Author: Under The Money Tree
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A Glimpse into the Future
A few weeks ago i started working form home one day a week. It’s a formal agreement with the firm with a set day each week. The main aim was to be able to help out with nursery pickups/drop offs and enable Mrs UTMT to also return to work part time. Of course the other…
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Buy to Let Tax Changes: Is the Party Over?
If you’ve got or are interesting in buy to let property investments then you’ll almost certainly be aware of the upcoming tax changes that were announced in the budget in the summer of 2015. At the core of the changes announced is the scrapping of higher rate tax relief on mortgage interest. Landlords will no…
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Beware of Falling Knives: Is a New Credit Crisis Brewing?
One of the main topics of discussion in financial circles these days seems to be liquidity. In many markets liquidity (the amount of buyers and sellers in the market) has reduced significantly since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008. Gone are the days when all of the banks and broker dealers had all…
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Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)
In a (reasonably) recent post I alluded to the fact that things breed more things. We all know we have too much clutter in our lives. If you look hard about some of the clutter in your life you’ll probably realize that there is a chain reaction to many of the things you have bought…
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It’s F$*$ing Tiring Losing Money
“Erghhh…it’s fucking tiring losing money, thank God it’s Friday” “Yeah, I’ve not heard about anyone that killed it this week” This was the conversation I overheard heard between two colleagues as I was walking out of the office on Friday evening. Of course they were talking about this: The ‘market’ was fully expecting Mario Draghi…
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How I Avoid Tax on Buy to Let Profits
If you’re a higher rate tax payer you’re currently liable to pay 40% tax on any profits you currently make on your rental properties. So assuming your Buy to Let business is making a profit each year then you really have two options to minimize your tax bill: Remortgage such that your mortgage interest payments are equal to your…
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Reclaim Your Time & Get Rich
As Derek Trotter once said “Time is Money”. Since becoming a father I’ve suddenly become even more aware how time poor I am (as evidenced by the lack of regular posts on the site I’m afraid). I work reasonably long hours, have a long commute, like to exercise regularly and have a strong desire to…
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Home is Where the Financial Heart Is
We all know that to become financially independent you need to get your expenses down below the level of your investment income. It’s a remarkably simple formula but one that can seem unattainable. However the maths doesn’t lie…do it and you’ll have reached the promised land that is FI. I’d wager that the largest expense on most household…
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How to Earn £34,000 Tax Free
This weeks budget brought about some big controversial changes. I won’t delve into all of them here, but instead comment on the fact that this and other recent budgets have made it possible to earn significant amounts of income without paying any tax – something most people are interested in! I’m lucky in a sense…
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Taming the Shit Cannon: Reflections from a New Father
As mentioned in my last post we’ve had (what is most certainly) a life changing event happen here Under The Money Tree. While I promise that this site won’t turn exclusively into an online homage to reusable nappies I can’t let an event like this pass without posting a few observations of the things we’ve learned so…