Imagine owning Coca Cola. Or lending money to the Government. Or having a stake in Nigeria. You can do all these things with a stocks and shares ISA - and grow your money as well.
If you are looking for better returns on your savings, or just have an interest in investing, a stocks and shares ISA could be the right product for you.
Like a cash ISA, your interest is tax-free. But unlike a cash ISA, you are not just saving money but investing it in things like company shares. According to Hargreaves Lansdown, if you're prepared to invest for more than 5 years, you could be looking at returns of 7% a year.
You can compare stocks and shares ISAs on a comparison website like . Large providers include and . Unlike a normal savings account, there is not a guaranteed rate. Instead, look out for any management fees, how much money you need to save to open an account and whether you can access the account online.
Some stocks and shares ISAs will invest in a small number of funds - others will let you choose between thousands. If you want to be more hands-on, try a self-select stocks and shares ISA.
Stocks and shares ISAs with only a few funds should list what these are. If you want to learn more about the individual funds, you can search for them on .
Depending on the ISA you buy, you can use your money to buy individual shares in companies, or individual bonds. Or you can buy a tracker fund covering the whole stock market, or invest with an individual fund manager - where they buy and sell shares on your behalf for a fee.
Unlike a cash ISA, there is no guarantee you will get the same amount of money back. Some options are more riskier than others. You can read more about .
Always research a bond, fund or stock before investing, try to spread your money around different types of investments, invest small amounts of money regularly rather than a lump sum, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Think a stocks and shares ISA isn't for you? There's loads of other ways to get a better savings rate - .
When we’re booking budget holidays, is increasingly the first port of call.
It’s easy to use, cheap and has a huge number of holiday lets to choose from.
But as its popularity grows, more and more scammers are trying to jump on the bandwagon.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen a number of complaints from Brits wanting to get their money back from an host, Gumtree advertiser or similar.
An Ombudsman spokeswoman explained: “They think they’ve booked a dreamy villa by the beach - only to find once they’ve paid for the accommodation the host has done a runner and isn’t contactable.”
Holidaymakers have lost up to £4,000 in the cases reported to them, she added.
, and the money is released to the host 24 hours AFTER the guest checks in.
But if a fraudster can persuade you to pay without going through Airbnb, you have far less protection.
The Ombudsman spokeswoman said: ““The scam can work by encouraging people, away from a website, to pay the host directly for the accommodation.
“The hosts are often charming, luring people away from the booking site with the offer of a discount or a special rate for paying upfront. So cash is transferred directly into the fraudster’s bank account.”
Because you’ve transferred the money directly, it’s hard for your bank or the Ombudsman to do anything to help you.
Here are the Ombudsman’s tips for protecting yourself when booking through :
Whether it’s directly transferring money for something you are paying for online, or using an online payment system which doesn’t have the secure padlock symbol in the browser, there are some situations that just feel wrong. Double check before doing anything.
Ask friends, colleagues or family members for their opinion. You could also do an internet search to see if the site you are using is mentioned favourably on sites you know and trust.
Look out for warning signs that you could be talking to a fraudster. Does the host use a number of email addresses? Are emails written in poor English with grammatical and spelling errors?
No matter how good the offer sounds, don’t be tempted to pay the host directly. You’ll lose any protection the website offers and even from the bank.
If the accommodation is half the price but sounds better then warning bells should start to ring.
If the reviewer hasn’t reviewed anything else or has posted loads of 5-star reviews that all use similar language this could be a sign they are fake.
If you do decide to pay off site, consider using PayPal or a credit card rather than transferring directly - these methods of payment can offer people more protection.
Greece faces looming debt deadlines, its politicians are playing a game of brinkmanship and it COULD end up exiting the euro.
So if you feel a few twinges of doubt about a holiday there, you’re not alone.
When Cyprus had an economic crisis in 2013, holidaymakers found themselves short of cash. “There was a plan to stop all the money leaving the country - the banks basically shut down," explained Bob Atkinson, from TravelSupermarket.
“It meant you couldn’t go to the cash machine and get money out, and a number of hotels and restaurants stopped accepting card payments. You couldn’t even get payments wired to you because there was nothing to pay out.
“So unless you had cash, you were stuffed.”
What happened in Cyprus is a worst-case scenario and the chances are you’ll have a carefree holiday in the sun.
But you can protect yourself by bringing a number of payment options, including plenty of cash.
Atkinson said: “It is worth having a minimum of three to five days in cash.
“The downside is, if you are travelling with more cash than usual you need to be wary of what you do with it. And be aware of what your travel insurance says.”
Atkinson recommends taking care of “big ticket” purchases like hotels and car hire ahead.
And when you take your cash out, make sure you get the best rate: “If you are buying cash in the UK spend time organising where you will get the best rate.
“Don’t just buy it at the airport in a panic - you need to research to get the best buy.”
