Simple Pound

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Ramit @ I Will Teach You To Be Rich is starting a new series on women and how they handle life, money, entrepreneurship and the like. He’s asked his readers to submit “real-life” stories to show that personal finance affects both men and women (fairly) equally and hence disprove a few clichés and stereotypes that still lurk in people’s heads.

I think it will definitely be a worthwhile and interesting read and Ramit wants as many women to comment on those posts as possible in order to not just talk about women but also with them.

Therefore I encourage all my female readers (and everyone else obviously) not just to keep an eye out for this series of interviews and stories but also to comment frequently and share your views with the rest of the world (well, at least the PF community…but it’s a start! ).

Read it here.

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After I got an amazing amount of traffic through last week’s carnival hosted @ Get Rich Slowly, I decided to submit another article to this week’s issue and I’m happy to announce that it has been included again!

Head over to Digerati Life to find the 91 best submissions of this week, including my post about how to select funds.

I am currently at home with my parents so won’t be able to proclaim my favourites (yet) since my parents are on a dial-up connection and I don’t want them to suffer from a heart attack when they get their monthly bill…

But I promise you’ll get an overview of my favourite posts shortly (i.e. tomorrow when I’m back home)!

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A little while ago, the Fool.co.uk website published a list of financial products that they deemed to be the worst possible choices. This regards general product categories as opposed to individual offers and is a must-read in my opinion.

The list can be summarised as follows:

1. Guaranteed Equity Bonds
2. Payment protection insurance
3. Store cards
4. Not-so-secure loans
5. No-deal mortgages
6. Extended warranties
7. Fund of funds
8. Low-interest current accounts (Read my post about this here)
9. Products advertised on TV
10. General warning

Head over there now to read the details of why you should avoid these products and save yourself some money by avoiding mistakes other people have made for you!

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For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Carnival of Personal Finance is a way for bloggers to share their week’s best posts and have it aggregated by a fellow blogger in the community. This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is hosted by J.D. @ Get Rich Slowly and is a special edition in that it marks the two year anniversary of the carnival. Therefore J.D. asked the bloggers to submit what they deemed to be their best post of the last two years.

Since I haven’t been blogging for two years I simply submitted the post that took the most effort and research to write: Interest rates and inflation. This is the first time I have submitted something and I’m very happy that J.D. thought it was good enough to be included.

He included 82 submissions of which the following are my personal favourites (in no particular order):

• Who do you think you are? A post about how your lifestyle and thus spending habits are effected by the social groups you identify with.
• Money isn’t everything and it isn’t you. Probably one of the most important things to bear in mind as you go through life, struggling more or less to keep your finances in order: Life is about happiness, not money.
• How to beat the car dealer at his own game. Insights from someone who has worked as a car salesman for a month.
• What’s a sound financial lifestyle? 17 of the most important bloggers in the personal finance community contribute thoughts to this question. The dominant response: living within one’s financial means.
• Tips for having a successful budget. Very detailed and well written how-to for anyone wanting to get to grips with that dreadful b-word.
• The best place to hide money: Conversation with a burglar. The title says it all. A must read. Part 2 can be found here.

I hope you enjoy the articles as much as I did!

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I have talked about Zopa.com a little while ago, and my initial thoughts were fairly positive. I still plan on trying it as soon as I have sufficient funds available.

J.D. @ Get Rich Slowly has posted a couple of articles on Prosper.com, which - as far as I can tell - is fairly similar to Zopa.com. The articles have generated quite a heated discussion and he has reproduced some of the comments in a further blog entry (that also includes comments made on other people’s blog).

I thought you might be interested in reading more about people’s experiences with personal lending sites, so I want to share the links here:

• Original article: Investing on YOUR Terms
• Prosper Personal Lending Update
• Comments Round-Up

Let me know what you think!

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An article @ This is Money compares prices for various items today with those 25 years ago. The first thing you’ll notice is that while (average) salaries have increased by 227%, house prices have gained a staggering 722%! But the comparison also shows that goods don’t always have to be more expensive than they were 25 years ago - for example, a 22 inch Sony colour TV would have set you back £297 in1982 while it only costs £148.99 today.

More highlights include:

• Pint of London Pride: £0.58 then - £2.80 now. That’s +382%
• Odeon cinema ticket: £1.60 then - £6.50 now. That’s +306%
• Manchester United season ticket: £64 then - £437 now. That’s +582%
• Sony Walkman: £80 then - £19.99 now. That’s -75%
• Flight to Paris: £148 then - £51 now. That’s -65%

Are you aware of any other goods that you have purchased in the past for more (or less) than you would buy it for today? Let us know in the comments!

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