wealth and finance | Not Just a Granny

Archive for the ‘wealth and finance’ Category

Procrastination bit my bum…

Posted in idiot category, It's my life, wealth and finance, tagged computers, external hard drives, lessons from the universe, procrastination on August 23, 2016| 2 Comments »

Yes, I admit it…..I am a full-on, no holds barred, well-versed and dedicated procrastinator!!

Hi, my name is Cindy. I am a procrastinator….. There I’ve said it…..

So you know how it goes (those of you who suffer the same predicament), tomorrow is always another day…I have been meaning to buy a 2nd external hard-drive for months now. My daughter is constantly urging me to do a back-up…in the cloud? Hmmm, not sure I trust ‘the cloud’….what with hackers and all.

So the long and the short of it is, I haven’t yet bought that 2nd hard-drive…always finding something else to do (I don’t buy much stuff these days), my money is rather saved or spent on experiences…like the Herne Bay Airshow, or a visit to Canterbury or paying HMRC Customs a hefty chunk of £££££’s for the privilege of shipping my belongings from SA to the UK and such like. So there is always a reason why I haven’t yet bought one.

And yesterday my pigeons came home to roost.

I dropped my external hard-drive.

Not Just a Granny having a tantrum!!!

So, initially I went ice-cold. My body went into shock. My mind started whirling. Too terrified too cry, the tears had dried up in horror!!

Then the enormity of what had happened hit me and I made a frantic call to my computer guy…HELP!!!!! Does this mean I’ve lost all my photos ( 10 years worth at least, if not more) all my spreadsheets, documents, downloads, e-books…etc etc…in short…my life is on that little black plastic box meant to be safe and secure and shock-proof in it’s little black shock-proof casing!!! I felt like throwing up!

At my computer man’s suggestion, I ejected the hard-drive (done that…no t-shirt), and try again….nope, the screen is still telling me that I have used 0 data…..oh the sheer horror of seeing a great big (it seems enormous) fat 0 data used staring back at me….especially as I know full well that wasn’t the case (no pun intended) 5 seconds before I dropped it.

Of course, I have subsequently been asked ‘don’t you have a back-up?’ – Uhmm, yes, that was my back-up…… I had recently moved ALL the files and folders from my computer to the hard-drive as the computer is about 4 years old and sends me nasty messages occasionally! – or – Don’t you save your documents etc to ‘the cloud’…again Uhmm no! Buy hey…..I WAS going to be buying a 2nd external hard-drive to save copies of everything on to…next month! I just hadn’t gotten ’roundtoit’ Like that helps now doesn’t it?? Procrastinator!!!

The irony is that I was in the process of copying photos off my phone from a recent trip to Canterbury to celebrate my daughter’s birthday ( I had only got as far as copying them) when I leaned forward to pick up my phone to send my niece (currently a tourist in London) a message…and knocked the bloody hard-drive onto the floor. Not from a very large height either I might add…no more than 3 inches, but it seems it was enough…to render the data to 0!!!

Anyway, an appointment has been made to see my computer guy next month (next week!!) and hopefully he can indeed retrieve the data as he suspects he may well be able to do. If not, then I will have to have it looked at by professionals…and apparently that can cost upward of £700!!! which brings me to my next ‘issue’….the bloody Universe. I swear it’s determined to keep me poor to my dying day. Just when I think I have worked hard enough, taken on extra work to start saving, something crops up to drain my bank account.

So the long and the short of it (and expense) is…..if you too suffer from procrastination…get help!! aldwych-station-tour-2013-16

It’s a bastard, it costs money and it bites you in the bum when you least expect it! Grrrrr.

