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10 cheapest seaside towns

Would you like to live beside the seaside? Homes on the cost have always demanded a premium as Britons

The 10 dumbest dot.com ideas

  

In the midst of the present technological boom, there are many stories of success, fame and fortune. But there are also stories of total failure, from clearly absurd ideas to websites apparently "worth millions" that do not generate a penny....  

The 10 richest models in the world

 

The age of the supermodel is definitely not over. The world’s top models have proved their earning power this year despite fashion designers downgrading their runway shows because of the recession. For the second year in a row, Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian model tops Forbes magazine'd richest models list, based on estimated earnings from June 2008 – June 2009.

The top ten buy-to-let hotspots

 

Buy-to-let landlords have been hard hit by the property crash, along with private homeowners. But one small silver lining in the generally gloomy outlook is that, with property prices coming down faster than rental values, yields are actually rising for many purchasers of rental property.

With the help of PropertyEarth.net, Times Money has compiled a list of the ten towns or boroughs with the highest yields for buy-to-let investors.They are spread right aross the country, from Scotland to Shropshire and from Newcastle to Neath, in Wales.

The 10 most extravagant emperors

A dodgy mortgage claim is feeble stuff set against the spending of history's top kleptocrats. Here is Times Money's list of the 10 most extravagant emperors, in chronological order

Pictured left is Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus, see below, the emperor who appeared naked in the arena to slay wild animals

Ten top investment tips from Dr Mark Mobius

 

Dr Mark Mobius is one of the most experienced fund managers in the industry.

He has been managing the Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust since its launch 20 years ago. In that time the value of an investment in the trust has multiplied more than eleven times.

Here Dr Mobius draws on his years of experience to offer ten investment tips to Money Central readers.

e-Poll: Do you think public sector pensions are too generous?

Calls for an overhaul of public-sector pensions intensified this week, after a report that argued the cost of public sector pension liabilities now equals  £20,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain. According to the study by the influential British-North American Committee (BNAC) the cost  of pensions for all current public sector workers  is £1.2 trillion — equivalent to 85 per cent of Britain's GDP.

A growing number of pension watchers argue that such huge liabilities are unsustainable and that reform of public-sector pensions is long overdue. But given genuine fears that we could soon face a pensions crisis won't this send out the wrong message? Tell us what you think.

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The 10 longest white-collar prison sentences

Bernard Madoff was sentenced today for the largest investment fraud in history, receiving the maximum 150 years in prison for running a $65 billion (£39 billion) ponzi scheme that lost thousands of investors money.

That might sound like a long time behind bars but its not the longest white-collar sentence to be handed down by the courts - not by a long way. Read on to discover who beats Madoff in the sentencing stakes.

Win £25: What can I do to stop my friend taking advantage of me?

Each Saturday as part of Times Money's expanded consumer affairs section, we publish your questions and invite other readers to suggest solutions. 

This week Vanessa Thompson wrote to us. She says: "I have a friend who constantly takes advantage of other people, including me. He takes everything from drinks to chewing gum, and sometimes slips past the barrier at a railway station with me, so that he does not have to buy a ticket. He is a good friend but since we make the same amount of money I don't want to put up with this any more. What should I do?"

A selection of the best responses will be published in Times Money on Saturday July 11 with the star answer receiving £25 of vouchers. 

Gordon Brown's 10 worst financial gaffes

In 2006, an eloquent Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he was "ready to make the decisions for people and to work with other people to make this country the great country it is at all times." A year later he became Prime Minister, and the rest is history. Here is a list of Gordon's worst financial blunders, the screw-ups which have cost us all dearly and left economists, accountants and the rest of us scratching our heads in disbelief. Vote for Gordon's worst gaff in the e-Poll below or make your own suggestions in the comment box.

The ten weirdest things lost in the post

    

Every week about 600,000 pieces of mail are unable to be delivered because they are so badly addressed or packaged, while 25,000 letters posted have only the recipient's name printed on them.

