Today I have a guest article for you by my colleague Jackie Edwards.
Jackie is a professional property investor and property restorer. In her article below she sets out the case for investing in alternative rental properties – in particular, for the growing over-50s market.
Over to Jackie then…
While discussion around the mortgage and rental market often focuses on younger people – particularly first-time buyers and millennials – just as important are the over 50s.
A 2022 report in The Guardian sheds light on an alarming trend: individuals over 50 are finding themselves compelled into room-sharing arrangements, a consequence of being priced out of independent living options. The data supports this unsettling shift, citing a steep 114% surge in room search enquiries from people aged 45-55, compounded by a staggering 239% uptick in enquiries from those in the 55-64 age bracket.
Despite being often well-experienced and highly skilled, these individuals find themselves at the mercy of a punishing housing market. This situation signals a promising investment opportunity for businesses and individuals prepared to invest in accommodation tailored for those aged over 50. Already, a handful of forward-thinking schemes across the nation are demonstrating this growing potential.
What’s Required
Of course, a range of factors need to be considered when providing bespoke housing to over-50s. Disability, for example. According to the Office of National Statistics, the incidence rate of disability increases significantly after the age of 50, and it becomes more likely that the applicant will need adaptations to their accommodation.
As anyone living with a disability will know, it can be difficult to find accessible housing. According to disability advocates Eachother.org.uk, only 9% of UK rentals are suitable for people with a disability. Landlords that can prepare and provide accessible accommodation, at reasonable asking prices, will be providing a valuable service which is very much in demand.
What a Rental Requires
With that in mind, it’s important to consider the specific needs of the 50s-and-over market. According to PropertyRoad.co.uk, 15% of all rentals are now occupied by people over 50, an increase of 61% from the previous recorded figures in 2012. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, however.
In the Guardian’s survey of the renting situation, an interesting factor was highlighted. While many older people are pushed into renting as a result of rising costs, many others actually prefer the flexibility of not being tied to a mortgage and, crucially, the feeling of community that comes with communal living.
One scheme the Evening Standard highlights is a house sharing scheme that specifically matches up younger and older people, with company the key factor, but with a degree of agreement from the younger party to assist with chores and housework.
Intermediate Rent
As highlighted by ShareToBuy.com, intermediate rent is a scheme where renters agree to charge lower rentals (generally at least 20% below the standard private market rates in the area) in exchange for longer-term contracts. For the younger generation who may be looking to move around a lot, these schemes are less attractive. For over 50s, who are happy in one area and looking for something affordable for the medium to long term, it may well be an excellent option.
What is crucial is that landlords and property businesses offer these properties more widely in bespoke packages for over 50s. Currently the market in such properties is very limited, though a few smaller companies and organizations have embraced this challenge. They include Cohabitas, certain schemes on Spareroom, Flatmates.co.uk and RoomPortal.
More needs to be done with alternative rental accommodation for this niche – yet rapidly growing – demographic. A lot of focus is placed on millennials, but much more needs to be done for older renters, to help them find high-quality and long-lasting accommodation. For landlords and businesses who want to generate a stable rental income while also offering a valuable service to older individuals, this could represent a very appealing proposition.
About the author: A career in property investing led Jackie Edwards to develop a passion for restoring old homes. And even in her free time, she’s renovating her own with her husband. They’re both semi-retired (though by no means retirement age) and to keep her interest alive Jackie writes articles on home and lifestyle. In any free time she has, she’s walked by her two dogs Barker and Corbett and she volunteers for a local foodbank.
Many thanks to Jackie for an interesting and thought-provoking article.
Obviously not everyone will have the money to invest in alternative rental accommodation directly. If, however, you are attracted to the idea of investing in this sector, a more affordable option is presented by Assetz Exchange.
Assetz Exchange is a P2P property crowdfunding platform. They focus on lower-risk, socially beneficial accommodation, such as supported housing for people with physical or mental disabilities.
Properties are bought jointly by investors under the usual crowdfunding/P2P model. Most are then leased to charities and housing associations. This means they are securely funded and there is a low risk of defaults.