Oh! and in’future’ I will do today, what needs to be done today….after all, today is yesterday’s tomorrow. It would do me well to remember that. *squinty eye picture* if I had one. LOL

Read Full Post »

spammers on #instagram

Posted in idiot category, wealth and finance, tagged instagram and twitter spammers, spamming on the internet on January 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Okay so this post was actually started in May 2013!! But I have just not gotten round to posting it….so here goes….

spammers alert!! Right, here’s the thing. I noticed in the last few days (May 2013) that my followers on instagram had increased exponentially. At first I was thrilled and thought it was my scintillating personality :p Then something MichaelQT said yesterday made me take a closer look & hey ho, here we go!!! 99% spammers! urgh. such a waste of time..now I have to sit there and click on each one and report them for spam.

This has all the hallmarks of the Mark Anastasi/Milli Ponce software that they set up. I went to one of his ‘free’ seminars last year and at first glance the idea seems terrific (won’t go into details, the seminar was 2 days long!) suffice to say they had developed a software system that with a bit of input from you (the people who paid out £20,000 for the software, training on how to set it up & the weekend at his house with a pool in Cyprus), this system would then autofollow people on twitter and repost ‘whatever’ links to a product or ‘whatever’ every time you mention a keyword post like ‘diet’ for instance. Basically spamming.

Now its seems to have infested instagram! so here is a heads up of what the profile of a spammer looks like. false names, photos that ‘they’ have downloaded off the internet (we were taught it doesn’t have to be real, just so long as it looks real – typical ‘guru’ bullsh!t of the MLM type), thousands of ‘following’ very few ‘followers’ and invariably (on twitter hundreds of posts with nothing but links) and no conversation i.e. bots!. On closer inspection you will also notice that the name is usually a girls and the attendant photo is of a guy! or visa versa!

So although I can’t show you the instagram photos to give you an idea of what these spammer profiles look like, just have a look at their profiles before following back (same as for twitter) and then you can wish that the fleas of a 1,000 camels would infest their ars3s for being such pesky critters, but it won’t help…they are not real…except perhaps you could direct that wish onto the people who set this thing up in the first place. LOL!! So in summary, if you suddenly get hundreds of new followers on twitter and now (bugger it) on instagram…they are most likely fake.

p.s. the names of the people mentioned above are quite likely false as well, coz at the seminar/course we were told to create ourselves a false name for the internet. and (at the time) I had wasted 45 minutes of my precious time reporting spammers and posting this! In closing, if you wondered where they get the time…we were told that you (the person who signed up for the course) would hire people in the Philippines for a nominal amount of money per month (and that we were doing them a great service by employing them!!) and they would manage the whole thing for you while you get rich!!! hmmm??

As I mentioned, I started this post nearly a year ago. I have been remiss in actually posting it, but hope the info will be of use. I also have no idea what has transpired in the life of the people who ran the course or whether they have done any further courses…suffice it to say, once I really looked into it, I realised that the system was essentially about spamming. and needless to say I have distanced myself from the whole sorry lot.

Read Full Post »

R.I.P. Starbucks gingerbread latte

Posted in around the UK, It's my life, wealth and finance, tagged bank bailouts, corporation tax avoidance, taking a stand on October 17, 2012| 5 Comments »

Oh woe is me!!! This is the death of the Starbucks gingerbread latte for me. Since about 2006, once autumn was in the air, I have waited with anticipation for when Starbucks bring back their gingerbread lattes – my favourite winter drink!

death of the Starbucks gingerbread latte 😦 saving lives and tax!

This for me heralded the season of dressing up in my winter woollies, xmas lights and snow (hopefully!)….whoo hoo!

Just yesterday I read in the Daily Mail that Starbucks has (allegedly) not paid any tax in the UK for the last three years! And they are not alone. Since the furore created with the news that the many of the large Corporations sponsoring the London2012 Olympics were exempt from paying tax I have decided to take a stand and boycott any company that does not pay tax and/or pays their CEO’s outrageously over-the-top salaries and bonuses. The latter are usually the banks and invariably these men at the top walk away from their posts after a few years with perks/payouts/pensions in the £millions. Are these types of payouts warranted? And what about when the banks fail? Invariably we; the British tax-payer have to bail them out….along with all the other (m)uck-ups!