One rule above all others here – don't buy your currency at the airport. Order online from the likes of and pick up at the airport if it's hard to get cash in advance or head to a specialist service. These are frequently cheaper than the big high-street brands like the Post Office or M&S.
There are also an increasing number of free cash machines in major cities that let you take money out in euros or pounds. These frequently offer rates almost as good as the best providers you can find, but in a super-convenient way and with no charges or commission.
If you've got more time to plan ahead, let you get cash out or use them overseas with no fees, while some credit and debit cards are also free to use abroad.
Caxton FX analyst Nicholas Ebisch explains:
“The Greek economy is facing many payments that are due in the near future, and there are doubts about whether they have the necessary funds.
"In light of this problem, the Greek banks are trying to work out if Greece exiting the euro and adopting a new currency is a possibility. If for some reason bailout talks fall through between Greece and its international creditors, and it looks like the country is heading for a default on debt repayments and an exit from the Euro, it is possible that there would be a run on the banks in Greece.
"In reality, it is still likely that the Greek government will secure the necessary funding to be able to repay its debts, or negotiate another extension on their debt re-payments. A Greek default and euro exit will not be good for any country in the European Union."
And if Greece does quit the euro? Simon Phillips, from travel money specialist No.1 Currency, said there will probably be a transition period where euros are still accepted: "This means that if you have a holiday booked to Greece this summer, you shouldn’t be affected by a currency changeover."
by Congressional and Public Affairs
Whitney Joy
(202) 720-9113
– Golden Krust Patties, a Bronx, N.Y. establishment, is recalling approximately 9,073,384 pounds of beef and chicken products due to misbranding and undeclared allergens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The products contain egg, a known allergen, which is not declared on the product label.
The beef and chicken products were produced on various dates from January 24, 2014 through February 26, 2015. The following products are subject to recall: []
The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 18781 and P-18781” inside the USDA mark of inspection and have an expiration date between January 24, 2015 through February 26, 2016. These items produced were shipped to distributors, retailers, and consumers nationwide.
The problem was discovered during a routine label review by FSIS personnel.
FSIS and the company have received no reports of adverse allergic reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.
FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify theircustomers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at .
Consumers with questions about the recall can contact Herma Hawthorne, Director of Compliance, at (855) 565-0561. Media with questions about the recall can contact Latalya Morrison, Marketing and Public Relations Manager, at (718) 655-7878 ext. 7148.
The parent company of Bud Light is admitting some its Up For Whatever campaign branding “missed the mark” after accusations it supported rape culture.
The Up For Whatever campaign prompts drinkers to accept whatever life throws at them and has produced commercials where people are taken on wild adventures after drinking a Bud Light.
The company also branded its bottles with 140 different scroll messages. One in particular caught the eye of Twitter users after it urged people to give up the word “no” for the evening.
Budweiser – a proud sponsor of American Rape Culture™ (Removing the "no" from women's vocabulary since 1876).
— Blasfemmey (@BLASFEMMEY)
The photo and the campaign slogan quickly circulated on Twitter with people criticizing the beer company for promoting rape culture. The photo even caught the eye of Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey who tweeted the photo and suggested Bud Light should promote responsible drinking.
RT if you agree campaign should promote responsible – not reckless – drinking.
— Nita Lowey (@NitaLowey)
Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement that the campaign clearly “missed the mark.”
“It’s clear that this particular message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior,” Alexander Lambrecht, the vice president of Bud Light said.
“As a result, we have immediately ceased production of this message on all bottles.”
And Labatts confirmed in a statement to Global News that the offending slogan was not printed on any bottles sold in Canada.
“There is no such campaign in Canada and the bottles in question are not available in Canada. Neither Labatt nor Anheuser-Busch would condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. We take this issue very seriously.”
Despite Anheuser-Busch’s retreat, the company faced harsh criticism on social media.
If removes consent from your vocabulary, let me suggest that the first NO of the evening be to Bud Light.
— Jess Banks (@ProfBanks)
OH, , YOU JUST GOT SUPER RAPEY.
— sportsyelling. (@sportsyelling)
Hey – did you know alcohol is one of the major tools rapists use to incapacitate their targets when you came up with your tagline?
— Bailey (@the_author_)
HELSINKI – The Finnish navy has been chasing “an underwater object” which it has failed to identify, forcing it to drop depth charges to warn the intruder it had been detected, officials said Tuesday.
Defence Minister Carl Haglund described the intruder, first detected off the Helsinki coast on Monday afternoon, as “theoretically, a possible” submarine.
“We determined that there was something there under the water … we dropped a couple of warning depth charges which cause a lot of noise but don’t pose any danger to the possible target,” Haglund told reporters.
“At this stage we don’t know if it was a vessel or something else. What we do know is that our sensors detected sounds that indicate activity.”
The depth charges were dropped after the object was detected a second time during the night, the navy said.
