One thing I always find annoying and frustrating when researching travel plans is the almost universal focus on cheapness and price. I don’t want to over-pay, but I don’t want to be transported like livestock either. I was therefore interested to read about Routehappy, a service aimed at those who want to travel in comfort. 

The company has created a database of information about flights around the world, detailing attributes such as seat type, legroom, entertainment options, wifi access, dining and other amenities. Routehappy uses this research to assign a “Happiness Score” for each airline flight. Users can then check to see whether their planned route will provide the facilities they’re after. 

Every comparison site you look at today, irrespective of the product or service, focus’s on price. This is unserstandable, because it’s what most people are interested in. But within all product categories, there’s a group who are equally interested in quality, comfort and style. Might there be a demand for a Routehappy-style service in a field you know something about.

Pedal TV

There’s no doudt that child obesity is a growing problem. Goverments are investing a lot of time and resources in coming up with an effective solution. Entrepreneurs like Margie Mullen are thinking about it too.

Margie came up with the idea of the 123GoTV. Marketed through her company, Kidexercise, it’s basically a stationary exercise bike linked up to a TV. If you pedal, you get to see the TV, and if you stop, the screen goes blank.

I’m not sure how well this works in practice. Most homes have more than one TV and kids seem to spend more time on their phones and computers (which also gives access to TV) these days. However, it’s a manifestation of the need to solve the problem which is likely to become a bigger health, economic and social issue over the next decade or so. I think there’s a lot more money to be made for anyone who can meaningfully encourage kids to take more regular exercise.

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL POLAR BEAR DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Hello.     

Are you worried you’re going ot have to “work until you drop”?

Are you tired of working all day, every day to make someone else rich  when it’s YOU who should be the one becoming wealthy?       

Ian once shared that grief, but now he never has to worry about money  again…

Here’s a PROVEN way to make enough money to retire on as soon as you want, never work again and enjoy a fabulous income for life.

And it’s not like you even have to quit your job if you don’t want. You can  keep your regular paycheque coming in if you’d like while you follow the specific steps of this blueprint in your spare time.

Let us show you everything about this when you click the link below:

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard 

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

People are primarily lazy. I can say that without guilt, knowing that I fall fairly and squarely into that category myself! And many lucrative businesses have been built up which cash in on this common trait. 

Ticketbust.com is a US business, set up to help people either get speeding tickets dismissed, or to facilitate a smaller fine. It’s all done through a process called ‘trial by written declaration’ which is clearly offered on the back of every ticket issued.

Every driver could do this for themselves, but few bother. Instead they go to Ticketbust.com and get them to do the job for them. Ticketbust.com now has revenues in excess of $1 Million a year, and all from doing something which their customers could easily do for themselves. 

One of the big mistakes I see a lot of would-be entrepreneurs making is discarding iseas and opportunities because they involve doing things that people can do for themselves, or can get done for free with a bit of effort.

The truth is that a significant proportion of any target market won’t do things for themselves and can’t be bothered to make a bit of effort. They’d rather pay someone else to do the job for them. It would be rude for you not to take their money!

Your Personal Car Park

Sometimes, making some extra cash involves nothing more than making use of under-utilised resourses you already have. More than 150,000 people in the UK have made over £3 Million through www.parkatmyhouse.com a website where they can advertise their driveway as a temporary car park.

This is an ideal opportunity for anyone who lives in the city centre, near a railway station or close to a tourist attraction or sporting venue. In these locations, the option of parking on a private driveway is very attractive compared with the alternative of parking in a public car park with the associated issues of queues, cost, hassle and potential damage.

So if you have a driveway in the right location, why not take a look? It’s free to list your space and everything is organised through the site. You won’t make a fortune doing this, but you won’t have to do any work either.

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL TELL A FAIRY TALE DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Hello.     

Are you worried you’re going ot have to “work until you drop”?

