Are you struggling to post comments onto Blogs?

The internet is constantly evolving.  There are many options which are effected by the browser you are using, if you are logged into an account or not, or even if you have an account with various social or blogging platforms.  Just the terms I have used in this first paragraph for many will be confusing.

We know something works and if we do certain other things, this also works, but too often we cannot replicate it, explain or really understand how it works.

It has become complicated in an attempt to reduce SPAM, and it seems to be, the spammers who are able to do it best!

Firstly what is Spam?  This list is quite long, but typically it when all someone see’s in the comment is a web address.  SPAM is also posting the same thing more than once at the same time, with no changes.  I was asked by someone why her monthly post was considered SPAM. It is simple really, its the same post. If she changed the wording or the image it would no longer be considered SPAM.  Also if you are going to share a specific post, don't share it to 20 different places at the same time. If you need to share to 20 different places, make sure each one is different and not the same.  And finally SPAM is something which is not wanted, and for a lot of people it is something offensive in someway.  So if you don't want your posts or comments to be treated as SPAM put some thought into how others will view it.  Many Spammers are people who are paid by others to help promote their websites. So if you do pay someone to help you, make sure they are not doing it by spamming.

So finally, when you feel brave enough to post a comment, make sure it is relevant to the blog, even if its just to say you enjoyed reading it.  Don't be afraid to add your name and if you are not a spammer, there is a box for your website address.  This is useful on two counts.

 Firstly it helps the person whose Blog you have posted to decide if you are a spammer or not. When they moderate your post, they will be the only person who will see your name. They can click to go to your website and decide if it is appropriate for their readers and if you are a spammer or not.

Secondly you can have a good back link to your website, as long as the blogger does not have a "no follow" attribute. Bloggers should not object to this, as if you keep coming back to make comments and read their blog you are helping them too. 

June 2016 - Investment No 11

We had the referendum and the results are out!  The UK voted to leave the EU.  Of course as predicted the market panicked and share prices dived! One of the comments made was "house prices would drop" as people sold up and left the UK.  Of course this meant the stock market prices of the  house builders dropped. And did they drop.

My old favourite Persimmon fell.  And boy did it fall. Just over a year ago I sold my 56 shares  in Persimmon for a  15% profit after holding them for 6 months, and the share price had actually gone up a little more in the following months. Now they were more than 30% down.  Now if you remember from my last investment I had used up the cash I had previously created by purchasing 229 Anglo American plc shares.  What I had not mentioned was 2 days before the referendum they were showing a 11% profit after dealing costs - so I sold them.

Additionally Centrica plc paid a dividend of £37.93 so I actually had over £1,500 in cash available in my dealing account.  However due to all the uncertainty about the future, I chickened out, and only used £1,250 of the cash to purchase 78 shares in Persimmon plc.  This was 22 more shares than I had purchased back in March 2015 so I was happy. At the back of mind I was trying to hedge my bets slightly. By holding back a little money, if the market did carry on down I could look at purchasing more, and if it stablised and went back up, well it did not matter as I would just find something else to purchase!  I think you could safely say I was an optimist.

https://www.persimmonhomes.com





I shall be taking a break over Christmas and the new year from posting the next installment about my share portfolio.  This means it will be 2 weeks before you will find out about my next investment.

May 2016 - Investment No 10

As the saying goes - hindsight is a wonderful thing.  I am writing this about my next investment and looking at what I had been doing, my initial thoughts were why did I do that? As I explain the history you will see what I mean.   The Referendum to decide if the UK should stay in the EU or not was just over a month away, and I knew things were going to be quite volatile in the run up to it.  So I decided to sell my 190 shares in Anglo American plc as I needed some cash to purchase shares as I felt the market may drop straight after the vote.  These shares  were showing a overall profit of about 27%  and I had only held them for 2 months.

Additionally since 6 April 2016, GlaxoSmithKline had paid a dividend of £30.96 and HSBC holdings had paid a dividend of £30.96

With the sale of Anglo American plc and the dividends I now had over £1,350 to invest in shares, but as I watched the market start to fall over the following 10 days I realised the Anglo American plc share price had dropped by nearly 15%, so I could not help myself - I purchased 229 shares.  My new holding was 39 shares more than the holding I had sold.  What can I say?  

http://www.angloamerican.com

April 5, 2016 - UK Tax year end

Finally it is the end of the 2nd full year since I started this portfolio. I was able to make a purchase every quarter.