“Underwater objects are very hard to identify,” Olavi Jantunen, the navy’s maritime operations chief, said. “We’ll analyze the material … It’s a question of days, even weeks before we can determine what we observed.”
Parliamentary defence committee spokesman Jussi Niinisto said the military occasionally detects such activity but described the use of depth charges as unusual. The previous time the navy dropped depth charges to warn a suspected intruder was in 2004.
The incident comes in the wake of a lengthy hunt for a foreign submarine in the waters of neighbouring Sweden in October. The Swedish military did not provide details but said it had obtained evidence of the intrusion with sensors. Officials never blamed any country, though most Swedish defence analysts said Russia was a likely culprit.
The underwater searches in Finland and Sweden come during a period of increased military activity in the Baltic Sea region, with several reports of airspace violations by Russian military aircraft.
NATO says its aircraft conducted more than 400 intercepts to protect the airspace of European alliance members last year, an increase of 50 per cent from 2013.
© The Associated Press, 2015
TORONTO — Like many new moms, struggled with breastfeeding her baby.
“It’s like two virgins. It’s not going to be good. Nobody knows what they’re doing,” she said.
And it would be a slow and hard process to figure it out. Albert’s milk supply began dwindling because her then-newborn, now 6, wasn’t latching on to her breast properly. That meant he was nursing all the time, but not really filling up.
“It was hell.”
By the time her baby was 10 days old, he had lost a pound, sending the new mom into panic mode. Neither the doula nor the three lactation consultants she had seen could help her. Each seemed to offer conflicting advice.
Albert — who wrote the recently-released book based on her experience — came to see the breast pump as a “torture device.” Still, she pumped between frequent feedings as she was told, which was not only painful but yielded little results.
She then finally took up the offer of a friend, who offered to nurse her newborn.
“It felt like we were going rogue. Everything that’s out there for us is failing us. And we’re going to use our common sense and do this in a way that’s actually helpful,” she said of the decision.
In Africa, where the friend’s mother was a midwife, it’s reportedly common practice to give a child struggling with feeding to a mother who has mastered the skill. In turn, the newer mom breastfeeds the more “experienced” baby. Through this, the mothers are able to figure out what the problem is.
“It just seemed like ‘why are we trying to re-invent the wheel?'”
Albert felt an incredible sense of relief to see her son finally get a proper feeding from her friend; it filled her with hope.
Lactation expert Dr. Jack Newman, who helps run the not-for-profit in Toronto, said he has recommended this option in the past. In fact, he admitted his wife breastfed her sister’s baby a couple times.
“This is probably done a lot more than is recognized.”
Wet nurses (lactating women who breastfeed other people’s children) were common for centuries until formula was introduced. Now, it’s not very common to see. Although in the U.S., you can .
That’s where many people turn for their breast milk needs nowadays. Some mothers are so desperate they’re willing to buy it there. That, Newman said, can be hazardous.
“When commercial considerations come into play, so does corruption. For example, it is quite possible that what the receiver gets is not pure breastmilk, but diluted with formula or cow’s milk.
“However, if the mother gets the milk through a website like and follows , I think one can say that the milk is safe and better for the baby than formula.”
Human Milk 4 Human Babies describes itself as a network committed to “fostering community between local families who have chosen to share breastmilk.” There are various , where and others post about their needs.
You can find similar posts on sites like .
Albert was lucky enough to have a friend with a freezer full of breast milk, which she generously parted with. That held Albert over until she found a fourth lactation expert, who enabled her to successfully start breastfeeding on her own. She kept doing it until her son was three.
Canada’s health guidelines recommend a baby be fed strictly breast milk for the first six months. Not everyone is as persistent as Albert, however. The most-recent data from states 26 per cent of those who stopped before six months did it because of insufficient milk.
There are who can help with that. Some will prescribe pills to help increase a mother’s milk production or even get them to start lactating again once their original supply has dried up.
The lists , midwives, local support groups and public health clinics as possible supports for women struggling with breastfeeding.
There are also several , including one in , , and . Unfortunately, there is not enough to meet the need, according to Newman, and priority is given to premature babies.
His advice is to try and stop the problem before it starts. He says to try and have as natural a birth as possible.
“The more a mother’s labour is intervened with, the more complications there are with breastfeeding,” he explained.
“If you have problems, get good hands-on help as soon as possible. The sooner you get help, the better.”
Newman was featured in the documentary, which premiered at festival this week. There’s another screening of the film on Wednesday.
© Shaw Media, 2015
SASKATOON – Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO) says it has raised its capital spending budget for this year by nearly 10 per cent to $405 million. The company says it is mostly due to higher spending at the McArthur River-Key Lake uranium operation and Areva’s McClean Lake mill.
The Saskatoon-based company had previously budgeted $370 million for capital projects this year.
Cameco said Wednesday that its share of spending on the McClean Lake mill modifications this year are now estimated at about $80 million, up from the previous estimate of $60 million to $70 million, due to larger quantities of piping, electrical and instrumentation materials and related labour.
