The idea of investing in rental properties for many seems daunting and complicated, so many don’t. But along comes a great idea to allow small investors to become fractional landlords with little effort and small, controlled investments.

Opromark allows you to invest in a portfolio of professionally managed properties to let. The service is free to register at their site.

You become a fractional landlord by purchasing shares in available properties. You can purchase as few as one share for as little as a pound. It’s worth a look.

Recent figures provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) show how markedly insolvencies have risen over the past 12 months.

In the second quarter of 2004 there were 11,255 insolvencies, of which 8,8779 were bankruptcies and 2,240 were Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs).

In the second quarter of 2005 there were 15,394 insolvencies, of which 11,195 were bankruptcies and 4,199 were IVAs. This is an increase of 36.8% in overall insolvencies, 27.5% increase in bankruptcies and a 69.6% increase in IVAs. The number of insolvencies per quarter has risen every quarter since Q2 2003. All figures are seasonally adjusted.

Is there an end in sight, probably not? This is why Myvesta UK is so dedicated to helping people find good solutions to problem debts.

It is hard to believe that the latest news from the Dutch bank ING is such a great thing. Evidently ING has launched a new service for users of their Easy and Platinum MasterCard that will send an alert to the users mobile phone when they exceed 75 pc of their limit.

These alerts don’t include transactions less that 200 Euros or those from the Internet or overseas. So what’s the big news here? It would be easy as a card holder to be under the false impression that they would receive an alert, only to go over your limit with transactions that fall into the exception list.

A quote from DMeurope states “The service is expected to offer cardholders protection against misuse and helps them keep track of their expenditures.” Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

News just out gives a perfect example why mortgaging your house to the maximum limits can be very risky.

Housing prices have slid down again for the fourteenth month in a row. This is great news for buyers, but not good at all for sellers.

The average cost of a property in England and Wales is now £161,000, almost £7,000 less than in June 2004.

If you borrow to the limit on your home and values continue to decline you could find yourself in a situation where you owe more on your home than you can generate from a sale. If you can’t come up with the difference, you may be stuck in your home or lose it to repossession.

In the US, the troubling practice of lending up to 125% of a homes value has created real problems. Many people are now trapped in their homes because they owe so much more than it’s worth and they can’t payoff their mortgage. Those same types of loans are also available here. At times when property values are decreasing, these 125% mortgages are very dangerous financially. Stay away from them. And while you’re at it, in a declining property value market, stay away from the 100% mortgages as well.

Just when I thought I’d seen it all I stumbled across Doha Bank in Qatar. They offer a line of credit cards that are “free for life”. I’m not quite sure what that means but what I found most intriguing was the fact that the monthly minimum payment is 10% of the outstanding balance. This is a huge amount when compared with minimums in the UK or the US.

We can’t forget that winter is coming again, as it does every year that we are alive. But for some, they won’t survive the winter this year, instead finding an ill death related to winter cold.

With energy prices ever increasing with no end in sight, the cost of fuel on a tight budget is a real concern.

If you are a current client of Myvesta UK we can offer you access to free funds for energy grants you may be eligible for. These funds can pay for home improvements to lower energy costs as well as other fuel related expenses.

More information on fuel poverty.

Basic bank accounts fail to meet the needs of half the UK's poorest people, the National Consumer Council says.

Research carried out for the NCC reveals that those with such accounts are more likely to get into financial problems than those without them. [more]

When you are struggling with debt, sometimes you can only look a day or two ahead in life. Here is a nice story about how determination and hard work can pay off. This can happy to you also if you want something bad enough. Don’t give up hope.

(It was such a classic headline, I had to use it.)

Oh the irony!

And you thought you had a bad experience with a debt collector. Even business that legally need to have debts collected have bad experiences. You’ll find the tangled web this collection company left behind, interesting. Great article.

"During the three months to the end of July, 57 per cent of purchases made by men on their credit cards were purely self-indulgent, compared with just 37 per cent of women's. Men also spent an average of £324 on themselves, while women spent just £176 on personal treats."

"The Welsh were the most disciplined when it came to treating themselves, spending an average of only £34 during the three-month period."