Before the end of the tax year end I received 2 more dividends.  £17.48 from SSE and £14.09 from Royal Dutch Shell B.  This brought my monthly return for the year to £15.17 (2015 : £13.33)

The Facts:
Total new money invest during the year:  £2,325.00
Total new money invested since starting the portfolio: £7,225.00
Total dividends for the year:  £182.04
Total dividends since starting the portfolio £341.94

If I sold the shares on the 5th April 2016, I would have had £6,644.71in cash in the account. Overall a 8% loss on my original cash, so still not looking great.

But as I said last year, that is the thing about shares.  They can go up and they can go down.  I just hope the regular income increases and eventually the share prices may follow too.

5 Top ways to promote your business online

Everyone I know who has a business has tried five particular social networking platforms and end up doing only one and giving up on the rest.  A few continue with most, but nearly all give up on the one which actually is the best one to use.   I have ignored LinkedIn. I think this is the best platform to promote you personally, and your business second.

These are the top five social networking platforms which most businesses use:

Facebook
Google+
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter

There are very few people who are online who do not have an account with one of these social networking platforms which they either use occasionally or look at from time to time.

Having done this list and thought about the amount of time and in some cases money I have spent on each one. From the results which I have either directly or indirectly seen from each one, together with the number of years I have being doing this, I have realised Google+ is actually the other four rolled into one platform!  

But Google+ is the first one everyone gives up on first!

It is simple really. If you can't work your Facebook business page, you will not be able to work your Google+ and Google Brand pages. The same goes for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and every other social networking platform you have an account with and use to promote your business or just to interact with others online.

For me, the penny dropped when my organic online business growth increased. In addition to good quality content on my websites, I realised Google also liked brands who had a good presence on Google+ and were able to develop and work with their Google accounts!

March 2016 - Investment No 9

And so I arrived towards the end of the next quarter.  Things were still difficult for me financially, but I had about £350 sitting in the dealing account from dividends and partially from the Pace shares. So I only had to add £650 top up. 

In April 2015, Pace and Arris announced a Recommended Cash and Share offer for the share capital of Pace.  This meant there was a "Scheme of arrangement" for the shares I held.  My Pace shares were showing a small loss, so I decided to stick it out.  Finally, in January 2016 I received cash of £323.30 plus 36 Shares in Arris. Arris was quoted in one of the US stock markets, so this was a share I would be looking to sell if I could show a profit, even if small.

Since the last purchase I received the following dividends:

GlaxoSmithKline - £13.68
Pace - £9.69
Total dividend income since  6 April 2015 - £182.04

I already had shares in mining, which was not doing well, so I figured the sector was low so perhaps this was a good time to buy more but in another company in this sector.   

I choose to purchased shares in Anglo American (EPIC: AAL).   Mining Copper, Platinum, Diamonds, Coal, Iron ore and Manganese and Nickel, the company had been around since 1917.

Which at the time of this post - 100 years

http://www.angloamerican.com/

December 2015 - Investment No 8

Another quarter was arriving, and this was still difficult, but I have about £250 sitting in the dealing account from dividends so I just added £750 so I would have enough money for the next share purchase.  Since the last purchase I received the following dividends:

GlaxoSmithKline - £13.68
Antofagasta - £2.36
Centrica - £16.03
Royal Dutch Shell B - £13.36
Total dividend income since  6 April 2015 - £127.35

Looking around I decided I wanted shares in a company which paid quarterly, but in a different sector than I already in.  Before the Banking crisis that would have been banks, so I took a look at the banks which were not under government ownership.  

I choose to purchased shares in HSBC (EPIC: HSBA).  The parent company of the HSBC Group, was HSBC Holdings plc.  One of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations and although they had been effected by the banking crisis as did pretty well every bank, they had not needed a bail out.



http://www.hsbc.com

September 2015 - Investment No 7

Time was flying by and another quarter was arriving.  Since the last purchase I received the following dividends:

Pace plc - £7.54
SSE - £40.17
Royal Dutch Shell B - £13.29
Total dividend income since  6 April 2015 - £81.64

I did not have enough spare cash to use to purchase another share, so I decided to sell the Persimmon Plc shares, Investment No 5.  These shares actually cost me £1,011.66 including all charges, and I received £1,162.49 after charges.  A net profit of £150.83 (15%).  Including dividends, I received the profit totalled of £204.03 (20%) . I thought it was pretty good for a share held for just over 6 months, certainly better than leaving it sitting on deposit. 