The McClean mill is being ramped up to handle output from the Cigar Lake mine, which is expected to produce between six and eight million pounds of uranium in 2015 – half of it attributable to Cameco.
Cameco also said the increase in this year’s capital budget for the McArthur River-Key Lake operations is due mainly to timing issues. The mine-mill operation, which is undergoing equipment maintenance and upgrades, experienced a 29 per cent lower production output in the first quarter compared to last year due to unplanned equipment repairs.
The revised capital spending estimates were included with .
The uranium company’s revenue for the quarter was $566 million, up 35 per cent from $419 million a year earlier.
Cameco’s adjusted earnings for the first quarter almost doubled to $69 million or 18 cents per share. It also reported a $9 million net loss, or two cents per share, which was mostly due to a mark-to-market loss on its foreign-exchange derivatives.
The company also said Wednesday that it now expects 2015 revenue will be about five per cent higher than the $2.398 billion produced last year, rather than decline by a similar amount, as a result of a weaker Canadian dollar.
“We have continued to perform well in an uncertain market,” Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel said in a statement.
Cameco also said it expects to benefit from a new deal to supply uranium to India under an agreement announced last week in Ottawa during one of the stops on an official visit to Canada by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The company said that its agreement with India’s Department of Atomic Energy provides for the sale of 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate through 2020 in a market that has until now been closed to Cameco.
© The Canadian Press, 2015
CALGARY – Alberta restaurant operators are the only ones in the country not feeling a sense of optimism about the future, according to a recent survey from .
“Thirty-eight per cent of respondents in Alberta believe their sales will decelerate over the next six months while just 25 per cent expect sales to accelerate,” said the Restaurant Outlook Survey for the first quarter of 2015.
The report cited the decline in oil prices as having a “significant impact on economic activity and job creation in the province in 2015 and 2016.”
This compares to the record 46 per cent of restaurant operators in the rest of Canada who expect same-store sales to accelerate over the next six months. Only 14 per cent of respondents country-wide expected a deceleration; “the lowest level since Restaurants Canada began the Restaurant Outlook Survey in 2011,” said the report.
The survey suggested a combination of lower gas prices and a weaker Canadian dollar as factors that could boost sales and tourism over the summer.
© Shaw Media, 2015
CALGARY – The CEO of Cenovus Energy says it would be a bad idea to review Alberta’s royalty structure at a time when crude prices are down by half.
Brian Ferguson says if Alberta is not fiscally competitive, then jobs and investment will go elsewhere.
Royalties have become a hot topic ahead of Tuesday’s election, with NDP Leader Rachel Notley saying it makes sense to examine whether Albertans are getting their fair share of the province’s resource riches.
Notley has also said she would take a more hands-off approach to promoting the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipeline projects.
Ferguson says he’d like to see the next premier be “actively engaged” in seeking out new markets for Alberta crude.
The governing Progressive Conservatives have been pressing the New Democrats on their energy approach as polls show the Tories in a tight race a week away from the election.
“I think it’s not appropriate for me to comment on a specific outcome of the election next week, but I would say that in this kind of a business environment that having fiscal stability in the province is critically important,” said Ferguson.
“Alberta must be competitive. If Alberta is not competitive fiscally, then capital will flow to other jurisdictions and investment and jobs will flow to other jurisdictions.”
© The Canadian Press, 2015
Thousands of people hit the streets in Baltimore and several other cities from Boston and New York to Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to protest the death of a black man who died of spinal injuries after his arrest by Baltimore police and to demand reforms to police procedures.
While protests of the death of Freddie Gray were mostly peaceful, there were some arrests, including 16 in Baltimore and more than a dozen at a rally in Manhattan’s Union Square. Gray, of Baltimore, was critically injured in police custody.
The protesters chanted “no justice, no peace” and “hands up, don’t shoot” Wednesday night as dozens of New York police officers watched.
A police helicopter hovered overhead and a police loudspeaker warned the protesters that they would be arrested if they marched in the street.
One of the protesters said, “The police have become out of control.”
A group of protesters stretching more than a block has left Penn Station in Baltimore for a march to City Hall to protest Freddie Gray’s death after being hurt while in police custody.
People are chanting, “Tell the truth. Stop the lies. Freddie Gray didn’t have to die.”
Jacob Kinder, a student at Goucher University in nearby Towson, Maryland, said Gray’s death and the subsequent protests and riots have been a big topic all week on campus.
“I think there’s a pretty big fault line between students who think that the protests are justified and the riots are justified and people who don’t see race as a problem,” Kinder said.
The crowd at and their many signs.
— Polly Mosendz (@polly)
Kinder is white, as were many in the group just before 6 p.m. The marchers included a large number of college students.
In Boston, people gathered Wednesday evening in a park behind police headquarters in Roxbury and continued with a peaceful march through the neighborhood. Police accompanied the marchers and blocked streets for them.
