Dear Sir:


I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.


You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $50 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.


My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, prerecorded faceless entity which your bank has become.


From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan repayments will, therefore and hereafter, no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application
Contact Status which requires your chosen employee to complete. I am

sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

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Bruce Wallace is the presenter of the 'Your Money' programme on NZ National Radio. The book is subtitled 'An any-age guide to getting rich', which gives us the first clue that the book is broad ranging in nature and not aimed at any one particular age group or other demographic.


Wallace writes in a very easy to understand style. The book is down to earth and very readable. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who hasn't made a start at planning for his or her financial future. For people further down the financial planning route you may find the book covers what you already know. However, I would personally still recommend that you read it. Even if the book simply reinforces what you are already doing then it is good. However, it is just as likely that it will give you a new idea or two to consider.


Your Money Diet is divided into three parts; spend less, save more, and earn more. This is a logical progression. The ability to be able to curb our spending (even if only slightly) and get our credit card debt under control must be mastered before we can start to save more, and there is not much long-term point in earning more if we simply spend it. The short spend less section (it is only 35 pages long) gives some good practical advice for spending less money, as well as recommendations of other resources to help you in this area. If you have problems with credit card debt, you should find this section particularly helpful. As stated succinctly on page 30 "Do you really need five cards? The answer has to be No."

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Britons are richer but less happy than their 1950s counterparts, research shows.


Just over a third of people said they were "very happy" in modern Britain, compared to more than half of those polled in 1957.


Eight out of ten of those quizzed thought the Government's main aim should be to make people happier rather than wealthier.

Current Leading Rates

Who are they for?


Borrowers and savers, especially people with adjustable rate mortgages or variable-rate credit cards.


What's included?

The Fed Funds Rate is the primary tool that the Federal Open Market Committee uses to influence interest rates and the economy. Changes in the Fed Funds rate have far-reaching effects by influencing the borrowing cost of banks in the overnight lending market, and subsequently the returns offered on bank deposit products such as certificates of deposit, savings accounts, and money market accounts.


Changes in the Fed Funds rate and the Discount Rate also dictate changes in the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate, which is of interest to borrowers. The prime rate is the underlying index for most credit cards, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, and personal loans. Many small business loans are also indexed to the Prime rate. The 11th District Cost of Funds is often used as an index for adjustable rate mortgages.

BOJ governor on alert over rising rates



TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's central bank governor voiced concern over rising long-term interest rates on Wednesday as a raft of data provided further evidence of a solid economic recovery and added to the view that a rate rise is not far off.


"Long-term interest rates have recently risen slightly, and in addition have shown a slight trend towards more irregular movements," Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Toshihiko Fukui told a parliamentary committee. "Long-term interest rates are of great interest to us. We must closely monitor their movements."


Fukui offered few new hints on when the BOJ may raise short-term interest rates from current levels around zero after it scrapped a unique five-year-old ultra-easy monetary policy last month, saying he had no preconceptions on the matter.


He appeared to seek to cool speculation that the central bank will raise rates right after it finishes mopping up excess funds in the banking system -- the remnants of the now-abandoned policy framework called quantitative easing -- which is expected to happen around late June.


"When our zero rate policy will end is unrelated to when we will be finished absorbing liquidity," he said.


Japanese government bond (JGB) prices gained on his comments, with the June 10-year JGB futures contract rising as high as 132.86 up 0.28 point on the day. The lead contract hit a 5-1/2-year low of 132.24 earlier this week.


HEALTHY ECONOMY


Fukui's remarks come amid speculation that the BOJ may raise rates as early as July for the first time in six years as the economy emerges from years of deflation and slow growth.


Data released earlier in the day supported the view that business activity is healthy.


Outstanding loans held by Japan's four main categories of banks rose 0.4 percent in March from a year earlier, BOJ data showed. It was the biggest rise since current methods of calculation started in January 2001.


Following a 0.2 percent rise in February, the figures suggested that a five-year decline in bank lending is finally ending as companies boost capital spending.


"The bank loans data shows that lending is in an uptrend as companies borrow to spend on capital investment," said Yoshimasa Maruyama, an economist at BNP Paribas, adding that he expected the trend to continue for the coming year.


Takumi Tsunoda, an economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute, pointed to a rise in property-related lending.


"Land prices are bottoming out and property-related lending is growing. A lot of corporations have ample cash flow to fund their spending, so it's not as if bank lending will skyrocket, but it should continue growing steadily," Tsunoda said.


As the economy enjoys a steady recovery, the BOJ is keeping an eye on land and real estate prices as bitter memories remain of the bursting of an asset price bubble in the early 1990s that drove the economy into a decade of recession.


The BOJ said in a report on Wednesday it would inspect how banks were managing risks of syndicated loans and other new real estate-related lending in the fiscal year that began on April 1.


Other data on Wednesday added to the upbeat economic outlook.


Japan's current account surplus grew 6.2 percent in February from a year earlier to 2.2087 trillion yen ($18.68 billion).


The trade surplus stood at 1.0909 trillion yen, after a deficit in the previous month, with exports up 21.5 percent and imports up 33.2 percent.


Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist at Lehman Brothers Japan, said external demand could be a net neutral contributor to January-March GDP growth, but the outlook for exports was bright and imports could also stay upbeat.


"Rising imports, in a sense, mean domestic demand is strong. The big issue is whether domestic consumption is really strong," he said.


"The GDP figures are likely to show consumption weakened, but this is because they will be affected by the notoriously erratic household spending survey," he said.


Japan's economy grew a real price-adjusted 1.3 percent in October-December from the previous quarter, or an annualised 5.4 percent. January-March GDP figures are due out on May 19.


Wednesday's data also showed Japan's most widely watched measure of money supply -- M2 plus certificates of deposit (CDs) -- rose 1.5 percent in March from a year earlier.


The rise was lower than a market consensus forecast for a 1.7 percent gain, but economists said the figure did not suggest that money flows were slowing to the point of hurting the economy.


($1=118.18 Yen)



Source: Ritsuko Ando at Business Scotsman