the richest man in atherstone

The end of 2006 is looming and the beginning of a new year is just around the corner, so it's time to look back over the previous 12 months and report my financial performance.

A part of all I earn is mine keep
As Clason explains in his book 'The Richest Man in Babylon', a person who desires wealth should put by no less than 10% of his income to use in worthy investments. From the start of the year until July, I saved 10% of my gross monthly income (£208) and from August to December I saved £250 per month (making use of the extra cash since stopping smoking). That's a total of £2'706 I've saved.

Savings
I now have a fairly strong foundation of savings totaling £7325.93. This is divided amongst the following products:

• Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver - £2'500
• IceSave Savings Account - £3'007.76
• Premium Bonds - £1'000
• Online Saver - £818.17

Savings Interest
I've earned a combined compound interest on all my savings products totaling £160.01. This doesn't include the interest yet to be paid for my Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver (paid annually), which should be around £56.

Shares
I'm in the process of selling my 200 shares in Plusnet for 220p at a loss of £77.50.

Free Money
I've earned an additional income of £378.75 by utilising various offers and incentives. This is broken down as follows:

• Quidco Cashback (NET) - £123
• Morgan Stanley Credit Card Cashback - £60
• GE Money Credit Card Cashback - £45.75
• A + L Premier Direct Referrals - £150

Advertising Revenue
I have made a small amount of cash from the advertising on this website, however the terms of my advertisement partners state that I cannot divulge this information.

Gambling
As many of you know, I like to have the odd flutter from time to time. Some I win, some I lose but over the course of the year, I have made a net profit of £114.92.

Freelance Work
At the beginning of the year, I did some charitable website design moonlighting. Although only working at cost, I made £97 which covered my website hosting expenses and will continue to do so for at least a few years to come.

Doubling My Way to a Million
Although my doubling project is being kept completely separate from my other results, I thought I'd quickly mention that using this strategy, I've made £1.58 from absolutely nothing.

Executive Summary
Without going into details, 2006 has been a bad year for my family and I (on a personal level) but I think my financial results reflect adequate performance under difficult personal circumstances.

I've managed to save between 10% and 12.5% of my salary, which added to my existing investment fund gives me a sound cash foundation of £7325.93 going into the New Year.

In addition to my salary, I have used various methods to earn a total of around £750 of extra income, which is reduced to around £670 when factoring in my losses on the stock market.

I believe that as well as the financial achievements stated, I have also developed as a person and learned a hell of a lot about the financial industry and business. I think this will be invaluable for me in the future. I will be publishing another end of year report soon, which will review what 2006 has taught me.

At the beginning of 2006, I made the mistake of not clearly stating my financial goals for the year. I think that with a little more forethought, I could have achieved a lot more. Of course, I aimed to save at least 10% of my income, which I managed easily, but the rest of my goals were too vague and weren't written down. In 2007, I will not be making the same mistake.

Until next time, Happy New Year everyone.

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

Walking down my street this afternoon, I found a penny. Nothing more of interest to say!

Step 9 in progress.
Cumulative Cash: £1.58

Just making a quick post to let you all know that this website wasn't working between the hours of around 03:00 and 16:00 GMT today but everything should be okay now. I still haven't worked out why we were having problems but an investigation has been opened to stop it happening again

Apologies to all that had trouble accessing the website between these times.

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

Christmas is approaching and today I popped down to the local supermarket to pick up some stocking-fillers for the kids. I also went to cash in the money I've been saving in my money box.

I use the supermarket's coinstar machine to transform the coppers (and odd silvers) I collect into notes. It costs around 8p in every pound but is a fantastic service and worth the cost.

Anyhow, while I was having the machine count my change, I discovered a pile of change in the ejected coin cavity that must have been discarded by a previous user. Obviously surplus to their requirements, I took it for myself and when I got home I counted it out.

Thought I'd brighten up the website with a picture. Apologies for the glare from the flash.

After a count I found out I'd obtained 29 pence in real money, 34 cents in Spanish Euro's, 5 New Zealand(ish) Cents and one cent from the U.S of A.

