Personal Finance and Investing

Prudential has revealed that nearly half of women over the age of 40 who live with a partner have no pension of their own, according to new research into couples’ attitudes to retirement.

The extent of women’s reliance on a partner’s pension and the State is not the only shock finding from the research, which also highlights that many UK couples could be sleep-walking into retirement poverty as they have no idea what pension income they will need to live on.

More than half of couples aged over 40 have not worked out how much money they will need to live on in retirement, with two in five admitting to having no financial plans in place for life after work.

British couples also seem reluctant to discuss with each other the finances that will support them in later life. Read more…

I’m writing this post from the Caribbean island of Grenada, where I’m house-sitting for three months. Sounds pretty good, huh?

Well, I’ve just been dealt a heavy blow. My “partner” — who was supposed to join me here shortly — announced that he’s been sleeping with another woman, and….drum roll, please….she’s pregnant.

So my plans of spending the next three months in romantic coupled bliss on a tropical island are out the window. And to make matters worse, I’m really sick — an illness so incapacitating that I can only sit up for bouts of 10 minutes before having to lie down again. Being sic

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Many consumers rely on their credit cards when they run out of cash in their bank accounts and, whilst this isn’t a huge problem in itself, it often causes problems in the future. Millions of people in the United States have ended up with huge amounts of credit card debt which they never realized that they were accruing. This is because it is so easy to spend money on a credit card without having the ability to repay. Even after just a few months of regular spending on a credit card, the amount of debt that has been generated could be too high for a consumer to be able to repay for many years.

Added on to this issue is the fact that many consumers suffer from high interest rates which make it increasingly difficult for them to repay the amount they owe. O

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This isn’t a case of sour grapes; I really do prefer to buy used whenever possible. Maybe it’s the result of being raised by frugal parents, maybe it’s a too-intimate understanding of arbitrary retail markup and the subsequent depreciation, or maybe it just makes the most sense in a world that produces too much new stuff and throws away too much old stuff. Whatever the reason, let’s explore my top six reasons why buying used is better.

First, and most obviously, buying second-hand is usually more budget friendly. From used cars to used jeans, the resale market can help you make ends meet. Garage

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