The age-old advice to never lend your friends money is sometimes ignored but always the best advice in the end. You could be the best and closest friends, but a simple money lend can always go wrong.

It’s along the same lines as: “Don’t move in with your best friend” and “Never go into business with family”. These gems of wisdom are often tried and tested and in some cases, proven wrong. But the average person with average friends should think twice before handing over any cash.

Friends and money come together in awkward situations in various forms and it doesn’t always have to be about a loan. Friends who make different salaries can often forget that one of them is at a lower pay scale than the other. For example, in an episode of Friends, the group is split down the middle on the income ladder and the friends on top don’t seem to notice.

Source: tvrage.com via Jack on Pinterest

Watch the clip here.

Sometimes a loan isn’t welcome, either. The wealthier friend sometimes pays for an item or two without asking. This can be misinterpreted like in this Seinfeld scene when Elaine is just trying to be nice.

Source: 25.media.tumblr.com via Jack on Pinterest

Watch the clip here.

But there are times when a loan between friends doesn’t end in resentment and hurt feelings between friends. In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon lends Penny a significant amount of money to help her stay afloat and doesn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest.

Source: sara-stc.livejournal.com via Jack on Pinterest

Watch the clip here.

It might be worth noting, however, that it’s likely Sheldon and Penny’s situation worked out because of Sheldon’s serious lack of social skills and awareness of social protocol. While this situation ended peacefully between the friends, the test subjects are skewed and don’t portray the realistic or likely response to friends entering into a financial agreement of this nature.

Friends and money are bound to collide once in a while, but to save your friendship, it might be wise to seriously consider making any promises, assumptions or deals that one of you might not be able to keep. Enter into an agreement with clear expectations and perhaps even a specific time frame. (And don’t tell your friend, but it might be wise not to expect the whole amount back). This may sound cold and business-like and counter-intuitive when dealing with friends, which supports the point that friends and money don’t always mix.

Has a friend ever borrowed money from you? How did it turn out? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Spending £5 generally won’t get you very far. But if you look hard enough, you may just find a great deal at a bargain price.

A quick search of the internet offers hundreds of ideas for items under £5, pointless services for £5, even great date ideas if you’re on a budget (usually within the £5-£10 range).

Image by: andrewrennie via Flickr

£5 Services online

While the internet is often a useful and informative tool, there are many websites offering a laugh or a roll of the eyes just as often.
Over at fivesquids.co.uk, members post the £5 equivalent of their services, however useful or useless as they may be. At first glance, this seems like a great idea if you imagine the potential in the creativity of the people on the internet. However this website seems to have more jokesters than entrepreneurs with offers like “I will send you or a friend absolutely nothing for £5”.

Looking through further posts, however, it seems it’s possible to access some decent online services for £5, including: your CV or written assignment edited by a freelance writer, or quirky services like having a postcard sent to you from various world-wide locations. At fiverr.com, the American counterpart to fivesquids.co.uk, one user offers to create a personalised signature with a video included for you to learn how to sign your name with his creative flare, all for $5. There was a surprisingly large amount of service reviews for this user and they were predominantly positive.

So what else can you get for £5?

Over at lovemoney.com, they’ve gathered great suggestions for how to get the most out of your fiver by looking for bargains in all the right places. For example, theatre buffs in London have the chance to see critically-acclaimed plays for as little as 10p at the prestigious Royal Court Theatre.

First, if you are under 26 you have the privilege of purchasing tickets for only £8. However, if you have already left your early twenties, you too can grab the opportunity to pay a low price. Though it’s limited to availability, if you wait until an hour or so before the curtain rises and are willing to stand at the very front of the theatre (think Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre days), then 10p is your ticket price. For £5, you could see 50 plays!

Ride the rails for £5

This is one example of the amazing deals you can find if you do a little research. You’ll find that some UK services tend to lower prices for off-peak travel or unfavourable seats. If you book early enough in advance and try to avoid rush hour, you might find a train fare for as low as £1, which means spending your £5 could get you five train journeys if you book at the right time.

Do you have any tips for great things to do with just £5? We’d love to hear them! Leave your suggestions in the comments below.

Now that the New Year is properly in full swing, I have decided to finally get my finances in order.

Image by Alan Cleaver

I’m pretty skint after Christmas and it is a fairly common New Years resolution, so I know I’m not alone. However, it wasn’t until last night when I was sitting on the sofa, smugly watching ‘The Biggest Loser‘, that I decided to take inspiration from another fairly common New Year resolution: to lose weight.