So since the furore of the Olympics I have kept a close eye on the papers and especially on the large corporations that pay very little or no tax in the UK, this despite a turn-over that runs to £millions plus. According to the Daily Mail Starbucks posted a UK loss of £33million on sales of £398million (it does however pay VAT on in-store hot drinks!) Big deal…WE pay the VAT. It’s included in our bill and all they do is hand that over to the Treasury… It does make you wonder that if they are posting such huge losses, are their CEO’s capable of running a company? They should be making a profit, how come such big losses? And I am not referring to legitimate expenses.

So coming back to the subject in hand, this means the death of my gingerbread latte…I am from now boycotting Starbucks and any other company that I hear of that doesn’t pay tax, especially if I have to pay them for their product or service. So far facebook and google are only exempt from my boycott because they are free, although that does not excuse them. A small stand perhaps but from the backlash on twitter last night I would hazard a guess that there are a great number of people in the UK that are fed-up with the large USA corporations coming into the UK, opening up shop, making money and then laughing all the way to the bank, and mind the UK companies that do the same thing. Whatever has happened to ethics and honesty in business?

Starbucks

facebook

amazon & google

and this has been going on for some years now….

The Great Tax heist

and Comics have gotten in on the act too!

my idol has fallen 😦

and lets not forget our erstwhile politicians…the people we are meant to trust, the people we trust to do good for us in Government!! reminds me of the whole debacle a few years ago….and duckgate!!! All very well selling the duck house for charity…he sure knows that you can claim any donations to charity off your tax!! So big deal!!

and the list goes on, and not just in business either – a report from the TUC has claimed that every year an astonishing £13 billion is avoided in taxes by the UK’s wealthiest people….well of course they would, they have smart, expensive lawyers that can unearth all the loop-holes.

Seems the old adage of “there are two things in life you cannot avoid: death and taxes” is no longer valid…. you CAN avoid tax.

However….we also have some honest Business men who do pay their taxes

On the bright side…..I am saving myself a heck of a lot of money by not buying from these companies and as I unearth more….the C.H.I.P.S. will fall. And the issue that sparked the creation of the page!

UPDATE:

2012.10.19 and so the chickens come home to roost GOOGLE now don’t get me wrong, I love google I have no problem with them making bundles of cash/a profit and I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to use it for my business, but I do object to these large corporations NOT PAYING THEIR DUE TAXES.

Read Full Post »

the ‘truth’ about Internet Marketing?

Posted in career, idiot category, It's my life, wealth and finance, tagged get rich quick schemes, internet marketing, internet marketing scams, multi-level marketing on May 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Just read a very interesting article about ‘Internet Marketing’ and this quote jumped out at me like a bombshell – “What we like to do here is OPM: Other People’s Money.” I recall how the many ‘Guru’s’ whose courses I have attended used the same terminology as well as which I could list about 8 ‘guru’s’ who have managed to separate me from the balance on my credit cards, who all say much the same thing….eg they ‘suggest’ to you that you should make the most of OPM…eg your credit cards coz you will make the money back once you do their course, sign up for their programme….. blah blah blah. And so after reading this article I am once again reminded of how they use their fancy terminology to separate you and your money, in this case me and my money.

hmmm….very interesting. So I am posting this for all the folks out there who have not yet been scammed into joining up/signing up for/or in any other way getting hooked into what appears to be a great way to earn money…..and it certainly is….for the person who has just scammed you into paying for their programme. I know there are many folks out there who have lost a fortune to these tricksters…..and one of them is me!!! and I didn’t even want to ‘get rich quick’, I just wanted a way to earn a decent living from home.

