This month Sixtyplusurfers has teamed up with Caxton FX to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a Caxton FX Currency MasterCard loaded with £50 of currency in a choice of Euros or Dollars.

Remember that sinking feeling when your bank statement arrives after a holiday? As we continue to spend more and more on holiday and on our cards, overseas charges guarantee the onset of post-holiday blues. Last summer, Brits spent over £25 billion on their UK credit and debit cards whilst overseas. Research conducted by Caxton FX, a leading foreign exchange company, has confirmed that in 2007 banks made a profit of £800 million from these exorbitant hidden charges.

Pre-paid cards
The best way to avoid these crafty charges is a pre-paid currency card. Specifically designed for travelling, they are fast becoming the modern day travellers’ cheque. You can get one in as little as a week, they are free to use to buy things and you generally get a much better exchange rate. Simply load the card up with euros or dollars before you go, and then use it just like any other debit or credit card.

The Caxton FX Currency MasterCard Regularly recommended by national newspapers and a leading money saving website, a Caxton FX card guarantees travellers genuine value for money.

· Caxton FX guarantees the best exchange rate, (better than the Post Office or Marks and Spencer.) If you can find a cheaper exchange rate elsewhere, Caxton promises to refund the difference.

· Caxton FX cards are subject to 0% commission.

· Use it to buy things and get cash out.

· Caxton FX will freeze the rate at which the currency is bought, which means you always know how much everything costs.

· Check your balance and reload as you go

How do I use it?
The Caxton FX card is a MasterCard which means it is accepted in millions of outlets worldwide. Simply load up you card with euros or dollars before you go on holiday and then use it abroad in exactly the same way you would use your debit or credit card.

Also:

· No upfront fee

· The card can be topped up with more money online, over the telephone or via SMS

· Check your balance online or via SMS

· Chip and PIN protected

· 24 hour lost/stolen helpline

For more information about the Caxton FX card click on www.caxtonfxcard.com

To the Enter the Competition

Just tell us the name of the famous businessman featured at the top of the page, then let us know if you would prefer to receive Dollars or Euros on the card, and send in your name and address to the Sixtyplusurfers inbox by clicking on the hotmail address below: sixtyplusurfers@hotmail.co.uk

* This competition is open to
our UK visitors only

MoneySavers

From Rompers To Retirement – How Gran Can
Make Baby a Millionaire

Grandparents who want a tax-efficient way of passing
some of their wealth on to their grandchildren could actually help them amass a pension fund of £1.8million, says a top City wealth manager.

While mum and dad take care of a child’s lifetime expenses, said Lee Robertson, CEO of Investment Quorum, gran and granddad can look further ahead and give everyone peace of mind.

He explained: ‘From birth to age 18, a sum of up to £2,808 a year may be contributed to a stakeholder pension by anyone on the child’s behalf. This amount is then boosted by standard rate tax relief to £3,600 a year, even where the child does not pay tax!

‘At age 18, when the child becomes an adult, the responsibility for pension contributions passes to them, although the premium may be maintained by the third party (and qualify for standard rate tax relief), although this will be treated as a gift. This is ideal for students at university.’ The payment of £3,600pa (gross) for 18 years is expected to net the recipient more than £1.8m by the time they are 65 – twice the £920,000 that they would amass if they paid £3,600pa (gross) themselves for their entire working life of 47 years.

‘It shows perfectly why Albert Einstein himself described compound interest as “the most powerful force in the Universe”,’ said Robertson. ‘The earlier an investment is made, the better – which is sometimes difficult to prioritise in these days of belt-tightening. Children are expensive, which only become more so as they enter their teens.

"Having a grandparent putting away a regular amount in the background, as it were, for the first 18 years is a perfect way for them to help the child throughout its life. Even if the contribution isn’t made for as long as 18 years or there is a break or two in the middle the early start would be a real boost to any sum invested.’

And there’s an added benefit to saving specifically for a pension, he added. ‘The benefits may not be drawn until age 55, which will be a comfort and a guarantee that nothing will be frittered away during an impetuous youth!

