On the flip side, mortgage repayments keep falling, and typically only consume 12% of income – this is the lowest level since January 2004. This also helped those looking to move up the property ladder with home movers paying on average of 9.2% of their income each month – this figure is the lowest monthly level since the CML started its records in 2002.

What this means is that there could well be an increase in activity from first time buyers in the early months of 2012. This seems like it could be even more likely when you consider that the government’s stamp duty concession is coming to an end in March next year.

The overall trend for mortgage lenders at the moment however is one of very low levels of lending and very few people moving. The economic crisis and the threat of another recession is forcing the average homeowner to sit tight and attempt to ride out the storm.

So while here in the UK we might be able to enjoy the lowest mortgage repayment rates for nearly a decade the factors that combine to make these rates possible are also the same factors that are making the people, who might take advantage of the current rates, shy away from them.

This post was written by Andy from Wealthboost

•  You generally need to have debts of over £15,000 in order to be eligible to apply for an IVA;

•   You generally need to have more than two creditors in order to be eligible to apply for for an IVA for single people;

•     If you are having trouble repaying your debts but do not want to file for bankruptcy then you may wish to consider an individual voluntary arrangement application;

•     You may wish to consider your current financial situation when considering an individual voluntary arrangement. IVAs are typically calculated on your monthly incomings and outgoings;

•     Payments are assessed on an individual basis. They are generally based on what you can afford to pay after your essential monthly outgoings are taken into consideration;

•     Usually IVAs last for five years. You may wish to consider the length of time it may take to repay your debt when deciding whether an IVA is suitable for you. If you are concerned that you may not be able to meet IVA payments for this period of time then you may wish to consider an alternative way of repaying your debts;

•     An IVA for single people may be noted on your credit file and may affect your credit rating in the future. You may wish to consider this if you are considering making an IVA application

•      If you are on income support you may not be eligible for an individual voluntary arrangement. Other ways of repaying your debt may be more suitable for you;

•       If you enter into an agreement it is generally not made public unlike bankruptcy;

•       If you have any valuable assets you can sell you may wish to consider putting these towards an individual voluntary arrangement in way of a lump sum;

•       If you are a professional you may have terms and conditions written into your contract regarding having an agreement. You may wish to check your contract if you are considering applying for an IVA.

There are many things to consider if you are thinking about applying for an IVA for single people. You may wish to seek specialist advice to find out whether you are eligible.

Recently, Google launched their own social network Google+ as a rival for the king, Facebook, and “people are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate” according to head of Google, Larry Page.

Mr Page, one of the co-founders of Google, replaced Eric Schmidt as the CEO back in April of this year.

These recent profit figures are well ahead of market expectations, and shares in the company have risen by 6 per cent in trading after the market closed.

“The real interesting thing here is the expenses weren’t as high as the Street was anticipating,” commented analyst for UBS, Brian Pitz. “This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line.”

Revenue for the company rose 33 per cent to $9.72bn – making it just shy of a having a quarterly turnover of $10bn.

Mr Page announced that Google “had a great quarter. Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million-user mark.”

However, it will still take a lot of catching up to rival the 800 million users that Facebook has amassed in the 7 years since its launch.

However, social networking is not the only thing that Google is making money on. They still amount a large sum of money each year through advertising based on their search engine, and their mobile phone operating system, Android, is proving to be a very popular alternative to Blackberry or Apple’s systems.

In related news, Google look set to launch their version of iTunes in the very near future.

If Google+’s success is anything to go by, Music Beta looks to be a strong contender in the fight for dominance over the music industry.

This will be put in direct competition with Amazon MP3 which, like Music Beta will allow users to store music online, rather than storing files on their PC. This allows them to listen to their music from any computer or enabled device (running android).

And with Apple having sold well over 10bn songs since its launch, this could result in a further increase in the profits for Google and further increase their grip on the technology sector.

Higher-rate tax payers have been hit hard as a result of the National Savings and Investment’s withdrawing its tax-free index-linked certificates, as it was previously offering the equivalent taxable gross return of 10% providing that the current Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate stayed at 5%, giving savers more than double the returns that any standard savings accounts can offer.

An NS&I spokesman recently made an appearance on BBC Radio 4′s Money Box programme, and he said it was unlikely that another issue of index-linked certificate would be launched this year. However he denied that NS&I had any plans for future issues to track the generally lower Consumer Prices Index (CPI) instead of the RPI.

