Throughout history, and all over the World, gold has been used as a currency. Partly due to its rarity and partly due to its aesthetics gold has always held a high value for lots of different people and countries. In fact, the first gold coins were struck during the reign of King Croesus of Lydia, which is modern day Turkey, between 560BC and 547BC. Gold coins have continued to be legal tender ever since and investors love gold for the relative predictability of its value. In recent times it has become a very popular investment. Some things hardly ever change when it comes to looking after your money and in the current economic uncertainty you could do worse than convert some of your cash, if you have any spare, into gold. Gold is the most popular of the precious metals … Continue reading →

      If your schedule makes it difficult to conduct business with your bank and they don’t offer useful services such as telephone banking and online banking that would enable you to get things done at the bank quicker, then your bank is essentially costing you money and it is time to start shopping around for a new one.   Every time you can’t get a cheque cashed or you can’t get a money transfer set up or you can’t get other routing banking business done because your bank isn’t open when you need it to be they the bank’s business practices are interfering with your financial life. Don’t accept this situation. Your bank should be there to serve your needs when you need them and one way or another should be able to offer you banking services that … Continue reading →

      Keep an eye on your bank statements and check them every month for spurious and unwanted fees. In a good bank account they should be few and far between, but if you start to see things like maintenance fees, cheque cashing fees or any other fees you don’t understand then query them with your bank and ask for them to be remvoed.   If the bank refuses to remove these fees for you then it may be time to start looking around for a bank account that is friendlier and doesn’t have any hidden fees.    

      Well this tip is fairly straight forward and is similar to tip number 47 in that you don’t have to settle for the interest rate you are getting on your savings account.   Ask your bank if they have a savings account that pays high interest and consider switching to it, but before you do, shop around the other banks to see if they will offer even more.