Loans Scotland

With the savings ratio at an all time low, and more and more people struggling to balance bills at the end of the month, the government is asking what is to be done to improve people’s management of their finances.

Proposals to integrate financial education into secondary schools sounds far too little - a question of violin playing while Rome burns. Furthermore it will have no impact upon the millions of adults who have this problem now. Free financial advice lines from the government might do a little, but are more likely to be used by people in crisis and not as the basis for fundamental design of people’s financial planning.

Perhaps a more radical solution might be to not allow financial companies to extend credit willy nilly to anybody who approaches them since it is abuse of credit that seems to cause the most problems. Once a consumer is on the credit mill just about everything else disappears out of sight such as pension planning and planning for the future.

At the heart of the problem is the nation’s addiction to satisfaction now whatever the cost and a belief that owning a house will solve any problem. Looking at the US housing market implode this year is a timely reminder that housing is not a financial services product and that a balanced portfolio is still the best solution to long term planning.

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