As I write this here in the UK, we are roughly 10 days into our government imposed lockdown. Although the government has said that they will review the situation after easter, it looks very likely that the lockdown will be extended for several weeks beyond this point. 

We are not alone - all over the world, people are now locked in their homes, businesses are closed and the economy has ground to a halt.

Of course the real crisis here is the health crisis and nothing can be taken away...

Today we have a guest post from Gavan with iCompareFX. Take it away Gavan.

Travelling overseas brings with it a range of positive experiences. However, people who’re new to holidaying internationally might find dealing with money matters a little daunting. The good thing is that paying attention to a few simple aspects can go a long way in helping you make the most of your money.

Think Travel Insurance

The number of people who buy travel insurance cover and make subsequent...

A lot is said nowadays about ‘financial rules of thumb’. In essence, these are ‘shortcuts’ designed to tell you in an instant how to answer some of the biggest financial questions, for example:

How much should I be saving for retirement?

Should I pay off my mortgage or invest with excess income?

How much of my total income should I spend on housing?

Financial rules of thumb will try to give a simple-to-understand solution to these biggest of questions. 

One...

Money is the number one cause of conflict in relationships. In fact, recent research has shown that money is the number one reason given for divorce in both the UK and the US. 

This is not surprising really as someone’s money personality is not really something we think about when choosing a new partner. Perhaps we should though, because money has the power to impact almost all elements of our lives. 

The type of work we do, the food we eat, the health choices we make, where...

Spending money used to be a topic of anxiety in my house. When I started on my journey to Financial Freedom around 5 years ago, I knew I wanted to be free, but I didn’t really know how to get there. I hadn’t worked out the formula yet.

I knew I needed to save a whole load of money and so I tried to put my spending on complete lockdown - and failed!

You see – I like spending money. It allows me to do things that I like doing. It allows me to travel and have weekends away. It...

Sometimes you have to make a decision that is not black and white. Most people following this blog will be committed to some degree to Financial Independence. This requires saving a large amount of your income and possibly making some minor sacrifices (I don’t think you should deprive your life of all enjoyment now to achieve Financial Independence later – find out why here).

But, some decisions are not that simple. Sometimes you have to decide if you are going to prioritise your...

When you set off on your journey to Financial Freedom, it can seem like a long way to travel.

Perhaps at the moment you are struggling to make ends meet or perhaps you are deep in debt. How do you go from there to Financial Freedom?

The leap often seems too big to contend with and so human nature is simply not to try. When we perceive things as too difficult or ‘impossible’ we often give up before we have gotten started to save ourselves from the potential failure.

As with all...

I stumbled across an article the other day on Vice where someone new to the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, was giving it a try as a new years resolution.

The journalist who had written the article had gone from zero to 50% savings rate pretty much overnight which I think is pretty impressive in anyone’s book and I have huge respect for him for giving it a try in the first place, let alone doing so to such extremes.

The problem with this ‘nuclear’...

Creating a budget was one of the best things I ever did for my personal finances and ultimately, my Financial Freedom.

I made a ton of mistakes along the way with my personal finances and a lot of them were to do with budgeting and basic money management.

If I had learned about money management earlier in my life, I would probably be far further ahead in my own Financial Freedom journey than I am now.

There are a lot of budgeting mistakes that almost everyone makes at some point in their...

I saw an article on BBC news the other day that was provocatively titled “Could you retire in your 40’s”. Now with a title like that you simply have to click, but the report didn’t really live up to the hype.

For starters, despite the video being called could YOU retire in your 40’s it didn’t really do much to explain how someone new to the FIRE community (FIRE = Financial Independence, Retire Early) could get started on their own early retirement journey.