Adrian Garside

So, I am going to use me as the example, but that is only because it’s easier.

Most of you know I do a bit of off road cycling, less than I used to, admittedly, but I cycle off road becuase cycling on road scares the living daylights out of me – because of the cars.

Now, technically the rule is that a cyclist is entitled to ‘wobble room’.

Some motorists leave me wobble room. Some assume that I am a fixed object and just require missing…and an inch is as good as a mile, right?

Truck drivers are told that they must leave enough room for me to fall off in the road direction and they must still miss my head – I find that reassuring, my helmet meets all the current legislation, but I suspect a truck tyre would squish it in a bit.

Anyway, lets say a motorist caught my elbow with his wing mirror (so far the closest has been a vectra catching the material on my jacket). And, we’d better assume I’m not wobbling all over the shop, I’m cycling where I should be, about 18 inches from the kerb.

So, the motorist catches me, and I fall off.

My bike is a write off and I am injured and can’t work for a while and need alot of treatment and maybe my leg ‘will never be the same again’.

The car has wing mirror damage.

So – do I claim for my bike, lost earnings and treatment off the motorists car insurance?

Well, you’d think so wouldn’t you.

But, if I am not wearing a high vis jacket and reflective ankle clips, apparently that is good enough defence for the motorist and I’ll get diddly squat.

Yes, you catch my drift – if cycle on the road without full reflective garb, then drivers can drive into me with impunity.

Oh, and I know a few of my readers are devients and do ‘running’ – same rules for you too, get your high viz lycra out of the cupboard, black is out, in with neon yellow!

Back on 16th March I made my first cheese…

Since then, I let it dry for a while and then waxed it – so it looked like a baby bel…a 2lb baby bel.

I’ve left it to mature for almost 2 months…but today curiousity got the better of me and I cut the cheese. Di captured the moment on video…and if you are looking at my hand wondering if I have buboes (as in ‘bubonic plague’) let me reassure you, they are just some burns from some carrot soup I made the other day.

We’ve had some cheese on some nice walnut bread and it tastes delicious. The flavour is like a mild cheddar and quite soft and crumbly…more crumbly than lancashire. I think that is because I didn’t let the curd get firm enough when I made it, I’ll be more patient with my next batch.

I’ve never made soda bread before…can’t even be certain I’ve eaten it before, but saw it being made on TV last night and it looked easy and fairly flexible about ingredients.

Not completely flexible, you understand, there were basics involved – 500g flour, a big teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and a teaspoon of salt.

From there, one of the bakers last night used guinness as his ‘liquid’ and the other used buttermilk.

Now, I had neither, but I did have some creme fraiche in the fridge…which is made of yogurt and butter milk and that seemed pretty close, so I reckoned I’d give it a shot.

At 8.50 I asked Di if she wanted bagels or soda bread for breakfast… on the basis that I wanted to be sat in front of the TV by 9am to watch the Grand Prix. She opted for Soda bread, mainly out of curiosity I think, since there was none in the house and I was just stood there making a cup of coffee and obviously not doing baking.

So, with 10 minutes available, and humming the Benny Hill theme tune I set to work. Di gave me a minute by minute countdown. I put the oven on.

I had a bag of flour – weighed it – 600g. I tipped it into a large bowl from a height (I figured that by doing this I avoided the need to sieve it) and made sure I was a bit more generous with the Bicarb and the salt and I grabbed the Creme Fraiche (1 Minute) – there didn’t seem enough, so I threw some milk in too, I don’t know how much, but I was aiming for a total of about 600ml.  I think next time I will aim for less liquid than flour, it was slightly too sticky.

I mixed the lot, (2 minutes) firstly with a knife and then with one hand until it bound together (3 minutes)…no kneading like normal dough, Soda bread is better if it receives literally the least mixing you can do.

I put it on a baking tray (4 minutes) and popped it in the oven, grabbed my coffee and settled down in front of the TV to watch the parade lap and start of the grand prix.

…45 minutes later this came out of the oven, fantastically rustic looking and soft on the inside…

We ate it with some home made marmalade and home made raspberry jam….delicious…

I have been dying to make some cheese for ages…years even, and yesterday I thought I’d have a go. I’ve got some cheese making stuff, but having just got hold of a very big pan it all became possible.

Anyway, this is attempt number 1. I haven’t followed all the golden rules of cheese making about extreme hygiene – I ran out of Milton, so the spoons I used were just ‘clean’ like humans think of the meaning of the word clean rather than CLEAN, in the way dairy people think of the word.

Oh, and I also made errors with the ingredients – the (american) recipe list of ingredients said ‘skim’ milk so I bought regular skimmed milk, but in the instructions it said ‘add the whole milk’. Anyway, scoured the internet and found that skimmed milk isn’t the end of the world. So I carried on.