Marchers chanted “no justice, no peace, no racist police” and some carried signs, including “Boston Stands With Baltimore.”
Wayne Dozier, grandfather of D.J. Henry, a black college football player from Massachusetts who was shot by police in the suburbs New York City four years ago, attended the rally and said “it hurts” to lose a loved one to police action. He said society needs to change.
In downtown Indianapolis, more than two dozen protesters marched around Monument Circle chanting “no racist police” and carrying signs with slogans that included “I’m not scared of the apocalypse. I’m scared of a copalypse.”
Baltimore on edge ahead of 2nd night under curfew
In Baltimore, cars rolled through the streets, students returned to class and a symphony played on a sidewalk Wednesday, offering the city a slice of normalcy as it recovers from the rioting and looting earlier this week.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them students wearing backpacks, marched through downtown, calling for swift justice in , a black man who suffered critical injuries while in police custody.
Authorities carefully monitored the rally after teenagers started the violence Monday afternoon, throwing bricks and bottles at officers who had gathered near a major bus transfer point. The situation escalated from there, overwhelming police as protesters set fire to cars and buildings and raided stores.
Schools closed Tuesday because of the mayhem, but reopened Wednesday, after the city’s first night of a curfew went off without the widespread violence many had feared.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake talked to fourth- and eighth-graders at New Song Center in West Baltimore, not far from where Gray was arrested. She said she was impressed by the children’s perspective.
“They understand very clearly the difference between demonstrators that have a righteous purpose and those who are preying on this opportunity for their own benefit,” she said.
About 3,000 police and National Guardsmen descended on the city to help keep order, and life wasn’t likely to get completely back to normal anytime soon: The curfew was set to go back into effect at 10 p.m.
And in what was one of the weirdest spectacles in major-league history, Wednesday afternoon’s Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards was closed to the public for safety reasons. Press box seats were full, but the grandstands were empty.
Earlier in the day, protesters outside the office of Baltimore’s top prosecutor said they supported State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who took office in January and pledged during her campaign to address aggressive police practices.
Mosby’s office is expected on Friday to get investigative findings from police on Gray’s death. She will then face a decision on whether and how to pursue charges against the six police officers who arrested Gray.
The curfew got off to a not-so-promising start Thursday night when about 200 protesters ignored warnings from police and pleas from pastors and other community activists to disperse. Some threw water bottles or lay down on the ground.
A line of officers behind riot shields hurled tear gas canisters and fired pepper balls at the crowd, which dispersed in a matter of minutes.
Police said 35 people were arrested after the curfew went into effect.
Attorney general decries ‘senseless’ violence
Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday called the rioting in Baltimore “senseless acts of violence” that were counterproductive to improving relationships between the police and community.
In her first public remarks on the unrest since being sworn in two days ago, Lynch said the city could in some ways be seen as a symbol of the national debate on race relations and law enforcement.
“But,” she added, “I’d ask that we remember that Baltimore is more than just a symbol. Baltimore is a city. It is a great city. It is a beautiful city.”
She said it was a city that police were trying to protect and peaceful protesters were trying to improve, all while “struggling to balance great expectations and need with limited resources.”
Lynch, the former federal prosecutor for parts of New York City, was sworn in Monday to replace Eric Holder, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
She spoke about the situation in Baltimore at the start of a cybersecurity summit Wednesday at the Justice Department.
© The Canadian Press, 2015
RAW: NYC protesters scuffle with police during Freddie Gray solidarity march
Already confronting a tougher job market than their parents did, and perhaps anchored to more debt because of student loans, many millennials won’t likely appreciate the findings in a new poll that suggests more than a few parents aren’t planning to leave their offspring a dime when their time is up.
“Canadians are some of the most likely to want to spend it all before they go,” a new survey from HSBC said. Just how pervasive is this plan to leave the financial tank on empty?
“When asked about their attitude towards spending and saving, 27 per cent of working-age Canadians say ‘spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth,’” the survey said.
It gets worse. Far from be relied on to chip in for a down payment for a home or help out with a new vehicle, the vast majority of workers polled said their kids shouldn’t bank on any financial support in adulthood. A meagre one in 10 said they were prepared to help provide financial support to adult children.
The finding makes Canadians “among the least likely [to help their kids financially] of all their peers globally … and placing them well below the global average (21 per cent).”‘Spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth.’
The HSBC survey was conducted with 16,000 people globally, including 1,000 Canadian respondents.
Other findings:
- When asked about their attitude toward spending and saving, 27 per cent of working-age Canadians say “spend all your money and let your children create their own wealth.”
- Forty-four per cent of Canadian retirees have reached “at least one of their retirement hopes and aspirations,” placing them well above the global average (24%).
- Canadian retirees are among the most likely to feel forced into semi-retirement, but almost half of today’s workers are planning for it. Only 17 per cent of today’s fully-retired Canadians say they semi-retired first, whereas 45 per cent of working-age respondents say they plan to semi-retire before taking full retirement.
