Finally, a bit of good news for dedicated savers came out recently with the announcement from the Bank of England that there had been a further fall in inflation.

This was mostly a result of last year’s VAT rise falling out of the annual inflation-rate figures, although the cost of most household goods, clothes and petrol has gone down.

A Better Return on Savings

As a result, savers can expect to earn more on their savings and those not currently saving are expected to at last see an incentive to start. Families with young children should at last feel encouraged to open up a junior ISA for their children.

Over the last four months, inflation has declined to 3.6% and the Retail Price Index (RPI) has seen a decrease to 3.9%. This means that basic rate tax payers must earn 4.51% on their savings to combat inflation, 40% rate taxpayers 6.01% and higher-rate taxpayers 7.21%.

Thinking about saving for your children’s future may now seem more realistic and opening a Junior ISA is a good way to start. The Junior ISA replaced the Child Trust Fund in November 2011 and any child who was not eligible for the Child Trust Fund can now have a Junior ISA opened up in their name.

Finding an Inflation Beating Savings Account The impact of falling inflation is such that there are currently five fixed-rate bond accounts that can beat the inflation rate for basic-rate taxpayers and 26 fixed-rate Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs).

It will be worth your while checking out which accounts are currently beating inflation and opening one up to start saving. Or if you already have a savings account, then do a quick comparison to see how your savings account stacks up against the rest. If yours is under performing, check your terms and conditions, as you may be able to do a transfer to an inflation-beating savings account.

After the last few years of economic gloom that has been much reported in the media, the lower inflation rates should help ease some of the pressure felt by the majority of households, although most do remain understandably cautious and particularly nervous about job insecurity.

Reports indicate that the average household debt has stabilised and there has been a drop in the number of people relying on credit cards or other unsecured debt. The signs had been there in January, with a somewhat unexpected rise of 0.9% in high-street and online spending.

This is coupled with a documented rise of 4.9% in cash savings in the last quarter of 2011. As well as encouraging saving, the falling rate of inflation should also mean less costly borrowing and even more incentive to spend as the year continues.

One of the most interesting questions in the world of personal finance is what it really means to live well. What it really means to know that all things in your life are exactly the way it should be. And if you’re dealing with trying to get out of debt, this is a question that you’re actually going to have to answer for yourself. You see, everyone’s financial blueprint is different. This means that you really can’t just take someone else’s answer of what it means to live well and make it your own. You will not be as happy as you think if you do it this way.

Instead, you’re going to have to really think about what the question means to you. For us, we believe that living well means having the bills paid and having a little bit extra in the bank to keep you afloat for the times that get rough. If you really look at a lot of real life stories of personal finance horror stories online, you’ll find that they have a common theme. That theme is going to be having too many bills and not enough savings. Yes, we know that it’s an oversimplification, but the truth is that the more you have in savings, the easier you will be able to deal with emergencies and other problems that come up.

For example, if you know that you want to have children in the future, it’s always a good idea to save money. No, we can’t always predict when children will arrive but we have to make sure that we really do as much as possible to make sure that everything is taken care of the way it needs to be taken care of.

Living well also means reaching the milestones on your financial blueprint. If you want a house, then you need to adjust your blueprint so that you can get that house. If you want a promotion at work, you’re going to probably have to increase your skills and value to the company in order to get promoted.

It’s just a matter of making sure that you continue to focus on your goals as they relate to what you feel constitutes a great life. The more work you put into your blueprint, the more that you’re actually going to get out of it. Good luck out there!

If you’ve found the love of your life, you might be head over heels, over the moon, and absolutely unable to think about anything except how much you actually love and cherish your partner. These are all happy feelings, and we are definitely not trying to take away your feelings at all. We’re just trying to tell you that if you’re really serious about having a good life with your partner, you really do need to talk about your financial blueprint.

It’s not really a romantic topic, but it’s an important topic. If you are going to have children, then this is even more of an important topic than if you aren’t planning on bringing children into things. When you have another human being dependent on you to take care of them, things really do change. You have to give up a lot of the things that you knew in order to take care of them. That’s something that shouldn’t be ignored at all. You just need to make sure that you really keep your options open and really ensure that everything is being taken care of as much as possible.

Are you thinking about getting married? You might fear that your spouse to be is going to be a little taken aback if you just start thinking only about financial things. However, this is the highest gift that you can possibly give to your spouse to be. If you want to make sure that you have a good life, then talking about your finances just makes sense.

This is not a time to hide the numbers. If you’re in debt, then your spouse is going to find out anyway. So there’s really no reason to hide it from them at all. You just need to make sure that you really have the strength to push forward and let the other person know where you stand. If they’re really so turned off because you talked about a stable financial future, then they’re probably not going to be the type of person that you want to marry in the first place.

