16/11/2013 Your Money


16/11/2013

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calls. Hello and welcome to Your Money `

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your weekly guide to making the most of your cash here every weekend on

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BBC News television AND available all week on the BBC iPlayer. The

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service that's supposed to stop unwanted phone calls. You keep

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telling us it doesn't work. The boss of the Telephone Preference Service

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is here to defend it. Saving money for the future. It's

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never too early to start. But what's the best way to do it? The mother of

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the one on the left finds out. And how can you save if you don't

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have any money spare at the end of the month? We'll get some tips.

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PPI. Cheap holidays abroad ` no catch. Shares that are an

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unbelievable bargain. Investments in diamonds that are yet to be

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discovered. There's no end to the ways that people try to part us from

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our money over the phone. If only there was some sort of system we

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could sign up for that said ` please don't call me, I'm not interested.

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But there is! It's the Telephone Preference Service. I've signed up

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for it. You've signed up for it. And yet the nuisance calls keep on

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coming. Some of you got in touch when we last mentioned this.

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And those were the polite comments. The Telephone Preference Service is

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run by this gentleman. You are launching a new certification

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scheme. How's that going to make difference? It is an accreditation

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service for the telemarketing industry and brings all of the

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existing legislation and best practice into one place to allow

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companies to be assessed. It is there to combat the damage to

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reputation done by companies like the one you just mentioned that

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cause a lot of nuisance calls and complaints and are bringing the

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legitimate telemarketing industry into disrepute. How does it change

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the fundamental issue, which is that Telephone reference service does not

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seem to work? The Telephone Preference Service is not a call

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blocking system, it is basically a service that allows people to

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register their telephone number, it is a free service and watch your

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number is registered it is the law. It becomes a legal requirement for

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companies to screen their lists and against the CPS file before making

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the calls. The problem we have is that with companies that are willing

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to ignore the law in order to take advantage of short`term financial

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opportunities like some of the ones you mentioned, particularly PPI, and

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often some of the calls come from overseas and are there to basically

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just collected data through some sort of survey or a questionnaire

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that is passed on to other companies that make further calls. That is the

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fundamental problem. You say it is the law that if you register with

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the service, these companies should not call you. They still call. They

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do still call. There is not just one solution to this problem, there is

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not a silver bullet. There are many things being done. One of the things

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is the introduction of TPS assured, so that we can help differentiate

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the legitimate telemarketers from those rules that we discussed. But

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also there are many other things. `` those rogues we discussed. Everyone

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with a stake in this problem, from government through to telecom

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providers, one of the most serious things is enforcement. The Telephone

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Preference Service does not have powers of enforcement. All of the

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complaint data we collect we pass on to the Information Commissioner and

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they are the organisation to issue fines of up to 500,000 pounds. So

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you have no enforcement powers of your own? No. We run the service,

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collect the numbers, and we talk to the companies that make the

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complaints `` that get the complaint but all of the information is passed

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to the Information Commissioner. Though these cold calling companies

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should look at you register and note who does not want these calls, but

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you cannot force them to do it and they carry on making the calls and

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there is nothing you can do about it. There is nothing that the

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Telephone Preference Service can do. What is the point of it? Today legal

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requirement. But these companies keep ignoring it. `` it is a legal

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requirement. Why is the law not enforced? The organisation with the

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power to enforce the law is the Information Commissioner. One of the

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things that the government is trying to do at the moment is lower the

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threshold of the burden of proof for the Information Commissioner because

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at the moment they have a high burden of proof to issue a fine. The

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Information Commissioner has been issuing a lot more find recently, he

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had been working hard on the issue of nuisance calls. But if the law

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could be amended slightly to lower the burden of proof so they did not

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have to prove significant damage or distress, they could law that to a

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nuisance, I believe they will be able to issue a lot more find that

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that would have a huge effect on the number of nuisance calls. Is it not

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time to change the law a stage further and license direct marketing

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companies and create a regulator with the power to strike them off if

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they pester people? I think that that is something that has been

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brought up in the past, the current government is not really, does not

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want to introduce a amount of extra burden on businesses with additional

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legislation. `` introduce a huge amount. Just out of curiosity, who

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pays for the Telephone Preference Service? It is paid by the companies

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that benefit from the calls being made. So this is self regulatory,

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you're a creature of the cold callers, just a PR front. It is a

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legal requirement. Any company making outbound sales calls need to

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use Telephone Preference Service. These companies pay for you, that

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means that you are never, ever going to get tough with them. I would be

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happy to get tough with them. There are other people get with them, the

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more people will want to use the Telephone Preference Service and the

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less nuisance calls there will be. OK. If someone is getting these cold

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today, aside from unplugging the phone, how should the deal with it?

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How can people stop these calls? The first thing I recommended they must

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make sure they are registered on the Telephone Preference Service. Then

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they have the ability to make a complaint about any of the calls.