So I purchased shares in Centrica (EPIC: CNA).   They were due to go ex-dividend on the 1 October so I would receive this in November.

Centrica was in the Gas, Water & Multiutilities sector. The were focused on energy and home related services.  Key markets were in Britain, Spain, Belgium, Canada and the USA. 

https://www.centrica.com

June 2015 - Investment No.6

The end of the next quarter was approaching so added £915 to my trading account.  Cash was a little tight, so I decided to make up the difference with the cash balance from dividends received since my last investment.

Antofagasta paid another £7.42 which was less than 1% on my original investment and Royal Dutch Shell B paid £13.22, the first of 4 dividends for the year I hoped.

Looking around at FTSE100 shares I decided to purchase 72 shares in GlaxoSmithKline. The stock mark epic was GSK and the company was in the  Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology sector.

This share paid 4 dividends each year, and I had already missed the first 2.  As I was in for the long haul, I decided not to miss out on anymore in the future.



I also liked the corporate partnerships they were involved with:
http://www.gsk.com/en-gb/about-us/corporate-partnerships








http://www.gsk.com

Making comments on Blogs

Do you have a website?  Are you looking for more traffic?  One of the ways of getting more traffic is by having backlinks to your website, but most people think this is difficult to do, or they have to pay someone to do them for them.

When I suggested it to a friend, and she told me that she did not have time to set up a blog.  So I asked her why do you need to set up a blog to get backlinks to your website?  Oh she said, so I can blog about others and they can blog back and we can share back links.

Yes that is one way of doing it, but there is a really simple and easier way to do it.  If you do it yourself its free.

Go to someone elses blog.  Ideally one which is NOT a WordPress blog, as they will often have no follow attributes, and post a comment making sure you put your website address in the box which asks for your website address.  NOT in the body of your comment, as that is where a spammer will add it.  If you know someone with a WordPress blog, ask them if they have disabled the no follow attribute or added the plugin which allows comment following? If they have then make all the comments you want. 

For example all the comments on this blog have had the No Follow attribute disabled,  but I moderate all comments to make sure the comments are real comments and not spam.

And what does the blogger get out of it?  Two things, firstly feedback, all bloggers need feed back, so they know people are reading the blogs, and secondly traffic of their own.  The more comments, the more visitors.   Simple really. 

So go for it - make a comment against any of the posts on this blog and get a free backlink to your website.

April 5 2015 - UK Tax year end

It has been an interesting year, although technically 13 months in long.  I was able to find £4,900 during the entire period to invest and start my stock portfolio with the aim of getting dividend income.

Just before the end of the tax year the Persimmon dividend of £53.20 was received.   This brought my monthly return for the year to £13.33.

The Facts:

Total new money invested: £4,900
Total dividends received: £159.90
If I sold the shares on the 5th April 2015, I would have had £4,649.49 in cash in the account.  Overall a loss of 9% so in the short term not looking so great.

But that is the thing about shares. They can go up in value, and they can go down in value. I just have to wait and see, if long term things improve or not.

The No Follow Attribute and Link Building

This is something about websites which really annoys me.  If you understand it, it will annoy you too.

Some time ago I agreed to promote a business by doing articles with backlinks to the business websites. I had to pay a fee for this, but it was supposed to be good promotion and extra traffic to my website. But what I did not realise was, the website has a "No Follow" for links set up on the website.

In plain English, this means exactly that - when a Search engine sees the link they are told NOT TO FOLLOW the link so of course it does not get listed either.......   It may as well not even exist. So I now refuse to provide any articles, especially ones I pay to have published on this particular website.

But they are not alone.  Many blogs have the same thing set up in the comments section.  When I find this, I will never go back to the blog.  The internet is about helping everyone.  The "No Follow" attribute is about not helping anyone.  The whole point of adding links is to link build.

If you have a No Follow attribute on your website I would suggest getting it removed.  If you have a WordPress blog, you will need to change this manually or use a "do follow" plugin.

It could be a contributory factor in why you are not getting much traffic or getting listed high on Google!

The attribute originated to reduce SPAM, but if you are being careful with your website content and links, you will not need it.

March 2015 - Investment No.5

Another 3 months had passed since my last purchase and I needed to put another £1000 into my trading account with Selftrade for the quarter.  

I had received a dividend of £13.41 for my Royal Dutch Shell shares, £17.29 for my SSE shares. 

I needed another FTSE100 share and was struggling to choose.  I read that Persimmon shares were going ex-dividend the following week, with the payment before the end of the tax year. 
 
