MONEY COMMENT
How To Earn A 'Fat Cat' Wage

By Cliff D'Arcy
July 28, 2004

We're a lively bunch here at Fool Towers - always swapping share tips and anecdotes, advice on making money and, most often, insults. As you might imagine, we spend a fair bit of our time talking about money, which often gives us ideas for new articles.

For example, earlier this week, one of my colleagues asked me where he should buy his holiday money. I replied that he should visit the websites of Marks & Spencer, NatWest, the Post Office, Thomas Cook and, finally, Travelex, which offers a 'best price promise'.

Being a helpful chap, I did the spadework for him, checking the deals on each of these sites before confirming that Travelex was indeed his best buy. However, my workmate then popped down to the Barclays branch around the corner and bought his currency there and then.

Later that day, my co-worker justified his actions by explaining that he only paid an extra £3 or so to get his foreign currency at Barclays, which he was happy to do. After all, he has the peace of mind of having the money in his hand, he doesn't have to wait for it to arrive through the post, and it only took ten minutes to collect. What's more he "didn't wear out his shoe leather traipsing around for half an hour".

We then got into a conversation about how much effort it's worth going to in order to save a few pounds. Obviously, if you can make big savings with little effort, then it's a complete no-brainer. But is it worth half an hour of your time to make a one-off saving of £3? In other words, is it worth the effort for a tax-free £6 an hour? For many busy people, this level of pay simply isn't worth the effort.

Quite simply, the trick to maximising your hourly rate - and earning 'fat cat' wages - is to target your biggest spending and then spend a sensible amount of time online to track down the best buys. Don't do what I do, which is to spend four hours online looking for a better motor insurance policy, only to present my wife with a saving of a mighty... £5! £1.25 an hour is less than the minimum wage but, on the other hand, my research is useful for articles, so it pays for itself in other ways!

So, here's what you could expect to make by shopping around online:

£100 an hour

Shopping around for cheaper home telephone, mobile and Internet calls could easily save you £300 a year - and all for around three hours' light labour. Here's how.

£300 an hour

1½ hours searching for better home and motor insurance could reduce your annual premiums by around £450, as this article explains.

£750 an hour

Find a better mortgage: a £2,000-a-year saving for two hours' effort is easily achievable, as this article shows.

£2,000 an hour

2½ hours of shopping around could easily save you £5,000 off the cost of a new car and finance (I did this last weekend!). Read how to get More Car For Less Cash.

£5,000 an hour

Shopping around for lower life insurance premiums could save you £10,000 over 25 years, in return for a mere two hours' research! Here's how I did it.

Have fun shopping around - and remember, don't be penny wise and pound foolish!

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