Paul Tebbs

I’m not a millionaire and don’t aspire to be. I’m a normal person with an interest in personal finance, looking to share my thoughts and ideas with likeminded people. I’m a Personal Finance writer with articles published on sites such as Finder.com. I’ve a passion for Fintech and work for one of the world’s leading payments companies.

How much does a carbon bike cost?

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Most cyclists are obsessed with speed. Cycling speed is affected by a number of factors, including aerodynamics, power, and weight.  When it comes to weight, carbon fibre is amongst the lightest of materials from which to build a bike. It’s also easier to form obscure shapes from carbon fibre for the purposes of improved aerodynamics (versus, say, aluminium). Furthermore, carbon bikes are arguably smoother to ride, thanks to the material’s slightly shock-absorbing properties. For these reasons, carbon fibre bikes have become highly desirable.

An entry-level carbon bike starts at £1,000 ($1,350 USD). A pro carbon bike can cost as much as £30,000 ($40,000 USD).

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Credit options – what’s available and what to consider?

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Most of us have experienced times in life when cash is tight, we Brits refer to this as “being skint”. During such times, there is nothing worse than a large, unexpected bill landing in your lap. Trying to work out how to pay for, say, your car or washing machine to be repaired can be super stressful. Similarly, turning down social opportunities because you don’t have a way to pay for it at that moment can be tough. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Both of these scenarios may lead someone to need to borrow money (aka taking out credit). And many different factors will bear on one’s options in this area, major variables being employment status and credit score.

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How much more expensive is organic food?

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Organic food is produce that is farmed without the use of pesticides and man-made fertilisers. Put simply, organic food is the most natural food you can buy. Research shows that organic food can be better for us (since it contains higher levels of certain nutrients), and organic farming better for the environment. The benefits of eating organic may go even further. One study has shown that individuals eating a diet of mostly organic food have a lower risk of developing cancer.

Whilst the appetite for organic food is on the rise (64% of British people purchased organic vegetables in an average month according to this 2017 study), with the UK market for organic food now worth £2.3bn, many people feel like they simply can’t afford to buy organic. So is the perception that buying organic groceries is far more expensive than non-organic food a myth, or is there truth in it?

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How to save money on software

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Whether we like it or not, our lives are becoming increasingly digital. As a result, our dependency on software is growing by the day. No wonder both consumers and businesses are increasingly looking at how to save money on software. Meanwhile, software companies are reaping the rewards of this burgeoning market (expected to be worth $650bn by 2025). Make no mistake, the software market is growing at a rate of knots and that’s partly thanks to the rise of subscriptions.

Years ago, you could buy a perpetual license for a piece of software and own it forever. If you wanted to upgrade to a new version, that was up to you. Nowadays, most modern software providers don’t offer lifetime licenses at all. Subscriptions are the new, preferred billing model for which to sell software. This is the new age of “software as a service” (SaaS), pioneered by the likes of Adobe about a decade ago now.

SaaS has become the new norm and, with it, both consumers’ and businesses’ software spends have increased. But are there ways to cut your software costs?

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How to find cheap car insurance

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When I was 19 (back in 2010), my Grandad past away and left me his Peugeot 106 in his will. I had passed my driving test a year prior and was really pleased to own my first car! Imagine my disappointment therefore when I entered my local insurance brokerage (insurance comparison sites were not so big back then) and got told it would cost £3,000 to insure my £500 car for the year. I simply couldn’t afford that! So I opted instead to insure my Peugeot for a month, used it as much as I could that summer and, sadly, had to sell my wheels after that. I haven’t checked but I hope that insurance companies have found cheaper ways to insure teenage drivers these days.

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Appliances in new build properties

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We’ve been living in our new build flat for 10 months now and our Hotpoint integrated washer / dryer has already broken down. An engineer just came out today and confirmed the barrel is completely broken and will need replacing. I spoke to him for a little while and here are few interesting things I learnt…

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How to choose a good, affordable red wine

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How many times have you been to a restaurant and been handed a wine list full of wines that you are totally unfamiliar with? Or splashed out on expensive wine, only to be left disappointed by the taste? A couple of years ago, I visited Bordeaux, a region renowned for producing some of the world’s best wines. Whilst there, I went on a wine tour of one of Bordeaux’s 6,000 chateaux. Here I learnt a lot about the wine production process and what makes a good red wine.

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Which Gower beaches have the best parking?

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I decided to write this post off the back of a recent trip to the Gower. If you’ve never been, it’s a fabulous place for a holiday and I highly recommend it. However, parking is a bit of an issue there, especially when visiting certain beaches. Google searches for this topic weren’t particularly useful hence I thought I would share my findings.

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Four real life examples of how Monzo makes life easier

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I have been a Monzo customer since February 2017, shortly before they officially became a bank. I initially joined Monzo partly to understand what the hype was all about (several people in my office were brandishing these bright orange cards). And partly to benefit from their low foreign exchange fees when going abroad.

Monzo’s pace of development appears to have slowed in recent months. However, a recent experience reminded me of why I love banking with Monzo, and why I will never go back to one of the incumbent banks. 

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