The stock market epic was PSN and it was in the Household Goods & Home Construction sector

 So I purchased 56 shares.

https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporate

December 2014 - Investment No.4

3 months passed since my last share purchase, and I was able to put another £1000 into my trading account with Selftrade. 

I had received another dividend of £8.30 for my Antofagasta shares.  This brought my return on my original £1000 investment to 8% and I had only held them for 7 months, so I was happy.   I also received another £3.23 for my Pace shares.

I needed another FTSE100 share so I decided on Royal Dutch Shell. There are 2 types of share on offer, "A" shares and "B" shares. I knew from past experience that I wanted B shares. "A" shares had a 15% withholding tax deduction, and B shares did not.

The stock market epic was RDSB and it was in the Oil and Gas Sector.

As with most companies in the Oil and Gas Sector they paid 4 dividends each year.   So I purchased 65 shares.

http://www.shell.com

Actual amount paid in to date: £3,900
Actual dividends received to date: £76.00

September 2014 - Investment No.3

Money had been tight, so I had transferred the £1,000 to my share account in several small amounts over the previous months, but I now had enough to purchase my third share, and it was coming up to the final month of the 3rd quarter

Since the last purchase I had received £59.13  for the Antofagasta shares, and £5.34 for the Pace shares.  Total dividend income to date £64.47.  3% approx, not great, but better than the 0.1% most savings accounts were offering, and I had only had the money invested for a short time so far.

I needed something really safe, but also paying a good dividend.  I had taken a risk with the previous purchase, and I was now thinking I had not thought it through properly.

 

For these reasons, I decided on SSE plc. 

The stock market epic was SSE and it was in the Electricity Sector, again another FTSE100 company

Originally called Scottish and Southern Energy, I knew it had always paid a good dividend. Its core purpose was to provide the energy people in Great Britain and Ireland would need in a reliable and sustainable way.

So I purchased 65 shares.

http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk

The Forgotten Space

When renovating the home we often concentrate on decorating each room to our personal taste whilst neglecting transitional spaces such as the entryway and hallways. Entryways are often dumping grounds for keys, coats and shoes, whilst hallways gather toys and laundry. These spaces can be difficult to decorate and style because of their size and shape.

The entryway is the first thing people see when they enter, so this space should really set the tone for the rest of your home. It might be small and an unusual shape but there are plenty of ways to make this space beautiful and functional. The upstairs hallway may seldom be seen but a little design can transform this space from transitional to a place where people will want to linger.

I have put together a few styling ideas for making the most of these forgotten spaces, if you have any ideas of your own please share them in the comments below.

Make a Statement

Since first impressions do count, it is important to make sure your entryway has the wow factor. Start with the flooring and work your way up. Many entryways are long and narrow, leading the way into the rest of the home. Lay down a magnificent carpet or rug and don’t be afraid of colour and warmth.
The benefit of a transitional space is that you can break away from the rest of the home’s design and be bold. The same goes for your walls. Try accent wallpaper or a bright colour you love. Just be sure you really do love it, because you have to live with it.

Grando Rug by The Woven Edge

The upstairs hallway begins where the stairs end and there are a few fantastic techniques to utilise the wall at the top of your stairs. Something that is becoming more popular is an art technique called trompe l’oeil. This trick of the eye uses very realistic images to make the objects appear 3D and you can buy wallpaper that utilises this affect. Just imagine the appearance of a bookshelf at the top of your stairs or an archway leading to a field of flowers. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea you can create a wall of clocks or even a wall of framed photographs or artwork, turning the space into a gallery.

Functionality Doesn’t Have to be Frumpy

The benefit of transitional spaces is that they can provide excellent storage solutions, particularly for those items you need when you leave the house. Keeping things tidy and organised, particularly with a large family, can be a chore and can mean design gets left behind but that needn’t be the case. Wall mounted hooks at adult and child levels are a great way to stylishly and tidily hang coats and bags. While shelving and ledges can provide ample space for those smaller items like keys and lipstick. Use pretty bowls or jars to store smaller items and prevent the area from becoming untidy.

If you have the space, a storage unit can provide you with a cubby hole for each family member to store their belongings. You can even use the top of it for plants and fun trinkets.

Finally, make the space feel welcoming. Walking through the door should put a smile on your face and your guests should feel welcome too. Soft lighting is a great way to create a cosy and warm feel and you can achieve this with a stand-up lamp by the door instead of harsh overhead lighting. Mirrors create the illusion of openness and space while art work and family photographs are a great way to show your personality and warmth.

