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Cape Verde in top ten holiday destinations
Cape Verde is now one of the world’s top 10 most attractive destinations among holidaymakers, new research indicates.
According to figures from HomeAway.co.uk, the destination has entered its top 10 chart for the first time ever.
Those who stay in Cape Verde property while on holiday can benefit from some welcome winter sun, something which has helped the region to rival the Canaries in popularity.
Between October and December last year, the website said that Cape Verde came fifth in its list of destinations which received the most booking enquiries.
Andy Cockburn, the site’s regional director, highlighted the property opportunities which Cape Verde can provide.
He stated: “For those looking for an alternative to Europe for property investment, Cape Verde is easier to access than ever before.”
A separate chart from Skyscanner listing the world’s top emerging destinations recently placed Cape Verde in third position.
Copyright Press Association 2012
This afternoon, George Osborne presented his third Budget since becoming chancellor in May 2010, in what was probably the most-leaked speech of modern times.
To jeers from critics and cheers from supporters, Osborne set out his efforts to square the circle that is Britain’s national finances. He promised a ‘Budget for work and business’, with tax cuts paid for by tax rises elsewhere.
1. The UK’s finances
The good news is that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that it expects our economy to grow by 0.8% this year, then 2% in 2013, with growth then rising to 2.7%, 3% and 3% to 2016.
The OBR expects the unemployment rate to peak at 8.7% before sliding to 6.3% by 2015. inflation — the rising cost of living — will fall to 2.8% this year and then drop to between 1.9% and 2%, in line with the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Alas, the government still spends much more than it earns, with borrowing in 2011/12 revised down by £1 billion to £126 billion. As a result, our national debt will peak at 76.3% of national output in 2014/15.
2. Workers
Osborne’s big idea is to send taxpayers yearly tax statements showing the taxes they paid and how these were spent.
The yearly personal tax-free allowance is due to rise to £8,105 on 6 April. However, the chancellor is to raise this by £1,100 to £9,205 from April 2013. This will leave most taxpayers better off by £220 a year, helping 24 million workers.
The other big change to income tax is the lowering of the 50% top rate for those earning over £150,000 a year. From April 2013, this will fall to 45%.
3. Families with children
Instead of completely withdrawing Child Benefit from higher-rate (40%) taxpayers, the chancellor is introducing a sliding scale. From April 2013, 1% of Child Benefit will be withdrawn for every £100 earned above £50,000. Thus, those earning £60,000 a year will lose all their Child Benefit.
4. Pensioners
Next month, pensioners can expect the biggest-ever increase in the state pension: £5.30 a week. However, the chancellor will freeze and phase out the age-related allowances given to over-65s. Thanks to the higher personal allowance, these people will not lose out.
5. Home buyers
The chancellor will prevent tax abuses when wealthy non-residents buy UK property.
From today, stamp duty on properties valued at £2 million or more bought through companies will soar to 15% (which is £300,000 on a £2m home). Also, non-residents buying property through companies will have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) when they sell at a profit.
Furthermore, stamp duty will rise to 7% from 5% for houses bought after midnight tonight. This adds at least £20,000 to the cost of buying an expensive home, but only 4,000 properties valued above this threshold change hands each year.
6. Motorists
The chancellor left the schedule for fuel duty unchanged, so a litre will cost 3.02p more from 1 August, as planned. There are minor changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (‘road tax’) for low-CO2 cars, with other rates rising in line with inflation.
7. Savers
Although the chancellor announced no new tax breaks for savers, the allowance for cash ISAs will rise by £300 to £5,640 on 6 April.
8. Investors
For stocks and shares ISAs, the yearly investment limit will rise by £600 to £11,280 next month.
However, the maximum tax relief that wealthy investors can reclaim by investing in specialist tax shelters will be capped at £50,000 per tax year.
To fund Britain’s borrowing needs while taking advantage of borrowing costs at a 400-year low, Osborne may issue 100-year Gilts (UK government bonds).
9. Sinners
There is no change to plans for alcohol duty, but tobacco duty will rise 5% above inflation, adding 37p to a pack of 20 from 6pm this evening.
A new duty on gambling machines will apply at a standard rate of 20% of net takings, with a lower rate of 5% for low-prize machines. A new tax on remote gambling will be introduced, based on the place of consumption, to level the playing field for Internet gambling.
