Investing in the stock market is not for the faint of heart. If you want to invest in the stock market, but have no idea where to start or how to decide what to invest your money in, you are not alone.

Here are some rules to help you and guide you toward making the right decisions.

To start you need to build a foundation. You need to have a job and a roof over your head before you spend money investing. There are some exceptions, such as borrowing and saving at the same time, in pension schemes.

Start out with low-risk options, cash in a bank account with a decent interest rate. Then buy bonds or commercial property. Then you can start buying shares in the stock market.

The best way into shares, for most people, is via an investment fund. With funds, lots of people invest together and spread the risk. Be patient. Good results are worth waiting for.

Bill Gross, the founder of PIMCO, the Pacific Investment Management Company, one of the world’s largest investment companies, said: “You must work intensely to keep your investment expenses as low as possible.” Fees and charges may mount up.

“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year,” said Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. Get-rich-quick schemes are as useless as they are commonplace.

Little can be achieved unless you are prepared to run some degree of risk. As Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte observed: “If you risk nothing, you gain nothing.”

Spread your money around. Don’t put it in just one bank or all in property or bonds. Diversify.

Ask questions. It is hard to overestimate the importance of being inquisitive and of asking impertinent and/or seemingly obvious questions.

Manage your risk and keep your fingers in a lot of different pies.

Last of all, Warren Buffett, a stock market guru whose fame matches his status as an investor par excellence, says that the most important rule of investment – his first rule – is not to lose money. “Rule number two,” says Buffett, is, “Never forget rule number one.”

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

It has been reported that the increasing practice among lenders to offer higher loan-to-values is a positive sign for those seeking cheap mortgage rates.

Ben Wilkie, editor of What Mortgage, said the market appeared to be returning to its pre-recession state – when only 16 per cent of the deals on offer asked for a 25 per cent deposit.

He said: “I think there’s a bit more confidence in the market; the housing market seems to be back on a slightly more even keel and there’s bit more confidence to mortgage companies.”

Mr Wilkie also stated that lenders were now having to be more flexible with their loan-to-values in order to attract customers.

“It really should help first-time buyers, because even to get a ten per cent deposit is hard enough and to get any higher than that is outrageous, for many people,” he said.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross mortgage lending declined to an estimated £9.1 billion in January 2010 – a 32 per cent fall from £13.4 billion in December 2009.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has held the base rate at 0.5 per cent for the 12^th consecutive month, choosing to freeze the rate, so homeowners on tracker deals should remain on cheap mortgage deals for at least another month.

The committee, at the regular March meeting, also chose to keep its £200 billion quantitative easing programme on hold after halting it in February.

Most economists had expected these moves, in light of the Bank’s attempts to help stimulate sustained economic recovery in the UK.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, a company which specialises in economic and financial analysis, commented: “Any interest rate hikes are clearly off the agenda in at least the near term, and could very well be delayed until 2011.”

The most recent change in the interest rates was a 0.5 percentage point fall in March of 2009.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

In the country’s first referendum as an independent nation, 93 per cent of the Icelandic population has voted against repaying  £3.3 billion worth of loans to the UK and Netherlands. They are calling for the government to withhold payment while the country restores its own economic health.

When the online bank, Icesave, collapsed in 2008, both the UK and the Netherlands were forced to compensate savers.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, the country’s finance minister, said the no vote did not mean Iceland was refusing to meet its obligations.  “To maintain anything else is highly dangerous for the economy of this country,” he stated.

However, Mr Sigfusson also indicated that further discussions would be necessary in order for an agreement to be reached.

Iceland’s prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who negotiated the deal with England and the Netherlands, spoke out against the proposed repayment deal ahead of the referendum.

Whether the government will withhold payment, or not, is still undetermined.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

December’s Consumer Prices Index has come out, showing that inflation is much higher than had been expected.
Although inflation was just 1.9% in November, it soared to an incredible 2.9% in December, far beyond the target level of 2% set by the government. That’s the biggest leap in CPI inflation ever recorded, according to the Office for National Statistics.
It’s not just shoppers who will be feeling the pinch, this is bad news for savers too, as only a few accounts are now paying enough interest to offset the effects of inflation.
You need to be earning at least 3.63% interest in order to gain any real benefit from your savings, or 4.84% if you’re a higher-rate tax payer.
However, none of the 261 easy access savings accounts for those saving £1,000 pay enough interest to overcome the effects of inflation and tax, so it’s really important to get the highest rate possible. The best deal available at the moment is Coventry Building Society’s First Class Postal account, paying a market-leading rate of 3.3%.
A real blow to savers
Kevin Mountford, head of banking at moneysupermarket.com, said: “The inflation announcement is a real blow to savers who are finding it extremely hard to find a suitable place for their hard earned cash.
“When looking to choose a suitable savings product it is easy to forget the impact inflation can have, so it’s vital savers keep a close eye on how their account stacks up. Inflation was dwindling for much of last year but today’s numbers show it’s very much back on the agenda and savers really have to be proactive to find the right deal.”

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

The recent cold snap shows the financial benefits to be gained from running an energy-efficient home. New figures revealed that an extra £1.2 billion worth of power was leaked by homes and offices in the last two weeks alone, compared with a normal winter.

