Personal Finance and Investing

So you want to be wealthy, but have no idea on how to start? I’m going to let you on a little secret. Building wealth is not rocket science, it requires discipline and resources. Start by setting a realistic financial goal.

It is common for individuals believe that it takes large sums of money to become wealthy, so they make excuses about if i had a lot of money I would do this and that. Well guess what, if you lack discipline you will be back right where you started. The first mistake individuals make is bigger paycheck equals upgrade. Well, here is a newsflash, if you continue at that pace you will never have a buffer/comfort zone and one mistake could put you in a serious financial hole. T

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Consumers have been dealt a huge blow today in the ongoing battle to reclaim bank charges. The Supreme Court has overturned two earlier court rulings and said that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) cannot investigate unauthorised overdraft charges under consumer protection rules which govern fairness.

The court battle between the OFT and eight banks and building societies has been running since July 2007. Read our article from February ‘Are bank refund charges finally on their way?’ for a breakdown of the history of the case.

Kevin Mountford, moneysupermarket.com’s head of banking was at the Supreme Court for the hearing.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve issued a report that indicated U.S. consumer credit fell for the month of September. This makes the eighth consecutive month of consumer credit declines. It would be good to know the debt is falling due to better money management but for many the falling debt is a reaction to unemployment and tight credit markets.

In fact, consumers who have had virtually no change in their financial status during the recession are unable to borrow money unless they have near-perfect credit. In addition, banks are reducing credit card lines and those actions are leading to falling debt levels.

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We all want to watch our pennies and avoid overspending in today’s economy; and this is all the more evident when it comes to holiday shopping. Because of this, we may be inclined to keep the credit cards at home and use cash instead. But is this the best solution?

Perhaps not. Although the concept of only purchasing what you can afford to pay off within a month or two is an excellent idea, it may not be beneficial to pay for your holiday purchases with cash, and here’s why:

• Cash can be stolen – Yes, so can credit cards, but the biggest difference is that the answer to a stolen credit card is a simple phone call to your creditor to have the account frozen and the card replaced in a matter of days. Once

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