A blog of two halves – the weekend money section roundup
With the biggest football tournament in the world just days away, the main theme of this week’s money sections was shoehorning in a World Cup reference at every possible opportunity.
The Independent kicked off the footie-mad theme with a piece looking at whether a country’s economy was helped by a world cup win and asking if you should invest in a country rather than gamble on its football team. In a nutshell – consumer spending would increase significantly if England makes it past the second round, but realistically there will be no lasting impact if we win.
Should you decide against investing in the country and instead follow the more traditional route of betting on a specific team, then The Guardian was on hand to draw attention to the numerous ‘free bets’ that bookies are offering as well as offering tips on the best way to place bets – eg, opening an online account.
For those lucky enough to be going to South Africa for the tournament, The Independent on Sunday and Sunday Express offered a word of warning regarding the cost of mobile phone charges. Apparently calls, and especially internet use, can cost the unsuspecting user quite a hefty packet, so you may have to refrain from making all your friends back home jealous with all your photos as it is likely to cost you dear!
And The Times had not forgotten those of us left at home who will be watching the tournament from the comfort of our own armchair and helpfully gave a rundown of the very best TVs you can buy for watching the monumental occasion.
And so we come to the second half of this week’s blog (you will note that we are equally skilled at shoehorning football references as the nationals). Here the tone gets a bit more serious as the FT Weekend reported that many investors have chosen, post-credit crunch, to manage their own portfolio rather than seek help from financial advisers.
The survey, which was conducted by Money Week, revealed 9/10 investors say that the financial crisis had driven them to manage their investments themselves rather than get help from an industry professional. The piece includes quotes from IFAs who understandably feel they are being punished by investors for the lack of trust in the wider financial services industry. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
And the scores on the board this week are:
| Charity | 0% |
| Credit cards | 9% |
| Fraud/scams | 5% |
| IFAs | 3% |
| Insurance | 6% |
| Investment | 30% |
| Mortgages | 10% |
| Pensions | 9% |
| Regulation | 1% |
| Savings | 8% |
| Tax | 10% |
| Utilities | 9% |