Are you tired of working all day, every day to make someone else rich  when it’s YOU who should be the one becoming wealthy?               

Ian once shared that grief, but now he never has to worry about money  again…

Here’s a PROVEN way to make enough money to retire on as soon as you want, never work again and enjoy a fabulous income for life.

And it’s not like you even have to quit your job if you don’t want. You can  keep your regular paycheque coming in if you’d like while you follow the specific steps of this blueprint in your spare time.

Let us show you everything about this when you click the link below:

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard 

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

Wealthy people are always concerned about their phones being hacked. And following the news that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman might be behind the compromising of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone, many will conclude that the latest iPhone just isn’t good enough.

Powerful people are increasingly adopting extensively customised, hyper-secure smartphones that guarantee safety through special software. Politicians, executives and underworld bosses are turning to “unhackable phones” to keep them safe from crooks – and often from the police too.

Though similar in appearance to “bog standard” smartphones, clients pay monthly fees stretching into the thousands to keep special security software running. Spanish manufacturers BQ, for instance, claim its Aquaris X is “impenetrable”.

It has an adjusted Android operating system, coupled with a messaging system called EncroChat, which developers describe as the “electronic equivalent of a conversation between two people in an empty room”. Data can be remotely wiped from the phone and messages can be programmed to self-destruct automatically.

Sanitised Shopping Trolley’s

We appear to be going through a cleanliness fetish phase at the moment – or at least the entrepreneurs we feature are.

Here’s something you didn’t want to know (but I’m going to tell you anyway)… a new study has found that 72% of shopping trolley handles have fecal matter on them. And 50% of trolleys tested also tested positive for E.Coli bacteria. This is in the United States, but I can’t imagine the situation here is any better. 

The Americans are already doing something about it, with at least two companies marketing systems which supermarkets can use in-store to clean and sanitise the trolleys before returning them to the front line. These systems are mechanised and quite expensive. They may arrive here eventually (and someone has to negotiate those deals with the supermarkets – why not you?) but in the meantime, it seems to me that is a problem that could easily be tacked manually with some anti-bacterial spray and a cloth. 

Here’s my thought. Supermarkets are always looking for an edge over the competition. What if one of them were to publicise the potential issue with germ laden trolley handles, but tell customers there’s no need to worry at Sainsburys because trolleys are thoroughly cleaned and sanitised on site after every use? Might that give them a lead on the competition, and might this idea provide an easy-to-run business providing this valuable service to supermarkets? 

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL LETS LAUGH  DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Shock Discovery: Ancient Code Cracks The Banks…

PROVEN:An 82.4%Chance of a £55,250 

Windfall with just a few clicks… Legally.

To find out why I’m discreetly allowing 181 people to use this windfall.

Secret visit…

 www.streetwisenews.com/bws10

Best Wishes 

John Harrison 

41 – The percentage of people in England aged between 25 and 34 who own their own home, up from the 36% recorded in 2015. However, that figure is still below the 59% which seen in 2004.

315 – The number of new pubs and bars that opened in the UK in 2019, taking the total number to 39,130. It was the first year since the financial crisis that more pubs opened than closed. 

$9m – How much Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has promised his 6.8 million Twitter followers in the spirit of a Japanese New Year’s tradition. The one million yen prizes, which have been split into 12 monthly instalments, will also form the basis of an experiment into happiness. The winners will be chosen, at random, in a draw.

£1.5bn – How much Disney’s British-based subsidiaries have spent over the last six years on making the past five Star Wars films. Much of the filming, including that of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, starring British actress Daisy Ridley as Rey, has taken place at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

Virtual Bridge 

People are spending an increasing amount of their time online at sites like Facebook and twitter. Much of their social life now takes place in the virtual world, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve dispensed with the physical world (and physical products altogether).

In fact there’s a growing market for products and services which form a link between the on and off line worlds. 

