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. For a brief outline of the strategy, take a look at this post.

The first quarter of 2008 has been very lucrative for my Doubling Plan compared to previous periods, however I need to start earning a lot more if I want to achieve my goal of completing step 20 by the end of the year. Here's a breakdown of my income and expenses between January and March 2008:

Income
Advertising on my websites..£423.49
Freelance Work..............£97.00
Surveys.....................£10.00
Interest....................£15.77

Total.......................£546.26

The lion's share of website advertising came from the IceSave Savings Account Review I wrote on this website, the freelance work is for website design to a local organisation, the surveys I did for company called Lightspeed and most of the interest came from my Stoozing project. Technically, I've earned more in website advertising but the dough is sitting in affiliate accounts waiting to reach the withdrawal threshold.

Expenses
Web Hosting & Domain Names..£61.96
Sundries....................£3.59

Total.......................£65.55

The sundries were just some stamps and a pack of envelopes for posting invoices.

Profits
£546.26 - £65.55 = £480.71

As mentioned in January, I am now paying myself a wage for my Doubling exploits equal to one third of profits earned, so that brings my total to:

£480.71 (Profit) - £160.24 (My Wages) = £320.47

I've guesstimated that another third (£160.24) will be deducted as taxes but I won't need to account for this until the end of the financial year so (at least for now) it's mine

This completes Step 16 (Hooray!) and puts me over halfway through Step 17. However, to reach step 20 by the end of the year, I'm going to have to find ways of earning more.

Step 16 Complete
Step 17 In Progress
Cumulative Cash: £506.21

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. For a brief outline of the strategy, take a look at this post.

This is just a short note to let you know that The Doubler's Den has just launched a search engine designed specifically for Doublers. Here's the link:

Doubler's Search Engine

Now it is quick and easy to find what your looking for in the world of Doubling.

Arkad

I've been using the A+L Premier Direct Current Account for around six months and thought it was about time I shared my views and experiences of it.

Background
My original motivation for opening a second current account was to keep my personal and business earnings separate. I looked into a number of dedicated business banking accounts but they generally had poor interest rates and additional fees and it seemed the only benefit I would get would be the ability to cash cheques using my business name instead of my real name. Being self-employed, all my business income was in my real name so I decided that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by using a personal account for my business pursuits. I was not planning to change my day-to-day personal banking provider - Lloyds TSB - although I am now seriously considering it.

About Alliance + Leicester
Originally a Building Society, the Alliance + Leicester floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997, where it has been part of the FTSE 100 (the top 100 shares) ever since. It is the UK's seventh largest bank and has five and a half million customers. They are members of the Financial Services Authority Compensation Scheme, which means that in the unlikely event of them going bust, account holders can recover up to £35,000. They also subscribe to the Banking Code, which ensures that banks offer a fair deal to the public.

Opening an Account
Opening an account was relatively straightforward. I applied online and over the next week or two I received a number of letters from A+L in the post. The main letter contained a welcome pack filled with lots of information about how to use the account. Other letters included my debit card, card PIN, telephone banking PIN and Internet banking PIN.

That is more or less all there was to it, however I didn't opt to have my salary paid into the new account. A+L state that their 'Premier Switching Service' will make sure that salary, direct debits, standing orders etc. will all be transferred from your existing website without fuss, but having not experienced it, I cannot comment on this aspect of the account.

Benefits
I primarily chose the Alliance Leicester Premier Direct Account because of it's table-topping 6.5% interest rate (recently increased to 8.5%). Not only is it the best interest rate on the market for a current account, A+L guarantee that this rate will remain fixed until April 2009. Unfortunately, this interest rate only applies to the first £2,500 in the account. For anything above two and half grand, the interest rate plummets to 0.10%. This was not a major concern to me as I only planned to keep a maximum £2'500 in the account at any one time. Any extra would be siphoned off to a high-interest savings account.

When opening the Premier Direct Current Account, A+L also open a PlusSaver Savings account which has a 5.5% interest rate on balances up to £50,000. Although this interest rate is far from poor, I haven't really used my PlusSaver due to the better rates I get from other institutions such as
IceSave (6.10%).

My Premier Direct Account also came with a 0% overdraft facility of up to £1000 for 12 months. The size of the overdraft does vary according to personal circumstances but if you need to borrow a few hundred quid, this account can provide you with an interest-free solution . This was beneficial for me in the first few months for another reason (see below).

Finally, the account also has an optional 'Reward' credit card that earns a 'point' for every pound spent on it. The points can then be exchanged for gifts, but having taken a look what was on offer it didn't seem like a good deal. I decided to keep with my 4% Cashback Capital One Card instead. NOTE: The Capital One card is no longer available, however the Amex Platinum is a great alternative.

Requirements
To open a Premier Direct Current Account, you need be at least 21 years old and be able to deposit at least £500 each month. When I first opened the account, I didn't have the income to fulfill the latter requirement (due to my salary not being paid into it). Fortunately, I was able to use A+L's kind offering of a 0% overdraft - I transferred £500 of the overdraft to my regular current account and back again. I still don't earn £500 per month regularly, however my balance is now large enough that I can bounce the surplus between the two accounts.