Makes you want to read more, doesn't it. See "Self-indulgent men more likely than women to spend money on themselves"

"Figures from the Association of Payment Clearing Services show that in June, debit cards for the first time took more than 60 per cent of the value of transactions, well ahead of credit cards." That means that while more transactions are in play, the majority are no longer on credit cards. -- Financial Times, Mirror

We often think about how fast or large consumer debt is growing as a bad thing but we can’t forget that to creditors the goal is to grow consumer debt to maximise profits.

A recent article in Forbes is a perfect example of another point-of-view when increasing consumer debt is exciting news.

If you get a moment read “DATAWATCH UK consumer slowdown fears eased by July retail sales upside surprise”.

Our love of the credit card in the UK continues to rise, at least as measured by usage and debt.

According to the group Datamonitor, the combined value of all transactions made on credit, debit, charge and store cards was 436 billion pounds in 2004, 11 percent higher than in 2003.

And when you look at the levels of debt that we carry these days it is very possible that UK consumers could double, yes double, the amount of debt they carry within ten years.

These are the times that we all need to exercise financial caution. With employment rates slipping and the housing market starting to cool off, those things we’ve learned to depend on, jobs and equity, could disappear unexpectedly.

I certainly don’t want you to feel like the sky Is falling, the world is not going to end tomorrow. But it would be healthy if we simply looked at our personal financial situation before we bought the next big ticket item and asked ourselves just one question, “Do I really need this”.

In reality the economy is cyclical and while times might become tougher and some will suffer, we will survive, but it might just be differently than we planned for or expected.

If you are at all interested in the factors that led people to overspend then I suggest that you spend some time curled up with the Financial Services Authority paper by The Henley Centre titled “Towards Understanding Consumers’ Needs”.

The paper revels that more of the spending in the UK is targeted towards lifestyle and fun purchases rather than needs. It is forecast that by 2010; nearly 75 per cent of spending will be on the lifestyle and fun items.

Time and time again study’s like this one have shown that an increase in income and disposable wealth do not increase our satisfaction with life or our happiness. This work shares that very same message again.

I love the fact that the paper presents the underlying issues why people get into financial trouble and even shows you Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a key force in consumer debt. Maslow’s work is a critical tool in understanding the underlying motives that get people into financial trouble.

A key point in the paper seems right on target. It states that rather than life becoming less financially uncertain, it will become more so because as life becomes more complicated, the risks increase as well. The nasty shift from things that used to be labelled as nice to have items is rapidly shifting to must have items, especially in the travel/leisure categories. More mandatory discretionary items simple means more debt for many.

If you enjoy research like this, you will be very interested in the polarity of findings. The work presents points of view of people from hedonists to calculating planners. This work is very enlightening and worth investing the time in reading all 114 pages.

A new study in America has found that more Americans expect to work ‘till death. CNN Money published an article today that shows some alarming trends that can and will impact every major economy where credit and debt are rising, including the UK.

Twelve per cent of people feel they won’t be able to retire at all. This is an increase of 171 per cent since 2000 in the number of people that feel that retire is out of the grasp completely.

In 2000 42 per cent of workers felt they would work part-time and pursue other interests. Today that number has fallen to only 27 per cent of workers that feel they will be able to reduce working hours.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any tighter in the household budget, they do. There was a wonderful article recently that uncovered the hidden rise in household bills. According to the article, during 2004 while inflation rose only 1.1%, council taxes rose by a whopping 11%. The cost of running a home rose by 5% during the same period.

The bad news is that recent increases in the UK consumer price inflation to 2.3% in July this year, the highest level since records began, fuelling worries that the economy does not need to be warmed up by reducing interest rates. The figure was in line with the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. I guess that’s good news for the prognosticators.

Great article in the Sunday Times today on students and debt. With UK students starting out with an average student loan debt of £13,500, it is no wonder why it is easy for graduates to not be able to work in their fields.

Students just out of university are just at the beginning of their professional lives. This is often the time when entry level jobs in their desired fields are offering experience without much financial reward. However, student loan repayments can create a financial monster on the students back and cause them to have to forgo a great entry level job in order to feed the loan.

The article also contains some very good eye opening financial facts for students. For more information about student bank overdraft charges as high as 29.8 per cent and fee-free student issued credit cards, be sure to read the Sunday Times article. Two good resources on student debt are milkround and Student Finance Direct.