- Canadians are among the least likely to financially support adult children. Only 11 per cent of Canadian pre-retirees surveyed say they provide financial support to grown-up children – making Canadians among the least likely of all their peers globally to be providing financial support to their adult children, and placing them well below the global average (21%).
© Shaw Media, 2015
by Kellogg’s introduced gluten-free Rice Krispies in 2011, but recently said it is discontinuing sales of the mass-market cereal.
Prices of the rapidly disappearing cereal are $10 or more a box on Amazon.
The company said in a statement, “We have stopped production of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Gluten-Free cereal due to disappointing sales. However, for consumers who are looking for gluten-free options, we’ll continue to offer a variety of foods, including Special K Gluten Free cereal, Eggo Gluten Free waffles, Special K Shakes and Popcorn Chips. Plus, we’re always developing new foods, so we may offer additional gluten-free options in the future.”
Food allergy parents avoiding gluten know that what made these Rice Krispies special was the ability to make easily, with a cereal found in any supermarket.
Kids With Food Allergies understand that it is painful to lose a food or a product once you have come to rely on it. Besides the fact that products sometimes disappear from store shelves, always keep in mind that food labels can and do change at any time. It is safest to read a label multiple times – in the store, before you put it away, and once again before you serve it. to make certain that nothing has changed since you last used the product.
To talk about the choice by Kellogg’s to stop making the cereal, . What brand are you using now? For some families, it is back to .
Some people think that Kellogg’s may change their mind if enough people contact the company. If you wish to try that, .
No income tax, VAT or national insurance rises before 2020 - and a new law to ensure it - David Cameron has promised if he gets into power after the general election.
So what would a Conservative government do?
We take a look at exactly what they have they said and what it means for your money if they are elected.
You can see and the .
After the 'good' news of a freeze on National Insurance or Income tax and VAT, the second tax promise is you'll pay tax on less of your money – with the tax-free allowance increasing to £12,500 then rising in line with minimum wage (assuming you work 30 hours a week).
That's a £7.31 saving a week for people earning above that amount, and means if you earn minimum wage (and only work 30 hours a week) you should never have to pay income tax.
Additionally, the 40p tax band will be increased to £50,000.
That's a lot better news for people earning more than £50,000 – equating to a saving of £58 a week for them, along with the £7.31 that means they're almost £66 a week better off – or £3,426 a year.
And in more good news for the better off, the Conservatives pledged to take the family home out of Inheritance Tax for all but the richest by raising the effective threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1 million.
My Salary is:
Include student loan?
This is slightly frightening – the Conservative party manifesto promises to cut £12BILLION from welfare, this is what they've announced they'll do.
Young people are being targeted for sure – with the loss of automatic housing benefits if they're under 21 and a youth allowance replacing Jobseeker's Allowance for those between 18 and 21.
But this only lasts 6 months, after that, if you don't have a job, you will have to take an apprenticeship, traineeship or do 'community work' to get your benefits.
The total amount of benefits a household can receive will be cut by £3,000 to £23,000 a year while Universal Credit will continue to be rolled out.
Working age benefits will be frozen for two years from April 2016, with exemptions for disability and pensioner benefits, maternity allowance, statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory sick pay.
The one bright spot – the tax-free childcare allowance will be increased to 30 hours for parents of three and four year olds.
There are road upgrades planned on the M1, M5, M6 and M62 along with the A1, A11, A30, A47, A303, A358 and A555.
Train fares will be frozen for five years.
The main rail routes in the north of England will be electrified, as will the Great Western Main Line in the South West and the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to Sheffield.
Oh, and then there are the plans for HS3 (Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Hull) and Crossrail 2 (London-Surrey-Hertforshire).
200,000 new starter homes have been promised, exclusively for first-time buyers under 40 – and sold at a 20% discount.
10,000 new homes to rent at below market rates, to try and let people save for a deposit.
They're also planning to introduce a right-to-build – meaning councils will be forced to allocate land to people wanting to build their own home.
Oh, and they plan to .
The Conservative manifesto also promises to add 3 million new apprenticeships.
Then there's increased support for full-time unpaid carers and to ensure you will not have to sell your home to fund your residential social care.
Guaranteed three days a year of fully paid time off work to volunteer for charities if you work for a big company or the government.
Oh, and they'll freeze the licence fee.
The new smartphone, which LG showed off for the first time on Tuesday, has the makings of a revolutionary camera.
Warning: It's nerd stat time. The G4's 16-megapixel camera can snap photos in 0.276 seconds, and the camera app launches in just 0.6 seconds. It has a Laser autofocus. It's got a color spectrum sensor that helps the phone sense what the photo will look like before you take it. And it has a three-axis image stabilization so you can take smooth shots while driving over potholes.