The more thought about it, the more I realised that saving money has a great deal in common with getting your body in shape. You have a limit that you cannot exceed, be it calories or money, and you have a tangible goal you want to achieve, whether it’s a lower number on the scale, or a higher number in your savings account.

Of course, there are ways to earn yourself extra calories (or money) for that little bit of extra wiggle room. While you can earn extra calories by exercising, you can also earn extra money taking on extra paid work.

There are also ‘light’ options of various everyday foods, just in the same way that there are ‘value’ options of pretty much anything you can buy. Watching your figure? Eat reduced fat biscuits. Saving money? Go for the Value variety. Now if only someone could create a low-fat AND value biscuit – that would make my day.

But, in my opinion, the key similarity between losing weight and saving money is this:  the best way for tracking calories is the best way to track your spending – by noting EVERYTHING down. Just take a small notebook and keep a note of everything you spend in it. Even if you just spend 40p on a packet of gum in the morning, make sure it goes in the notebook.

According to Myfitnesspal.com, you are more likely to lose weight if you consistently track calories (or saturated fat, or carbohydrates, depending on what diet you choose to follow) and I firmly believe the same is true with money – the more carefully you track your spending , the quicker you will see those pennies stack up.

Are you trying to lose weight this year? Or save money? Or both? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Image by: rinkjustice

The majority of us will at some point have come up short money wise at least once in our life. It may have been an unexpected bill or expense that put you off your budget but how did you handle it? There appears to be a worrying growth in the number of businesses offering payday loans.

Payday loans are loans meant for the short term, you can usually borrow a couple of thousand with a lower number of checks and have the money in your account within fifteen minutes. Now this all sounds too good to be true. That is because it is. There is a real worry that people are turning to these payday loans as a viable way of sorting out there financial problems. With some organisations charging interest as high as 4,000% it surely must be seen that these organisations are preying on people who need help.

Have a look at this video which looks at the standards and regulation of the payday loans.

There is a real risk of people falling into a rolling debt. They may borrow a small amount of money for an emergency and find them selves paying more in interest and unable to pay back the amount, this is when the trouble begins, the amount of interest will continue to put the individual in a very tight position. Perhaps leading to the individual taking out another payday loan and digging themselves deeper into a financial hole.

So what are the alternatives?

• Put the emergency amount on a credit card – much lower interest.
• Create an overdraft or increase the level of your overdraft – depends if the bank will allow you to do this.
• Borrow from friends or family – again depends on the amount and how kind they are feeling.

We at cashzilla believe that there needs to be regulation placed on these companies and help offered to those unfortunate people who have fallen into this financial trap. There are people who have taken out payday loans and have repaid them quickly and have had no problems but there must be something put in place to stop people from finding themselves stuck at the bottom of a financial mountain due to the huge amounts of interest put on an emergency loan.

Have you ever taken a payday loan? Did you have any problems paying them back? What do you think would be a better alternative? Any thoughts and comments please leave them in the section below.

Image by Energetic Spirit, via Flickr

The Japanese camera and medical equipment giant have been at the centre of one of the world’s largest accounting scandals. At the start of November they admitted to hiding investment losses after sacked CEO Michael Woodford blew the whistle on the rascally financial reporting. An external committee set up to investigate has found that the total hidden losses are a whopping $1.7 billion… Wow, how on earth do you cover up losing $1.7 billion? Somehow I don’t think ‘The cheque’s in the post’ would cut it.

Allegedly, Olympus paid massive financial advice fees to an organisation which funnelled the money back to the company through shell corporations. Hajime Sagawa, the banker who did the funnelling, has just divorced his wife.  The generous soul let her have the vast majority of their fortune and even sold her their luxury Florida pad for just $10. His whereabouts are currently unknown, but his brother-in-law reckons he’s taken a little trip to the Cayman Islands.

On the bright side, a report produced by the committee found no evidence of embezzling or the involvement of ‘anti-social groups’ (a Japanese euphemism for the mafia). This is extremely important as any evidence of the involvement of criminal gangs would have seen Olympus automatically delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

Being delisted would be disastrous for the 93-year-old Japanese corporate giant; it would likely force them to sell off some of the most important parts of their business.

Olympus are still having to fight hard to avoid being delisted. They’ve got to submit corrected financial reports by the 14th of December or they’re out. And if the TSE decide the losses are too big they’ll still be kicked out.