Inexperience made me take the curds of of the whey before they had become firm enough, and so the cheese isn’t as firm as it should be. It looks OK on the picture – here I am supposed to be turning the cheese and putting it back into the mould upside down – something I am supposed to be able to do after an hour – this is 12 hours on and while I got it out of the mould OK (and caught the moment here) (clean work surface, not CLEAN, but that may not matter anymore) the cheese disintegrated as I put it back in the mould, so I am unsure about what I will end up with. However, I think the is the way with cheese – it’s about practice, you can’t just knock it up.

The disintegration gave me an excuse to try some – this was a curious moment.

Up until now cheese has been cheese. Trying home made cheese is different – there are the expectations of fabulousness, the years of ‘excitement build up’ and just that niggly thing in the back of your mind that you made this from separated milk…

It tastes like mozzarella – very mild. It will hopefully taste of cheddar in 3 months, but I’m not sure – I stuffed it back in the mould, but I don’t know if it will reform or just be crumbly. I’ll look in a few days and make a judgement call about whether to continue or start again.

I’ve have ‘making’ days – said in the same way as someone who does baking.

So, over the weekend I noticed that I could buy 20 garlic bulbs on a string for £2 or buy single bulbs at 30p each. Well, you can pickle garlic so I got the string.

Pickling garlic is easy, just peel the garlic, stick it in a jar with some  bay leaves, fennel seeds and peppercorns and add some boiling vinegar – I used organic cider vinegar for these, but ran out with the last jar, so tried that with red wine vinegar.

From here, I just use the garlic in the place of normal garlic.

Apparently there was a whiff of garlic about the kitchen, but I have a cold and was completely unaware of it!

EU Gender Directive – important update

The Court of Justice of the European Union decided today that insurance companies are no longer allowed to use gender as a factor for assessing risk. This change is effective as of 21st December 2012.

This is a curious move, I’m not really sure how it has come about – whether men have complained or women, or whether an ‘equality’ group has brought the action. I could look it up, but whatever the answer, it will annoy an equal amount me so I won’t.

Anyway – here’s the idea.

We know for a fact that a newborn baby boy has a life expectancy of 77.7 years.

And we know for a fact that a newborn baby girl has a life expectancy of 81.9 years.

So it follows that if a man takes out some life insurance, he should pay a little bit more, because he is more likely to die. Or, putting it the other way, a woman should pay a little bit less.

Well, that little bit of statistical reasoning is no longer allowed, or won’t be from Christmas.

And that’s the thing. Insurance companies don’t give a stuff about whether men or women live longer, are healthier during that time or whatever. All they care about are the statistics. If keeping a pet dog was shown to increase life expectancy, that question would be on the forms and dog keepers would get cheaper life insurance.

Anyway, from December, women will pay more for their life insurance, to match what men pay. “What?” I hear you cry, “Why can’t men’s rates come down?” – well, the market is hyper competitive, premiums are already as cheap as they can get. It would be nice to think that some kind of inbetweeny unisex rate will evolve and I’m sure competition will make that happen.

Who else does it affect?

Well, motorists…especially customers of Sheila’s Wheels – women will have to pay mens rates…oops, I mean the new unisex rates.  This should get some headlines even if the rest of it doesn’t.

People who want Health Insurance – men suffer fewer illnesses than women, so men currently get cheaper income protection, cheaper critical illness insurance and cheaper private medical insurance. I’ve blogged before on Critical illness claims – Beast cancer is a huge factor in pricing. Women will benefit slightly in these types of insurance categories be getting slightly cheaper rates.

People retiring – currently if you are 65 and a man, you buy a pension that is priced on the basis that it’ll probably only pay out for 12.7 years, if you are a woman, it is priced on the basis that it’ll pay out for 16 years. So, annuity rates for women will improve and for men they’ll get worse. Couple have a problem though – for most couples the man is the main pension provider and will often buy a joint pension that carries on paying out to his wife after his death. Well, that means the wife’s part of the pension will be priced on the lower mans rates – not so good.

My top tips.

If you’re a man – get your critical illness insurance/income protection/health insurance sorted now, on guaranteed rates.

If you’re a woman – get your life insurance sorted out now, on guaranteed rates.

If you are retiring, take independent financial advice to consider your options, your 65th birthday is not D day and there are many options that may suit you, not just one.

photo credit: Tom Anderson

I’ve been in ultra money geek mode today.

I’ve bought postage stamps on my Utility Warehouse cashback card through Viking Direct.

I get a 5% discount on my purchase – but that’s not all!

For added geekiness I bought about a years supply of stamps because there is a postage price rise in April as well, they go up from 41p to 46p for 1st class stamps….if you are buying several hundred, that is a big saving to bank!

photo credit: respres

Petrol Prices are about £1.33 per litre.

Of that, about 59p is fuel duty and VAT is 22p and the fuel itself is 52p

In April fuel duty is due to rise by RPI +1p – Labour set this level of tax increase a few years back and happily George Osborne is thinking he can waive the 1p

Now, for a government that is saving cash by any which way, scrapping the 1p seems a luxury, so can they afford it?

