the richest man in atherstone

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

As regular readers know, I've recently moved house and I've found our new home to be rife with treasures of the 'Found Money' variety.

A few weeks ago, I was storing some stuff on the top of the kitchen cupboards when I noticed a small box hidden away in the corner. It contained a timer for a central heating system and, apart from the dust, looked virtually brand new. I had a plumber friend of mine check it to see if it worked and, when he said it did, I asked him if he wanted to buy it. He told me that he didn't carry a stock of these particular items because he didn't use them very often. He also informed me that it wasn't compatible with my central heating system so I'm not sure why the previous occupants even had it!

I checked out the price of the item and discovered it was worth at least £50 retail, so I listed it on eBay for an absolute steal at a tenner (others had sold for around £15-£20). The bidding finished at £20, taking me to step 14 in my 'Double Your Way to a Million' project (eBay fees were covered by the postage).

I think I need to look at finding something a bit more solid and repeatable for the next few steps and get a regular income flowing into my Doubling Pot instead of relying on incidental discoveries.

Hmm. Now that's something to think about...

Step 13 Completed
Cumulative Cash: £40

Here we are, two thirds of the way through the year and it's time for my second tri-annual progress review of my goals for 2007.

Goal 1: Save at least £3000 - I've saved £2000 so far this year and have budgeted for a further £1000 (£250 per month) to go into my Lloyds TSB Monthly Saver in the remainder of the year so this goal is very much on target.

Goal 2: Set up a Savings Account for my children - Although my first attempt to open accounts for the kids ended in disaster, I have since set them up with Nationwide Smart accounts. Goal complete.

Goal 3: Donate 1% of my gross salary to charity - I've chosen my charity (BDF NewLife) and have budgeted to give 1% of my income to it (at the end of the year), so this goal is very much on track.

Goal 4: Set up and run a Limited Company - This goal is still incomplete and planned for the final third of the year. See below for more details

Goal 5: Earn at least an additional £5000 of income - This, too, is incomplete and again, see below for further details.

Goal 6: Invest £1000 in an investment which will earn more than the top savings account - I invested in Lloyds TSB stock, which is looking on target to fulfil this goal over a twelve month period.

Goal 7: Complete steps 9 to 16 of my Doubling Plan - So far I've completed steps 9 through to 12, with the rest (and more - see below) planned for the next four months.

I have found that having two goals to earn money (goals 5 and 7) is a bit of a psychological stumbling block because whenever I've earned money it's been difficult to choose which goal the cash will go towards. The result has been a divided focus that has slowed progress in both goals. For this reason, I have decided to combine the two goals and aim to reach step 20 of my Doubling Plan by the end of the year. This will take me to the sum of £5000 in this project.

As I go through the Doubling steps, I plan to start a business or two to create a legal structure for my financial pursuits which will bring Goal 4 into the mix. The businesses I want to start should be highly profitable and have systems in place to take away as much human workload as possible. As soon as my businesses are generating an income comparable to my current salary, I plan to quit my job for reasons highlighted in this post.

So, it looks like I have a busy few months ahead of me

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

I've been neglecting to update my "Double Your Way To A Million" plan for a while now, mainly because I have a few things in the pipeline but not a lot that has actually earned me any cash as of yet.

An example would be the money I have earned from ClickBank when I tried out the Bum Marketing Method. Although I have over $50 sitting in my ClickBank account, I can't withdraw it to add to my Doubling Pot because ClickBank requires that I have received payment from at least 5 credit cards (including at least one Mastercard and at least one Visa) before it will release the funds.

But never mind. I'm sure once I have time to do a bit more "Bum Marketing" I'll make up the numbers

In the meantime, I've utilised a few other methods to advance a little further.

Firstly, the Doubler's Classic - Found Money.

I found three pence (a 2p in a 1p) in the local supermarket car park. Both coins were found on the same trip, although they were in two unrelated locations, so Lady Luck must have been looking down on me that day. I found a 10p bit on the path while walking down my street and a further 20p buried in my back garden when digging up weeds. Another 10p was found on the dance floor at a friends wedding, and 2p in a pub beer garden about a week later. This amounts to a staggering 45p of Found Money.

