Archive for January, 2010

Manchester Unietd football star Gary Neville has lodged plans to build an
underground “teletubby” eco-mansion in the Lancashire countryside.

Source: Manchester United star Gary Neville lodges plans for £8m ‘teletubby’ eco-mansion

Dr Adrian Howd bought the £1.9 million home on the bank of the Thames but took
legal action after he later found the property floods up to 80 times a year.

Source: Banker sues couple who sold him house that floods 80 times a year

A popular pasttime has been bashing the bankers as they are seen as the cause of the current global financial meltdown, and not without good reason in my view. However, bankers aren’t all bad and I’ve learnt that the good folks over at Jefferies & Co (a US investment bank) have made a sterling effort to help the poor people of Haiti by donating wads of cash to assist in the relief effort. Well done everybody and a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to help the relief effort go to http://www.dec.org and donate online.

Here’s the full Jefferies press release:

NEW YORK and LONDON, January 19, 2010 – Jefferies announced today a total donation of $7.5 million to organizations providing immediate help to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The firm’s clients generated $5.5 million through global trading commissions on January 15th, Jefferies donated $1 million, and voluntary elections from the firm’s 2,628 employee-partners and Board of Directors totalled another $1 million. All funds will be wired directly today for immediate relief work.

Contributions will be designated only for relief efforts associated with the recent earthquake in Haiti. The American Red Cross, UNICEF, Save the Children, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (CBHF) and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will each receive $1 million. Partners in Health, Americares, Shelterbox, HEART 9/11 and SOS Children’s Village will each receive $500,000.

‘On Wednesday, twenty H.E.A.R.T. veteran disaster response experts will be escorted by the FBI to Haiti. We will leverage our hard earned wisdom and the financial support of Jefferies to provide leadership to multiply response effectiveness, and with the skills and empathy born from the WTC mission, we will respectfully recover the Haitian victims and empower the survivors to build again’, said Bill Keegan, President of H.E.A.R.T. 9/11.

‘This extraordinary contribution from Jefferies, as well as their many philanthropic clients, to UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts in Haiti is truly remarkable and will literally save lives; the enthusiasm shown to make a difference by Jefferies’ leadership and employees is encouraging’, commented Edward Lloyd, Chief Financial Officer of the United States Fund for UNICEF. ‘One hundred percent of the funds will go toward our effort to provide items such as water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, tents, portable toilets, blankets and other basic necessities, insuring that Haiti’s children are getting all that they need now and in the weeks to come, we are truly appreciative’.

‘This gift will go directly to provide emergency medical care for patients in Haiti. Thanks to the generosity of Jefferies and their clients, PIH is sending medical personnel, supplies, food and water that are so desperately needed. We are very grateful’, said Paul Zintl, Chief Operations Officer, Partners In Health.

‘Our 2,628 employee-partners and our amazing clients made this happen. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts’, added Richard B. Handler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jefferies.

In 2008 I stressed out over the Christmas period preparing all of the paperwork needed for the looming tax return deadline. Two returns and a company return means I have a LOT of paperwork, receipts, bank statements to reconcile etc.

Last year, 2009, I was a bit more organised and stressed out about it BEFORE Christmas (getting better though!) and had the returns all done and the visit to the accountant before Christmans.

If you are like me, you will have spent at least some time over the last few months, or possibly the Christmas period, going through your paperwork for the dreaded tax return—and vowing that next year you will be more organised.

Many new landlords with perhaps just one property wonder if it’s necessary to do a tax return? The answer is “YES”, and you should do it even when you have made a loss. Any losses can be carried forward if these have been recorded with HMRC.

Being organised and having all the necessary paperwork to provide an audit trail is most important. If something is a little complicated, make a note of it separately and keep it on file as the faintest of ink is better than the best of memories (ancient Chinese saying).

The tax authorities are likely to come down hard on landlords that don’t comply with the tax rules. Always make sure you are ready for an investigation, as these often unnecessary fishing exercises by HMRC can be very time consuming, so be warned!

Remember – you need to do your Tax Return online by Sunday 31 January. If you are going to post it, make sure it reaches them by Friday 29th to be sure of not receiving a £100 late penalty fee. Better still, send it recorded or next day delivery to be sure. Make sure you visit www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa and do your 2008/09 Self Assessment Tax Return online by 31 January 2010.

For further help, including a ‘Step by Step’ guide to Self Assessment online filing and a bite-sized video, you should visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/hmrctaxhelp

Finally, start getting organised NOW for March 31st 2010 and aim to get the accounts and the returns done even earlier in 2010! I will be… will you?

Money Is The Root Of All Evil! What rubbish! Money is just a means to an end. A common quote is often misquoted. It’s not that “money is the root of all evil”. The quote should be “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil”.

Money is a good thing. It’s far better to have money than not to have money. There’s no nobility in poverty. Every individual on this planet should strive to ensure they have enough money to first survive, then thrive, then give, in that order. If you are poor and have debts, then pay your debts off first before giving to church or charity. YOU are the charity in this case, but just don’t get yourself into debt again. Resolve to turn your life around for the betterment of yourself and everybody around you.

Take this as an opportunity to change your life and then when you’ve changed your life you’ll be able to change the lives of others for the better, and THAT is when you understand the true purpose of money. It is to be put to work, to make more money and in turn used wisely to help others. Once you have an abundance of money in your life, you will naturally gravitate to doing good things with that money.

Finally, remember this. Money doesn’t change you. If you are an a-hole before you became rich, you are an even bigger a-hole when you become rich! If you are a nice, happy type of person while you are poor, then when you are rich you will be just the same (usually), happy and nice but just alot richer!