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

Back at last

I am back in Ireland after visiting the Worlds biggest magicians convention.

It really is massive with the worlds biggest stars of magic preforming and giving talks.

There was around 150 magic dealers selling cards, videos and props.

Ryaniar to Manchester and a train to and from the venue.

Blackpool itself is very much on the decline with many homeless and addicted people going round.

With all that is happening in the world I would have been happier not to go, but it was booked 8 months ago.

God bless all the people affected 

Close-up card magic with a twist | Lennart Green

Three of Clubs by Juan Tamariz

Turkey..

 You never know how lucky you are until you get a look at the news.

There will be thousands of people dead when they count the losses in Turkey.

The buildings fell like houses made up from playing cards.

The sad part is that buildings can be built as earthquake proof,

Frank Lloyd Wright back in the 1920s built the Imperial hotel in Tokyo and an earthquake struck on Sept 1st killing 140,000. Franks hotel was built on a puddle of mud and not even one picture fell off the wall.

We can do better and people must insist that to government step up to to plate.

After all you get fined for parking

All in a second

 So I was on Copeland Ave. waiting to turn right and on the opposite side of the road there was a Chinese lady on her mobile pushing a buggy and a really small kid of less than 2 years old on a scooter following behind.

She came to the junction and crossed 2 lanes of traffic. Then she saw that the crossing was red at the other side and stopped. The small kid had followed over and she stood looking at the light. Nothing was coming and she crossed the road. She gave no instruction to the small kid and he waited for 5 seconds, (I started blowing my horn but she was engrossed in her phone)He started crossing as a car came over from the Malahide Rd. Then she saw him, she ran back and stopped the car from running over the child. As I turned right she was on her knees no doubt saying "My poor baby"

But there was only a second in it.

By the way Happy Chinese new year

Things that my customers told me.

Household fires.. 

The common things 

Faulty wiring, 

gas heaters too close to furniture or curtains. 

then smoking in bed

Tumble dryers with blocked filters

The last one I never would have guessed

Dishwashers Do burst into flames because the wires from the dials pass under the door, opening and closing the door breaks the wires and starts the fire.

So now you know. Turn on these things before you watch the telly.Not before you go out.

There was a huge fire in a newly renovated house in Clontarf and the insurance assessor reckoned that it was an electrical fault. So all the blame came on the electrician. 

His insurer had a retired Garda who investigated such cases.

He separated each person and asked what they had done that morning. 

No blame I just want to recreate what happened. 

The Au Pair said that one of the kids had wet the bed that morning and she rinsed the sheets and put them and the duvet into the tumble dryer before going to mass. 

The tumble dryer had a completely choked up filter and the electrician gave a sigh of relief.

A Plumber or a Barrister ?

 So back in the day when I worked the airport a flight came in from Spain late at night a woman and 2 small boys got into the taxi heading for Foxrock.

In an instant the boys were asleep that seemed to hit an on switch in her head.

This has been a hell of a holiday she said. Years ago I met this good looking lad from Crumlin, he was a plumber Jimmy was his name. One day he came to our house to collect me and my dad told him about a hot water problem we were having. No hot water in the tap and the tank in the attic is full of hot water.

No one can fix it said my dad. I can fix it without looking any further.

Either £5 or £150, take your pick.

He turned up the next day and put a one way valve on the hot water pipe. The mixer tap was faulty and the cold water pressure was pushing the hot water back up into the attic.

My dad said to me "Marry that lad" 

But my mother had other ideas and sent me off to school in England. There was some contact and then Jimmy went over to the USA where a relation had a big air conditioning and refrigeration company. By the time he came back contact had been broken and I had met my future husband and barrister and we both got on with our lives.

Many years passed and we had children and grandchildren.

Then I went on holiday with my 2 grandsons, on the second day at the hotel. There was great excitement as Jimmy arrived and was warmly greeted with all of the staff in the reception and 4or 5 small kids danced around him. When he saw me he was totally shocked, like he had met a ghost. Jimmys wife came over and he introduced them to each other.

Over the remainder of the holiday Jimmy came and went and his wife really embraced the three of us. Over the time I found out what had happened over the years. Jimmy had set up a plumbing business with his 3 brothers. Jimmys sister set up a wholesale business.

The family are very loyal to each other and that goes for cousins as well. Jimmy got sick and the cold damp air of Dublin was not doing him any good, one cousin owned an apartment in Spain so Jimmy came to recover his health.

After a while he started to work and he found that the jobs that he came to were all sub standard, so he started training people, little by little he started things moving. 

He bought a house, 2 stores doing bathrooms. a really big air conditioning business.

Then I found out from his wife as she drove us to the airport that all of our meals at the hotel had been comped. Then she looked at me Why not? he owned that hotel and another on on the other side of the island.

Carmel his wife told me that Jimmy is a very private person and he would never have told you that, so keep it under your hat.

On the other hand I now return to my legal eagle husband, stinking of whiskey. I wonder and wait for the next repossession order for the house will come from the bank.

Herring days

 For the London taxi drivers this time of the year used to be called "Herring days"

Business was so bad that they couldn't afford meat !

To be honest a few weeks in the South of France would be great. Good food and great wine.

A friend of mine used to vanish from Dublin for months at a time.

I asked him about it and he said from the second of Jan until Easter he would go off to Spain or Florida and return at Easter.People have hide away homes and I paint the place and pay the bills while I am there. In Spain he arranged golf tournaments and in the USA I arrange poker games.

He said to me that I must love the tax man if I keep on working.

He has a good point.

If you don't look out you cannot progress.

A story from life as best I can remember it.

A footballer broke his leg coming up to the final, his team won and he didn't get a medal.

He was very depressed and a mate of his who had a market stall asked him to come with him to Sheffield market to be a Shill,

On the way there he trained him in witty comebacks and he as a a shill would offer witty comebacks to the quips of the stall holder. Then he would take an hours break and go through it all again. On the way home the stall holder asked him if he had a passport? He had one and a week later they were in the van heading off to the south of France. The dealer family owned a villa and they took turns to chill out.Rule number one was to stay out of the sun. "If you have a suntan in February no one will trust you".

He trained him to sell Magnetic window cleaners with great jokes thrown in. Mike went to the markets and he had an idea. women's products were mostly sold in chemists shops with a great mark up. He opened a discount store which took off when the word got around. The shops were stocked up late at night and the shops started selling at 9 am and by 1 pm  the shops were empty.

He built it up and then he sold the business.

A short retirement and he went into the supermarket business, one of the very first in the UK. He built it up and sold it. 

I think that his next venture was JB sports a sportswear company and he put his stores on the first floor to get a cheaper rent.

His business advisors told him to"go public", he sold shares and stepped back.

But he noticed that money was being taken out of the company. So he put in surveillance and nailed to thieves. The share price of the company dropped. 

What did he do? He bought the shares back. He bought a football team Newcastle United and he now also runs leisure clubs in the north of England.

OK so Mr Google tells me that Mr. Mike Ashley now owns.

Sports direct  Karrimor,Kangol and Londsdale. A 4.6 share in Umbro. DW sports, Everlast fitness club.

So here is the list

Carlton

Donnay

Everlast

Gelert

Gud

Hot tuna

Kangol

Karrimor

LA gear

Lonsdale

Muddyfox

No Fear

Slazinger

Frazer group

So the Sunday Times rich list reckons that he is worth £2.7 Billion  Not bad at all

Mike Ashley Look him up