10. Companies
Osborne lopped an extra 1% off the standard rate of Corporation Tax, which falls to 24% from next month and to 22% by 2014/15. However, he lifted the bank levy to 0.105% to stop banks benefiting from this tax cut and to keep to his target to collect £2.5 billion from banks.
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One of a student’s worst fears is falling behind financially, especially when they’re trying to balance so many things at once. They have a lot of things to do, and not always enough money to do them in. Everything can work just fine when you have the ability to work or rely on other sources, but what if you were to suddenly get sick with a major illness? That would throw a wrench into your financial blueprint. There’s nothing wrong with building a plan to change your finances. If you have a credit card already, you might be tempted to just throw all of your expenses on it. But that’s not really the best way to go. You’re going to need to make sure that you focus on the bigger picture and really ensure that you will have the power to really bring yourself peace of mind.
There are many types of student insurance, actually. You can go with car insurance if you have a vehicle, but there are still more insurance products than that.
We recommend that you check into contents insurance. When you go to university, you’re going to have plenty of people seeing exactly what you have and don’t have. Even if you don’t think that you really own anything, you may be surprised when you open your eyes and a lot of your stuff is actually gone. That’s the type of scenario that we’re talking about. If you honestly want to make sure that you don’t have to worry about trying to replace everything in case something gets stolen, then you really need to make sure that you focus on the greater picture here — you don’t want to try to have to replace a lot of items.
If you have a mobile phone, you will need to think about mobile phone insurance. In this day and age, it seems like everyone’s got a big and fancy smartphone. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you don’t need insurance, only to find that you have to replace your phone quickly. The cost of these smartphones can be in the hundreds of pounds. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just file a claim and pay a smaller fee to get a brand new phone? That’s what we thought too!
The time is right for students to start looking into all of their insurance options for the choice that really works the best for them!
Households across the UK are looking to get a tighter grip on their finances and one of the best places they could start is with their energy bills. Research conducted last year suggested that 40 percent of British citizens were ‘clueless’ when it came to how much energy they used and 16 percent simply had no idea how much they spent on energy each year. Bearing in mind energy bills are one of the largest expenditures a household has outside of a mortgage or rent and the statistics are all the more shocking. Simply put, the more you understand about your energy use the better positioned you are to start saving money on your bills.
Getting the best rate
Despite the constant hikes in energy prices, people are still more aware of how many texts and minutes they use on their mobile phone than they are of how much gas and electricity they use at home. In order to get the best available contract for your mobile you need to understand your usage and exactly the same is true for energy. Spend an afternoon getting to grips with your previous bills; get to know what rate you are on and what other rates are available. It is imperative that you ensure you are getting the best rate with your current supplier before you look to compare energy prices with another, otherwise they will not have the incentive to give you the best possible deal.
Once you are certain you have the best rate for your needs with your current supplier, use one of the many comparison sites to help you compare electricity prices and gas tariffs with their competitors. A full list of independent comparison sites can be found at consumerfocus.org.uk. Do not be afraid to switch provider if it’s going to save you money; energy companies make huge profits from people being on the wrong plan. A report from 2010 estimated four billion pounds a year was being wasted by UK consumers paying too much for their energy. In this economic climate that’s a waste we could all do without.
Changing your habits
Understanding your energy usage not only helps you to find the best rates but it also allows you to make substantial savings by amending your habits. There are plenty of practical means of reducing your bills such as fitting energy saving light bulbs, dropping your thermostat by a single degree, properly insulating your property and only using dishwashers and washing machines for full loads. However, it is only when you can see the very real money saving benefits of such actions that you are likely to fully embrace them- and in order to do that you need to have a good knowledge of exactly how much energy you are using in the first place. You will likely be amazed at the difference some seemingly simple actions can make.
Another good means of getting to grips with your energy use is to invest in an energy monitor. These devices, which can be picked up for less than twenty pounds, plug into any electrical device in your home and tell you exactly how much energy it is using. There is no better way than to get out of the habit of leaving computers and televisions on stand-by than seeing exactly how much energy you are wasting.