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They can complain to the Telephone Preference Service or if it is about

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a recorded message, that goes to the Information Commissioner. Thank you

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for coming in. So now we are six. The last of the

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Big Six energy firms has said it will put up its prices. E.ON has yet

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to tell us by how much prices will rise ` the wicked tease ` but it's

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coming. Three of its rivals ` SSE, Npower and EDF ` says they'll cut

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their bills if the Government reduces green taxes. That might

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happen in the autumn statement on the 5th of December. But the public

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spending watchdog ` the National Audit Office ` has warned we face 17

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years of energy and water bills going up by more than other prices

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or wages ` as we've got to pay for new pylons, wires and pipes. Savers

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suffered too long from low interest rates, meaning you've got less to

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live on? Don't bank on an earlier rise in interest rates just because

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the economy is revving up. The Bank of England had said interest rates

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would go up if unemployment fell below 7% ` now the bank's key

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figures say unemployment might fall to that level faster than expected `

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but they might leave interest rates on hold anyway. What else is

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happening with money? The cost of renting a house or a flat is up

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again, 11% higher than last year. And one of the biggest banks is

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scrapping the fee for bouncing a cheque or other payments. HSBC and

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First Direct customers won't have to pay the current ?25 fee ` from

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November 24th. It's something grandparents ask every Christmas and

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every birthday ` should we save some money for the little darlings? What

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IS the best way to save for children? The Government has a

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savings plan for young people. It's the Junior ISA. One problem. Few

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seem to have heard of it ` or know how it works. That may or may not

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include new mum and Your Money reporter ` Maryam Moshiri. We asked

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her to look into them. These babies are too young to know

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what a piggy bank is for but many parents and grandparents believe

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saving for their children or grandchildren now is the best way to

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ensure they do not lose out in later life. Take`up of Jim Muir ISA since

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their launch has been disappointing, with research showing some parents

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find them too confusing to consider. `` take`up of junior Isa. There is

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not a lot of time to go and investigate all of those issues. So

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it gets really confusing where to start. You end up doing nothing.

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Junior ISAs come in two forms, a cash ISA and a stocks and shares

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one. The latest research shows that of the nearly 300,000 people who

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chose to invest in an ISA, only a small number to us to invest in

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stocks and shares. This did make the fact that stocks tend to outperform

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cash, meaning the returns you get if you're kept back is invested in the

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stock market could be much higher. For example, cash deposited in

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stocks and shares Junior ISAs would give you a return of over 15%,

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whereas the same amount invested in the Best Buy cash E.ON will divide a

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return of just under 3%. Inflation, the rate at which prices increase,

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is growing faster than the amount you get in interest. Over a

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long`term and for a child that could be the next 18 years until they get

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the money, that money could buy a very small proportion of what it

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would buy today. Stocks and shares are risky and many parents are

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unsure and prefer not to take that risk. It can beat him for parents

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try to work out which kind of E.ON Jews. If they choose stocks and

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shares, issued over the long`term do better. `` which kind of Junior ISA

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to choose. You have to look at the charges. They can make a difference

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over the longer term. Junior ISAs are not the best way to save for

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your children. The advice is to save for your children. The advice and

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image you shop around for in the long`term even the smallest amount

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can make a big difference. It is harder to save money when

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energy bills and food prices are rising so much. Many of us just

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don't have spare money to put aside for a rainy day. Research from HSBC

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this week says one in three adults would not last a week if we mist a

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single pay packet. Around 9 million households have less than ?250 set

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aside for safety set. A quarter of those people have nothing in saving

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at all. Some people will have money left over, they just don't know it

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is there. The first thing is to do a budget. Absolutely. Ideally, we

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should have enough money to cover ourselves or six months, really. So

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you should do a budget, work out how much money you need a month to keep

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the roof over your head, multiply that by six, and that is the amount.

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So if it costs ?1000 a month, you would need 6000 in a savings account

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which you can access. That will sound like an impossibly high figure

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for some will stop `` for some. Even one month is better than nothing. If

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you lose your job, it usually takes six months to get back on your

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feet, but even one or two months that you do not touch until it goes

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pear shaped is a help. If you take a cold, hard look at how you spend

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your money, some people will find things they can cut back on. You are

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right, many are genuinely struggling, but with others it is a

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lack of organisation. So if you look at what you don't have to spend on

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and cut back on that for a couple of months. Concert tickets? Yes, going

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out to eat, just go cold turkey and put the money aside. There are other

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ways of looking at this, and that is to do something which owns you some

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money. Yes, on my website, we are always advocating making some extra

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money on the side. It could be making cakes, walking dogs. ?15 per

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dogs per hour on it is good money. There are lots of ways of doing it

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and it will help you sleep at night. That is all from the

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programme this week. Advice on savings, borrowing and spending all

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week long on the website. And you can get updates by following us on

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Twitter.

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