy is on the recovery look into the range of promotional products that Deluxe offer, getting your business noticed is one way of increasing that source of income.

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Were YOU one of the 375,000 workers who did not go to work today?

Mum — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:12:25 +0000

Workers are more likely to call in sick today than any other day of the year, at a cost to the economy of £32million, business advisers have warned. Research suggests that post-Christmas blues, cold weather and a long wait until the next holiday all make the first Monday in February the day Britons are most likely to phone in sick. So today, 375,000 workers are expected to ‘pull a sickie’ – a record number – due to a combination of low morale caused by the recession, the worst flu outbreak in a decade and a reluctance by managers to enforce staff procedures. According to the research by business advisers ELAS, employers are increasingly allowing staff to get away with avoiding work – with around half of bosses admitting to not believing those who complain of being ill.

ELAS estimates that as many as 375,000 UK workers will “throw a sickie” today.

When taking into account the lost work and business opportunities, together with the cost of salaries and overtime payments, today’s absenteeism could cost the UK economy more than £32 million.

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New year, new start…?

Mum — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:01:55 +0000

Despite the catastrophe in the banking sector over the last couple of years, finance jobs remain amongst the highest paying jobs around.

If you can get one that is. As in other sectors, the employers have considerably tightened up the requirements that they list in their job specifications to thin out the number of applicants to a number that they can cope with. Thus, expect to find what seem to be overly detailed requirements.

Don’t let those put you off if it seems to be the ideal job for you. Those additional requirements are there to thin out the numbers, not to knock out people who look like they could actually do the job. Careful wording of your application is necessary if you don’t match the requirements perfectly but once you get to the interview, there’s everything to play for.

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What have we consumers had enough of for 2010?

Mum — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:51:54 +0000

Travel companies who ruin your holiday, then offer only vouchers for money off another holiday with the same hopeless firm…

Phone and internet companies who fail to provide a service and then send a bill for it…

Banks and building societies who cannot perform a simple cash Isa transfer without losing your money…

Energy companies who cannot get your bill right and sometimes overcharge by hundreds of pounds…

Tax bills that confuse and an HMRC switchboard that appears constantly engaged…

Insurers who use every trick in the small print to try to avoid paying out on legitimate claims.

Our new years resolution for 2011…? TO COMPLAIN – WE WONT TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!!

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