Holy Shmoly! » finance

After Budget 2007 I'm stinking rich

Donncha O Caoimh — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:22:47 +0000

I was glued to the radio this afternoon like many people in the country listening to the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, announce the new budget. Also like many people I’ll be better off next year as a result of some of the changes he made.

The budget was great for pensioners and first time buyers, of which I’m one of the latter. The news isn’t so good if you’re addicted to nicotine. Still, the price of a pint hasn’t gone up. You might also be able to pay for those cigarettes with the 1% that was knocked off the top rate of tax. That extra €10/month in the children’s allowance could come in handy too.

Anyway, the country is glowing with smiles all-around, except for the opposition of course who complain that not enough was done or done in the right place. I wonder if anyone asked if Paul Stokes was going to get some?

If you want to compare how you’ll do in 2007 versus this year, then compare this 2007 budget calculator and the 2006 one. I’m not PAYE any more but if I was I’d be up a few hundred Euro apparently! Not stinking rich, but enough nonetheless.

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GNUCash 2.0 on Ubuntu Dapper

Donncha O Caoimh — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:32:43 +0000

It’s that time of the month again when I have to do a VAT return, so my attention is drawn towards accounting software for Linux. Having just got the latest and greatest version of GNUCash installed on Ubuntu I’d like to share how I did it:

Open http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=151771 and http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=151772 and download gnucash-common_2.0.1-1_all.deb and gnucash_2.0.1-1_i386.deb from there. (via)
Install the .deb files using the following command: sudo dpkg -i gnucash-common_2.0.1-1_all.deb gnucash_2.0.1-1_i386.deb
You may get an error like this:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of gnucash:
gnucash depends on g-wrap; however:
Package g-wrap is not installed.
dpkg: error processing gnucash (–install):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
gnucash

If you do, run the command sudo apt-get -f install which will download g-wrap guile-1.6-dev guile-library libffi4-dev libgwrap-runtime0-dev libncurses5-dev libreadline5-dev and any other dependencies.
Finally, you’ll be greeted with the following message:

Setting up libgwrap-runtime0-dev (1.9.6-3) …
Setting up g-wrap (1.9.6-3) …
Setting up gnucash (2.0.1-1) …

Happy budgeting and accounting!

While on the subject of VAT, since Google is a US company, Europeans don’t have to pay VAT on our Adsense earnings, yet. This article by Jennifer Slegg suggests that some EU countries may decide to charge VAT on online earnings. That’s a little crazy because Google doesn’t add VAT to the invoices of European publishers. If something like that happened in Ireland I’d be out of pocket by an extra 21% plus the normal 42% tax I pay on earnings at the top level. Ouch. (via)

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10 things you shouldn't buy new

Donncha O Caoimh — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:14:13 +0000

MSN Money – 10 things you shouldn’t buy new

Why waste money on shiny packaging and a fancy store when you can get it ‘pre-owned’ for a fraction of the cost? Here are your best buys.

(via)

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Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774-2004

Donncha O Caoimh — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:06:41 +0000

I’m not an economist but these fallacies sound reasonable and true to my mind. Anyone care to dispute them?

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Your Most Important Financial …

Donncha O Caoimh — Tue, 26 Mar 2002 18:36:27 +0000

Your Most Important Financial Decision – Be content with what you have.

Contentment isn’t a feeling or a mood; it’s a decision. Only by choosing to be content with what you already have can you accomplish your budget, saving, and investing goals. Without choosing contentment, you’ll be ensnared by a subtle but ever-expanding appetite for money and all the things it can purchase — and worst of all, it’s an appetite that’s never fulfilled.

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