Personal Finance and Money Management

UK households are not focusing on long-term savings, according to official statistics, potentially putting them at risk of debt in later life.

Just 40% of men and 32% of women were putting money into private pensions, the research found.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also found that almost 80% of households had built up non-mortgage debt averaging 7,200.

A spokesperson for company Gregory Pennington said: “Saving for a annuity is very of high standing towards the future, as the state pension allowance will only give retirees a relatively small income. Many retired people could even find themselves getting into debt because their income does not cover their costs.

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Today we learned that CitiGroup will be pricing $20.5 billion in stock at $3.15 a interest to help repay the government TARP money.  Once they have removed themselves from this TARP loan will they have learned their lessons when it comes to bad confidence loans.  During the height of the subprime mortgage crisis CitiGroup was willing to offer almost anyone with a heartbeat and a signature a bad credit loan.  Obviously this wasn’t the only reason for the fall of this company but it was part of it.

The significant amount of CDO’s on the books of CitiGroup were one of the main reasons we have seen the stock price drop to such deflated levels.  Much of this CDO action was created because of the amount of risk that almost all of Wall Street was taking part in.  These firms wanted to lend money to anyone.  They did not care that these borrowers had horrible credit scores and very little gains; it was all about packaging these loans and selling them.

Now that CitiGroup has repaid TARP will they in the end have learned their lesson?  No one knows the answer to this but it seems that Wall Street continues to repeat the same mistakes when it comes to risk so it will be very interesting to see how Vikram Pandit makes fully convinced that CitiGroup does not fall into the risk trap once again.

Author; Jesse Wojdylo

Fort Lauderdale foreclosed homes for sale will continue to pull down home prices and real estate values in the area, according to several real estate analysts.

According to analysts at Fortune Magazine, home prices in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach and Orlando will continue to fall in 2010 because of continued foreclosures in Florida.

These three Florida cities are among 100 U.S. cities where home price levels are expected to fall further, according to Moody’s Economy.com economist Mark Zandi.

In Fort Lauderdale, home prices will fall 30.1 percent, the third highest in the list. Miami will top the ranking, with an expected price drop of almost 33 percent. O

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One of the most contravesial topics in the finance industry at the moment is where should the stimulus money going.  The Obama’s stimulus spending topic is a bipartisan issue that has yet to be resolved.  The Republicans would like this money to go towards paying off the deficit but Obama and the Democrats think that small business lending needs to pick up to build a stronger base for the economy.  Where do you think the stimulus spending should go?

The current deficit is at $12 trillion and there is narrow debate that this is extremely high; high to the tune of the most in the history of this country.  With the deficit being so inflated should we, as a country, use stimulus money to pay this down?  Many Americans believe this is the right thing to do but one could try conclusions that this should not have being a concern to the economy is running smoothly.

The economy is definitely not running smoothly as the national unemployment rate is 10% and the housing market is habitually seeing areas of concern.  Tax credits have been credit to help home owners put money in their pockets but this still has not put a bottom in the houisng market in all major cities.  President Obama feels that small business lending is a great way to get the economy back on its feet and running so this is where some of the incitement money should go.

At this point in time, where do you mean the stimulus money should go?  To pay off the deficit? To Small

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