The investigation in to the scandal is massive; the dodgy dealing are being looked into by Japanese police, prosecutors, the markets regulator, UK’s Serious Fraud Office and the FBI. On top of that Olympus have set up three external investigative committees: one to do a general investigation of the scandal, one to look at the role of the company’s auditors and one to go after the employee’s involved.

The investigation into the employee’s will look at the possibility of suing those responsible or even pursuing criminal charges against them.  They’re currently planning to focus on 70 people including past and current members of the board. I reckon they’d probably like to talk to Sagawa, but it might just prove a little difficult to get a hold of him; I mean who could be bothered to deal with this stuff when they’re busy soaking up the sun on a beach in the Caymans.

While all this scandal has been traumatic for Olympus, it might just prove to be the best medicine for their ills. Coming clean and ditching the dodgy directors could help the Japanese camera giants heal, evolve and focus on the future.

Do you think Olympus will be kicked out the Tokyo Stock Exchange? Will they ever get back to their best? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

European central bank via uggy boy

Some European countries spent too much money, had to borrow some more and now can’t pay it back due to rising interest rates. So we thought we’d look at how we got here. We will continue to update this blog post as more news is announced.

2009

April’09

The EU orders France, Spain, the Irish Republic and Greece to reduce their budget deficits (the difference between their spending and earnings form tax).

October’09

There is much anger towards the previous Greek government over corruption and spending, and George Papandreou’s Socialists win a sudden general election.

November’09

Concerns about some EU member states’ debts start to grow following the Dubai sovereign debt crisis.

December’09

Greece admits that its debts have reached 300bn euro, the highest in modern history. Mr Papandreou insists that his country is “not about to default on its debts”.
Greece is burdened with debt amounting to 113% of GDP, which is nearly double the eurozone limit of 60%. Ratings agencies start to downgrade Greek bank and government debt.

2010

February ’10

As well as Greece, concerns start to build about other heavily indebted countries like Portugal, Ireland, and Spain.
Greek borrowing costs reach record highs, 13.6% of GDP is attributed to the Greek deficit

2011

February ’11 

Eurozone ministers set up a permanent bailout fund worth about £500bn euros.

May ’11

Eurozone and the IMF approve a 78bn-euro bailout for Portugal.

June ’11

Discussions have started around forcing Greece out of the Eurozone.

July ’11

A second bailout for Greece is agreed.

August ’11:

European Central Bank commits to buying Italian and Spanish Government bonds to bring down borrowing costs.
Italy passes a 50bn-euro austerity budget.
The European Commission predicts the eurozone will grow by 0.2%.

September ’11:

Leading finance ministers urge urgent and decisive action to deal with the debt crisis.
Italy has it’s debt rating cut to ‘A’ from ‘A+’.
George Osborne says there are just ‘six weeks’ left to save the euro.

October ’11:

General strike brings Greece to a standstill.
Franco- Belgian bank Dexia receives a huge bailout.
Euro ministers agree Greek bailout.
Slovakia is the 17th and final country to approve the expansion of the eurozone’s rescue fund, two days after rejecting the plan.
George Papandreou’s defies logic with he announces that he will put Europe’s latest efforts to rescue the Greek economy to a public vote. Disappointment and panic spread across the Eurozone.

November ’11:

George Papandreou abandons his plan to hold a referendum, amid scenes of open warfare in his own party.
Lucas Papademos replaces George Papandreou as Greek Prime Minister.
After the Italy’s borrowing rate peaked at 7.40% Silvio Berlusconi stepped down as Italian Prime Minister to restore investor confidence and was replaced by Mario Monti.
G20 leaders meet in Cannes and for the first time, EU leaders admit that it might be necessary for Greece to leave the eurozone if the single currency is to survive.
The US administration has expressed concerns that the Eurozone crisis could damage the US economy.
But world markets were up in response to reports of a proposed fiscal union that would set binding limits on eurozone government borrowing.

December ’11:

President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a new EU treaty to save the single currency in a ‘make of break week’.
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, has commented that the ECB is ready and willing to help in the fight to solve the Eurozone crisis and it is widely agreed that this is neede.
David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy are in talks in Paris to reorganise the Governance of the Eurozone which could potentially lead to a lessening in Britain’s influence. Germany and France are to agree a plan of action on how they are going to stop the crisis.

