The Unique Finance Blog

There are numerous reasons why a personal loan may be required, home improvements, car purchases, holidays or new furniture. Make sure you understand what type of loan you are taking out, if it is secured against your property or an unsecured loan.

Getting to college, saving the money and earning it as you go is only a part of the story. Most students will borrow at least some of the cash they need.

I only have a limited amount of money (Dh3,000). Where can I invest it, and receive the highest return?

Many times we hear this million dollar question “When on earth do I start my savings plan?”

I Worry About the Young People and I Worry About the Older People. Did you know that the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 9 percent of children have symptoms of depression? It is believed that the large number of social pressures may be pushing more kids over the edge. Depressed youngsters are at high risk for school failure, social isolation, promiscuity, self-medication with drugs or alcohol, and suicide. A large number of children today, depressed or not, is joining gangs and consequently, younger and younger children are committing crimes and going to jail at earlier ages. What is even worse, a large number of high-school students have had suicidal thoughts and some of them have even planed to take their own lives. I am worried!

get married, have some kids and pay off the mortgage. If everything goes well, we will then retire somewhere sunny playing bridge and golf everyday. Many people will also go through painful episodes of divorce and/or bankruptcy.

The expression “keeping up with the Joneses” was first coined by the cartoonist Arthur R. (”Pop”) Momand in his once highly popular comic strip entitled, ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. Launched in 1913, the comic strip ran in American newspapers for over 28 years. The inspiration for the comic strip came directly from Pop’s experiences in his former hometown of Cedarhurst, New York where friends and neighbors were living well beyond their means in their eternal quest to keep up with their well-to-do acquaintances.

Many people think that credit scores are only about managing money and debt well. But more and more people are starting to realize the importance of harnessing their emotions in order to control their money and eventually to raise their credit score. In fact, in recent years there has been an awareness on the link between our emotions and our money – that is, how our financial health is affected by our emotions.

Save money by not using credit cards is an option if you are on a budget and finding yourself in debt. Credit cards often come with steep interest rates, which if you roll over your payments to the following month additional interest are added. In addition, most credit cards charge fees for using the cards, or will charge you interest on each purchase you make.

Saving money is never as hard as it may seem. We all buy certain things regularly, we all need food, toilet paper, household cleaners, makeup and countless other things, and chances are most of us are spending more than we have to on these.

In a paperless world, you might think identity theft would run rampant. But it’s really not that bad. With so many banks, credit card companies and stores going totally electronic, they’ve all taken steps to increase online security and help prevent identity theft.

Credit Repair Pays

The impact of bad credit can be significant. Over the years we have helped tens of thousands of our customers successfully repair their credit reports. Credit report repair takes effort and patience. But it is an effort that is well rewarded. We would like to offer some tips for those that would like to undertake the process themselves. It can be done!

When creating a budget to get out of debt the hardest part is just sitting down and getting started. No one likes to face the fact that they overspend and creating a budget will be a very big eye opener in seeing where and how you overspend.

A page from ftc.gov site begins with the headline Secured Credit Card Marketing Scams and then it places a copy of an advertising sample that reads, “ANYONE CAN QUALIFY FOR A MAJOR CREDIT CARD! Separated? Divorced? Bankrupt? widowed? BAD CREDIT? NO CREDIT? NO PROBLEM!”

As the UK economy continues to move ahead strongly, there are worrying signs that personal debt is running out of control. A recent financial report from the Bank of England was reviewed by Credit Action - a charitable association campaigning for individuals in financial trouble - and showed that personal debt in the UK was rising by an alarming £15 million an hour!

I’ll try to make this article short and sweet by providing you with the top tips for improving your finances for the New Year.