Most impressively, it has an aperture of ƒ/1.8 (lower is better, since it lets in more light). The average smartphone has an aperture of ƒ/2.4. The iPhone 6 has an aperture of ƒ/2.2 and the Galaxy S6 is ƒ/1.9. Combined with an image sensor that's 40% larger than the average phone, and you've got yourself a pretty nice camera.
LG showed off some stunning photographs taken with the G4, illustrating how well the camera performed even in some of the lowest-light situations. The company says its camera takes photos that are 49% brighter than the competition.
The trouble with smartphone cameras is that they're pretty limited in the settings department. They let you adjust some items, such as the focus and flash, but that's about it.
The G4 gives you full control over the camera, as if you were using a digital SLR. Shutter speed, ISO light sensitivity and white balance are all adjustable, allowing you to take professional-grade photos (if you know what you're doing).
The phone even lets you save raw images instead of converting them to compressed JPEG files (caution: this will eat up your storage very quickly). For photographers who are more skilled than the average point-and-shoot camera user, that's a nice option for desktop photo editing.
The company didn't get cheap with the selfie camera like some other smartphone makers do. The G4 has an 8 MP front camera, and you can wave at the camera to snap a photo (no selfie stick required).
Since the camera is the G4's most outstanding feature, the smartphone lets you get to the camera app quickly: just double-click the volume down button to open the app, and click it again to snap a photo. The double click option is neat -- but it only works if the phone screen is locked.
If you're in another app or on the homescreen, you'll have to tap on the camera app. It's not a huge deal, but the Motorola Moto X, Samsung Galaxy S6 and all phones have gestures and button taps that open the camera no matter what state your phone is in.
The giant 3,000 milliampere-hour battery is a nice touch too. The company says it will last you more than a day on a single charge -- which is helpful if you're constantly snapping battery-draining photos.
LG hasn't yet said how much the G4 will cost or when it will go on sale. But if you're a photographer, you should stay tuned.
More shootings, more police body cameras
Related: Why Baltimore police don't wear digital cameras
Oil billionaire: Crude is headed back to $70
The billionaire oil tycoon has seen thousands of jobs disappear from his home state recently due to the crash in crude prices.
Some smart people have even warned Texas could tumble into a recession like it did in 1986 when oil prices plummeted.
Just don't tell that to 86-year-old Pickens, a veteran of countless boom-and-bust cycles in Texas.
"Don't panic," Pickens told CNNMoney on the sidelines of the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles. "I don't think Texas will fall into a recession. Oil will recover in price."
Even though inventories are sitting at record highs, Pickens is standing by his call for oil to rise to $70 a barrel by the end of the year before rising to $90 to $100 in the next 12 to 18 months. Oil prices are currently at $57, up substantially from $45 earlier in the year.
What makes him so confident? "I know more about it than they do. It's that simple," he said.
He's not just talking about his gut and instincts. Pickens pointed to the dramatic decline in rig counts as oil companies pull back in the new environment. What that means is that the record high inventory will not last forever.
Pickens also said the Texan economy is strong and resilient enough that it can withstand an oil-fueled slowdown.
"We haven't flopped yet. We lost some jobs in the oil field, but we're fine," he said.
Slammed by cheap oil, services companies like , and have all laid off thousands of workers in recent months, many of them in their home state of Texas. It's been a reminder that while inexpensive oil is great for American drivers, it's painful for people who rely on oil production for jobs in Texas, or in North Dakota.
Nonfarm payrolls in Texas tumbled by 25,400 in March, the worst level since mid-2009 during the Great Recession.
"Job losses of the size Texas experienced last month are rarely seen outside of recession," Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at , wrote in a recent report.
Feroli previously warned Texas could sink into a recession, a call that drew the ire of Richard Fisher, former president of the Dallas Federal Reserve.
"Unfortunately, the only thing dropping in the Texas economy lately is the number of jobs," Feroli wrote in a report titled "No bull: Texas economy on the skids."
Of course, the Lone Star state's economy has diversified significantly in recent decades into health care, finance and other industries. That means the impact of the oil crash is somewhat lighter and there's opportunities for laid off workers to find other places to work.
Pickens said there are other jobs in Texas for laid-off oil workers. For example, there's great demand for truck drivers -- something the billionaire insists he has the skills for as well.
"If I had to have a job and didn't have anything else I could drive a truck," Pickens said. "And they are looking for truck drivers continually in Texas."
The airline confirmed the issue to CNNMoney late Tuesday night. The problem? An error with the digital map used by pilots in the cockpit.
"Some flights are experiencing an issue with a software application on pilot iPads," American Airlines said in a statement. "In some cases, the flight has had to return to the gate to access a WiFi connection to fix the issue."
Airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said "more than a couple dozen flights" were affected.
"We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers," American Airlines said. "We are working to have them on the way to their destination as soon as possible."
It's still unclear which iPad app was faulty -- or whether the fault lies with or .