By 2020 the government has decreed that all energy suppliers most provide their customers with smart meters. These will replace the cumbersome gas and electricity meters we are used to and with their electronic displays make it much easier for us all to understand how much energy we are using and when. Until then it is our own responsibility to know what we are spending and why- there really is no better starting point to reducing your bills.
Rental market improve in the US
Signs that the US housing market is beginning to recover received a boost with the news that rental prices have increased, according to an economist.
Figures from the Zillow Rent Index showed that the average price of leasing a home in the US went up by 3% in January compared with the same month in 2011.
However, the cost of property also decreased by 4.6% during the same time period.
The improvement in the rental market could lead to more homes being sold in the long-run.
Dr Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, believes that the rental market improvement will help to get the buying market back on track.
Dr Humphries said: “A thriving rental market will stimulate home sales as investors snap up low-priced inventory to convert to rentals”.
A decrease in property numbers up for sale is integral to the market economy and increasing rents will mean more people are likely to purchase a home, particularly if prices remain low, he added.
Copyright Press Association 2012
Is a new car in your future? Think that you have to have cash before you can get a new car, so you decide dot save up? We have some good news that you have to hear. You see, there was a time where credit restrictions meant that you really couldn’t go out and get a car and have someone finance it for you. However, things are changing. The marketplace is becoming more and more uncertain, and lenders are realizing that they’re going to have to be better at letting people finance cars. This means that more people are going to become customers, which in turn means that the lender is going to benefit form that.
Of course, there are a way ways to save the most money looking for the best car finance deals. You just have to look online. Gone are the days of driving around to dealership after dealership and hoping that they’re going to be able to finance a good car for you. It’s a lot better to actually ensure that you look online in a systematic way.
One site that actually goes above and beyond to help people get the car finance that they deserve would have to be Creditplus car finance. They are a company that pulls together the best lenders for all credit types.
For example, you might still assume that only people with good credit ratings can get finance options. But that’s not the case at all. If you’ve made strides towards a better credit life, and you have stable income you should be able to get what you’re looking for in the long run. It’s just a matter of filling out the application in the first place. Some people will skip over this and give up, but we hope that won’t be you! Good car finance is right around the corner.
Filling out one application and getting quotes from tons of lenders is the new way to really do your finance shopping. Creditplus even has calculators available so that you can estimate what your monthly payments are going to end up being. The more that you can plan for your car purchase, the easier it will be to work the payments into your budget. Everyone knows that it’s not just enough to get approved for a car finance — you have to also be able to deal with the monthly payments consistently until the car is paid off. If you cannot do that then you will just end up losing the car and who wants to go through that?
Check out Creditplus car finance today and see just what options you really have!
If you are currently looking for a job, but are finding it difficult to get noticed, then you are not alone. With the recent economic crisis still in full effect, unemployment is high for trade jobs, unskilled jobs and graduate jobs, and this means that there is much more demand for a decreasing number of job vacancies. To get over this problem, you need to make yourself look as attractive as possible and stand out from the crowd, and the following points will help you achieve this.
1. CV content and formatting – A CV can be made in a particular style, from skills based, to education based and employment based. For graduate jobs, an education based CV is best, as you won’t have much work experience to include. No matter what style you go for, you need to ensure that you list your traits, skills and achievements, with reference to examples, academic or otherwise.
2. Portfolios – Employers are becoming more and more picky due to a high demand for jobs. This means that you want to provide more than just a CV and job experience if you want to be sure to get noticed. Putting together a portfolio of relevant work is a good option, which can be digitized and sent as an attachment with a covering letter.
3. Blogging – Nothing lets an employer know your interest in a given field than a blog, and setting one up is a great idea. Blogs are great because they are flexible, and also allow you to get connected with other like minded individuals, which also helps you to network yourself to open up new opportunities.
4. Social media – Forming a social presence through sites like Twitter and Facebook is a good idea, and employers often check social media accounts to see if you have a high enough interest for the relevant subject. Again, social media increases your exposure to relevant individuals, companies and organizations in the field you want to work in. Also, be careful with what you say and do on social media sites, and being careless with your professional image can come back to haunt you.
5. Work experience – Graduate employers are more likely to offer graduate jobs to students who have done relevant work experience or placements in industry, so it is definitely a good idea to find work experience, especially in the summer months between years at university.