The 29p will be going towards my doubling challenge and I'll be putting the foreign coins safely away somewhere. Maybe they'll be worth something when I've reached old age.

Step 9 in progress
Cumulative Cash: £1.57

I'll be away a few days so make sure you have a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

A couple of months ago, I was stood at the petrol pump unscrewing my fuel cap, when a sign advertising super-unleaded caught my eye. It boasted that I would have a cleaner engine, would notice an increase in performance and could get more miles per gallon by using it. Being the tightwad I am, it was the 'more miles' that I homed in on. If I can get more miles per gallon with this stuff, it would result in more money in my wallet.

The price of the super-unleaded was a penny a litre more expensive than the regular unleaded but I decided there and then to try it out. I'm not usually one for impulse buys but that day the marketeers got me

What is super-unleaded?
Regular unleaded is 95-RON, super unleaded is 97-RON. The higher the RON number, the more powerful the explosion in a car's engine when petrol is ignited, therefore less fuel is needed (apparently).

So, over the next couple of months, I filled up my tank with three lots of super-unleaded and three lots of regular unleaded and compared my mileage using the two. The journeys that I made were relatively similar to make the experiment fair. I measured the mileage I got between filling up and the moment my fuel light flashed on.

On average, with the premium-unleaded I traveled 306 miles.

On average, with the regular unleaded I traveled - wait for it - 306 miles.

So, no difference whatsoever.

Then I did what I should have done before I even started this experiment. I did some Internet research into the differences between the two types of fuel. The upshot was that super-unleaded is only more economical (and gives better performance) with high performance cars. Mine is not a high performance car. And, I must say, I never noticed any difference whatsoever with the performance.

In conclusion, I'm a little wiser about the virtues of the different unleaded pumps at the petrol station but the most valuable lesson that this experiment taught me is not to put one of my schemes into action before doing the relevant research first. Oh, and don't buy on impulse.

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

Catching the blogroll bug, I've decided to create a list of other Doublers who are currently pursuing the same goal as myself - to make a million in 28 steps, doubling each time.

So, without further ado, here they are:

• Double to a million plan
• Doubling Challenge
• The Good Life
• One Penny Project
• The Double Challenge
• My Doubling Adventure
• Turn One Pound into One Million
• Million Dollar Journey
• The Richest Man on Earth
• Make me rich online
• More Turf
• Pete & Nikki
• Double To A Million
• Doubling Again
• Find a Penny
• DYWTAMP
• Inspire to Profit
• Million Pound Challenge

And not forgetting, the forum created specifically for Doublers:

• The Doubler's Den

I'll try to keep it updated as and when I discover new blogs. If you're a Doubler and I've missed you off the list, email me and I'll get you put on there as soon as I can.

Good luck to all Doublers out there in Internet Land and may we all become millionaires

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

On Friday, I discovered that the company I work for were scrapping a number of old printers. Most were in perfect working order, just surplus to requirements.

I asked my manager if I could take one, however the MD was one step ahead of me and sent an email around offering the printers in exchange for a 'donation for charity'. There was no recommended minimum sum for a donation but I thought that my 64p stake money would not be well received.

My idea to sell on a free printer seemed foiled, but over the course of the weekend the cogs of my mind started turning and I came up with an idea.

Knowing my mum was looking for a new printer, I phoned her and told her about the cheap printers and she said she'd pay up to a tenner for one. I said I'd test it and make sure I got the best printer (working in IT has its advantages) and ship it to her all for a nominal fee of 64p. She agreed.

Worried I might be contravening the doubling rules in some way, I read back through Stuart Goldsmith's report.

Although I'm not allowed to divert personal resources into the 'doubling game', the car journeys (to and from work and to and from my mum's) would have been made anyway, so no additional cost would be incurred. In fact, the only resource I would be contributing would be my labour (choosing, testing, making the transaction and carrying), which is okay by the rules.

Today (Monday) I picked out the best printer, tested it to make sure it worked, contributed £5 of my mum's cash to charity (half of what she said was her limit) and put it in the boot of my car.