In 2013, American Airlines became the first airline to have its pilots rely entirely on iPads for flight plans and navigation. Plans get updated all the time, so the company cut down on lots of excess paper.
The airline has estimated the paperless program saves the company at least 400,000 gallons of fuel every year. In all, 8,000 iPads replaced 24 million pages of documents.
But, as is always the story with neat technology, software isn't always reliable.
R2-D2 takes flight on Japanese airliner
Twitter earnings leaked early
The stock plunged 6% before it was halted. shares plummeted as much as 20% once the stock resumed trading before bouncing back a bit. In after hours trading, the stock slipped 2%.
Sales missed forecasts even though earnings were better than expected and user growth was in line with Wall Street's forecast.
Sales came in at $436 million -- well below consensus predictions of $457 million. The company also issued a weak outlook for sales in the second quarter.
The numbers first appeared on the Twitter account of Selerity, a self-described financial intelligence platform, at 3:07 ET. Twitter was not due to release its results until after the market closed at 4 p.m.
After Twitter officially released earnings, Selerity tweeted that it got the numbers directly from Twitter's investor relations site.
"No leak. No hack," Selerity tweeted.
Twitter's investor relations team released a statement on Twitter.
"We asked [the New York Stock Exchange] to halt trading once we discovered our Q1 earnings numbers had leaked, and published our results as soon as possible," the company tweeted. "We are investigating the source of the leak."
At the beginning of the earnings call, a Twitter spokeswoman briefly mentioned the incident. She said the company is working with Nasdaq to find out what happened. (Nasdaq hosts and manages Twitter's investor relations website.)
For the remainder of the call, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and CFO Anthony Noto explained to investors why Twitter missed expectations. The company is still having a hard time keeping users logged into the platform, enrolling new users, and convincing advertisers to spend more.
Twitter at its core is another online advertising company. It has always faced competition from and , more mature digital media companies, but over the past year, it has also struggled internally.
There have been several high profile management changes which have caused some analysts to wonder if CEO Dick Costolo is the right person for the job.
Compared to other social apps like Snapchat, which -- after only a few years -- already has almost 200 million users by some estimates, Twitter's user-growth has slowed down. The platform now has 302 million active monthly users, up 18% year-over-year, but growth has been slowing for the past few quarters.
Noto said that going forward, Twitter will start including people who engage with the platform via text message in their monthly active users number. "SMS fast" is a way for users in emerging markets to get updates from Twitter on their phone. Last quarter, about 6 million people used Twitter in this fashion.
International users are an important source of revenue for Twitter. They accounted for 34% of the company's total revenue, or $147 million -- an increase of 109% from a year earlier.
On the call, Costolo and Noto tried to assure investors that recent changes on the platform will help attract and retain users. Features such as "while you were away" and algorithmic timelines are already improving engagement on the platform, according to Costolo. "We're seeing most exciting results here," he said.
The stingy advertiser problem, too, should be resolved once Twitter builds enough "quality" ads for marketers to buy.
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Half of us want Britain to leave the European Union, according to a 2015 EurActiv poll. And we might get a chance to vote on it, if one of the parties promising an EU referendum gets into power.
But turning our backs on Europe will cost us. A study by the respected German think tank BertelsmannStiftung estimates if the UK quits in 2018, we’ll each be poorer by up to €4,850 (£3,461.41) by 2030.
Here are 5 things that could drain our wallets:
Under the EU’s free trade rules, other EU members can buy the stuff we make without paying any import taxes. More than HALF of everything we make is bought by people in other EU member states.
The EU is a big player on the world stage. It’s in the process of negotiating free trade deals with countries including the US, Japan and India, which make it easier for us to sell things abroad. If we quit the EU, we’d drop out of the bargain. There's already a deal in place with Canada, do you want to lose that?
Half of everything we buy comes from the EU. Just like other member states, we don’t have to pay any extra taxes on these foreign goods. Do you like French cars, Italian mozzarella or Spanish olives? All these things could become more expensive. Also, wine. Remember the wine.
BertelsmannStiftung thinks some industries could be affected more deeply than others. If you work for a chemicals, mechanical engineering or car company you could find it struggles in the wake of an EU exit.
Some British companies could benefit from an EU exit - too much. Because they no longer face competition from European rivals, BertelsmannStiftung thinks they could be less interested in investing for the future. So over time, our workplaces will feel more and more old-fashioned. Let's not forget what happened to our car industry when it was left alone in the 70s....
We paid €8.64billion (£6.17billion) to the EU in 2013. BertelsmannStiftung thinks we could be losing out on €313billion (£223.39billion) in the 12 years after we quit. Even allowing for not paying annual fees, we'd be losing out on £149.35billion - that would pay for the entire NHS for a year with money left over.
Tory leader David Cameron is promising an in/out referendum on leaving the EU. The Lib Dems also back a referendum, but . UKIP are strongly in favour of leaving the EU.
The SNP is against leaving the EU and is trying to get special protections for Scotland if it happens.
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