Debt consolidation can help you bring your debts to a manageable level, you are able to live a stress-free life and save enough money for a vacation or for retirement. A debt consolidation loan can also help you avoid bankruptcy.

You have to do research to make sure that debt consolidation loan offer will work for you. For example in certain conditions you may end up paying much more under your new loan than in your previous one.

You should take into account length of repayment period of debt consolidation loan. Sometimes a debt consolidation loan can offer lower monthly payments by spreading cost of loan over a longer period of time. This could mean you may end up paying much more in long term. However this can still be beneficial if you are more worried about your short term debt woes.

Most smart investors put enough money in a savings product to cover an emergency, like sudden unemployment. Some make sure they have up to six months of their income in savings so that they know it will absolutely be there for them when they need it.

But how "safe" is a savings account if you leave all your money there for a long time, and interest it earns doesn't keep up with inflation? Let's say you save a pound when it can buy a loaf of bread. But years later when you withdraw that pound plus interest you earned, it might only be able to buy half a loaf. That is why many people put some of their money in savings, but look to investing so they can earn more over long periods of time, say three years or longer.

You may prefer to invest your money in order to achieve a higher return compared to savings but you should be aware that when you "invest," you have a greater chance of losing your money than when you "save." You could lose your "principal," which is amount you've invested. That's true even if you purchase your investments through a bank. But when you invest, you also have opportunity to earn more money than when you save.

All investments involve taking on risk. It's important that you go into any investment in stocks, bonds or mutual funds with a full understanding that you could lose some or all of your money in any one investment.

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