Then, I took it round to my mum's house, installed and configured it and showed her how to use it - more than enough to earn my 64p commission. I gave her back her change (£5 from the £10 she gave me) and collected my 64p.

One thing I've observed since starting this project is that I am noticing more opportunities, or rather I'm seeing things that happen in my day-to-day life as opportunities. Before, I would have seen the email about the printers and probably ignored it as I don't need one myself. I think because I'm actually looking, I'm seeing more.

Step 8 complete.
Cumulative Cash: £1.28

Over the last 12 months, my journal has become very popular and I've been receiving plenty of feedback about the website.

One of the subjects that has been touched upon by a number of my correspondents is that I should start an email newsletter so that busy folk whom don't have time to visit the website as often as they'd like can keep up to date with my ramblings.

At first, I wasn't sure that I'd be happy to put in the extra work required, but after some thought the idea grew on me.

So, I am offering a free newsletter to anyone that wishes to subscribe by registering here.

The newsletter will be sent out every month and will offer a wealth of information about...er...wealth. As well as a digest of my journal posts for the month, it will also contain:

• Sneak previews of things I'm working on
• Exclusive money-making/money-saving ideas that won't be published in my journal

The first issue will be sent out at the end of December, so don't delay.

Sign up now.

Privacy Policy.

This series of articles was inspired by a wealth-building strategy created by Stuart Goldsmith. It is called 'Double Your way to a Million' and you can sign up for your free copy on this webpage.

On Tuesday, I did a few favours for my work colleague and requested the 20p he had lying on his desk as payment. I explained I was doing an experiment but couldn't divulge the details of it just yet and he was only too happy to help.

Today (Sunday), we visited my parents for dinner. I helped my dad with a few problems he had with his computer and requested the 12p in coppers I'd found on the dresser for payment. He agreed and asked why I was collecting small change. As with my work colleague I explained that I was doing an experiment and couldn't tell him yet but would let him know when I'd finished.

Step 7 complete.
Cumulative Cash: 64p

Plusnet Stock Part I, Part II, Part III, Part VI, Part V

A short while ago BT announced that they wanted to buy Plusnet and subsequently made an offer of £2.10 per share.

A week or so after the announcement, I received a letter from my stockbroker asking me if I wanted to take the offer and I have accepted.

I have 200 shares, so I will get £420 from the transaction, which is about £80 less than it cost me to buy them. My first foray into the share-buying business has resulted in a loss of 16%.

I'm quite disappointed that I wasn't more successful, however the whole experience has taught me a lot about the stock market. I've learnt:

1. the technical jargon - terms such as market capitalisation, operating earnings, EPS, yield etc.
2. how corporate takeovers work
3. how to read annual reports
4. factors than can affect short-term share price fluctuations
5. how the share-buying process works

Additionally, I've started my project of analysing Warren Buffett's letter's to shareholders (a plethora of investing advice by arguable the greatest investor in the world), which should hopefully help me with my future investments.

I made a number of mistakes that led to my failure:

1. I didn't accurately value the company before buying it including giving too much value Plusnet's Workplace Operating System
2. I didn't do enough research into the company before buying their shares

There were also a number of unforeseen circumstances that contributed to the share price rapidly falling:

1. I bought my shares literally a week before the whole of the market fell earlier this year.
2. Plusnet made a number of mistakes leading to customer dis-satisfaction
3. A month or so after I bought the shares, TalkTalk announced FREE broadband followed by other companies (SKY, Orange etc.) jumping on the bandwagon.

I was correct in predicting that Plusnet would be a takeover target for an industry leader within 12 months of buying the shares, so I'm happy about that, but I didn't forecast that the share price would drop so much before it happened. In fact, if I'd have bought the shares a few months ago when they were £1 each, I would have more than doubled my money. Hindsight's great isn't it

Anyway, I'll be using the £420 to invest in some more shares soon and I plan to be a lot more successful this time with a little experience under my belt.

Wish me luck!