Of course, defaults could still happen in certain circumstances – but as investors jointly own the property in question, ultimately you could still expect to get your capital (or most of it) back when the property is sold.
I have been investing with Assetz Exchange since February 2021 and have gradually built up the amount I have with them. I put an initial £100 into AE in February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000. Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated £143.56 in revenue from rentals. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 (staged) investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile (as at the moment).
I now have investments in 23 different projects and all are generating rental income as expected. Capital values have declined slightly overall – in line with the UK property market generally – but of course this isn’t really relevant until or unless you want to sell up. Overall I am very happy with how my AE investment has been doing, and the fact that projects are generally beneficial to society as well.
To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as I am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this article, you are very welcome to post them below.
Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.
Note also that posts may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!
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In April 2016 I invested some money with the Nutmeg investment platform. It turned out to be one of my better investments, so in this update I thought I’d say a bit more about it.
What Is Nutmeg?
Nutmeg is a low-cost online investment platform. It is aimed at people who want to invest to take advantage of the potentially better returns, but don’t want the hassle of researching every investment themselves. Nutmeg has over 200,000 investors as of November 2023 and over £4.5 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM).
With Nutmeg you simply choose the type of account you want and your investment style and how long you want to invest your money for (you don’t have to stick to this, of course, although they recommend to remain invested for at least 3 years). You can deposit a lump sum and/or set up monthly payments. Nutmeg then invests your money in a range of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
For those who don’t know, ETFs are a package of shares from a particular section of the stock market. For example, an ‘Asia Pacific ETF’ is a collection of shares from the Asia-Pacific region. ETFs are different to most investment funds in that they don’t usually have a manager running them. Instead, most ETFs are run by computers that regularly balance their portfolios automatically. This helps keep costs low, though there is of course no guarantee of returns. You can learn more about ETFs here if you wish.
Nutmeg currently has five different types of investment product on offer. They are as follows:
ISA (individual Savings Account) – These accounts have to be funded from your after-tax income, but they grow tax efficiently and withdrawals are free of tax. Everyone has a maximum annual ISA allowance, which is currently a generous £20,000.
SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) – A SIPP has the big attraction that you get tax relief on your contributions, so the government effectively tops up every contribution you make. On the downside, you can’t withdraw money from a SIPP until you are at least 55, and only a quarter of the money you withdraw is tax-free, with the balance counting towards your total taxable income.
Lifetime ISA – A Lifetime ISA, sometimes called a LISA for short, is a tax-efficient vehicle launched in 2016. You can use a LISA for one of two specific purposes – buying your first home or saving for retirement. You have to be under 40 to open a Lifetime ISA. The government will then top up any contributions you make with an extra 25%. The maximum you can contribute to a LISA is £4,000 per year.
Junior ISA – A Junior ISA is an ISA opened by a parent or guardian on behalf of a child under 18. In the 2022 to 2023 tax year, the savings limit for Junior ISAs is £9,000.
General Investment Account (GIA) – This is for when you have used up all your other tax-free allowances. You can use this for whatever you like, but there are no tax benefits or top-ups.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
My Own Experience
I invested £6,188 in a Fully Managed Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA in April 2016. If you’re wondering why it was such an odd sum, I put in £6,000 from my savings. The other £188 came from another small ISA account I thought I might as well transfer at the same time.
I was pleased by how my initial investment performed, so in April 2018 I transferred £4,000 from another stocks and shares ISA that had been under-performing. By January 2020 my investment had grown by £3,377 to £14,291. Here’s a chart showing how my investment performed up to 17th January 2020.
I accepted a high risk level (9/10) with this account, which may partly explain the performance achieved.
A few months ago I did a ‘deep dive’ into performance stats for Nutmeg fully managed portfolios from level 1 (lowest risk) to level 10 (highest risk). This confirmed that risk level does actually make a big difference to results obtained. You can read my article about this here and I strongly recommend that you do so if you are considering investing with Nutmeg. Obviously everyone needs to make their own decision about what level of risk they are comfortable with – but looking back over the last 10 years (since Nutmeg started) the higher the risk level you chose, the better the results you would have obtained over any three-year or longer period. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of what will happen in future, but it is certainly food for thought.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
2020 – Year of the Virus
In 2020 the markets were thrown into turmoil by the world-wide coronavirus pandemic. Inevitably, my Nutmeg portfolio was affected by this. Here is a chart showing performance from January to December 2020…
As you can see, through late February and March my Nutmeg ISA plummeted in value, going from around £14,000 to just over £10,000. That was obviously a worrying time, but nonetheless I decided to risk investing another £3,000 when the markets were (as things stand now) near their lowest ebb.