Facebook users can already use their online content to make tangible products like mugs, photo albums and notebooks. A recent addition to what’s possible is Social book, which is a hardcopy 8.5”x 11.5” book cataloguing the buyers Facebook history and content. 

The need and desire to convert online content into a tangible real-world product is a trend that is likely to grow. So how might you help people to bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds? 

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL AWKWARD MOMENT  DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE 

“HE JUST WON £1,460 IN
TWO DAYS!” 

  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

 “OMG, Ludlow 3:45…two horses to back. Bott N Brown WON at 25/1 !!! Average odds taken on Betfair exchange 80/1. I backed for £12 winning me £960. Can you please thank Bill for me.”

G.B – 6th February 2020

    “Many thanks. Thursday OMG Newcastle 5:30. Special Lady WON 50/1. Won £500. “

G B – 7th February 2020  

 A couple of weeks ago we wrote to you about The Hermes Strategy, a unique approach to horse racing created by Bill Burrows. I’ve reproduced word for word, two emails I received this week from
one of our customers who tried the strategy for the first time just a few days ago. 

He just won £1,460 in two days! 

Needless to say, he’s pleased!  

 Now we don’t get 80-1 and 50-1 winners every day (although it looks like we do at the moment!) but because this strategy looks at the whole thing from a VERY unusual angle, long odds winners come along pretty regularly alongside more mundane wins.

It all adds up to a great second income for anyone able to spend 7-10 minutes a day putting the strategy to work

For full details, take a look HERE 

You could very easily be up and running and copying Bill within a few hours of reading about this. Everything you need is at your fingertips.         

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

www.streetwisenews.com/hermes

Reasons For Us To Be Cheerful In 2020 

And Beyond

The mainstream sentiment is that we are heading for disaster. Pundits clamour about the decline of democracy, climate catastrophe and failing capitalism. Yet the data tells a quite different story – one of human flourishing and progress.

Extreme poverty rates, for example, are falling and continue to fall. From 1990 to 2015, the global extreme poverty rate fell from 36% to 10%. In 2018, it fell to 8.6%. More than 137,000 people escape extreme poverty every single day.

At the same time, the ranks of the global middle class have expanded. September 2018 marked the first time in human history when more than 50% of the global population was considered middle class. Its numbers grew a huge 92% from 2009 to 2018. 

Global life expectancy is also on the rise, increasing by more than three years in the past ten years. Hasn’t that come at a cost to the environment?

No. At a certain point in their development, poor countries start polluting less. Death rates from air pollution fell by almost a fifth worldwide and by a quarter in China between 2007 and 2017.

Annual deaths from climate-related disasters fell by a third between 2000 and 2009 and 2010-2015, a 95% reduction since the 1960s. In many ways, the world is getting better every day. There are many good reasons to be optimistic heading into 2020 

Party Equipment Rental 

I really like rental businesses. You get to make money from what you own – and keep it! But what can you base a rental business on? There are many possibilities, but the key criteria is usually something which people need and use rarely. Party equipment falls into that category. 

Things like canopies, tables, chairs, and large quantities of crockery and cutlery can be expensive to buy and troublesome to store when you’re only going to use them for special occasions. Renting makes a great deal of sense for the customer. From the business side it makes sense too. These things needn’t cost a fortune if you buy carefully and in bulk, and can often be rented out for a sizable percentage of the cost – again and again. 

So what will you need to start a party equipment rental business? Just two things really – somewhere to store your stock and a means to deliver and pick up from your customers. If you have those two things – and a little capital to get started – you can be up and running very quickly. 

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL EVERYTHING YOU THINK IS WRONG DAY! 

PUBLISHERS NOTICE 

“HE JUST WON £1,460 IN
TWO DAYS!” 

  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

 “OMG, Ludlow 3:45…two horses to back. Bott N Brown WON at 25/1 !!! Average odds taken on Betfair exchange 80/1. I backed for £12 winning me £960. Can you please thank Bill for me.”