Rustic White Coat Racks and Mirrors from hampshirefurnituresolutions.co.uk

With my styling tips - and your creativity - hallways and entryways need never be neglected again!

April 2014 - Investment No.2

I now realised that I would need to make a share transaction at least once in each quarter, or I would have to pay an additional fee to Selftrade.

So I made the decision that it was worth making sure I was able to do a transaction without any pressure as early as possible in every quarter.  One month later I transferred just under £1,000 to my dealing account.  So I choose an old favourite Pace Micro.



 The Stock market EPIC was PIC

I knew it was going to go ex-dividend in June, with the payment a month later.  Pace Micro had a turbulent history.  A company founded in 1982, and it was the biggest developer of set-top boxes for all broadcast platforms.  In its early days it had been a penny share.  Now it was paying dividends so I purchased 244 shares at about £4.00 a share.  



There is a reason there is no link - Pace later is taken over. When I post the details, I will add a link then. 

White Festoon Lights

Festoon lights make a beautiful addition to any garden, whether big or small. These set of 20 warm lights will look fantastic strung along a fascia or gazebo, or a tree or fence. What makes them extra special is that they use energy saving LEDs Say goodbye to expensive electricity bills. They can also be used indoors, and there is 22cm between each lamp on the black rubber cable

www.lights4fun.co.uk

With a total lit length of 5 meters, you can connect additional sets using 4 different power options depending on the additional length you require.

The AA size battery box is perfect for just a single string. 

The D size batter box or Solar panel is ideal for 2 strings with a total length of 10meters.

For up to 30 meters the Plug-in transformer will give you all the power you need.

I found these on the lights4fun website :
www.lights4fun.co.uk

March 2014 - Investment No.1

I arranged to transfer £1,000 to my Selftrade dealing account, and set about looking for a share to purchase which would also provide a good dividend.

I choose Antofagasta, a FTSE100 company, involved in mining, transport and water mostly in Chile, South America, but with a smaller presence in other parts of the world.  It was incorporated in London in 1888, and seem to know what it was doing, and where it was going.

The Stock market EPIC was ANTO and was listed in the mining sector.

I also knew that if I owned the share on 23 April, I would be entitled to the dividend of  US$0.861 per share as this was the ex-dividend date.  The dividend payment would be added to my cash balance on 23 May.  Antofagasta was a company whose I thought had a sensible dividend policy. Simply, it was always paid out of the profit for the year, and not taken from reserves.

The share price had previously peaked at the end of December 2010 at £16.30, 2 years after the banking crisis. I think people had been investing in mining as a safer place to put their money!  The share price was about £8.50 a share, so I purchased 116 shares for a cost of £996 to start my portfolio.

If you want to know more about Antofagasta this is the company website:  http://www.antofagasta.co.uk

Are you too British on the internet?

You may wonder what I mean by this?  I will explain.  My husband (as does many people and children I know) is always watching YouTube videos online. Initially, it was just videos about SuperCars. Then he started noticing he was watching 1 particular person and started to seek out their videos. Out of the blue he said out loud “these are kids, they don't have jobs or rich parents yet they can afford these SuperCars.?”

Really. I thought, how British! Its simple really, so I sat him down and explained. They have learnt how to harness the internet to make enough money to access a SuperCars or even buy one, which then they use to make more money, buy more cars and so on.  He looked at me blankly.  The YouTube videos you are watching all the time as they film themselves talking about the SuperCars. Take a look at how many people have watch them, the number of videos each person has. I was talking about telephone numbers for each video!  When the numbers hit a certain level they get payments from YouTube, and also companies will start to seek them out. Some companies will also help promote their videos increasing the views and even start to pay them too.

That's the thing about the American people, they are not scared to put their head above the parapet and go public on the internet about something they are passionate about   Especially if they can also  make some money.  And I am talking about big Lottery win sized money. We British just sit and watch them and tut tut. Once in a while someone British will have a go buts its difficult for us as we are too private so often don’t get it right.

If you have a website which is not performing and would like to find out how you can improve it, get more traffic, higher listings on Google etc?  Find a way to visit this blog from time to time and I will post some simple ideas which anyone in the UK can do which is free. It may take 15 minutes of your time, but I think in time you will agree that it could become the most profitable 15 minutes you will have.  Of course, if you are British, you may not think so, but if you don't do it, you will never know.

https://www.youtube.com

What happened to my Share Portfolio

Late in the year 2013 I had to cash in all the stocks and shares I held personally, so I would have enough cash for a deposit of our new house, and also to pay the horrendous stamp duty, which was also due.  It was a sad thing to do, but I just reminded myself that it was just savings, that was one of the reasons for having the shares in the first place.