It makes for very interesting reading, and of course I most certainly do recognise some of the names……just a pity I can’t draw up my own ‘name & shame’ list. He should also include ‘multi-level marketing in here, not coz they have the same philosophy (although some of them do employ underhand tricks), but because you are led to believe certain things with clever words and then when you get going you realise that it is just a numbers game and you are just a number, then you become a statistic and they really don’t give a toss about you afterwards. When you are making them money…they know you, if you are not….you never hear a word.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/10/2984893/scamworld-get-rich-quick-schemes-mutate-into-an-online-monster

Don’t get taken in…….

Read Full Post »

the price of freedom……

Posted in family and relationships, It's my life, wealth and finance, tagged being employed, finding work after 56, freedom is a sweet word, the price of freedom on September 2, 2011| 4 Comments »

freedom!!!!

Whoo hooooo!!!! I got the job!!!! yes yes yes. With much delight this morning I accepted the position from yesterday’s interview. Mucho magic. I love the sound of the position and was really hoping to get it. What this means is that a) I can ease myself back into the office environment b) I get my evenings and weekends back c) I can learn new systems – in this case SAGE and Mac d) I can freelance now at whatever I want e) I am no longer on duty 22/7 f) I no longer have to put up with shitty family members or friends who treat you like a lower class whatnot g) and as far as banks and such like are concerned, I now have a ‘real’ job. And bonus….I don’t have to go for any more interviews! Wheeee!!!

The funny thing is that the position of ‘Carer’ doesn’t hold much weight in this country and it’s not really viewed as a viable job. I can see their point, working as a self-employed carer is a variable career, any number of things can happen; like you have to sit around and wait for days on end to get the next assignment, you have assignments that you have sat around for a week waiting for get cancelled at the last minute, you have to be on tenterhooks 99% of the time coz if you by so much as a word upset your client in any way….your’e shown the door without so much as a by your leave. So to get back into the office environment is brilliant.

However, there is a price for my freedom……£14,600pa worth of price. Yes! To my dismay they offered me £3000pa less than what I would have expected considering my experience, but have said after the 3 months probation they will increase it to the expected level (not £14,600 worth sadly (I wish)…that amount now includes living expenses such as rent, food and transport etc). What this means is that for the next 3 months+ I am gonna stress out big time!
But!!!! and this is where it gets good…..I will not be ’employed’ but will work on a ‘contractual’ basis and instead of being an employee….I will be freelance and still retain my self-employed status. This is very good on all fronts. It means that I can now do whatever other work I want in the evenings and weekends to generate the discrepancy in my budget! 🙂 yay. So this means I can plan tours for 3 Days in London, I can freelance at other companies in the evenings or weekends, I can take on baby-sitting work, or cleaning (I am a damn good housekeeper) heehee, I can FINALLY get back to the Internet Marketing membership I paid for a year ago and not yet been able to maximise. Actually read ‘not do at all’. So the world is my oyster as they say and I will be a free agent able to work unencumbered by 22/7, and in this way I will be able to generate the short-fall in my budget!
Whew! As they say in the classics!

On the family front….I am delighted to say that I am now an aunty again. My niece finally decided to get herself born and arrived at 01.25 this morning, weighing in at 3.37kgs and 6minutes before I sent an email to my brother and sister-in-law to wish them all the best for the impending arrival.. hee hee she was already here! So welcome to the world Aletta, you are a much anticipated and very welcome member of ‘da family’!
So now I have to plan a trip to Hungary (finally) to go visit and meet my new niece, and of course to also meet the two older children who were adopted at the beginning of the year! Awesome….3x an aunty in one year….not bad eh! It was very special talking to my brother this morning and we were both in tears!! I am so very happy for them. He reminded me that it was exactly 2 years ago to the week that they lost their first baby, which was terribly distressing. But all is good now and they have their delightful daughter to love and enjoy.

