Money Money Money Money Makes the world go around

 It would be easy not to read the small print and borrow until tomorrow.

But   

Never use a credit card use a debit card, that means that you live on money you have.

If you go to America you will see folks in their 70s and 80s packing groceries in Wallmart.

These people have lived all their lives on credit cards and now they have to work or they will loose their houses. When they die the bank will take their homes and their kids will have to bury them. So live within your means whether you are on €100 a week or €1,000 a week like me.

This advice came from the greatest celebrity I ever met. Chuck Feeney the man who made $8 billion and he gave it all away. (Google him)

When I was young I borrowed £800 to buy a car and the interest was 5% or so the bank said.

My dad looked at the paperwork and told me that I had been conned.

How so ?"they gave you £800 and they added on 5 years interest and divided the total by 60 That is more like 40%. 

Number .1 On the day you borrow the cash you don't owe 5 years interest.

Number 2 when you make your first repayment you no longer owe them £800.

Go back down to the bank and deal with it."

So the bank manager told me that there was nothing I could do as I had signed the papers.
The local schoolmaster overheard it and he said "What happened to the cooling off period"?

There was a bit of verbal table tennis between us and in the end I got a term loan at the same 5% rate.

There was hell of a difference at the end of the day.

The other one I have mentioned before. It has been around before and it was called 

"Seniors money" 

They give you money against the equity on your house and you can have a wonderful holiday, no need to worry about paying back.

So I got some practical figures from my Blackpool landlady.

Her mum died in 2011 and that was when they found out about the £15,000 borrowed on equity release. The company was Aviva and my dad needed to sell the house to move  closer to her daughter. Aviva added an £8,000 penalty clause as the dad had not got a medical cert to say that he needed support. It went on and eventually the reached a penalty of £6000 and would not budge any further. Remember there was no mention of this in the small print,

The house was valued at £80000 and the finally sold it for £77500

Aviva took their money and all that was left was £16,000

Anyhow this is stone cold facts.It was much worse than I had hoped.

Talk to your parents and give them a small allowance if they need it.

Its a really tough lesson