The Wage Slaves Escape Manual

What Bentley drivers can teach you about happiness

So there we were, sat on the riverbank on the most glorious afternoon of the year so far, just chilling out, having a picnic, watching clouds, enjoying good company. Next to us was a group doing pretty much the same – little tray BBQ from the supermarket, a few beers, idle chat, lying on the [...]

Why it is better to rent a house than to buy

Housing market bulls will point to the great gains made in house prices over the past five years. That’s great if you already had a home, and you bought in the right area.

But lots of college leavers can’t afford a bedsite, never mind a decent flat, and you could have replicated that kind of capital increase if you had picked the right shares on the stock market.

Unleash your inner maverick

Where would we be without mavericks? Television and business life would be far less interesting without them. Yet it is actually very hard to navigate the school system and progress in a traditional career without suppressing your own maverick tendencies. Mavericks bend or break rules, come up with zany ideas which corporations are reluctant to [...]

How much do you think you deserve to earn?

If all your money worries were taken care of, how much would you like to earn?

Who needs money anyway? Maybe you’re too scared to be rich

Always a bit skint? Does your money only just reach until the end of the month? Do you wish you had just a little bit more spending money? It could be because that’s what you are most comfortable with. I came across this amazing exercise while reading Brandon Bays’ new book, Consciousness The New Currency.  [...]

Pic ‘n’ mix politics leaves a bitter taste

So we finally saw the details of the Lib-Con pact – a Faustian bargain for the 21st century. What a mess it was – rises in VAT and National Insurance and the starting rate of income tax raised t0 £10,000 to keep the Liberals happy. And the Tories were forced to ditch their stated wish of increasing the threshold at [...]

House prices are going nowhere

Why does anyone (except, perhaps, Daily Express readers) really still believe that sky-high house prices are a blessing for this country? If you already have a home, you can’t afford to trade up; if you are trying to buy for the first time you will spend the rest of your life repaying the interest; if you [...]

Making crazy profits from wild market swings

There was a lot of scared money looking for an exit from the markets on Friday. After the Dow did a bungee jump on Friday, all around commentators and journalists were telling a story of potential capitalist meltdown. Tweet This Post

Why the housing market has further to fall

Hung Parliament, public sector job cuts, looming unemployment, political uncertainty. Does anyone really think we are on the brink of a new housing boom? Economists and realists in the housing industry are now starting to acknowledge that the return to house price growth that they were predicting last autumn is unlikely to materialise. There are [...]

Why you might as well forget about retiring

Thinking about retiring at 60? Think again. If you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s now there is practically no chance of an early state pension for you. Whoever wins the General Election today will have the biggest financial headache on their hands. Our national debt is now on an almost unimaginable scale. What actuaries [...]