Experts from the management consultancy firm Faithful and Gold conducted a study of Britain’s 26 million homes and two million offices, concluding that the significant amount of cash had been thrown away due to poor energy efficiency.

The research aimed to find out the amount of energy required to maintain a temperature of at least 20 degrees Celsius in a home as outside thermometers plummeted to minus two degrees Celsius.

Ellie Horwitch-Smith, an energy management expert with the firm, said: “As outside temperatures fall, the cold truth is that already inefficient buildings perform increasingly badly as heating systems struggle to maintain the indoor temperatures demanded of them. Heat is simply lost at a greater rate if the temperature drops.”

Some techniques which could be used by householders in a bid to reduce the amount of energy lost include improved insulation on all perimeter walls.

Scaled-down results of Faithful and Gold’s research showed that an average three-bed semi-detached British property spent an additional £37 heating their home over the last fortnight of cold weather.

An energy-efficient property – while also inevitably producing greater bills during an icy period – would have resulted in just a £23 premium.

The team of experts also estimated that a particularly inefficient office may have cost bosses an extra £149 on top of normal rates to heat over a two week period.

Last September Ratedpeople.com advised homeowners to deploy insulation products in advance if they wished to reduce their gas and electricity bills.

The website also suggested that insulation helps to preserve warmth inside a home once temperatures outside begin to fall.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

After December saw the eight straight month in a row of house price increases, the overall price of houses during 2009 has risen by 5.9% – a far cry from the massive decline of 2008 and better than many analysts had predicted for the year end. Signs of economic recovery, unemployment being less high than had been feared and low interest rates have all contribute to the general rise in prices.

In December the average cost for a house in the UK totalled ?162,103 according to the Nationwide Building Society. 2008 saw prices drop by a massive 15.9% however, so it will take more than the same again this year before house prices are back to their previous 2007 prices.

How long will the good news last for homeowners and what does 2010 hold? Prices might still be on the rise but they have slowed down in recent months – with the 0.4% rise in December, paling compared to rises of over 1% during the summer months.

The market has mostly been propped up by cash buyers, and it’s unclear if these buyers can continue to sustain the market for long into the New Year, even though interest rates are due to remain low for some time to come.

Chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, Howard Archer predicts that house prices could begin to fall again in 2010:

“While the Nationwide data indicate that house prices ended 2009 still on an upward track from their February low, the markedly reduced increases in the final months of the year suggest that the rally is flagging. This fuels our suspicion that house prices are likely to suffer a modest relapse in 2010.”

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

Here in Britain, adults are becoming increasingly confident about the economy in 2010, according to NS&I. Their new report marks a change from previously stated statistics.

Because of this, many savers are thinking of investing more money this year than they did in 2009 and 30 per cent of men are planning to start putting more money to one side for savings.

NS&I state that around 27 per cent of the population is looking to save more cash this year than they have previously.

NS&I’s savings spokesperson, Tim Mack, said: “People are increasingly confident that they will save more over the next year than they have done in the last year.”

It was stated recently that the proportions saving each month had only increased to 47 per cent from 45 per cent in 2005, so this report marks a change in opinion by many NS&I customers, despite increasing economic instability.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

Official figures from the Consumer Prices Index have shown that the increase in the price of petrol has been a cause for inflation to rise for the second month in a row.

The CPI petrol prices rose nearly 3p in November, compared to a fall of 9.3p the year before, which has added to inflationary pressure ? most economists underestimated the 1.8% inflation figure for the month.

The figures are still below the government?s target but don?t forget that we?ll soon be seeing VAT rise back to 17.5%, pushing prices for nearly all products including petrol up by another 2.5%, something many people don?t take into account.

The rising cost in clothing and second hand cars is believed to also contribute to the inflation figure, and some airlines have even lowered their prices by less than they did in 2008. Luckily there have been some falling costs, mostly in the food market with falling prices in vegetable meat and dairy products.

With petrol prices rising higher than ever, now is a good time to make sure that you aren?t wasting any money on fuel and petrol. You can save more money by using supermarket petrol schemes which allow you to save cash if you buy your petrol at the same time you do your shopping, but you can also save cash by changing the way you drive.

Keeping the air conditioning off as much as possible, making sure you tires are fully inflated and keeping your car free of heavy objects will all make tiny changes in how much petrol you use, which in turn will save you plenty of money in the long run.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

According to Engage Mutual Assurance, more than one in five parents borrow money from their children’s savings to pay household bills.

About 44 per cent of parents are borrowing between £200 and £500 from their children’s savings to pay unexpected bills. A total of 40 per cent of parents say they use the money to pay for household bills such as gas and electricity.

The average electricity bill for a semi detached house in the UK is £825 and the average gas bill is £762, according to whatprice.co.uk. Ofgem, the energy watchdog, has suggested households could save over £100 per year by switching suppliers.

Marketing director at Engage Mutual, Karl Elliott, said, “Almost six in ten adults admit their financial situation has significantly worsened over the past 18 months. And whilst it might be possible to budget for everyday spending and the usual bills and direct debits, it is the unexpected costs which people find hard to cope with.”

The Co-operative Bank did a survey which revealed that UK homeowners are investing more money in energy efficient technology in a bid to reduce carbon emissions and cut their gas and electricity bills.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.