StuartBlog's BLOG

Its been a little crazy in the stock markets of the world over the last 10 days or so. Much of this is almost certainly due to the rapidly rising price of oil. It must be great being a Saudi Prince right now...

Prices of shares have been tumbling and investment and pension funds MUST have started to see major drops in their balance sheets. All in all, not a great thing for the average worker / employee / shareholder / retiree. Is that almost all of us???

Oil price increases are, of course, being matched by rising fuel costs generally, increasing inflation in food prices and likely interest rate hikes. The European central bank just moved rates up a notch for something like 350 million people!

After all those good times and good years, it is most definately time to focus on household budgets.

With that in mind, I found this pafe about budgeting. It was written with people in debt in mind, but the principles are the same for sure:

http://www.debtmanagementresources.com/debt-manag......

I know that most of my posts are related to personal finance or economics, but I thought I'd post something that is interesting to me personally...

I'm based in Gloucestershire, England and as a hobby, I like to go to salsa classes. I haven't been going to salsa for all that long, maybe 6/8 months so far. I wouldn't say I'm good yet, but I am getting better!

I found this link - which I liked - and is related to salsa classes in the Cheltenham area, so I thought I'd post it here. I hope that you like it.

Best wishes.

http://www.squidoo.com/cheltenhamsalsa

Hi everyone,

I found something in yesterdays Sunday Times that really got to me, so I thought I'd drop a little note here about it.

The article, tiny as it was, discussed a survey which the Financial Services Authority has conducted. It seems that almost half of the companies they questioned has no information security training for staff. Isn't that a disgrace?

These days, to be able to deal with a financial services company, an individual needs to fill out forms to prove they are not a criminal or money launderer. The questions relate to all sorts of topics and fulfill the 'KYC' or Know Your Client requirements which are requested by law.

And yet it seems that once this info is passed over, almost anything could happen to it. Bearing in mind the scale of identity theft in the UK over recent years, this is very poor from these companies.

It makes you wonder whether they care about their customers at all...

Who am I kidding???

To read more about ID fraud in......

Hey everyone,

I hope that anyone who reads this - and I know you are out there - is well and things are fine for you as you are reading this.

This is just a random post about job things... I have been applying for jobs here in the UK recently. I look at online jobs sites mostly. The positions are advertised by recruitment consultants.

Is it just me or are they virtually all useless??? I spent much of Friday phoning these firms to get updates about my online applications. These firms are - according to the site T&C - meant to contact the applicant. Do they?

What do you think... take a guess...

Mostly, they can't find the application. Some don't even look. One firm told me that the firewall of their website does not allow applications from this particular site - but they still advertise. Amazing!!

Talk about banging a head against a wall.

If you happen to be reading this and are a recruitment person, I'm sorry. Not very sorry, just a little. But blimey......

I'm in the UK at the moment. We have gale force winds and have had on and off for a couple of days.

Apparently, there are gusts of up to 85 mph. On the news this morning they mentioned that the strongest winds ever recorded in the UK were at 112 mph - so this is very strong by our standards... I appreciate that other parts of the world get far worse than this.

Hopefully, there will be no fatalities and things will pass relatively safely. But I quite like the fact that from time to time the planet reminds us who really is in charge and of the immense power of nature. Oddly, I find it a little reassuring.

Hoping that everyone reading this is safe,

Stuart

I'm in the UK at the moment. We have gale force winds and have had on and off for a couple of days.

Apparently, there are gusts of up to 85 mph. On the news this morning they mentioned that the strongest winds ever recorded in the UK were at 112 mph - so this is very strong by our standards... I appreciate that other parts of the world get far worse than this.

Hopefully, there will be no fatalities and things will pass relatively safely. But I quite like the fact that from time to time the planet reminds us who really is in charge and of the immense power of nature. Oddly, I find it a little reassuring.

Hoping that everyone reading this is safe,

Stuart

I'm in the UK at the moment. We have gale force winds and have had on and off for a couple of days.

Apparently, there are gusts of up to 85 mph. On the news this morning they mentioned that the strongest winds ever recorded in the UK were at 112 mph - so this is very strong by our standards... I appreciate that other parts of the world get far worse than this.

Hopefully, there will be no fatalities and things will pass relatively safely. But I quite like the fact that from time to time the planet reminds us who really is in charge and of the immense power of nature. Oddly, I find it a little reassuring.

Hoping that everyone reading this is safe,

Stuart

Just heard this...

Why did the little girl cross the playground?

To get to the other slide...

In these difficult financial times, many people are in need of a second income to help them with the household budgeting. It will come as no surprise that many of these people look to make money trading on the stock exchange, looking for ways to utilise their spare capital more effectively.

For families with money sat on deposit who would like to use the funds and make them work harder, trading can be a useful part-time way to add an extra income stream. Whether markets are calm or volatile, it is possible for an investor or trader to make money. However, as might be imagined, there are some important skills and knowledge that is required.

To read the full article, please visit:

http://www.stockexchangesecrets.com/make-money-trading.html

The last few days has seen me working on my own accounts. You know the stuff... Income, expenditures and taxes. Not a fun time, if I do say so myself.

However, it did remind me of just how difficult it can be to become a successful investor.

I am not an accountant and never will be. The idea of spending my entire life working by looking back at things that have happened would kill my spirit quickly. An optimist like myself would find it very difficult.

But, actually, dealing with accounts can be a very confusing and complicated task. I found myself muddled on a couple of occassions - and they are my accounts! For those of us without a formal training in number crunching, trying to understand the accounts of a company can be very problematic.

It can be easy for accountants to 'hide' what is really going on at a company. Just look at the mess Enron and Parmalat were in - their shareholders had no clue.

This is why I think it is vital for us all to try and improve our investment......