Of course, for many families, this level of pension contribution will just not be possible. But it is worth thinking along the same lines for lesser amounts that become regularly available, for example the current child allowance, gifts from relatives, bequeaths and so on.

Robertson added: ‘We must remember, of course, inflation reduces the value of money over time, so it will have less buying power than it has today. Also while equity biased funds are expected to make the most sense for a long term investment, investors (in this case parents/guardians) should be properly advised so that they can weigh up the appropriate attitude to risk.’

Investment Quorum is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

If you want to find out more:
Just send an email to: info@investmentquorum.com
Or visit: www.investmentquorum.com
Or phone: 0207 337 1390

       Reader Survey into
        Retirement Finance

Here are the results of the recent reader survey carried out for Investment Quorum.

Question 1. Do you feel there is sufficient unbiased information available to those approaching or passing retirement in relation to pension annuities?

Almost three quarters [72% ] of our respondents to the survey answered NO to this question.

Question 2. Do you feel the government could or should do more to provide such information?

The vast majority [89%] answered YES to this question.

Question3. Are you aware of the decision trees on offer from the FSA?

Almost all [ 90%] answered that they were not aware of these decision trees.

Question 4. Are you aware that annuities have an open market option which can dramatically increase their value at retirement?

Over 60% responded that they were not aware of this.

Question 5. Do you regularly review your income in retirement planning?

Nearly two thirds [ 63%] of our respondents answered that they did not review their income.

Question 6. Do you feel that equity release or home reversion is of any value in retirement income planning?

Just over half [56%] answered that they felt equity release and home reversion were of value.

Question 7. Are you aware of the new generation of protected and variable annuities?

Over 60% replied that they were not aware of these new types of annuity.

Question 8. Are you concerned about leaving a legacy to your loved ones?

Here there was an almost fifty/ fifty split between those answering that they were concerned about leaving a legacy and those who were not.

Conclusions
It is very clear that with regard to retirement planning there is a very high level of ignorance. So it is really critical to those approaching retirement age that better education is made available and better financial advice is provided to the public. Otherwise, more and more people in retirement will find it hard to make ends meet.

      Is Equity Release
        Right For Me?

Equity release schemes can be a safe and practical way of unlocking equity from your home. Intune offers a no-obligation service providing practical, impartial and confidential advice to help its customers assess if this is an option that is suitable for them. It is not a suitable route for everyone and Intune helps people look at all the alternative options first, such as family support or moving home, and will advise against equity release where it is not suitable. However, it recognizes that for some people it provides more flexibility in their finances and provides a way of turning the value of their home into cash in the form of a lump sum, regular extra income or sometimes both. Intune has produced a guide to equity release which can be downloaded from its website.
Log-on to   www.intunegroup.co.uk
and click ‘Download Forms’ or call 0845 2300 820..

The New Energy Saving
Device That Cuts Home
Gas Bills DOWN!

With gas and electricity companies currently increasing their prices to record levels consumers are being warned to expect further rises of nearly 40%. This will see the average home energy bill reaching a staggering £1,300 and over 6 million homes heading for fuel poverty.

However, it may not be all doom and gloom thanks to a recent invention called the g-save economiser, which is set to bring the cost of our gas bills tumbling down. The product is an ingenious new device from national utilities checking company gas-elec which is capable of saving households anything from 17% to 35% on gas bills.Savings are dependent on the system itself but a boiler which is in good condition and regularly serviced could result in impressive savings of around 35% when fitted with the new g-save economiser.

The g-save is a 'smart' technology boiler economiser which effectively manages the amount of fuel a typical central heating boiler uses. In a standard domestic heating system there is a time lag between the thermostat demanding heat from the boiler and then registering that the water or room is hot enough. The thermostat ultimately cuts off this demand but, due to the heat that still has to work through the system, this time lag causes the hot water or the room to become overheated and fuel is wasted.

The g-save economiser is unique to the market in that it has two electronic timers each pulsing at different pre-set times which run twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. One timer is wired into the room thermostat whilst the other is wired into the hot water cylinder thermostat wiring.