The Bank of England base rate has remained at its record low of 0.5% for more than 16 months now – and one economic forecasting group said it expects the rate to stay at this level until 2014 – which means most savings accounts are now actually losing money in real terms based on RPI inflation.

Some shares offer high dividend yields and those looking to invest small amounts can protect their returns from income tax by making use of their stocks and shares ISA allowance. However, there is no guarantee that you will earn any returns from shares, so there are risks involved, as we all know that share prices can increase and decrease depending on business performance.

If you have a savings account, check that you are getting a competitive rate. You may have initially opened it with an attractive rate, but most savings accounts offer introductory bonus rates that are valid for 12 months. After this period the rate paid on your funds can be significantly lower, so it’s important to keep an eye on your account and keep it competitive.

Also, rates tend to fluctuate based on the Bank of England rate, so once this begins to rise you should keep a close eye on the savings market. If you find you could be earning more, switch account – it’s much easier than you may think and banks are set up to welcome new customers so it is in their best interest to make the switch-over as smooth as possible.

If you’re looking for the best interest rates around and you’re happy to save in an account that reduces access by lowering of stopping withdrawals all together for a fixed period of time, you might wish to consider fixed rate bonds. These savings accounts allow you to fix a rate for an extended period of time (usually between 1 and 5 years) while fixing the period of time you effectively lose access funds. Leaving your funds untouched not only allows you to earn some great returns, but also gives give you more of an incentive to leave your savings to grow, while protecting them from being eroded by inflation.

If you require access to your funds due to unforeseen circumstances you can withdraw funds, however you will lose some or all of the interest.

The highest paying bond in our tables is currently the ICICI fixed rate bond, currently offering 4.75% on all funds from £1000 with no maximum. However this account requires you to leave your funds untouched for a 5 year period, so if this sounds like a long time to you, you can opt for a shorter term with a lower rate.

Although the UK banking crisis has settled down now, you should still spread your savings around to ensure they are 100% protected – never invest more than £50,000 (the limit covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme) with a single provider or financial institution, and be sure to check multiple banks do not fall under the same financial umbrella, as you may find that your group chosen banks only offer a single protection allowance between them.

If you really want to be clever about it you would be better to work to a limit of around £48,000 as this will allow any interest you earn to also be covered if your bank were to fail.

●Step 1: decide on the level of risk you’re willing to take

If the current financial, economic and political climates has left you feeling uncertain, cautious, or nauseous (or all together), then attend to your symptoms with a Cautious Managed fund. This can help to offer relief from the pain of volatility – or at least, that’s what it says on the tin. M&G’s Cautious Multi Asset Fund claim to be able to help you “participate in rising asset markets while preserving capital as much as possible” – and since it was launched 3 years ago it has delivered 14.5%, outstripping the IMA Cautious Managed sector by 16.6%. The secret ingredient, known as an “active fund manager”, can “respond to the actual correlation of assets” and, in a 3-year clinical trial, minor discomfort to a 16.5% fall, peak to trough, while other leading brands lost 23%.

Disclaimer: Not every Cautious Managed funds is necessarily cautious, or well managed for that matter. May contain 60% highly correlated equities. In terms of the M&G fund, performance was gained from high-risk calls on emerging market equities, speculation on the state of the euro, dollar and other emerging market currencies, and movement away from overseas government bonds towards corporate bonds.

The side effects of out-performance may include increased underlying levels of volatility, according to the latest JP Morgan Asset Management Cautious Managed study. Investors may experience  a more unpleasant feeling of loss – 45% of investors taking IMA Cautious Managed funds between September 2008 and March 2009 lost more than 20%, with some of the more unlucky losing more than 40%.

Always read the label – but remain cautious of those that read “Cautious Managed”.

●Step 2: decide how much money you are willing to lose.

Those aged 50 and above holding concerns that losses could have a negative effect on health in retirement should consider Absolute Return funds. The key ingredients in this type of fund can position them in all directions to enable positive results to be had within stressful market conditions. Regulatory approval is currently pending on HSBC’s new European Alpha Equity fund, the offshore version which achieved growth of 13.1% in 2008.

Disclaimer: The majority of absolute return funds are untested for periods exceeding two years. For details, see www.absolutehedge.com. Note: These funds are only available over the counter following annual charges and performance fees.

Always read the label –  and hope it makes sense!

●Step 3: Think about an alternative option – investing for income instead.

