Personal Finance Blog | FlipSide Invest

My curious nature gets the best of me. In a past post I researched car insurance in Canada which had its own fascinating finds. I find it interesting to look at different financial tools considering the different political and social landscapes that exist. I decided to investigate a few financial tools over in the UK. Why did I choose the UK, well for one it is an English speaking country. The other is I worked with a few Brits back in the day and they had always told me how much better personal finance was over there.

I had no idea where to start to research finances in the UK. I decided to use the ‘ol Google to help me, but it was like throwing darts with a blindfold on. I could not find what I was looking for, and as we all know Google Sucks One of my favorite resources here in the US is Fool.com which is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn basics of investing and personal finance. Just don’t sign up for their newsletter they are a little annoying with the email blasts. I looked into mortgages since their has been a bit of a crisis over here with the whole mortgage meltdown. UK mortgages seem to have your own problems just check out this blog post.

Another interesting thing I learned about is something called IVA which helps with bankruptcy. We all know how badly bankruptcy can effect your credit. This is why the UK government has an “opt-in” program which they call IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement to help. Basically it eliminates your debt reducing it to small payments over a five year period of time. If your in the UK and want to learn more about this program you can check out this IVA website to learn more if you qualify and get in touch with an expert.