So what’s next for the Eurozone? Things can only get better. . .right? We’ll be updating this timeline weekly to keep you informed, meanwhile you can share your thoughts about any recent events in our comments section below.

How many germs do you think are lurking on these coins?, Source: live w mcs - multiple chemical sensitivity, Flickr

There are a lot of urban myths about money that you might not realise, as well as a lot of things that are true about money that you think are just old wives tales. Cashzilla is going to give you some fact or fiction answers to some of the most commonly mistaken statements surrounding money, take a look at the list below.

Money is covered in germs

FACT. A recent study in the Netherlands showed that coins contain more than 1000 bacteria on the surface of the metal, as well as notes containing a staggered few million. However, before you develop an instant fear of touching money; keep in mind that your hands are home to millions of bacteria, fungi and viruses that will take more than just a hand sanitiser to remove!

Your address will affect your credit rating

FICTION. A common myth about money and lending is that if the previous tenants of your property had a lot of debt sitting at your address, that this will put your own credit rating at risk. However according to global money expert Experian, this is untrue. Experian say that the financial status of the previous owner will have no influence over lenders decisions.

Torn Money, Source: Images_Of_Money, Flickr

The bank will replace destroyed money

FACT. Many people are under the assumption that if your money is destroyed by being ripped, torn, soaked etc, that it therefore becomes obsolete. This however, is untrue. Most banks will agree to replace your dismembered currency as long as at least half of the note is still available to be inspected. Another belief is that the bank will only replace the note to half of the original value i.e. a torn £20 note would be replaced by a fresh £10, this is untrue also as many banks are willing to give you back the same value as long as they are able to identify how much that was. Although, even though banks are more than willing to co-operate with you in this situation, the same can’t be said of shops, who are more than within their rights to refuse the broken tender.

Renting property is throwing money away

FICTION. You often hear people stating that by renting your property instead of buying it is a waste of your hard-earned money but it is actually just a negative way of looking at things. You need to consider the money you pay out for rent every month in the same terms as the money you pay out on your food and bills too. Both food and bills are expenses for items which you purchase regularly, that then get used up and you are left with nothing to show from that spend. These things are necessary requirements for spending if you want to live comfortably and in today’s economic climate, buying might even be considered more of a waste than buying due to fluctuating house prices and the interest on mortgages that you will be inevitably throwing away too.

You get what you pay for

FICTION. It has always been a common conception that you get what pay pay; the less money you pay the poorer quality that item will be and vice versa. This is in fact not always true of course. If you think about medication for example, retailers are not allowed to sell you drugs that won’t do as they say on the tin for obvious health reasons so buy buying a supermarket’s own brand of paracetamol compared to buying a major brand’s paracetamol will really make no difference to you whatsoever, they are both going to cure you of your pain.

What difference does the brand make? It still does the same job right? Source: drhenkenstein, Flickr

So with these common misconceptions of money fact or fiction have been cleared up, you can now let go of some silly old wives tales and realise your money mistakes also! To finish off, here are 3 fun money facts that you might not have realised before:

• through the nose” came from an old Irish act that happened in the 9th century (AD) which involved the gruesome slicing of noses belonging to the people who didn’t cough up the money for their taxes. Ouch.
• Money was once made of leather, however after some experimenting with other materials, the Chinese started using paper money in 806. It wasn’t until centuries later in 1855 that Europe caught onto this new money tender. Little slow on the uptake eh Europe?!
• Finally, the Bank of England is has a few, very rare £1 million notes circulating in their bank, although it is unlikely that you will ever see them as they are only ever used internally within the bank.

Tell us about some money facts or fiction that you want to set straight in the comment box below.

Image by Alessio 85

Italy has become the latest country to grab the headlines as the Eurozone crisis continues to cause great uncertainty in the markets.

This week we saw Italy’s borrowing costs rise steeply with concerns that the country can service its debts. Unlike Greece, Italy’s problem is one of liquidity, not solvency. While Italy’s deficit is relatively low, investors are concerned that the combination of Italy’s low growth rate and 1.9tn euro (£1.63tn; $2.6tn) debt could make it the next in line to be bailed out.

In fact, the yield on Italy’s 10-year bonds surged on Wednesday to a high of 7.40 percent which is around the same level Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to ask for rescue loans. If Italy’s borrowing rate becomes stuck above this level then the will be a detrimental impact on the Eurozone since many consider it too big to be bailed out.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dominated Italian politics for the last 17 years but as the Italian crisis spirals he has vowed to resign.  It is hope his actions will restore confidence, a long with economic reforms demanded by Italy’s Eurozone partners.

