Welcome to the New Year!
Well, 2008 is well and truly upon us: we're back at work, the trains still aren't running properly, it's cold enough for huskies to be complaining and loads of us are laid up in bed with the novo virus!
It's often in these first few days of January that we tend to think about resolutions and plans for the year ahead.
Some of the usual favourites include not drinking/eating/smoking as much, spending more time with the family, not getting into a rage while sitting in another endless traffic queue, etc.
Some of you may even through caution to the wind and think of some more pragmatic things such as spending less (especially on credit cards!) and saving more (or actually start saving...)
In short, a New Year often calls for a new way of thinking, and to be honest after 2007, who can blame us?
As many of you will no doubt remember, 2007 was an absolute pig of a year in terms of personal finance and all things monetary.
Just a few highlights were:
- Northern Rock fiasco
- HMRC losing important discs by the bucketload
- The sub prime mortgage crisis in the USA begining to affect the property market here
- Living costs rising faster than salary increases
- People finding it tougher to get a credit card or mortgage
- Personal debt at record levels due to massive levels of overspending
So, with a New Year, maybe we don't need new resolutions for the financial sector but a whole new morality?We came across this excellent article about the financial sector and its effect on us by Iris Benn-Carr of The Scotsman.
Why not start 2008 by reading it and then think about what you can do to make this year financially easier on yourself?
It might require you take a long hard look at yourself but we are confident it will be worth it.
And if you are up for making some New Year's resolutions about your finance, why not share them with us in the comments?