Next on the list is a website I joined called DollarPays, while doing research for my new website W3WAD.COM. They pay you take part in surveys and click on links and stuff. Well I did a few of their offers and earned about $5 but they only paid me $0.50 (24p) and didn't respond to my emails so I certainly won't recommend them!

And finally, I've earned $7.27 (£3.66) in combined advertising revenue from W3WAD.COM and The Doubler's Den.

I then used £15 from my Doubling Pot in my strategy "How To Double £15 to £30 in 30 Minutes", turning it into £32.50, which added to the unused pennies came to £33.18. Although the cash is in the bag, I don't get paid until 1st September, so I'm forced to take the rest of the month off from Doubling!

Step 12 only requires me to reach £20, so I have a surplus of £13.18 to spend on whatever I want

Unlucky step 13 looms. I plan to complete this one quite quickly.

Step 12 Completed
Cumulative Cash: £20

Over the last week or so, I've been working on my latest project: W3WAD.COM.

Here, you'll find loads of fantastic methods for earning cash using the Internet. I've got loads of money-making techniques to share and initially, I'll be posting three tips per week for your viewing pleasure.

So take a wander over to W3WAD.COM and learn how to earn online.

Making money from the Internet has never been so easy.

After 12 months of earning 3% cashback on all our fuel and grocery purchases using the excellent GE Money Everyday Credit, I received a letter this morning informing me it will be discontinued in November.

It comes as no surprise because I noticed some months back that the card was no longer available for new customers and I can't imagine that offering such a fantastic deal is particularly profitable for them. Coupled with the fact they made a a bit of a cock-up over the first few months that meant all purchases (even those that weren't fuel or groceries) earned 3% cashback, I think that it's probably something they'd rather forget.

However, on the plus side it's been great for me. Over the year I have earned close to £100 on purchases I would have made whether I had the card or not so it's been a nice little earner.

And as one fantastic cashback credit card heads for its demise another is born. The Capital One Cashback Card I recently acquired is giving me a cracking 4% on all purchases for the first three months and 1% thereafter. An ideal replacement.

I recently got caught out by the Terms & Conditions of the new Capital One Cashback Credit Card that offers 4% cashback for 3 months followed by 1% thereafter.

Having used it to make deposits to play Bingo while testing out my "Double £15 To £30 In 30 Minutes" method, I was surprised to find I had been charged a £3 "Cash Advance Fee" for the two transactions.

So I gave them a call and asked them to explain why I had been charged. I was informed that any gambling transaction is accounted for as a cash advance. I replied that I could see no mention of it in the terms & conditions so the helpful advisor directed me to section 22 where it states:

"...'cash withdrawal' means...any transaction where you...carry out a transaction where payment is made to an establishment that is identifiable as carrying on gambling and the purpose of the transaction is payment for gambling activity..."

Of course he was correct and I couldn't really argue as much as I would have wanted to. So I've got to put this one down to experience. None of my other credit cards charge me a fee for this type of transaction so I'll certainly be going through the T&C's a lot more thoroughly in future.

Despite this, I still think the card is a good thing to have and when I've finished the cashback I receive will far outweigh the cost of this little mishap. I've been burned - Don't let it happen to you

Lloyds TSB announced an interim dividend of 11.2p this week, an increase of 5% from previous years.

Regular readers will know that I recently bought 171 Lloyds TSB shares at £5.76, so this along with reading the favourable interim results comes as welcome news to me. It reinforces my belief that the company is heading in the right direction and because Lloyds TSB has not risen its dividend for 5 years I feel very confident with my investment.

The 11.2p interim combined with a projected final dividend of at least 23.5p is an annual dividend of 34.7p, which equals a 6.02% yield (5.14% after tax). With 171 shares, I can expect to earn a shade over £59 for the year on a £985 investment.

However, I am quite perplexed as to why the share price is currently £5.54. In my opinion it should be worth around £6, but that's the way markets work I suppose. It's not a trendy stock but the historical performance shows that it is a good investment vehicle. In fact, if I had some cash to spare I would probably buy up a bigger stake - I'm actually toying with the idea of using some of my 'Emergency Fund' to do this.