Internet Banking
For a month or two after I opened the A+L current account, I found that the Internet Banking was quite slow and occasionally I would get an error. They now seem to have sorted this out and haven't experienced any problems at all this year.

Login comes in two phases. The first is a regular Customer No. and Password combination. On the next screen, A+L display an image and phrase that is chosen by the user the first time they login. This helps to ensure that you are indeed on the Alliance + Leicester website and are't been duped by an impostor. Also on this screen, you have to enter a PIN number before being taken to Internet banking.

The design of the A+L Internet banking website is not the best I have come across - I much prefer the simplistic design provided by Lloyds TSB. Despite the design, I found running the account via the Internet relatively straightforward and all operations are intuitive.

Summary
The primary advantage over other current accounts is the unbeatable 8.5% interest rate but the comparatively low monthly deposit requirement of £500 (most banks require £1000 or £1500) and the 12 month 0% overdraft facility go a long way to making this the leading current account for both personal and business use.

All in all, I've been very pleased with the Alliance + Leicester Premier Direct Current Account since I opened it six months ago - so much so that I am now thinking about migrating my personal banking over to it.

I was looking back over my old accounts today and was slightly taken aback by how far I've come over the previous three years.

Back in 2005 I read 'The Richest Man in Babylon' by George S. Clason and decided to dedicate five years of my life putting in practice the wealth accumulation tactics described in this inspirational text. When I began the project, I hadn't really had much previous interest in financial matters and, after nearly a decade of working, had just £3000 to show for it. The graph below shows how I have progressed over the years:

I achieved this through a mixture of reducing my expenditures, saving 10% of my income, experimenting with different savings and investment vehicles and earning additional income to my salary.

Year one (2005 to 2006) showed the biggest increase in value mainly due a complete blitz on all my expenditures and consolidating all my existing savings into a single decent savings account - this took quite a bit of work due to my previous lack of paperwork organisation.

Between 2006 and 2008, I have managed to accumulate an average of £3000 per year, which has been an little more than 10% of my salary over the period.

I am pleased with the way my net worth has increased in value over the last three years but I'm even more impressed by how much I've learned over the period. I've changed from someone that didn't really understand interest rates, mortgages, types of investment vehicles etc. to someone that has a fundamental grounding in a growing number of financial subjects.

There's still a long long way to go both in terms of things to learn about and accumulating enough wealth to retire at the age of fifty (my primary long-term goal) but these last few years have given me a solid foundation on which to build and I can say with truth that I've enjoyed every step of the journey so far.

One of my goals for this year is to review our utility bills and see if we can get better deals by changing our providers. The last time I overhauled our expenditures was two years ago, so things are about due a change.

First of all, here's a list of the expenses that we are unable to reduce along with the reasons why:

• Grocery bill - We currently pay around £300 per month on groceries for a family of five. This has more than doubled since we brutally slashed our shopping budget around 18 months ago but the kids are growing up and with the extra addition of our 1-year old comes extra expense in terms of nappies and associated baby products. Also, our two first-schoolers are constantly being invited to friends parties, which requires the customary card and present. My wife and I have looked at this and unfortunately decided that we can't knock it down any lower.
• Telephone and Broadband - Toward the end of last year, I signed an agreement with my telephone and broadband provider (Plusnet) that tied me into a contract for twelve months in exchange for a £30 discount over the year (this works out at around one free month). Consequently, I cannot change provider this year. Judging by some of the deals I've seen advertised I'm starting to regret tying myself in but we live and learn
• Council Tax - Although it is possible to get a council tax band regraded (see this great article at MoneySavingExpert), mine is already in the correct band (around £130 a month).
• Water - Our water bill is fixed and not based on consumption and it is not possible to change provider so, again, there's not a lot I can do to reduce it. It costs around £18 per month.
• Mobile Phone - I spend about £2 a month on this contraption so there is not much room for improvement.

So that leaves me with the following expenditures that I can potentially make improvements on.

• Gas - I'm currently with NPower for my gas, as they offered me the best deal two years ago. Since the recent energy price rise (and possibly even before that) I believe they have become uncompetitive, so I'll be looking to see if there are any better offers on the market. I currently pay £60 per month, double what I was paying last year!
• Electricity - Ditto for my 'leccy bill. I'm currently with NPower and pay £43 each month.
• Mortgage - I'm currently paying ING Direct's standard variable rate of 6.09% AER for my mortgage, which costs me a smidgen over £420 per month. It has never been the most competitive rate but it was suitable for my needs when I took it out nearly a year ago when we moved house. I knew I'd probably have a fair bit of cash left over from the move but wasn't sure if I would need to use it for DIY on the new property. Therefore I had to keep the cash liquid but still have the option to overpay the mortgage if needed. ING's mortgage allows unlimited overpayments and no redemption penalties, so I applied for it with the view that I could keep it for a year until I knew where we stood financially before changing to something with a better interest rate. That time has come

So, there it is. To complete the second goal on my list, I need to find the best deals for my Gas, Electric and Mortgage and swap. I'm guessing it will only take around a week to do the research and I should be able to make the changes before the end of April.