From late March – and even allowing for my £3,000 top-up – my ISA made a remarkable recovery. By mid-December 2020 it was worth £18,323. Even if you take off the extra £3,000, that means my portfolio as a whole was worth over £1,000 more than it was before the pandemic struck.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
2021 – Lockdown and Recovery
My Nutmeg ISA continued on a largely upward trajectory in 2021. Here is a screen capture showing how it stood at the end of December 2021. As you will see, Nutmeg have changed how performance is displayed on the website slightly.
I added a further £400 to my ISA eariy in the year. But even if you deduct this, the total fund value rose to £21,875.63, an increase of £3552 (over 21%) since December 2020.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
2022 – Ukraine and Cost of Living Crisis
2022 was a challenging year for my Nutmeg investments. A variety of factors – including the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and the aftermath of the pandemic – have caused turmoil in world markets, and Nutmeg was obviously not immune. This is how my main portfolio performed in the year to 30 December 2022.
As you can see, my portfolio fell In value from £22,275.63 to £19,897.92. That’s a drop of £2377.71 or 10.68%.
That’s clearly disappointing, but it’s worth noting that it is still a lot less than the amount by which it went up in 2021. And at that point I was still over £5,500 in profit overall. I was therefore philosophical about this, recognizing that all investments have their ups and downs, and Nutmeg was hardly alone in seeing a drop in values in 2022. But I do understand why people who only started investing with them at the start of 2022 may have felt disappointed.
Quick update: As of 19 March 2024 the value of my main Nutmeg portfolio has risen to £23,308, an increase of £3,411 (17.14%) since 1 January 2023.
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
Nutmeg Fees and Investments
Nutmeg charge a fee of 0.75% a year on Fully Managed portfolios (see Portfolio Options, below) of up to £100,000, and 0.35% on investments beyond that. That’s competitive compared with traditional mutual funds, although you can find cheaper investment opportunities and platforms if you look around. You may or may not get such good overall results, of course.
A reader asked if Nutmeg reveal what ETFs your money is invested in. The answer is that they do. In case you are interested, here is a list from the website showing how my money is invested. Note that these are the top 12 funds. There are others in my portfolio as well, but this was the most I could capture in one screengrab 🙂
As a matter of interest, here is a copy of the table showing how the investments in my portfolio are allocated by asset class.
As you will see, quite a large proportion of my portfolio is invested in equity markets. As I said earlier, I opted for a high-risk, high-returns strategy. If I had chosen a lower risk level, a larger proportion would undoubtedly be in bonds and cash. Note that high-risk can also mean higher loss.
You can make changes to the risk level and investment style of any Nutmeg pot at any time. Nutmeg do just caution that making frequent changes to your portfolio may impact your returns. So they suggest you review your risk level when your goals change and avoid trying to ‘time’ the market.
It’s also worth noting that Nutmeg invests mainly in accumulation rather than income-generating funds. Most do not produce dividends, and with those that do, the money is automatically reinvested back into your portfolio. Nutmeg is really intended for people who are aiming to build a ‘pot’ – a nest-egg, if you prefer – rather than looking for a source of income. But you can of course sell all or part of your investment at any time.
Capital at risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Portfolio Options
Since I first signed up, Nutmeg have added some other options to their offering. In particular, they now offer five different types of ISA portfolio: Fixed Allocation, Fully Managed, Thematic (launched 2023), Smart Alpha, Socially Responsible and Fixed Allocation. To save time, I have copied the information on the Nutmeg website about each of these portfolio types below. Note that by default the estimated total fees per year refer to a portfolio worth £5,000. You can change this if you wish by entering a new figure at the top.