If the possibility of equity price volatility and dividend cuts is making you anxious, why not consider trying out new improved bond funds. Test carried out last year showed that 9 out of 12 months saw more money being invested into bond funds than in any other sector.

Disclaimer: funds in the Sterling Strategic Bond fund sector are not guaranteed to match the prescription. Although the Artemis Strategic Bond fund invests 100% into UK corporate bonds, Henderson’s Sterling Strategic Bond fund invests 8.2% into money market instruments, and Investec’s Sterling Bond fund invests 64.1% into non-UK bonds.

Bonds in the Sterling Corporate sector may contain traces of dollar, euro and UK government bonds. Fidelity’s MoneyBuilder Income is 43% invested in non-sterling issues, while M&G Corporate Bond has 7% in gilts.

Always read the label – but don’t always believe that ‘sterling’ necessarily means it was manufactured in the UK.

●Step 4: reduce stress related anxiety by giving up trying to find the perfect active fund manager.

Anyone left dizzy, suffering from headaches and/or premature baldness are advised to skip steps 1-3  and search for cheaper alternatives.

I you’re a higher-rate taxpayer and you have no previous experience of capital gains, get some advice from an index tracker fund manager, such as Vanguard, who will help you to see that putting £10,000 into an actively managed fund via with an Isa wrapper will save just £45 a year in income tax, assuming a 2% dividend, while costing £160 a year in charges, based on the average total expense ratio of UK All Companies funds.

Incurring lower tracker fund charges may provide savings of around £1,300 over a 10 year period. Fully diversified multi-asset tracker funds, including the eight-asset MAP fund offered by Frontier Capital Management, can lower standard deviation to 5-7%, as part of a volatility controlled diet. Chief investment officer’s advice: it does what it says on the tin.

Lenders fix specific limits for particular types of loans. The most affordable terms and conditions are usually available with traditional mortgages. Fannie Mae fixes the lending limits for these loans. Though these restrictions can be modified, they suggest the costs of buying an affordable home in the US. Regions with higher livelihood expenses have higher restrictions.

Though you can exceed these restrictions and get into the domain of jumbo mortgages, if you wish to stay within the borrowing restrictions of traditional loans, you can’t surpass the limit set by Fannie Mae. To determine the most recent borrowing limits, you need to talk to your loan advisor and ask “mortgage how much can I borrow”.

Your trustworthiness

The amount that a lender would lend you is considerably dependent on your individual financial condition. Usually, it is simpler for you to qualify for a home loan if:

• You have a good credit score
• You make a hefty down payment
• You have a low debt to income ratio
• You have a stable job

All these elements are taken into consideration when the lenders decide how much they should lend you. If you ask “mortgage how much can I borrow”, you should also think about ways to better your finances so that you can qualify for the amount you need.

The house you want to buy

How much mortgage you can borrow is also dependent on the house you want to buy. Lenders hesitate to offer any amount that is more than the appraised value of the home. At a time when the number of foreclosures is at a record high, lenders are asking for bigger down payments rather than permitting borrowers to take out a loan that is more than the value of their homes.

Two useful techniques to find out how much mortgage you can borrow

For finding out how much mortgage you can borrow, you can follow two simple techniques that are given below:

• Become prequalified with a lender
• Use an online home affordability calculator

However, a calculator would only provide you with a ballpark figure. For getting the precise figure, you have to talk to a lender.

When you know how much mortgage you can borrow, then you wouldn’t have any problems to buy the home that fits your budget and pay off the loan.

The Egg savings account was launched today (June 26th), as its new Bonus Savings Account, allowing customers to open an account with an initial balance of at least £1 and is available to both new and existing Egg customers.

This savings account offers an interest rate of 2.8%, which includes a fixed savings rate bonus of 1.55 per cent for the first 12 months.

Furthermore, egg savings accounts do not come with any limits or charges on cash withdrawals.

Sharon Maguire, head of banking products for Egg, states: “During times of unprecedented low interest rates, customers need to have the peace of mind that their savings account is making their money stretch further.”

Those on the search for an online savings account may also wish to consider the second issue of the Principality e-Saver, launched earlier this month.

This is a very significant change and is likely to cause similar reactions from competitors which is great news for savers. There are terms and conditions that apply and this rate only applies for a year after opening the account (as with most accounts).

Before Principality announced the increase, ING was at the top of the table, offering one of the best rates available at 2.75% on its ING Direct Savings Account, with the Sainsbury’s Internet Saver close behind at 2.60%.