When left school, a very good friends father died. He left various share portfolios for his wife and children which he had amassed during his lifetime as his pension. He worked overseas so it was the only way he could have UK income should he need it.   My friend cashed in her shares and purchased a flat with no mortgage.  But what really impressed me, was that the portfolio which her mother received produced a annual dividend income of £35,000 for her to live on, without the need to sell any shares.  30+ years on £35,000pa is still a good income. So this has always stuck in my mind as what I should try to aim for, even if it seemed impossible.


So I decided to start again. I still had my trading account with Selftrade. (https://selftrade.co.uk).

I just needed a plan to follow.

My Plan
1.  Invest for dividend Income
2.  Try to Invest up to £1,000 of new money each quarter

I don't believe in being rigid with plans, but I thought this would be a nice simple plan to try to stick to. If you are interested in how I did, I shall let you know in the following pages.

Rustic White Painted Hall Storage Unit and Bench

If your hallway is looking a little bland and requires some much-needed storage, the Rustic White Painted Hall Storage Unit and Bench could be the perfect solution.

Designed to look and feel like a classic and will be an incredible feature of a hallway or even a utility room or cloakroom.

www.hampshirefurnituresolutions.co.uk

 Many homes lack not only coat hanging space in their home, but seating to easily slip on shoes. Providing both, together with two bottom drawers which are ideal for gloves, hats, and footwear. Your hallway will immediately be free of clutter and welcome for guests.


 At the top of the unit, is a shelf, perfect for items such as bags or ornaments. The hanging area will keep all of your coats and scarves crease free, and make a great place to hang guests jackets for your parties or coffee mornings.



If you have little ones, the bench makes a perfect seat for them to put their shoes on before school and wait to head off for the day ahead. One of the drawers could even be used for their school supplies and bag, to prevent a mad rush on a morning to look for a lost satchel.

This is from the Hampshire Furniture, sister website (yes they have two, with different furniture), www.hampshirefurnituresolutions.co.uk 

UK Companies Ex-Dividends, how to find them

I have an interest in investing in shares.  I have done most of my life.

I am not a share trader.  This is someone who either buys and sells or sells and buys shares over a very short period to make a profit.

I am a share investor. This means I purchase a share for the long term, hoping it will increase in value over a long period.  A good and well-run company share price will over a long time go up in value.  It will have its share price downs too. But the trick is to be patient and stick it out.  Ideally buying when the share price is low.  

Of course, I don't have a crystal ball, but if there is a well-run company has a share price that has dropped, I try to find out why it has dropped and I will then decide if I agree with the reason or not.  If I don't agree, I will purchase shares in the company.  My best purchases have come from this method. 

 An example of this was my current best buy.  Persimmon plc.  This is a house builder, not a type of company I would normally buy shares in as the share can be too volatile.  Before the Brexit vote, the share price was about £21 a share. Immediately after BREXIT, the share price dropped to under £13 a share due to panic about house prices dropping.  I didn't agree, people in the UK (Persimmons customers) will still need to buy houses in the UK, and I also know Persimmon was sitting on a lot of cash which they are giving back to the shareholders each year.  Long story, short story the share price is now (at the time of writing this blog) over £26. 


But this is not why I am writing this blog - Dividends.  This is why I will choose a share.  A well-run company is in the position to pay dividends.  Some pay them 4 times a year and some 2 times. I am not reliant on the share price going up to make a profit. If I can get a regular dividend I am happy.  The increase of share price is just the icing on the cake!

This is the website where I go to find out about the up coming dividends from UK companies  :  www.dividenddata.co.uk

Eco Torch to Light up your Garden

Eco Torch

This Swedish style pine fire log comes complete with a fire lighter, and will make your summer nights very stylish. It brings with it the warm and welcoming glow of a campfire, without all of the hard work.

www.greenolivefirewood.co.uk

Not only is it perfect for the garden, but ideal for camping too. Place a pan or kettle on top to cook or boil. Or use to heat marshmallows with family and friends.  It will burn for several hours depending on the size of the log, and on the weather and wind. Completely portable, and easy to use. I love the originality of it!

I found this on the Green Olive Firewood Co website:

www.greenolivefirewood.co.uk