Please note that the figures above are correct as of 19 March 2024 but may have changed subsequently. As you will note, the Fixed Allocation portfolio has lower charges than the other three.
The Socially Responsible portfolio aims to optimize your investments according to various environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. So it focuses on companies with a good track record and proactive strategy in such areas as water use, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, proportion of female board members, and so on.
Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha portfolios are powered by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. They include five risk-rated portfolios, each holding between 10 and 14 passive and active ETFs. They are managed by J.P. Morgan’s multi-asset solutions team, giving Nutmeg clients access to the investment giant’s experience and expertise. You can read more about the Smart Alpha range in this blog post. The new Nutmeg Thematic Investments are discussed in more detail further down.
As mentioned above, my own ISA is in the Fully Managed category (the only one available when I opened my account). I have considered switching to Socially Responsible, but as my investment has performed well overall I am reluctant to rock the boat. You might see this differently, of course.
I did, though, create a new pot within my ISA with Smart Alpha as the investment style. The risk level is 4/5, which roughly corresponds with the 9/10 risk level in my Fully Managed portfolio. I started in December 2020 with £1,000 and as all was going well added a further £1,000 in April and another £500 in June. By the end of 2021 my Smart Alpha portfolio was worth £2,837. That is an increase of £337 or around 13% expressed as an annual rate. In February 2022 I added another £500, bringing my total investment to £3,000. During 2022, like most stock market investments, the value of my SA portfolio fell back, but like my main portfolio it has recovered in 2023. At the time of writing (16 November 2023) it is worth £3,361, a net increase on capital of £361 (12.03%). Considering how turbulent the last two years have been for investors, I am happy enough with that.
I will of course continue to report on PAS about how my Nutmeg investments perform. Obviously, if my Smart Alpha pot seems to be doing significantly better than my Fully Managed one, or vice versa, I will switch my money between them. I am also considering investing in a new thematic investment pot. It is one of the attractions of Nutmeg that you can have multiple pots within a single ISA with different investment styles and risk levels attached to them.
Capital at risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
New: Nutmeg Thematic Portfolios
As of 23 October 2023, Nutmeg introduced a new portfolio option. Nutmeg’s Thematic Investment style gives you a globally diversified, risk adjusted portfolio with a tilt (up to 20% of equity exposure) towards your chosen theme. They say the majority of the portfolio will be actively managed by Nutmeg’s investment team, whilst the ’tilted’ part of the portfolio will be made up of ETFs that the investment team believes will deliver the best returns from the growth of the trend in question (to be reviewed annually).
Currently three themes are available, these being Technical Innovation, Resource Transformation and Evolving Consumer. For more details about what each of these comprises, check out the Nutmeg website.
Nutmeg thematic portfolios are only available on Risk Level 5 or above. There is a minimum investment of £100 for Junior ISAs and Lifetime ISAs or £500 for stocks and shares ISAs and pensions. There is a 0.75% management fee.
Thematic investing carries specific risks and is not for everyone.
Withdrawing Money From Nutmeg
You can withdraw any or all of your money from your Nutmeg ISA at any time on request. Investments are sold on a twice-weekly cycle, so depending on when you submit your request Nutmeg say it will typically take 3-7 business days for the money to appear in your bank account. This means the value of your investments may change during this period, and you might not therefore receive the exact amount requested.
If you are withdrawing from an ISA, it’s important to remember that any allowance used in the current tax year will remain used; you won’t get it back if you later pay back into your ISA. As mentioned earlier, everyone has a generous annual £20,000 ISA allowance, so this rule may or may not be of concern to you.
Other types of account such as SIPPs and Lifetime ISAs have specific legal restrictions on withdrawals set down by the government, e.g. you can’t normally withdraw money from a SIPP until you reach the age of 55.
In Conclusion
I am obviously a fan of Nutmeg and – as I said above – plan to continue investing with them. Of course, I am not a qualified financial adviser and everyone should do their own research (and/or take professional advice) before deciding to invest with Nutmeg. Based on my own experiences, though, I am happy to recommend them. They provide a simple, easy to understand investment platform, the customer service is excellent, and certainly in my case the results achieved have been good (even allowing for the downturn last year).
Nutmeg also has an excellent mobile phone app with an App Store average rating of 4.8 (16K reviews) and a Google Play Store rating of 4.3 (2.6K reviews). On the independent Trust Pilot website Nutmeg averages 3.9 stars (‘Great’). This figure fell a bit as some members expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of their portfolios last year during the cost-of-living crisis. It is, though, worth noting that 69% of Trust Pilot reviewers still give Nutmeg the maximum 5 stars (‘Excellent’) rating. All figures and ratings are correct as of 21 February 2024.
Special Bonus
If you are considering investing with Nutmeg, you might like to know that if you click through this link you can get six months’ free portfolio management when you invest. I will also receive a bonus for introducing you. Just enter your email address on the page that opens for further details, without any obligation. Terms and conditions apply.
If you have any comments or questions about this post or Nutmeg in general, please do leave them below.
PLEASE NOTE:As with all investing, your capital is at risk. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.
Note also that I am not a qualified independent financial adviser and nothing in this review should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing and take professional advice if in any way uncertain how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.
Please note also that this review includes affiliate links. If you click through and make an investment or perform some other qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the terms you are offered or any fees you may be charged.
This is a fully updated repost of my original Nutmeg review.
Approved by Nutmeg [DATE]
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Today I am looking at the Warm Home Discount scheme. The 2023/24 version of this has just launched.
The WHD scheme provides people on low incomes and/or certain means-tested benefits with a discount of £150 on their electricity bill. This is a one-off payment that will be credited to your electricity account by March 2024. It won’t be paid to you in cash.
If you have a pre-payment electricity meter you can still get WHD. You may be given a voucher you can use to top up your payments. Your electricity supplier will tell you exactly how and when you will receive this.
You may be able to get the discount on your gas bill instead if your supplier provides you with both gas and electricity. You will need to ask your supplier about this.
To get the £150 discount, you need to have been with the supplier on 13 August 2023, have your name on the bill and either receive a qualifying means-tested benefit or (in Scotland) qualify under your supplier’s low-income criteria (see below).
If you live in England or Wales, you will qualify if you either:
An important thing to note is that only pensioners who receive the Guarantee element of Pension Credit will qualify automatically for the Warm Home Discount. These people are known as ‘Core Group 1’ in England and Wales and the ‘Core Group’ in Scotland. If you’re in this group you should receive a letter between October 2023 and early January 2024 telling you when and how the discount will be paid. If you don’t get a letter and think you are eligible for the core group, you should contact the Warm Home Discount helpline on 0800 030 9322.
You should also still qualify for WHD if you live in England or Wales and:
your energy supplier is part of the scheme (see below)
you get certain means-tested benefits or tax credits
your property has a high energy cost score (see below)
your name (or your partner’s) is on the bill
This is known as being in ‘Core Group 2’. The qualifying means-tested benefits are:
Housing Benefit
income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
Income Support
the ‘Savings Credit’ part of Pension Credit
Universal Credit
You could also qualify if your household income falls below a certain threshold and you get either:
Again, you should receive a letter between October 2023 and early January 2024 telling you about the discount if you’re eligible. In most cases you are no longer required to apply for it.
Most eligible households will receive an automatic discount. Your letter will say if you need to call a helpline by 29 February 2024 to confirm your details.
If you’re eligible, your electricity supplier will apply the discount to your bill by 31 March 2024.
If you live in Scotland and don’t get the Guarantee Element of Pension Credit, you may qualify to receive WHD if:
your energy supplier is part of the scheme
you (or your partner) get certain means-tested benefits or tax credits
your name (or your partner’s) is on the bill
Your supplier may have additional criteria so you will need to check with them if you’re eligible. This is known as being in the ‘broader group’. To get the discount you’ll need to stay with your supplier until it’s paid.
As mentioned above, if you are not in Core Group 1 in England and Wales, to qualify for WHD your property must also have a high energy cost score. This is based on the characteristics of your property and applies to where you were living on the qualifying date of 13 August 2023.
The Government models the energy cost score of your property based on official data about its characteristics. These include the property type, age, and floor area. The Government uses data from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to model your property’s energy cost score. They may also use your property’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), assuming it has one. Other sources and statistical methods may also be used for the small proportion of households where data is not otherwise available.
Each year the Government will decide what constitutes a high energy cost score. It’s not straightforward for an individual to determine whether they will be eligible under this criterion. If you fill in the online eligibility checker, however, it should indicate whether or not you are likely to qualify (when I tried this for some elderly friends, it said they would ‘probably’ qualify and should wait to receive a letter).
Which Suppliers Offer Warm Home Discount?
All the large energy suppliers offer WHD and some of the lesser-known ones as well. Below is a list of suppliers copied from the government webpage devoted to Warm Home Discount. You can check your eligibility on the supplier’s website or phone them up and ask.
100Green (formerly Green Energy UK or GEUK)
Affect Energy – see Octopus Energy
Boost
British Gas
Bulb Energy – see Octopus Energy
Co-op Energy – see Octopus Energy
E – also known as E (Gas and Electricity)
Ecotricity
E.ON Next
EDF
Good Energy
London Power
Octopus Energy
Outfox the Market
OVO
Rebel Energy
Sainsbury’s Energy
Scottish Gas – see British Gas
ScottishPower
Shell Energy Retail
So Energy
Tomato Energy
TruEnergy
Utilita
Utility Warehouse
The government say that if the electricity supplier you were with stops trading, you may still be eligible for the Warm Home Discount. Ofgem will appoint your new supplier for you, and you should check with the new supplier to find out if you’re eligible for the discount.
If you are in the market for a new energy supplier, you may like to know that if you switch to EDF you can get £50 credited to your account by clicking on my EDF referral link. I am an EDF customer myself and will also get £50 credited to my account if you do this and switch to EDF. This will not affect in any way the service you receive or the rate you are charged.
Other Winter Fuel Benefits
Two other benefits are also available to qualifying individuals.
1. Most people born before 25th September 1957 are eligible for a Winter Fuel Payment. This is worth between £250 and £600 per person. This year an extra pensioner cost-of-living payment has been added. This money will be paid automatically in November or December to everyone born before the qualifying date and isn’t means-tested. If you received this last year, you don’t need to reapply
2. In the event of a prolonged cold spell, most people receiving Pension Credit will receive Cold Weather Payments. People on Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Universal Credit may also qualify depending on their circumstances, e.g. if they have a disability and/or a disabled child living with them. You will get this payment if the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below for seven consecutive days. You get £25 for each seven-day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March. Note that people in Scotland don’t get Cold Weather Payments but might get an annual £50 Winter Heating Payment instead. This is paid regardless of weather conditions in your area.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.
This is the 2023 update of an annual post.
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In case you’ve not heard, Amazon Prime Big Deals Day is almost with us. It extends over two days, Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th October 2023.
This is a special event for Amazon Prime members only. Amazon say they will be offering members their lowest prices of the year on selected products from leading brands, including Samsung mobile, Sony, Western Digital, Barbie and Xiaomi. They will also be offering big discounts on products from other top brands, including Bose, Shark, Oral-B and Fitbit.
Some of the best deals will be reserved for Amazon’s own products, such as their Kindle e-book readers, Amazon Echo smart speakers and Ring video doorbells and security cameras. Discounts of up to 60% will be on offer for these products. If you’re thinking of buying any of them, Amazon Prime Big Deals Day is definitely the day – or two days – to do it.
There are also some great ‘early deals’ available now. For example, at the time of writing you can buy an Echo Dot smart speaker (5th generation) for just £21.99, a 60% discount on the normal £54.99. You can also get a Ring video doorbell (2nd gen) for just £59.99, a 40% discount on the normal £99.99.
I have been a member of Amazon Prime for almost ten years now. As a regular Amazon shopper, I find it well worth while for the free one-day delivery on millions of items alone. But as a Prime member you get access to a host of other benefits and services as well, including Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Prime Video.
If you’re thinking of joining Amazon Prime, therefore, I highly recommend doing it in the next day or two, so you can benefit from the Prime Big Deals Day offers. Personally I think it’s worth it for the free delivery alone, let alone everything else that’s on offer. But if you wish, you can get a 30-day free trial now, take advantage of the Prime Big Deals Day offers, and then cancel without owing any money. It’s your choice!
You can also see all the latest Prime Big Deals Day deals by clicking here.
Finally, in addition to your Amazon Prime Big Deals Day discounts, don’t forget that if you sign up with JamDoughnut you can also get cashback on Amazon purchases. The rate is currently 1%. Obviously that’s not a fortune in itself, but it’s in addition to all the other discounts on offer. See my blog post about JamDoughnut for more info, including how you can get an extra £2 bonus!
As always, if you have any comments or questions about Amazon Prime or Prime Big Deals Day, please do post them below.
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A quickie today spotlighting a site that I know will be of interest to many readers of this blog. Coincidentally, it’s run by a near-neighbour of mine in south Staffordshire.
As the name suggests, Over 60s Discounts lists discounts, deals, vouchers and concessions for people in the UK aged 60 and over. Many of these are exclusive to Over 60s Discounts.
Over 60s Discounts operates on a membership basis, but the good news is that it is free to join. Once you are registered, you will be able to browse the latest discount offers on the website and also have them sent to you by email. If you see an offer you like, all you have to do is click ‘Get Code’. You will then be provided with a voucher code to use at checkout on the brand’s website. Printable vouchers and e-vouchers, which you can use in-store, are also provided.
There are some great deals on offer, as you can see from the sample selection below.
If you’re 60 or over, I highly recommend checking out Over 60s Discounts. It’s a new website and obviously still evolving, but already it offers an impressive range of deals, discounts and concessions. If you’re looking to make your money go a little further in the current cost-of-living crisis, it will definitely help you achieve this.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do post them below.
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I’ll start as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).
As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £20,945. Last month it stood at £21,188 so that is a fall of £243.
Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,295 compared with £3,325 a month ago, a fall of £30. Here is a screen capture showing performance since the start of this year.
The net value of all my Nutmeg investments has fallen this month by £273 or 1.11% month on month. That’s obviously a bit disappointing, but both pots are still comfortably up on where they were at the start of the year. Their total value has risen by £1,320 (5.76%) since 1st January 2023.
Of course, all investing is (or should be) a long-term endeavour. Over a period of years stock market investments such as those used by Nutmeg typically produce better returns than cash accounts, often by substantial margins. But there are never any guarantees, and in in the short to medium term at least, losses are always possible.
You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my overall experience over the last seven years, they are certainly worth considering. They offer self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and Junior ISAs as well.
I also have investments with the property crowdlending platform Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching every week. I currently have around £2,000 invested with them in 15 different projects paying interest rates typically around 7%. I also have just over £100 in my cash account after another loan was recently repaid.
To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.
As mentioned last time, Kuflink recently changed their terms and conditions. As from Monday 21st August there is an initial minimum investment of £1,000 and a minimum investment per project of £500.
Kuflink say they are doing this to streamline their operation and minimize costs. I can understand that, though it does mean the option to ‘test the water’ with a small first investment has been removed. It will also make it harder for small investors (like myself) to build a well-diversified portfolio on a limited budget. As mentioned, my current portfolio of £2,145 comprises 17 different investments ranging from £50 to £200. If I was starting out again now, that same amount of money would only stretch to four deals!
One possible way around this is to invest using Kuflink’s Auto/IFISA facility. Your money here is automatically invested across a basket of loans over a period from one to three years. The rates on offer from August 1 2023 are shown in the graphic below.
As you may gather, you can invest tax-free in a Kuflink Auto IFISA. Or if you have already used your annual iFISA allowance elsewhere, you can invest via a taxable Auto account. You can read my full Kuflink review here if you wish.
Moving on, my Assetz Exchange investments continue to generate steady returns. Regular readers will know that this is a P2P property investment platform focusing on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.
Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £141.06 in revenue from rental income. As I said in last month’s update, capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.
At the time of writing, 8 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 2 are breaking even, and the remaining 16 are showing losses. My portfolio is currently showing a net decrease in value of £31.41, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £109.65. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.
Obviously the fall in capital value of my AE investments is disappointing. But it’s important to remember that until/unless I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical, based on the most recent price at which shares in the property concerned have changed hands. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I have chosen to reinvest in other AE projects to further diversify my portfolio).
To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned (especially now that Kuflink have raised their minimum investment per project to £500). You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.
Last year I set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (then about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie2008 (real name Mike Moest).
In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.
My original investment totalling $1,022.26 is today worth $1,193.36, an overall increase of $171.10 or 16.73%. in these turbulent times I am quite happy with that.
I thought it might also be interesting to update you on how my eToro virtual portfolio is faring (I wrote about my virtual portfolio a few weeks ago in this blog post). Overall, this is down by $2558 in value, largely due to some big losses experimenting with commodity trading (I decided this wasn’t for me). It is very interesting to see which investments in my virtual portfolio have been doing well and which poorly, though.
I can’t get all of the investments in this port into a single screen capture, but here are the top performers…
And here are the worst-performing ones…
As you can see, the best performing investment in my virtual portfolio is Oil Worldwide. This continues to forge ahead since it was rebalanced in July by eToro. The second best is my copy trading portfolio with Aukie2008. I am obviously glad I have both of these in my real money portfolio as well!
By contrast, the two renewables smart portfolios I hold, Golden Energy and Renewable Energy, are currently showing substantial (thankfully virtual) losses.
Renewable Energy has actually lost over 35% in value since I notionally invested in it. This certainly does seem to confirm that investing in renewables is risky and by no means a guaranteed route to profit, despite all the green energy hype at the moment. I am tempted to suggest that Just Buy Oil might be a better strategy 😉
eToro also recently introduced the eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here.
I had two more articles published in September on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first was Will a Heat Pump Save You Money? The government is pushing heat pumps hard as a method for achieving its Net Zero target, but do the sums add up for hard-pressed consumers? In this article I took a ‘deep dive’ into the pros and cons of heat pumps and set out my personal views on whether or not they represent good value for money.
I also wrote Get Your Will Written Free of Charge in October. For those who may not know, October is Free Wills Month, when some solicitors in England and Scotland offer members of the public aged 55 and over the chance to have their wills written or updated free of charge. In my article I explain how the scheme works, and also explain why I believe everyone should have their will drawn up by a qualified solicitor.
As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. I particularly like the ‘Deals of the Week’ feature compiled by Jordon Cox (‘Britain’s Coupon Kid’) which lists all the best current money-saving offers for savvy shoppers. Check out the latest edition here
I also published two new posts on Pounds and Sense in September (I was away quite a lot last month, which didn’t leave much time for blogging!).
The first was a revised and updated guest post by my friend and near-neighbour Sally Jenkins titled Make Money From Public Speaking.
Sally is a successful author and makes a steady sideline income speaking about writing and related subjects (including a little while ago to my local U3A group!). I added a few thoughts of my own at the end of the article. There is definitely money to be made in this field; so if it’s something that might appeal to you, do check it out.
My other post last month was a review of a new money-saving shopping app called JamDoughnut. This app lets you earn cashback on gift vouchers from over 150 shops and restaurants, for which you get up to 20% cashback. You can then use the gift vouchers as money at the retailer concerned and pocket the cashback. Read Save Money on Your Shopping With JamDoughnut for more info (and a special bonus offer!).
The opportunity to get a free share worth up to £100 by signing up Trading 212 is now closed (for the time being anyway). I hope you took advantage if eligible and your free share is doing well. The opportunity to Get a Free ETF Share Worth up to £200 with Wealthyhood is still open. This DIY wealth-building app is aimed especially at people new to stock market investing. The minimum investment to qualify for the free share offer was raised recently from £20 to £50 – but on the plus side, they now guarantee that your free ETF share will be worth at least £10.
Finally, a quick reminder that you can also follow Pounds and Sense on Facebook or Twitter (or X as we have to learn to call it now). Twitter/X is my number one social media platform these days and I post regularly there. I share the latest news and information on financial (and other) matters, and other things that interest, amuse or concern me. So if you aren’t following my PAS account, you are definitely missing out!
That’s all for today. As always, if you have any comments or queries, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers
Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.
Note also that posts may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!
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