Alliance turning towards the financial dark side

Written by Richard Green


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Recent announcements byrepparttar Treasury deliveredrepparttar 145937 worst monthly public borrowing figures since records began in 1993, re-igniting fears over a possible rise in taxes.

Consumers are reducingrepparttar 145938 amount they borrow on credit cards and analysts predict mortgage lending inrepparttar 145939 UK will plummet by 10 per cent overrepparttar 145940 next three years, asrepparttar 145941 out of control growth in house prices finally stalls.

Independent market analyst Datamonitor claims, lenders who have been enjoying a boom in recent years, will struggle to maintainrepparttar 145942 momentum and be forced to work harder to secure market share.

Investor Connections, a group of independent financial advisers, has called for an accurate assessment ofrepparttar 145943 UK's current economic position, after statistics showedrepparttar 145944 three main asset classes, shares, bonds and property are all experiencing downward trends.

This downturn should spell good news for borrowers and homeowners, asrepparttar 145945 mortgage and credit industries fight for customers and sharpen up on their competitiveness; howeverrepparttar 145946 evidence of Lloyds TSB’s actions seems to belie this. With HBOS forced to criticiserepparttar 145947 other credit card companies for failing to provide customers with adequate product information, despite repeated requests to do so from consumer lobby groups and watchdogs onrepparttar 145948 Treasury Select Committee, it looks likerepparttar 145949 majority of finance companies are currently out to protect themselves and their share-holders, with little regard for their customers. At a time when UK consumers are proportionately saving less than half of what they were 25 years ago, you might be forgiven for thinking that competition inrepparttar 145950 banking world would be becoming increasingly cut-throat in order to gain customers’ business, but it seems thatrepparttar 145951 big institutions are instead looking to go downrepparttar 145952 route of cost reduction to protect their profits. There are savings are out there to be made, but they are savings in costs to be made byrepparttar 145953 finance companies, atrepparttar 145954 expense ofrepparttar 145955 consumer, rather than beneficial savings forrepparttar 145956 customer.

Richard works in Edinburgh for a media company, occasionally writing for the personal finance blog Cashzilla ( http://cashzilla.blogspot.com/ ), and drinking too much coffee.


Invest to make money, not to get rich.

Written by DPB Financial


Continued from page 1

One lessoned learned duringrepparttar ‘90s wasrepparttar 145885 importance of due diligence; researching company financial records, management philosophies, growth strategies, etc. Doing so allows investors to find strong investment opportunities and minimizerepparttar 145886 risk of purchasing a bankrupt company.

Investing to make money stressesrepparttar 145887 need to evaluate financial goals and taking steps, not leaps, to get there. The oil boom ofrepparttar 145888 year has brought about several high return stocks; doubling or tripling in a matter of months. Taking advantage of one of these stocks is a giant leap, but finding a 200% gain might require 7-8 25% losses. Ultimately, an investor could lose more than gained.

With solid research, finding companies capable of returning 10-20% growth per year has a high probability. While not as romantic as a single high-return investment, five 20% gains equalsrepparttar 145889 return of a single 100% gain. This isrepparttar 145890 meaning of taking steps. Settle for solid returns and repeatrepparttar 145891 process as many times possible. While not every stock will produce 20%, selecting strong companies will limit your risk for large losses.

DPB Financial – www.dpbfinancial.com

*The information within this article is for educational purposes only and is not being provided as investment advice. DPB Financial recommends that investors do their own due diligence or solicit the advice of an investment professional.*


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