G.B – 6th February 2020

    “Many thanks. Thursday OMG Newcastle 5:30. Special Lady WON 50/1. Won £500. “

G B – 7th February 2020  

 A couple of weeks ago we wrote to you about The Hermes Strategy, a unique approach to horse racing created by Bill Burrows. I’ve reproduced word for word, two emails I received this week from
one of our customers who tried the strategy for the first time just a few days ago. 

He just won £1,460 in two days! 

Needless to say, he’s pleased!  

 Now we don’t get 80-1 and 50-1 winners every day (although it looks like we do at the moment!) but because this strategy looks at the whole thing from a VERY unusual angle, long odds winners come along pretty regularly alongside more mundane wins.

It all adds up to a great second income for anyone able to spend 7-10 minutes a day putting the strategy to work

For full details, take a look HERE 

You could very easily be up and running and copying Bill within a few hours of reading about this. Everything you need is at your fingertips.         

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

www.streetwisenews.com/hermes

Families thinking about how to save and invest most efficiently during 2020 shouldn’t overlook pensions for children. Many people don’t realise that in addition to their own pension contribution allowances they can put money into someone else’s savings.

And even if the recipient is a non-taxpayer, as most children are, they’re still entitled to tax relief on the contribution. Investing £3,600 a year, the maximum allowed, on behalf of a child will cost you only £2,880. The provider you choose then claims an additional £720 from the taxman to top up your contribution.

Setting up a pension for your children might seem odd, not least because there’s a good chance you won’t be around to see them cash it in. But HM Revenue & Customs said last year that 60,000 families have opened pension plans for kids. The key argument in favour of such arrangements is the power of compound investment returns over the long term. If you pay the maximum into your child’s pension each year until they turn 18 and the plan achieves a return of 5% a year, they’ll have a pension fund worth £1m by the time they reach age 64.

The downside to pensions is that they’re inflexible. Under current rules, you can’t cash in a pension until the age of 55 and this limit is due to increase over time as the state retirement age creeps up. So all the savings you’re putting by won’t be available to help children with financial priorities early in their adult lives: the cost of further education, buying a first house or starting a family, say. Nevertheless, those priorities are exactly why many people don’t get round to starting a pension plan until later in life. 

Even among occupational pension schemes, opt-out rates are much higher among younger people. And since pension saving works best the earlier you start, taking this worry off your children’s hands could prove very useful indeed. One caveat is that future governments could change the rules so that pension saving becomes less tax-efficient. It’s now also much easier to pass on pension savings to your heirs.

So one alternative to setting up designated plans for children is to maximise your own contributions in order to increase the chances of there being money left over. If you die before 75, your heirs will usually inherit what is left of your savings free of tax; even after age 75, you can still bequeath pensions cash, though it’s likely that tax charges will be payable.

Hot Bodies

 I’ve noticed that after the weekend, our office is always several degrees colder than it is later in the week, even though the heating has been left on. Increased computer activity plays a part, but so does human activity. The staff come into the office, they give off body heat and it warms the building.

Now this is happening everywhere. The amount of heat energy given off by the population must be huge. So is there a way to harness it? It turns out that there is.

 Over 200,000 people pass through Stockholm’s Central station each day. Jernhusen, a property company given the job of remodelling the station, have come up with a way of transferring the heat generated by all these people to an office building across the road. The stations ventilation system includes heat exchangers which convert all this heat energy into hot water. It’s reported that the result is a 25% reduction in the buildings energy costs.

 Needless to say, green energy is on everyone’s agenda at the moment, and initiatives like this are likely to be on the increase. Perhaps something to invest in, or even participate in for those with the skills and resources.

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL GIVING HEARTS DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

“HE JUST WON £1,460 IN TWO DAYS! “

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

   “OMG, Ludlow 3:45…two horses to back. Bott N Brown WON at 25/1 !!! Average odds taken on Betfair exchange 80/1. I backed for £12 winning me £960. Can you please thank Bill for me.”