You need to design how your finances are going to look after you get married. Setting up accounts together as a couple is going to be important, but it’s also going to be important to really stop and hear what the other person has to say. You might think that you already have a good idea of what they think about things, but you could be totally surprised at what they really have in mind for you.

So you have to absolutely make sure that you’re thinking about the bigger picture at all times. How much do you both want to spend on the wedding? What is your budget for that? In addition, you will need to start thinking about the expenses that will come as a result of living together. You both might want to live in a better area, and you can pool your income together in order to make that happen. It’s just a matter of thinking about all of these things before you tie the knot.

Of course, you also need to think about end of life issues, which is a subject that no one really wants to talk about. However, it’s necessary. Putting together a will and thoughts about what you want done at the time of your death is also important. You just have to figure out what you want and then go for it — why not start today? You’ll be glad that you did!

Debt consolidation is capable of working wonders – if you believe the praise bestowed on it by many debt advice agencies, that is. According to them, debt consolidation reduces monthly payments, simplifies your finances, saves you from having to apply for bankruptcy and may even reduce the overall amount of money owed to your creditors. Effectively, one might be tempted to conclude, debt consolidation can protect your credit rating as you continue shopping. But is it really that good? And are there no side effects attached to it as well?

Debt consolidation under fire

Of course there are, according to financial author Dave Ramsey. Ramsey has written an article which may well be the most outspoken and open criticism of debt consolidation to date and serves as a passionate counterpoint to the ideal picture painted by some in the debt advice industry. According to Ramsey:

„Debt consolidation is nothing more than a “con” because you think you’ve done something about the debt problem. The debt is still there, as are the habits that caused it – you just moved it! You can’t borrow your way out of debt. You can’t get out of a hole by digging out the bottom. True debt help is not quick or easy.“

Debt consolidation: How it works

Ramsey has a point. After all, debt consolidation doesn’t magically wipe away your debt. What it does is consolidate all of your loans into a single payment handled by a debt management agency (note that the agency doesn’t actually provide you with a loan, but merely takes care of communicating with your creditors on your behalf). The monthly payment resulting from debt consolidation will typically be lower than before, making it seem as though you have more money to spend. But in fact, the overall debt to be paid back may actually increase to compensate for the fact that it is now paid back over a longer period of time. Better not embark on that spending spree after all.

The benefits of debt consolidation

And yet, debt consolidation can be extremely beneficial in many other cases. The logic behind debt consolidation is that not everyone defaulting on their debt is incapable of paying them back. Rather, in some cases, the conditions of the loan are problematic. Which means that debt consolidation makes sense if it can help you restructure your loans to meet your financial capabilities, preventing you from going bankrupt. All which are good things in my book.

Get advice on debt consolidation

The truly essential thing is to get sound advice on whether or not debt consolidation makes sense in your particular case. There are a number of trustworthy debt advice agencies in the UK which are able to provide you with the information you need and to set up a debt consolidation deal for you.

What’s your time worth? Now, we’re not just talking about how much you get paid to do the skill of your choice. You want to actually start thinking about the type of activities that you’re going to be involved in to get your finances to a higher level. This might mean that you’re thinking about taking on another job, or it might just mean that you’re trying to negotiate your finances.

There is an opportunity cost that is often measured in time. A lot of people find themselves doing tasks that really don’t get them to anywhere else that they would like to be. It just ends up taking a lot of time out of the things that they really want to do — and that’s a real shame.

You’re going to feel a little overwhelmed when it comes time to really deal with your finances. It’s better to make sure that you really start focusing on the bigger picture rather than always worrying about doing everything yourself.

For example, it might be in your best interest to get a credit negotiator on your side. These are people that are going to charge a fee in order to work with the creditors you have to deal with. They might also work with collection agencies in order to help you settle your debts. However, is it really worth it to you? Well, that depends on how knowledgeable you are on the subject to begin with. You just need to figure out how you actually want to get things done — there’s no reason to push forward on your own when you know that it would take forever to learn how to negotiate with the creditors yourself. On the other hand, if you’re a fast learner then this is something that you might feel comfortable with. It’s completely up to you of course.

Figuring out what’s worth your time and what isn’t worth your time will help you make better purchases a swell. Increasing the amount of time each week that you have available to work is going to earn you more money in the long run. That’s money that can be pushed towards paying on your debts faster. So as you can see, time management definitely makes a difference. In fact it’s one of the strongest skills that we can cultivate if you really want to make sure that you have plenty of time to move your financial agenda forward!