In a Trading Floor video blog, the Chief Economist of Saxobank, Steen Jakobsen predicts several months of uncertainty for Italy. He notes that the pressure is definitely on Italy’s politicians in charge – whoever they might be – to activate reforms, move through austerity and create a credible plan. Meanwhile the Forex markets remain unstable with the euro regaining some of its losses on Thursday morning, following a sharp slide on Wednesday when the hike in Italian bond yields sparked concern in the markets.

For more commentary on the financial news and the problems in Italy and Greece check out the video blog below.

Do you think Berlusconi’s resignation will have a positive impact on Italy’s financial state or cause more instability? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image by soelin, found on flickr

Japanese camera giants Olympus have found themselves in hot noodle soup after admitting using dodgy tricks to hide losses from investors. In a surprise statement issued today the company said that an independent investigative panel had found that weird buyouts and financial advice fees had been used to cover-up major investment losses.

It seems that the dodgy dealings have been going on since at least the 1990s and Olympus have yet to reveal the size of the losses. The scandal could see senior Olympus execs facing criminal charges and observers have speculated that the company’s future could even be in doubt.

The scandal has come to light since the end of Brit Michael Woodford’s tempestuous 6 month reign as CEO. Woodford was very concerned about the suspect deals and pushed for a full investigation while calling for Olympus board members to resign. This did not go down too well with the board who sacked Woodford soon after, citing his aggressive western management style as the reason for his dismissal.

Woodford was not a happy chappy and decided to release sensitive internal documents to the media, hoping to force Olympus to launch a full investigation. It seems to have worked.

Woodford does seem like a bit of an optimist: he’s publicly said that his goal is to triumphantly return to Olympus as CEO and sort out this mess. Somehow, after being fired and advised to leave Japan; blowing the whistle in a very public manner and seeing Olympus lose 70% of their stock market value as a result, I don’t think Mr Woodford would be welcomed with open arms.

Several senior figures at Olympus have already suffered the consequences of their underhand dealings. Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori has been fired and former President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa jumped ship before he could be pushed. The company has also ditched auditor Hideo Yamada: another who has been heavily implicated in the scandal. All three men are facing the possibility of criminal charges, but they are not the only ones. It seems that they were involved in helping to keep the losses secret, but rather than initiating the wrong-doing they inherited the situation. Who knows how many of Olympus’s current and former executives could end up in the dock?

All this nasty business has already had a serious impact on the company’s value, but the worst could be still to come. Depending on the scale of the losses and the level of law-breaking involved, the company could potentially be kicked out of the Tokyo stock exchange. This could be disastrous and if the hidden losses are worse than people expect the famous multinational company could even go bankrupt.

Hmm… maybe it is time for them to let Woodford ride in to the rescue. As the man who pushed for the scandal to be uncovered, investors might have confidence in him to clean up the company.

How hard do you think this scandal will hit Olympus? Do you think the guilty execs should face criminal charges? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

If you’re not familiar with the name, he’s designed some of the most expensive products in the world.

The British designer from Liverpool holds the proud record for the most expensive phone. His iPhone 4 featured 500 individual diamonds which cost a whopping £5million. When is a Wii worth at £299,995? When it’s covered in solid 22 carat gold.

An example of a celebrity fan is fashionista Victoria Beckham. She grabbed the headlines as she was spotted with a gold plated iPhone, worth an estimated £22,000. The infamous Apple logo on the back was re-created using diamonds. Cars, TV’s, suits, you name it – Stuart has pimped everything.

He’s been at it again recently, this time lending his artistic craft to another iPad 2. But when gold and diamonds are not enough, what material do you use? Material that is millions of years old of course! Rumoured to be the most expensive gadget ever created, he’s gone to great lengths to make sure it’s worth the £5million price tag.

The front frame is made from Ammolite, the World’s oldest rock which had to be sourced from Canada, estimated to be 75 million years old. It doesn’t stop there. Shavings from a 65million-year-old T-Rex thigh bone  make it that little bit more unique but only two to have been manufactured, so you better order one quick.

Image Via Metro.co.uk

So before you send your necklace to Cashmygold or sell your ring to the pawn shop, ask yourself wouldn’t it make a lovely decoration on your gadget?

We would love to hear your views on Stuart Hughes’ creations in the comments section below.