G.B – 6th February 2020

    “Many thanks. Thursday OMG Newcastle 5:30. Special Lady WON 50/1. Won £500. “

                                              G B – 7th February 2020  

 A couple of weeks ago we wrote to you about The Hermes Strategy, a unique approach to horse racing created by Bill Burrows. I’ve reproduced word for word, two emails I received this week from one of our customers who tried the strategy for the first time just a few days ago. 

He just won £1,460 in two days! 

 Needless to say, he’s pleased! 

 Now we don’t get 80-1 and 50-1 winners every day (although it looks like we do at the moment!) but because this strategy looks at the whole thing from a VERY unusual angle, long odds winners come along pretty regularly alongside more mundane wins.

 It all adds up to a great second income for anyone able to spend 7-10 minutes a day putting the strategy to work.

For full details, take a look HERE

You could very easily be up and running and copying Bill within a few hours of reading about this. Everything you need is at your fingertips.      
         

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

www.streetwisenews.com/hermes

Have You Written A Will?

More than half of us haven’t written a will, even though this means we could leave a terrible mess behind when we die. Many assume that if we die without a will our estate will still make its way to the right people, but this is not true. When there is no will your assets are split according to the rules of intestacy. This means that if you are married anything you own jointly will pass to your spouse. But everything else won’t.

In England and Wales your spouse will get the £270,000 and half of the rest. The remainder is then split between your children, or if you have no children your parents and siblings. There is no such thing as a common-law partner under UK law so even if you have lived together for decades, if you aren’t married (or in a civil partnership) and you die without a will they will get nothing.

If you are unmarried your estate will pass to your children, parents, siblings, distant family … or even Prince Charles. Prince Charles ends up getting plenty of money as a result of our general failure to write a will. If you die without one and have no family your estate goes to the crown, unless you live in Cornwall where the Duchy of Cornwall – Prince Charles – gets your assets. This has resulted in Prince Charles receiving over £1m, which he has handed on to charity.

The only way to ensure that your money goes instead to the people you want to receive it is to make a will. You can stipulate not only who gets what from your financial assets, but it also provides you with the opportunity to distribute your treasured possessions to the people who you think will most appreciate them. In order to ensure you get a legally binding will that reflects your exact wishes you should see a solicitor. You will typically pay around £140-£240.

If you and your partner both need a will you can keep your costs down by getting mirror wills. This is where both wills are exactly the same leaving everything to each other or your children and you just reverse your names on them. Alternatively, March and October are Free Wills Months. In these months anyone aged 55 or over can get a will written or updated by a solicitor for free. You are encouraged to make a donation to charity in your will in return for getting free legal advice. If you are worried about inheritance tax, note that if you give at least 10% of your estate to charity you’ll reduce your inheritance tax charge from 40% to 36%.

Once you have a will, don’t rest on your laurels. Review it at key stages in your life: births, marriages, deaths or the end of a relationship. Bear in mind that when you divorce your ex-spouse is automatically removed from your will, but if you only separate, they could still benefit even if you die years later. When writing your will be aware that anyone will be able to read it after you die. All wills become public documents that can be found via the Gov.uk website.

Become An Online Expert

If you’re an expert in something…and most of us are an expert in something or other…you can offer your advice online and turn it into profit. Small business owners are particularly well placed to cash in on this opportunity because they tend to know their field very well. Michele Gorham, owner of Cookie Central Bakery, is one small business owner who has turned her expertise into online profits. 

She has created hundreds of blog entries about how to build a business, run a bakery, and other helpful topics, and she answers customer’s direct questions through various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Because of Gorham’s content contributions, her listings on various sites are highly trafficked and are regularly found by search engines – generating more sales for her business. 

Is this a strategy you could emulate in your own field? Give it some thought. You may have a great deal more to offer than you at first realise. 