I mentioned in my previous blog that I am cat-sitting in Twickenham this weekend for a friend and after my stress at not getting into the flat last night I was exhausted, (I had visions of sleeping on the step!) but hey guess what?….I was free to do whatever I wanted, so I got onto the internet and did some emailing, tweeting, and fb’ing wihtout any worry about having to get up the next day at a specific time……I could get up anytime I pleased. Then finally to bed at about 1am and woke this morning…..free as a butterfly! And hahahaha, at 07:35! can you believe it? Now that I am free to wake up late……I wake up early! Hah!! typical! I spent most of the morning on the internet working for New Media Angels (I am the twitter angel) then met up with my daughter later in the morning and went to Sweetie Pies for tea and yummies to celebrate my new job! Then it was back to her place and work work work for 3.5 hours earning my freedom!

I can now advertise The Money Box in earnest (you can ‘like’ it if you like!) and of course the plan is to get my books up on Amazon and blurb as well as the intineraries onto kindle.

Hooray! I am free, and freedom is a sweet, sweet word! 🙂

Read Full Post »

never trust an Insurance Salesman

Posted in It's my life, wealth and finance, tagged financial investments, insurance salesmen, retirment annuity on April 1, 2011| 4 Comments »

Today I should have been rich beyong my wildest dreams…………..hmmmm!!!

25 years ago when I was young and still quite stupid about most things, especially money, I had a meeting with an Insurance Salesman.

He sold me a Retirement Annuity Policy based on the big dream of how in 25 years time I would have enough money to buy a house and a car with what he ‘projected’ would be the maturity value, as well as the ‘massively’ large amount of money that I would get each month on retirement! At that stage my plan was to retire at 55!

He suggested that a 25year retirement annuity would be just the ticket and so I signed on the dotted line.

Of course history has now shown us that the only people/persons who benefitted from a 25 year annuity was the ‘Salesman’ and probably the company he worked for. I have duly paid in my subs each month for 25 years and lo and behold the 25 years is now up and what do we find…………….?

a) the value of the payout is 56% LESS than he projected.

b) the monthly payout/dividend is less than what I earn in a day in the UK and is by no means even enough to buy a week’s worth of groceries in South Africa in today’s currency.

c) I am now ‘forced’ by legislation (which has changed since I took out the policy), to re-invest the money with the Insurance Company and for this ‘priviledge’ they will deduct a certain amount from the monthly payments, aka the money I have invested. So I am paying to get my money back!

d) they also want me to take out an inflation policy (again deducted from my payments) to keep up with inflation. Well HELLO!!! I did that when I took out the policy……..and it has in no way kept up with inflation!

e) 2/3 of the policy value stays with them and the 1/3 that I get out as the initial payment is 8.75% less than what I have paid in over the 25 years. I would have been better off putting the money in a long-term savings account…at least I would be able to take out what I require rather than what they say I may have!

A few months ago I got a new broker to look over my portfolio and give me up-to-date advice on the status of the policies I have. She looked at this particular policy and remarked “I hope you were not thinking of retiring on this policy!”…….uhhmmmm Yes! Actually I was!!! urgh 😦

So here is my advice………………..NEVER EVER EVER EVER believe an Insurance Salesman when they say they are acting in your best interest by ‘selling’ you this policy that will ‘best suit your needs’.

Bollocks!!! the only person it suited was you!!! I am pretty darn certain that when he sat there at my dining room table that day 25 years ago, the only house he was picturing, was the house he would buy with the commission he was earning from the ‘sale’ of these 25 year policies that he persuaded persons like me was ‘the best policy for your needs’.

and you can be darn sure I will never again give my hard earned pounds/pence to any Insurance Company and I will never take up a policy with an Insurance Salesman.

Read Full Post »

every boulder presents an opportunity……

Posted in Fun Stuff, Inspiration, It's my life, Personal Development, wealth and finance, tagged every obstacle presents as opportunity, move the boulder out the way on September 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

My sister is an absolute genius at sending thought provoking and interesting ‘thought for the day’ emails. I think she probably gets them via some site or other….but nevertheless I always enjoy reading them…..this was no exception:

“The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the King’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.”