The unit, which works on gas, oil or LPG-fuelled installations, retails at £160 including VAT, postage and packing and will be available exclusively from gas-elec. With the average annual gas bill now estimated to be around £800 per annum home installing the g-save economiser unit will see the cost being recouped in less than 12 months.The g-save economiser has been developed and patented by gas-elec [www.gas-elec.co.uk) one of the UK's leading specialist safety and service companies.

Are Tracker Funds The Best Investment?

Index tracking funds (“Trackers”), which are highly popular with investors have failed investors data analyst Moneyspider.com has warned. Popular due to their low charging, index trackers, which typically shadows the performance of key indices such as the FTSE 100 Index, have not fared well as stock markets have fallen around the world.

Leading Tracker funds such as Legal & General's UK 100 Index have fallen sharply in the past 12 months - a £5,000 investment is today worth just £4,426, reflecting an 11.47 per cent drop. And they’re not alone. Scottish Widows' popular UK Tracker is down 13.14 per cent: an investor putting £5,000 into the fund one year ago now has just £4,342 left from the original investment.Virgin's hugely popular UK Index Tracker is down 14.27 per cent* over the past 12 months. A £5,000 investment in this fund would have fallen to £4,287 in the year to the end of July 2008.

But an actively managed fund can make a big difference to investment returns over a relatively short time frame - even in a market downturn. £5,000 invested in the previously lacklustre Manek Growth - the UK All Companies' sector's best performing fund over 1 year- would have shown a return of 18.05 per cent*, i.e. £5,902 profit.

And over a five year period, the top performing Rensburg UK Mid Cap comfortably outperforms tracker rivals shadowing UK company shares, returning £10,560 on £5,000, compared to just £7,104* delivered by L&G's hugely popular UK 100 Index. And for those investors prepared to venture outside the UK the results are even more striking. £5,000 invested in the UK’s best performing fund over 5 years Neptune’s Global Alpha, would have grown to £12,820. But the same amount invested in the Scottish Widows Index Tracker over five years would have grown to just £7,319, a massive difference in performance.

"Index funds have long been popular with investors because they invariably have low charges due to there being little or no fund management involved," said Moneyspider.com's Tony Ahearne."But in this investment climate a tracker can only go one way, and that is down. There is little point paying low charges when you are being rewarded with below par performance," he added.

So why is this gap in performance currently making itself felt? "Good active fund managers have been able to exploit the many factors contributing to the current downturn, avoiding companies exposed to the credit crunch or relying on consumer spending and instead weighting towards mining and energy stocks," said Ahearne.

A good manager, added Ahearne, will be in a position to re-position their portfolios in response to fast changing market conditions - unlike a passive tracking fund, which will follow the herd down. "Around five million investors currently hold tracking funds, which are marketed as easy to understand, low cost investments. But in this market they are bad news, as our data reveals. In rapidly changing market conditions, as we are currently experiencing, knowing how a specific fund in which you are invested is performing and – equally important – how other funds compare, is simply good financial common sense,” said Ahearne.

Moneyspider enables you to see at a glance how your stocks and shares ISAs, Unit Trusts and OEICs are performing; what they’re worth; how they’re rated and crucially how they compare with other funds. Something your Fund Manager will never tell you!

Unique performance rating

Moneyspider’s highly sophisticated but easy to understand performance rating system covers all 2,000 or so Unit Trusts and OEICs (including stocks and shares ISAs) available to UK investors.

Receive a cheque for £20 and make or save thousands of pounds

Moneyspider.com is available to everyone. Registration is free and quick and you will NEVER be asked for any money. When you rate a fund with Moneyspider.com, they don’t move your funds or change your investments in any way; your investments remain as they are in the same funds with the same fund managers. What’s more when you either buy, switch or rate your funds with Moneyspider.com you will be entitled a cheque for £20*, simply enter the Promotional code SP12.

* The cheque for £20 will become payable when Moneyspider receives confirmation of you either buying, switching or rating your funds through us from the Fund Managers, and will be dispatched the following month.