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL DRINK WINE DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

FINALLY REVEALING IAN’S
“INCOME FOR LIFE”
SECRET!

 Hello.          

Are you worried you’re going to have to “work until you drop”? 

      Are you tired of working all day, every day to make someone else rich when it’s YOU who should be the one becoming wealthy? 

     Ian once shared that grief, but now he never has to worry about money again…

 Here’s a PROVEN way to make enough money to retire on as soon as you want, never work again and enjoy a fabulous income for life. 

 And it’s not like you even have to quit your job if you don’t want. You can keep your regular paycheque coming in if you’d like while you follow the specific steps of this blueprint in your spare time. 

     Let us show you everything about this when you click the link below:

   www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

Best Wishes  

John Harrison 

For most of us the New Year heralds plans to get fit, eat better and generally be a better human. But have you thought about what you could do to improve your finances in 2020? There are a several simple steps that could make you significantly better off next New Year’s Eve.

Firstly, this is a good time to reassess your investment portfolio. Gauge whether the spread between different asset classes still suits your appetite for risk and the time you intend to be invested. The asset classes you choose to invest in will ultimately determine how your portfolio performs, usually more so than the specific investments you choose.

While you are at it check what fees you are paying; these can greatly reduce long-term returns. You may be able to save thousands by the time you retire by switching to a cheaper investment platform, in which case it would be daft not to do it. When it comes to your household finances, plan to tackle one bill at a time. Millions of people have lapsed from their initial-offer rates onto standard rate for all manner of bills, from electricity and gas to TV services and the gym. Pick one bill each month and cut the cost.

Your mortgage is likely to be your biggest monthly expense so take strides towards paying it off. Plunging interest rates mean now is the time to strike to knock years off your home loan term or save thousands in interest. Find out what interest rate you are currently paying and whether you would pay any charges to switch now.

Then look to see if you could get a lower-rate deal. If you can get a lower rate – which you probably can in the current market – switch, but keep your mortgage repayments the same. Moving from a rate of 4.24% to 1.39% but keeping your repayments the same would allow you to shave seven years off a £150,000 mortgage, saving £8,871 in interest. Finally, keep an eye on your credit-card statements. It’s so easy to sign up for things on trial, then forget to cancel. Check your spending, cancel any subscriptions you no longer use and raise any suspicious activity with your card provider.

Testing Your Business Idea

Just read an article by Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software, which reminded me of something incredibly important for anyone thinking of launching a business.

Cohen says that many would-be entrepreneurs invest huge amounts of time money and effort into their business idea without doing something very fundamental – they don’t ask people whether they would buy from them. He argues that if you can’t find ten people who say they would buy from you, you don’t have anything. Most would be entrepreneurs simply don’t ask the question before committing to the business they’re scared of getting a negative response.

I think Cohen is right up to a point, but he doesn’t really go far enough. In my experience, it’s not enough to have someone say that they would buy if the product/service was available – you need them to make a real commitment. It’s very easy to tell someone what they want to hear, but less easy when there’s real money at stake.

I can’t pretend this is easy for all businesses, but if you can find some way to get a real financial commitment from your perspective customers, you’ll get a far better idea of the potential of your business idea than by merely asking a question.

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL NO ONE EATS ALONE DAY!  

         

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

FINALLY REVEALING IAN’S
“INCOME FORLIFE”
SECRET!

 Hello.          

Are you worried you’re going to have to “work until you drop”? 

      Are you tired of working all day, every day to make someone else rich when it’s  YOU who should be the one becoming wealthy? 

     Ian once shared that grief, but now he never has to worry about money again…

      Here’s a PROVEN way to make enough money to retire on as soon as you want, never work again and enjoy a fabulous income for life. 

     And it’s not like you even have to quit your job if you don’t want. You can keep  your regular paycheque coming in if you’d like while you follow the specific steps of this blueprint in your spare time. 

     Let us show you everything about this when you click the link below:

   www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

Best Wishes  

John Harrison