I really enjoyed this post and thought I would share it with you. What does it mean to me? It is a reflection of my current position (in my life…not the job)….in that over the last 5 years I have been presented with quite a lot of boulders….. actually make that my whole life!! But, nevertheless sticking with the here and now…. it reminded me of the many boulders I have come across and how I was like those merchants and courtiers….always complaining about the boulders and not looking at how I could overcome them…or move them out the way, although sometimes I did…..and found the gold purse.

What is different now of course is that I am more like the peasant than the merchants/courtiers…. instead of complaining about the boulders in my way, I now look at how I can move them out the way. This has come about due to all the Personal Development courses I attended in 2007/2008/2009, which although they cost me a tremedous amount of money and have put me into a bit of a financial pickle…. were worth every penny I invested. They have taught me how to look at boulders as opportunities and instead of b*tching about how unfair it all is….. I now look at what it is I am doing in my life that has brought me to that boulder…..and how I can move it out the way….. hence the new business I have started.

Personal Development has been a very interesting journey for me, I still have a lot to learn and sometimes I forget myself and complain about things, but on the whole the boulders are now more of an interest than a problem and it is fun to work out the what, why and wherefores of any boulders I come across.

and of course this ties in beautifully with my post of yesterday……I will keep my eyes peeled for any yellow 1955 VW Campervans 🙂 I am sure that with persistance, patience and perseverance….the boulder I am currently working on moving out the way will reveal not only a purse but also a campervan (hopefully not a flattened one) 🙂

Read Full Post »

Hello!!! Universe…..

Posted in around the UK, family and relationships, Fun Stuff, Historical, Holidays, idiot category, It's my life, lifestyle, news from around the world, Travel, wealth and finance, tagged blogging, dream job, photography, travel around the world, tweeting, Universe, VW Campervan 1955 on September 23, 2010| 8 Comments »

a vintage model.....1955 VW Campervan

Ok, so a couple of days ago I posted a blog and therein made mention that currently I am working at my ‘day job’ not my ‘dream job’. So what is my dream job? This has been incredibly difficult to pin down….until I came to live in the UK…..

When I was just 17 years old (lordy but that does seem like such a long time ago)….I wanted to be a Nursery School Teacher (I loved little children and babies…still do)…. but my Mother said NO! you go get an office job, you will earn more money! (and what Mother said…you did). So I did, and she was right. But was I happy….NO! I hated working in an office, but as the years went by and I progressed from being a typist who could not type… (the guy gave me a job coz I burst into tears in his office and told him my Mother had said I should not come home till I had a job, and it was 4pm by then)…. to being a Credit Manager; managing a staff contingent of 10 for a group of 5 Companies…. this took the best part of 30 years by the way. In between there were many positions, not just a few companies, and a whole lot of crappy bosses 😦

However, along the way I learned to enjoy working in an office and to love what I did….phoning people and asking for money. Just a shame it wasn’t for myself 🙂

Anyways, when I arrived in the UK, which was by default; I came on holiday and never went back (well only briefly to get my Ancestral visa) and I have never looked back…..quite literally – no looking in the rear-view mirror. So when I first arrived in the UK, what was the job I applied for…..? Why of course…. I applied to be a Nanny :). However as fate would have it…. I did not have current experience DUH! and I did not have an NVQ in child management… double DUH!! So that idea was scotched and went out the window, and anyhow by all accounts being a Nanny in the UK is akin to being one up from a slave. Not to be deterred I continued to look for a ‘job’ and again by default managed to find a position as a Care Assistant for the Elderly….which I initially hated and then without warning I found that I actually enjoyed it and so I have and have been for the last 8.5 years (except for a 1 year stint in an offfice which nearly drove me to the brink of a nervous breakdown!).

So here I am….. working as a Carer…..but is this my dream job? Nope!