Anything that cannot find its way to the recipient goes to the Royal Mail's National Return Centre in Belfast, where 'address detectives' investigate the origins of the mail and try to track down who the package is for. Unclaimed items of any value are eventually auctioned off.

This is the only place in the country where it is legal to open someone else's mail. And some pretty strange things end up there..

e-Poll: Have you ever been a victim of card fraud?

 

 

On Friday, we revealed how Emma Woolf, had £10,000 fraudulently withdrawn from her bank account. Since running the article, we have been inundated with stories from readers about how they have also been the victims of card fraud. We want to know how widespread the problem is. Please vote in our e-poll below to tell use whether or not you have ever been the victim of any kind of card fraud.

 

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Win £25: Is my letting agent ripping me off?

             

Each Saturday as part of Times Money's expanded consumer affairs section, we publish your questions and invite other readers to suggest solutions. 

This week Lauren Greene wrote to us. She says: "I am in the process of renting a new flat and was astonished that my letting agent charged me a £40 "tenancy deposit scheme administration fee". I know that deposits now have to be protected under a new government scheme, but I do not think that the cost should be passed on to the tenant. Is the agent- a member of the Association of Residential Lettings Agents- allowed to do this?"

A selection of the best responses will be published in Times Money on Saturday July 4 with the star answer receiving £25 of vouchers. 

The 10 MPs who claimed most for their second homes

The British are a house-proud lot and the publication of MPs' expense claims proves that politicians have the same passions as the rest of us. In fact, they appear to be even more decorating mad than the average Joe (funny that, given that they claim the money back from the public purse).

Even a brief trawl through the latest expense claims, which can be viewed in their entirety at Full list of MPs' expenses, throws up a host of claims for everything from window cleaning to John Reid's infamous toilet seat. These people certainly know how to spend their - ahem, our - dosh.

The five worst ways to buy gold

The tripling of the gold price since 2004 has predictably led to something of a stampede for the metal among private investors.
But in their hurry to gain a slice of the precious metal, they do not always take the most sensible route, says Adrian Ash, of BullionVault, the gold bullion exchange.

Below he outlines five of the worst ways to buy gold:

The 5 most expensive hotel rooms in the world

Forget about your financial worries and enter the world of the super rich, where spending almost £23,000 a night to stay at the world's most luxurious hotels is nothing special. With help from Forbes here is our list of the five most expensive hotels in the world. 

Ten cheap ideas for Father's Day

 

Having a hard time finding something other than hankies for your Dad on Father’s Day? Check out our money-saving ideas below.

e-Poll: Will house prices be higher in a year's time?

 

Barely a day goes by now without some pundit or another speculating that the housing market has bottomed out. There has certainly been some positive data lately, from increases in buyer registrations to mortgage lending improving albeit from a very low base. But have we really reached the bottom? With unemployment still increasing and mortgage rates rising fast, could prices begin to lucrch back downwards? So much depends on buyer and seller expectations that we want to know what you think. Vote in our e-Poll below and have your say in the field below that.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Win £25: I've been sent a stack of weird books. What should I do?

           

Each Saturday as part of Times Money's expanded consumer affairs section, we publish your questions and invite other readers to suggest solutions. 

This week Julia Downer wrote to us. She says: "I ordered a few out-of-print paperbacks for my daughter through Abebooks.co.uk for £7.99. However, I was sent quite a quantity of bizarre other books instead. To obtain a refund, the weird books had to be returned, which cost me £8.65.

"However, Abebooks.co.uk allows only the original postage paid to be counted towards the additional postage, so I am down £2.97 on the transaction and have had to pack up books and queue at the the post office.

"What should I do?"

A selection of the best responses will be published in Times Money on Saturday June 20 with the star answer receiving £25 of vouchers. 

Find out the credit rating of your building society

The West Bromwich building society was saved from collapse today as an agreement was reached to convert £182.5 million of its debt into capital.

West Brom is not the first building society to run into trouble during the recession – there has been a catalogue of mergers over the past 12 months, as well as the collapse of the Dunfermline society, whose branches and deposits were bought by Nationwide.