JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Save and save some more
Lockdown caused me to reset my savings dial. Unable to go out and do the things I love – listen to live music, go to the cinema and travel the country watching West Bromwich Albion Football Club – I went into squirrel mode and saved.
It is a habit I want to continue in 2021, although of course I would love to once again attend Ronnie Scott s Jazz Club in London – and spend a damp Saturday somewhere in the North West watching WBA getting thumped again – and again.
So my mission is to keep saving and investing – building a Prestridge fortress, strong enough to protect me from whatever is thrown at me.
Toby Walne When it comes to making money there are few better companies built for a laissez-faire bare-knuckle fight than Ryanair. Ryanair sucks us dry as a result of our own volition. And it does not matter how much impish Irish boss Michael O Leary treats passengers with disdain – people always come back for more if the flights are cheap enough. There could also well be carnage on the runways over the next few months as other less ruthless airlines collapse – leaving space for Europe s biggest carrier to fill. Ryanair has recently ordered no fewer than 210 new Boeing 737 MAX jets, so it seems to be gearing up for world domination , says Toby Walne
At last, after four and a half years of brinkmanship and tortuous negotiations, we have a post-Brexit trade deal – for better or for worse.
Although not all the i s have been dotted and not all the t s crossed, it means that we can now head into the New Year with a little bit more confidence in our economy s prospects than appeared to be the case a week ago.
Perhaps, the deal will prevent in the future the sort of disruption we saw at Dover.
For better. or for worse: The Brexit deal will drive up travel insurance costs and remove our right to free medical care provided by the European Health Insurance Card
JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Pedal power to the rescue
Being reunited with my ancient Crossroads Specialised bike has saved me a small fortune in travel costs this year – although not as much if coronavirus hadn t reared its destructive head.
I started the year thinking the 30-year hybrid bike had been stolen from the garage under the flats I lived in – it had disappeared one night from where I had locked it up. But I discovered it had been moved by the block s janitor and sold to another resident without my permission. Maybe the janitor thought the bike s owner had moved away and left the dusty relic behind. Wrong.