Since living in the UK I have developed a passion for travelling. This came as quite a surprise to me since I had never really thought about actually travelling around the world. Sure I had the odd dream about going to the Maldives (not got there yet) or visiting Venice (been there 🙂 ), going to Paris (been there 🙂 ) and New York (been there 🙂 ). But besides the odd daydream it was certainly never something I seriously considered I would actually get to do.

Till now! So UNIVERSE, here is what my DREAM JOB would be…… to travel first around the UK (coz it is so fantastically gorgeous) then round Europe and then the US of A, and then if I am still alive and able to….spread my wings further afield. (ooh that has a double meaning!) LOL. I would however like to spend at least 4 months a year in London!

So here is my message to the Universe….hello!!!! : My ‘DREAM JOB’ is to travel around the world in VW Campervan that has ‘NotJustaGranny’ with the funky logo emblazoned on the sides…. taking photos of everywhere I go, blogging about the places I am visiting and tweeting! and getting PAID to do it! I would quite enjoy writing a book too…if that’s ok with you.

So dear Universe, if perchance you are actually listening, as the Guru’s in the Personal Development world maintain that you do…. Hello!!!!

Oh, and just a little p.s. The Guru’s say that when you ‘state’ what it is you want, you have to be specific; so just that there is no confusion about this…..

the VW Campervan should be a 1955 model (nothing but vintage is good enough for me)… you know what I mean 😉

It should be yellow with white trimmings (yellow is my favourite colour)

It should have 2 beds at least….1 for me (of course, and one for my daughter to join me from time to time, or for a friend to come along occassionally…and also for when my grandchildren arrive…have to have enough space for them to travel with me)

It should be fully re-furbished and reliable; preferrably with modern accessories and equipment…like an up-to-date engine. 1955 is all very well but it is a bit long in the tooth!

It should be modified to be eco-friendly….no fumes please.

I would appreciate it if there is enough space for my laptop and camera equipment (oh and I would need sockets for the chargers).

Don’t worry too much about wardrobe space….I don’t have much clothing… LOL

and it would be awesome if it had a lift-up roof-top for air circulation

oh, and a tent attachment would be brilliant for when I am stopped alongside a lake somewhere in the UK or Europe or the US of A, so that I can sit outside and enjoy the scenery and the night stars while I sip a sherry (or two).

If you need any further specifications….contact me via this blog and I will be happy to give you more details.

and just a final p.s.s. (sorry to be so picky, but…) when I talk about being paid to do this…I am happy to earn the money….. but please note that I would require at least £5,000 per month. For travel expenses and so on. ta

by the way….this is a 1955 model (the one on the right) please be sure to send a yellow one 🙂

1955 VW Campervan

and just in case you are wondering….. I put the picture twice so that you are clear on what it is I am looking for!

Read Full Post »

The magical bank of TIME!

Posted in family and relationships, lifestyle, messages, wealth and finance, tagged 86400 seconds, time on August 4, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!!!

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:

Each morning your bank would deposit (your currency) 86,400.00 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize had rules, just as any game has certain rules.

The first set of rules would be:
1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

3. You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another (your currency) 86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

1. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, “It’s over, the game is over!”

2. It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?

Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?

Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?

ACTUALLY, THIS GAME IS REALITY!!

Each of us is in possession of such a “magical” bank. We just can’t seem to see it.

THE MAGICAL BANK IS TIME!

Each awakening morning we receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life,

and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time…….

WITHOUT WARNING.

WELL, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds?

Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in any currency?

Think about that, and always think of this:

Utilise every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

Read Full Post »

Financial Clutter

Posted in wealth and finance, tagged finances, financial clutter, http://www.notjustagranny.com, suze orman on March 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

In the words of Suze Orman: When you take control of your financial clutter, you are left with the power to act and the power to create. Suze Orman

Clutter in our lives leads to more clutter.

Have the courage to make room for more money.

If you hold on to what you have for longer than you should, you’re using yesterday’s space to hold tomorrow’s offerings.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »