Britain’s equity-release market is expected to be worth more than £5bn this year: the number of people unlocking some of the value of their home in retirement continues to grow at rates of more than 20% a year.

But while this growth is understandable, with many people owning valuable properties by the time they retire but finding themselves short of disposable wealth, is equity release really the answer?

Downsizing may be a better option.

The allure of equity release is obvious. If you own an expensive property outright but need more money for everyday living expenses or home improvements, travel or helping out children, an equity-release plan offers real benefits.

You borrow money against the value of your house or, with some plans, sell a chunk of it. There are no repayments to make until after your death or you’ve moved into some form of care and the money is yours to spend how you wish. And you can stay in your own home.

However, there are substantial downsides. While the equity-release plan market is more competitive than in the past, the cost of products is still high compared with a conventional mortgage. The average borrower pays an interest rate of 4.55%, at least twice what you’d pay for a conventional home loan.

Moreover, as there is nothing to pay during your lifetime, your debt mounts up quickly due to the law of compound interest. There may be little or nothing to pass on to your heirs once the money is repaid on your death.

Another problem is that equity-release products can be constraining, particularly if your plans change. It may be difficult to move house, with extra charges to pay. You may struggle to make repayments during your lifetime, even if you want to reduce your debt.

Home-reversion plans, where you sell a chunk of your house rather than borrowing, are problematic too, since your property will effectively be valued at well below market value, reflecting the time that the equity-release provider has to wait to earn a return. Downsizing, by contrast, carries none of these headaches.

You simply sell your current property and buy a cheaper one, with the difference in value freeing up cash you use as you see fit. Your new house can be left to your heirs and there is no financial-product small print to worry about. For many older people, selling a large family home in order to move into a more modest property also has practical benefits. Smaller houses are easier and cheaper to maintain.

Nonetheless, downsizing isn’t right for everyone. If you don’t have a large property, moving to a smaller one may simply not be an option. The practicalities will also depend on the dynamics of your local housing market. How much can you sell for and what will a smaller property cost? And some people do not want the emotional wrench of leaving a much-loved family home.

Downsizing also carries costs. You’ll incur all the costs of moving house, including estate agents’ fees, solicitors’ costs and the removals firm’s charges. Plus you may have to pay stamp duty on the purchase price of a new house, though stamp-duty rates are lower on cheaper properties (and zero on purchases below £125,000).

The cheaper option Nevertheless, for most people, the total cost of downsizing is likely to be significantly lower than what your family effectively ends up paying through an equity-release product. The costs of moving house just do not compare to the cost of interest charges on a large loan rolled up over time.

In financial terms at least, downsizing is a better option than equity release for most people. If you’re willing and able to consider it, this should be the first thing you consider if you’re seeking to raise cash later in life. 

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL SORRY CHARLIE DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Imagine this…you load up an amazing piece of software on your PC or Laptop. It takes about 10 minutes. And then you wait.

Every now and again – perhaps two or three times a week – an icon flashes up on the screen, and when it does, that’s your signal to collect £100. Simple. No rush. No dramas.

Sound interesting?

You’re probably in a significant minority!

Believe it or not 99% of readers will pass up on this because it’s doesn’t sound like it makes enough money. It’s hard to resist the promise of tens of thousands of pounds. But give me five minutes now, and I’ll show you how these small ‘hidden’ amounts can really add up.

Matt Shaw, the guy who discovered this reveals HERE. 

Kind Regards

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

www.new-report.com

 The days of bumper cashback offers or fantastic rewards with your credit card are long gone. But there are still several good reasons to pay with plastic. One is the protection you receive thanks to Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Pay for something costing between £100 and £30,000 on a credit card and the card provider is as liable as the seller if something goes wrong. Credit-card firms are currently swamped with Section 75 claims, thanks to Thomas Cook. The 178-year old travel agent went into administration in September, prompting thousands of customers who had booked trips on credit cards to submit refund claims.

You can put a claim in with your credit-card provider if the thing you purchased never arrives or isn’t what it should have been. For example, you could claim for flights you bought if the airline goes bust, or a car that breaks down days after you bought it. You even get protection for the whole cost if you only paid the deposit on your credit card.

Another reason to put some of your spending on a credit card is that it improves your credit rating. It is a myth that a person who has never borrowed has the best credit rating. Lenders want to see that you are a reliable borrower; if you’ve never borrowed, they don’t know you’ll pay them back.

Using a credit card and repaying the balance in full each month – or at least never missing a minimum payment – will bolster your credit rating. There are also financial benefits to spending on a credit card. If you can’t afford to buy something outright then an interest-free credit card is still the cheapest way to borrow. For example, Sainsbury’s Bank is offering 27 months of 0% interest for new spending.

Just make sure you clear the debt before the interest-free period expires, otherwise you’ll end up paying 20.9% interest. Divide your debt by the length of the interest-free period and then set up a direct debit for that amount, so you don’t miss a payment and clear the debt in time. You need to make at least the minimum payment each month or you may lose the 0% deal and be charged a fee.

If you don’t need to borrow, then get paid to shop with a cashback credit card. The return on these cards isn’t as good as it once was, but it is still reasonable. The top-paying card is the Amex Platinum card. It has a annual fee but a 5% cashback rate for the first three months; the rate then falls to 1.25%.

But make sure you clear your balance in full each month, otherwise the 22.9% APR interest will quickly cost you more than you are earning in cashback.

Money Statistics

150 – The number of tonnes of gold, silver and gems that could have been aboard the Nuestra Señora del Juncal Spanish treasure ship when it sank off Mexico in 1631. Spain and Mexico have agreed to look for it together. The 14 tonnes recovered from the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes in 2007 was valued at £385m.

£15,000 – The estimated value of a recently unearthed silver coin from 826 AD, featuring the face of Saxon King Ludica of Mercia and the place name “Ludenwic”.

£40bn – The combined face value of all of the paper £20 notes that have started to be withdrawn from circulation. The old notes are bundled up into blocks of £50,000, and sent for composting by the Bank of England. You can still spend your paper £20 notes for the time being. 

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL NO HOUSE WORK DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I want to inform you of a new Facebook group Andi, a member of our staff has set up for Streetwise customers.  This group is for Streetwise customers only. It is a private members only group and we would like to invite you to join it. 

Andi suggested that he would like to host a series of live online training sessions starting next week. These live sessions will cover a range of important topics from creating the right mind set for success – which will be very handy if you have to stay in isolation for weeks or months at a time! – to the many different ways to make money online from home. 

Including how one man made $30,000 a month sharing untruths. Seriously. 

The reason for doing these live sessions is that if you are going to be in isolation for a few weeks then that is a great time to think about your future, your future income and learn new valuable skills. 

It is our way of giving back to you during this strange time and it is also a way that we can interact with our customers better. We can let you know of future products and what we are doing as a business.

Andi knows a lot about online business and making money online after making quite a bit of it through his websites and various projects. He is the perfect person to be holding live training sessions in the Facebook group… it also helps with him being the only one out of us all who actually knows how to do it!

To access these training sessions you need to join the group so please click the link below or the image above and request to join The Streetwise Private Members Only Club.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/

Being indoors for such a long time could have you climbing the walls and so you are going to need a healthy distraction. Something to take your mind off being imprisoned within your own four walls.

This time will be a great opportunity to learn some new life changing skills and ways to earn an income.

From what Andi has said to me, I believe the group is going to be invaluable to you. There is a lot of great stuff which he plans to share into the group. Stuff which I personally believe will make you see the internet and online businesses in a whole new light.

To join the group click here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/  

Kind Regards

For years, the Nintendo PlayStation existed only in the hushed whispers shared between geeks at comic-book conventions. Nintendo and Sony working together to bring out a games console? It couldn’t possibly be real. It would be like Coke and Pepsi teaming up to make cola. But the rumours were true. Sony and Nintendo, today arch-rivals in the gaming sphere, had indeed collaborated to make a console in the early 1990s.

Two hundred prototype Nintendo PlayStations were created in around 1992 and 199 are said to have been destroyed when the partnership ended early. Just one model survived and it was kept by Olaf Olafsson, the first president of Sony Computer Entertainment. Olafsson went to work for the Advanta banking corporation and took the console with him. But it was left behind when Olafsson changed jobs again in 1999. When Advanta later went bust, the PlayStation was sold.

Now it has surfaced again – this time as part of an online sale with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The highest bid stands at $420,000, with fees. For sure, it is a strange beast, worthy of any 21st-century curiosity cabinet. Part Sony and part Nintendo, at first glance it resembles a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or “SNES” to those of us who grew up with it (it hit the shelves in Britain in 1992).

The controller is almost identical. Except, look closely and the controller reads Sony PlayStation. Presumably, Nintendo chose to recycle parts of the design after the plug was pulled on the project. The console has been restored to full working order and it can play music CDs. Stranger still, it can apparently even play the games meant for the SNES. Incidentally, the video games themselves are fetching ever higher prices.

Heritage Auctions is also selling a rare copy of Stadium Events: Family Fun Fitness, which was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987. It has been given a 9.2 A+ grade rating by video-game grading group WataGames, which means it’s in pretty good nick. The current bid is $54,000 – for a video game! Games for the NES are particularly collectable. Still, maybe Nintendo should have tried harder to hold the collaboration together. Sony went on to sell 103 million PlayStations.

The SNES “only” sold 49 million units. Nintendo would lag the market for years, while Sega, another big player in the 1990s, stopped making consoles in 2001 to concentrate on video games. That same year, Microsoft entered the fray with its popular Xbox – but not popular enough to worry Sony, as it turned out. The best-selling console of all time at 159 million units sold is the Sony PlayStation 2. With the release of PlayStation 5 slated for later this year that market dominance may continue.

The hottest investments in games, are the games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, which popularised characters such as Link, Mega Man and Mario in the 1980s. A collector who spent almost $1,500 on one game was able to resell it for $12,000. Nostalgia is one reason. Collectors who are now in their 30s and 40s are fond of the video games from their childhoods.

The market really took off in 2018, when WataGames began grading game boxes, cartridges and manuals according to its ten-point scale, much in the same way baseball cards and comic books are graded. That gave the market a certain respectability, leading to a rush among collectors to get in early, and prices have been rising ever since. Last February an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros, from 1985, set an auction record of $100,150 with Heritage Auctions.

Some see a bubble. Some suspect companies with vested interests of stoking the market higher by creating hype. Still, there’s no reason why video games shouldn’t be considered collectable. Rarity and condition are crucial, so do your research.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I want to inform you of a new Facebook group Andi, a member of our staff has set up for Streetwise customers.  This group is for Streetwise customers only. It is a private members only group and we would like to invite you to join it. 

Andi suggested that he would like to host a series of live online training sessions starting next week. These live sessions will cover a range of important topics from creating the right mind set for success – which will be very handy if you have to stay in isolation for weeks or months at a time! – to the many different ways to make money online from home. 

Including how one man made $30,000 a month sharing untruths. Seriously. 

The reason for doing these live sessions is that if you are going to be in isolation for a few weeks then that is a great time to think about your future, your future income and learn new valuable skills. 

It is our way of giving back to you during this strange time and it is also a way that we can interact with our customers better. We can let you know of future products and what we are doing as a business.

Andi knows a lot about online business and making money online after making quite a bit of it through his websites and various projects. He is the perfect person to be holding live training sessions in the Facebook group… it also helps with him being the only one out of us all who actually knows how to do it!

To access these training sessions you need to join the group so please click the link below or the image above and request to join The Streetwise Private Members Only Club.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/

Being indoors for such a long time could have you climbing the walls and so you are going to need a healthy distraction. Something to take your mind off being imprisoned within your own four walls.

This time will be a great opportunity to learn some new life changing skills and ways to earn an income.

From what Andi has said to me, I believe the group is going to be invaluable to you. There is a lot of great stuff which he plans to share into the group. Stuff which I personally believe will make you see the internet and online businesses in a whole new light.

To join the group click here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/  

Kind Regards

Sometimes the difference between a generic product and one targeted at a specific group can be the title. In non-fiction publishing, It’s pretty widely acceptable that the title is responsible for much of books success. Here’s an idea that capitalise on that. It’s a range of books…for the British.

Once you have that concept in your head, possible titles immediately present themselves. Baseball For The British, Bollywood For The British, Haggling for The British, New York for The British. The connecting factor is that each book is about something with which the British may not be familiar, or may have a unique take on.

This is just one manifestation of the concept of course. It could Just as easily be for another nationality (For Americans) for people from a region (For Yorkshiremen) for people from an occupational group (For Teachers) or for a particular demographic (For Pensioners).

The key is that by focusing in on a particular group, you can turn general information into something which people in that group feel is specifically for them.

I’ll leave you to think how you might use this idea

Where do old footballers go?

In the days before footballers go paid £100,000+ a week, you always knew where you’d find an ex-player after retiring – behind the bar of his own pub. It was the career of choice for any player who hadn’t gambled away his wages. Did you ever wonder why?

I think it’s because people naturally gravitate towards businesses they enjoy patronising themselves. If you enjoy spending you leisure time in a pub, why not get paid for it instead? It’s the same though process that has led people to open coffee shops, gyms, and myriad retail establishments. But does this make sense?

Well, yes and no. If you’re an enthusiastic consumer of something, you should have a good feel for what the market wants. That’s bound to be an advantage. But at the same time, it would an extra-ordinary coincidence if the optimum business for you turned out to be the type of business you personally enjoy frequenting most as a consumer. And there’s always the chance that you metaphorically ‘’drink the profits’’.

The lesson to take away from this is to thoroughly question your motives for following the business path you’ve chosen. If it’s nothing more than an extension of you consumption preferences, it could be worth a rethink.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL APRILS FOOLS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I want to inform you of a new Facebook group Andi, a member of our staff has set up for Streetwise customers.  This group is for Streetwise customers only. It is a private members only group and we would like to invite you to join it. 

Andi suggested that he would like to host a series of live online training sessions starting next week. These live sessions will cover a range of important topics from creating the right mind set for success – which will be very handy if you have to stay in isolation for weeks or months at a time! – to the many different ways to make money online from home. 

Including how one man made $30,000 a month sharing untruths. Seriously. 

The reason for doing these live sessions is that if you are going to be in isolation for a few weeks then that is a great time to think about your future, your future income and learn new valuable skills. 

It is our way of giving back to you during this strange time and it is also a way that we can interact with our customers better. We can let you know of future products and what we are doing as a business.

Andi knows a lot about online business and making money online after making quite a bit of it through his websites and various projects. He is the perfect person to be holding live training sessions in the Facebook group… it also helps with him being the only one out of us all who actually knows how to do it!

To access these training sessions you need to join the group so please click the link below or the image above and request to join The Streetwise Private Members Only Club.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/

Being indoors for such a long time could have you climbing the walls and so you are going to need a healthy distraction. Something to take your mind off being imprisoned within your own four walls.

This time will be a great opportunity to learn some new life changing skills and ways to earn an income.

From what Andi has said to me, I believe the group is going to be invaluable to you. There is a lot of great stuff which he plans to share into the group. Stuff which I personally believe will make you see the internet and online businesses in a whole new light.

To join the group click here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1326182417580313/  

Kind Regards

I want to start by talking about Coronavirus. Don’t switch off! I know you’re sick of hearing about it. But there is a useful point which I’ll come on to. 

As I write this, there is still massive uncertainty about where the Coronavirus outbreak is going to take us. The greatest minds on the planet, people who have made a life’s work of studying precisely this kind of virus – cannot come to a consensus on exactly how serious this is and how many people will ultimately succumb to the disease.

And the reason they can’t do that is quite simple – they are missing a key number without which no projections are possible.

We can see how many people are dying with the disease, (but not necessarily OF the disease – a seperate confounding issue which I’ll gloss over for our purpose here) and we have a figure for the number of cases. We also know the size of our population. So it should be simple shouldn’t it?

If there are a 65 million people in our UK population, a thousand cases and 50 deaths, then our mortality rate looks like 5% and we could lose over 3 million people if everyone got it.

But we know this isn’t right. Why? Well there are a few reasons but first and foremost is the key number I mentioned earlier. You see, we don’t actually know the number of cases. All we know is the number of serious cases presenting at hospital, added to randomly by various celebrities, footballers, royalty and rich folk who had the where with all to pay for their own test.

We know there are very many people with mild or zero symptoms infected with Coronavirus, but we don’t know how many. Without that number, any projections about the path and likely toll of the disease are worthless.

As I write this there have been 11,568 positive tests for Coronavirus in the UK and 578 deaths. But these tests weren’t taken randomly – most were taken on people already ill. A death rate of 5% looks terrifying. But what if that 11,568 is the tip on the iceberg, and it surely is? So how big is the iceberg? Without knowing we can’t say whether 578 deaths is indeed terrifying, reassuringly low or somewhere between the two.

To take this to an admittedly extreme example, if 20% of the UK population was already infected (with most asymptomatic or with mild symptoms) then those 578 deaths would be spread over 13 million people, so a one in 22,000 chance of dying after being infected. Nobody is suggesting that is right, but 11,568 cases isn’t right either. The truth lay somewhere between the two figures.

Knowing your numbers is critical in projecting what will happen with a virus, and it’s also critical in projecting what will happen in your business. Just as the number of deaths is meaningless in isolation in assessing the destructive capability of a virus, so the number of sales is meaningless in assessing the potential profitability of a business project.

You need to know exactly the same things as the statistician trying to understand where a virus is headed…what is the size of your target market (population) how many people have been exposed to your marketing (infections) and how many people have purchased (deaths). It’s only then that you can determine potential. How you do this will depend on what you’re selling and how you’re selling it, but it can usually be done. Testing is the key.

So if you’ve made a 1,000 sales that might sound good to you. But that figure means something very different if only 5,000 from your target market have seen your offer than if 100,000 have seen it.

I see a lot of people focussing on sales figures without giving these figures real context. It’s only by adding context in terms of the level of exposure to what you’re offering, and the size of the overall market in relation to that exposure, that you can assess what the sales figures mean for long term potential.

To do otherwise would lead you down the path of rejecting potential fortune makers, and persevering with seemingly ‘hot prospects’ which have already eaten into most of their potential.

Let’s hope Covid-19 is a case of the latter. 

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL STAY POSITIVE DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

“No Gym, No Problem!”

Hello.

Now gyms have been closed temporarily you might be wondering

What To Do Instead?

Well if you’re anything like me, the answer isn’t ‘nothing’!

Over a decade ago now we were introduced to an  intriguing  and  unique home exercise programme. We decided to  publish  it  in  limited  numbers and it created something of a sensation, with many of our customers saying it’s the most effective thing they’ve ever tried…

And It Takes Just 7 Minutes A Day!

This isn’t just a ‘make do’ programme because your  gym is   closed. It’s a programme which you can use  for life, no  matter where you are without special equipment, and achieve  spectacular  results.

You can find out all about it and hear from some of the people using  it  to transform their fitness and their appearance HERE.

These are difficult times, but it doesn’t mean we have to give in.

With this programme, I believe it’s possible for  you  to  come  out  of  this fitter and healthier than you went in.

   Take a look  CLICK HERE and see what you think.

Kind Regards

www.streetwisenews.com/vince