Well, RPI is supposed to be near, but slightly above 2% and fuel is supposed to be below 40p per litre.

So, they expected to be putting fuel duty up by roughly 0.8p +1p so 1.8p per litre + VAT (total 2.16p)

So, with RPI at 4.8% and fuel at 52p,  fuel duty is scheduled to go up by 3.5p + VAT (total 4.2p)

So, if George Osborne  waives the 1p +VAT  on duty he’ll still be making more than he expected. (He’ll still make 3p instead of the expected 2.16p)

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meet on the 1st Thursday of each month to discuss the ‘base rate’ which has been set at 0.5% for a long time.

The meeting is to discuss whether to change the base rate, and by how much, with a view to controlling inflation – inflation is bad if it is too high or too low.

Anyway, the minutes of the last meeting have been released today and they show that 2 members of the 9 person committee voted for a rate rise in January. One member asked for the opposite – another £50bn of  QE and the others all voted for a hold on rates and no extra QE.

This matches the expectations expressed by journalists over the Christmas period that rates were nearing the time when they would rise.

However, this week’s GDP figures may reduce the pressure on the B of E to raise rates and I see that Capital Economics are even suggesting that rates could be increased, with a view that they may have to go back down if the economy turns out to be weaker than expected.

I’m not so sure about that, the Bank of England would see that as ‘weak and uncertain’ and they want to be perceived as ‘strong and reliable’  so they tend to move in one direction at a time . While we are in ‘unusual times’ I suspect that if rates went up a notch, they’d stay up. Mind you, it’s a free vote and the majority wins the day so it could happen.

Myself?  I think there’s too much uncertainty around at the moment, I doubt rates will change in February or even March now,  but the minutes of those two meetings will make interesting reading. Although by ‘interesting’, I admit don’t mean it in the normal sense of the word…

Barclays have announced today that they are closing their branch based Independent Financial Advice arm, keeping just the IFA’s for the seriously rich customers.

That’s OK, it’s a business plan.

But it does raise the question of what advisers can do and it’s all to do with 2 things.

1. Are you choosing the product and taking the responsibility for the choice, or is the adviser recommending the product and taking the responsibility.
2. And, the length of the list of options. The longer the list, the better the chance of getting the best deal.

Execution only

Barclays will have an ‘execution only’ service. This is where you ask to buy a product and are specific about all the details…eg “I want a £200000 decreasing life insurance that covers me and the Mrs and has waiver of premium included for 25 years”. They will then provide you with the Barclays product that fits the bill. Short list, and you have responsibility.

Information only

An information only service is slightly more detailed in that the staff member can discuss what the product does and what is available in generic terms but the customer actually chooses what he wants. Many advisers in branches provide this service. The thing is, it can come over as advise so you should be aware of where the ‘blame’ lies for a wrong choice – the blame lies with the customer, there is no come back if things are wrong.

Again – short list and you have responsibility.

Tied advisers

Tied advisers are those that deal with just one company. They can come as ‘advisers’ but also ‘information only’ and ‘execution only’ – obviously a Halifax mortgage adviser is only going to recommend a Halifax mortgage and Halifax Insurance and a Halifax ISA.

I once investigated the option of becoming a tied adviser with Legal and General. At the time it meant getting higher commissions, at the expense of the insurances I was arranging having a 15% higher premium… you don’t need me to explain why I didn’t follow that up?

Short list, but you will be advised on the best product from that list (if it’s an advised sale)

‘Whole of market’

This is interesting – whole of market is actually means ‘panel representative of the whole market’. So, it isn’t ‘the whole market’, it just needs to be a list of providers sufficiently broad as to cover all the bases. I’ve had experience of this, shortly before I left Fox and Sons, in 2003 they adopted a ‘whole of market proposition – this was when there were upwards of 100 lenders, they had…if I remember rightly 13 if their whole of market list. They justified it by saying the ‘enhanced relationship allowed exclusive deals to be drawn up’ as if that mitigated the shortfall in choice, but it didn’t. Advisers were allowed to go off panel, so they were able to blur the distinction between ‘panel’ and ‘independent’ even further, however, as commission based advisers they were told that if they went off panel they didn’t get the commission so you can guess how often that happened!

So, Whole of market is a slightly blurry proposition and really means ‘it’s probably OK not to shop around further, but only probably’.

Also, an independent mortgage adviser could be tied or whole of market for their insurance offering…

Longer list, but you need to be pretty clued up to ask the correct questions to assess the offering.

Independent

Independent advisers work without restriction, if the Outer Mongolian bank has the best deal for you, then we can talk about about it…obviously we may not recommend them, but we could if we wanted to. My point is, we work for you with the aim of getting you the best possible deal.

That brings up the question of fees – all the above will have commission on their sales – as an IFA we need to discuss this as there are products available with a fee to the adviser and products without – if you prefer me to get paid from the product provider, that is one choice, if you want to pay my fee instead, I would have a slightly longer list to choose from.

The longest possible list and the adviser takes the responsibility for the advice.