Diversifying Your Portfolio

Sometimes it's worth diversifying your portfolio outside the world of ISAs.  After all, some things can't be held within these accounts : physical gold, silver, property, a lot of foreign shares and...domain names.

Yep, I've been feeling for some years domain names are the ultimate virtual landgrab (more on virtual money such as Bitcoin another day!), but to give you an insight into the kind of domain name portfolio I feel might perform well the next ten years, check this domain name portfolio out.

Taxation Nation new Website

If you've got time, check out the next website, taxation nation, where it is intended to build a number of resources, useful information and links, on the subjects of taxation and the personal freedom we do or don't actually have. Keep an eye on it!

Benjamin Franklin's autobiography

Lately, I've been reading the Autobiography of Ben Franklin, one of America's founding fathers. Actually, as great as it is, it's worth noting that this writing is merely him writing on 3 separate chapters of his life. I suspect there are other less noteworthy parts which we will never get to hear about, although the views of the man himself, and the inherent positivity and belief in the nature of man underlyingly ride his texts throughout. One bit that struck me, was his brief mention of coming to London and "enjoying the company of ladies of lower standing". Leaving my imagination about what he might be referring to behind, the main bit that stands out is his semi-ranting chapter on how none of us should feel bitterness or cuss the government in their taking of taxes from us to fund better lives for us all. Ben seems almost naive in this respect, although considering he was talking about decent roads, street sweeping and basic street lighting, one can easily see these are valuable functions which can be more usefully performed by a collective of some sort than individualism.

So far we are in agreement, but the bit which will make any modern scolar laugh is where Ben mentions that we should not cuss, even if the taxes be as much as ten percent. Ten percent? Yes, Ben, I wholeheartedly agree, I would not cuss anyone for providing rubbish collection, clean streets, decent roads and street lighting, for ten percent or less of my income. What I object to is the other forty percent they redistribute to the lazy and useless to remain, er, lazy and useless. It just shows how far backward the world has moved in three hundred years. I bet Ben never saw this kind of forced redistribution , ie theft, coming.

My personal belief in life

My core belief in life is that no man has any right whatsoever to the earnings or productivity of another man, unless the other man assigns him that right.

Obviously, in todays taxation nation society, this right is not being given, and in fact, governments probably need to become more understanding of the fact that many people today are outwardly resentful of the way others are helping themselves to their earnings, pruductivity and past earnt wealth.

Government is finished long term, simply because for now they choose to spend the earnings of the productive segment of society on schemes to secure the votes of the non-earning, parasitic portion of society.

In fact, the more you look into life in general, the more you realise everything is set up to steal your productivity and "redistribute" it to the lazy and the useless.

But thanks to the internet, globalisation, and the greater and freer movement of people, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Deep down, I'm quite optimistic that governments control over their more productive citizens is coming to an end, although there are many years of struggle on the way. It's a secret war that's already going on in many places, witness the USA and it's "patriot act", supposedly a law to counter terrorism, but really an attempt at controlling its citizens, or the EU savings directive.

Exciting and potentially troubling times ahead. I recommend we all watch governments like a hawk, and be prepared to move if the going gets too tough.

Gordon Brown's Economic Nightmares

Hot on the tracks of the new political gem of an idea, whereby Gordon Brown adopts an Alan Sugar persona and listens to the political views of young Britons, how about something even better? Step forward;

"Gordon Brown's Economic Nightmares"

Picture the scene, as intrepid Gordon comes in to review the finances of a random nation, going through it's books looking for assets to sell (like Gold reserves), shaking the pockets of taxpayers for any spare change, or any that might be lost down the the back of the sofa, thinking up devious ways to increase the national debt without anybody realising, dreaming up loads of stealth taxes on pensions and ISAs, while maintaining the illusion of "not increasing income tax", and dreaming up endless ways to drag more people into the welfare state and thus vote to retain the status quo in future elections.

First candidate...the UK.

Oh hang on, he's already done that one.

Oil Prices going up...oh what a shame, honest...

Funny, the news this week that the biggest profiteer of high petrol prices in the Uk happens to be HM Government, who've successfully raked in over half a billion pounds extra as a result of the increased price in the last 6 months. Certainly puts Golden Brown's comments about wanting to "help" the UK consumer into perspective, doesn't it?

Actually, the best help he could give us would be to go away and stop interfering in our lives with his pathetic stealth taxes, ever increasing government indebtedness and selling off the nations the gold.

By the way, the issue of whether oil prices are really going up, or whether in fact the value of the pound is going down, is a subject better covered in How to Invest in Gold and Silver.

If you fancy investing in Oil for tax-free profits, without having to stash a load of barrels of stuff in the garden shed, check out Successful Tax-Free ISA Investing.

Will Charging for Supermarket Carrier Bags Save the Environment?

This issue of "free" supermarket carrier bags in the UK, and how environmentally friendly it suddenly is to be against them, and start charging for them is one of the most naive pieces of spin I've ever seen.

Firstly, Marks and Spencer are getting a lot of good publicity off their decision to start charging for carrier bags, in a bid to save the environment, but surely one of their carrier bags contains less packaging than 4 of their Coxes apples, for instance? MS are one of the heaviest users of plastic packaging, and biodegradable or otherwise is not the issue here, considering people often forget the amount of greenhouse emissions and waste of oil resources in actually manufacturing all this packaging in the first place. As a store that is big on presentation to help maximise profits, they have successfully managed to deflect attention from their excessive use of packaging.

and they are not alone, I feel guilty every time I look at the huge rubbish bag full of plastic packaging I've generated from cooking even a simple meal. The amount of energy used to produce all that packing and transport it to me was surely way in excess of the calorific value I got out of it.

So, no, banning pastic bags, or a tax on plastic bags is definitely not the answer. But hey, it certainly, temporarily at least, deflects attention from the real issues, doesn't it?