FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Money Made Easy

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
November 23, 2001

As many Fools will know the Financial Services Authority was set up by the government to monitor the activities of the 'money' industry and to protect the consumer from some of the more confusing fiscal aspects that we have to deal with in day-to-day life.

Apart from offering a series of easy-to-read booklets on all sorts of financial matters, I wrote earlier this week about the launch of their new CD Rom 'Financial Planning' which I was rather looking forward to trying out. 

I must say I'm pretty impressed with it. It's very easy to use and covers just about every area of personal finance that you might need to think about in a way that is very easy to understand. There's a simple budget calculator as well as a section outlining your rights as a consumer with pointers about how to complain if necessary.

An important but light-hearted interactive quiz crops up first with questions designed to find out your attitude to money and to identify your goals and priorities. The following is one example:

Q: All in the family?

a) Footloose and fancy-free
b) Just the two of us
c) Mothercare and Early Learning Centre must make a fortune out of us
d)Whoever said children get more difficult as they get older was right!

Then you're faced with a list of possible goals, for example, sorting our your borrowing, buying a home, paying for the children's education, saving for retirement, boosting your income etc.

Opting for 'Sorting out your borrowing', I am told that my goals are to pay off my debts and to borrow cheaply. Obvious enough to most Fools, of course, but I suspect many people consider the first goal without really considering the second equally important one: There are tips and reminders such as:

• DON'T take out new loans until you've worked out in advance how you'll pay them off and how long this will take. Plan your budget
• DO shop around for low interest rates.
• DON'T forget secured loans are risky. Although cheaper than other loans, if you don't keep up the repayments, the lender can seize whatever asset the loan is secured against - often your home.
• DON'T skip repayments and don't ignore reminders. Neglected loans quickly become problem debts.

Again, these are obvious to most Fools but it's good to be reminded. I'm then given a list of products to check out and where to find them. These include student loans, credit unions, overdrafts, personal loans and credit cards etc.

I'm particularly impressed with the simple 'Shop Around' section which gives you the essentials about products like savings or banks accounts, ISA, or credit whilst alerting you to the sort of questions you should be asking. Does this product meet your needs? (You should be looking for this and this). What sort of costs might be involved? (Look out for this, this and this) How long will you have to commit yourself to it? What happens if something goes wrong? Each element has a checklist of questions you can use to quiz a potential product provider should you want to investigate further. 

Overall, I have to say I'm quite enamoured of this little CD ROM. It's a good starting point for anyone who feels they want to get to grips with their finances and doesn't really know where to start. And since you can dip in and out of it at any time, you can do as much or as little as you like whenever you've got the time. It gets a thumb's up from this Fool at any rate.

FREE copies of the FSA Financial Planning CD Rom are available from the Consumer Helpline on 0845 606 1234.

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