| A nation in debt
The financial chickens are coming home to roost. Two sets of figures released yesterday should act as warning signals to Scots planning to head off for their customary weekend retail-therapy session. With personal debt in Scotland already standing at an average of nearly £9000 per person (excluding mortgage debt), more and more people are sliding into insolvency, according to government figures. While second-quarter personal bankruptcies in England and Wales appear to have levelled off, the figure for sequestrations (the Scottish equivalent) was up by more than 23% on the corresponding period of 2006. That translates as a record 38 Scots going bust every single day, the equivalent of nearly 14,000 a year, compared with fewer than 5000 in 1998. At the same time, statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show a 30% rise in repossessions in the six months to June.
End the Vicious Cycle of Credit Card Debt
Bills.com cites 5 ways to achieve personal financial freedom now. San Mateo, Calif. (PRWEB) July 25, 2007 -- American consumers who are bold enough to take a mid-summer pulse of their personal finances may find more debt than ever before. American families owed a total of $895 billion on credit cards at the end of May (Source: Federal Reserve) -- and Bills.com co-founder and co-CEO Brad Stroh reports that Americans must take steps now to end the vicious cycle of debt. "Debt has become a growing problem, and many Americans need to find a solution. With uncertainty about the future of housing prices, the high cost of oil, and record hikes in health care and higher education costs, many people are on the precipice of financial disaster. Americans are playing with fire by maintaining an average credit card debt load approaching $10,000 per household (Source: CardData.com)," Stroh said.
NextStudent Takes the Guesswork Out of College Student Funding Strategy
At the height of summer many parents of college students may be shifting their focus from more leisurely family activities to those of a more serious nature: the future education of their child and the means to make it happen, according to NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company. .
NextStudent Private Loans Can Supplement Educational Financial Aid Plans
As parents and students finalize their educational budgets for the upcoming school year, they may be faced with a budget that doesn't stretch quite far enough. Even with financial aid packages that can contain need-based and non-need-based grants, scholarships, work-study, and state and federal student loans, students may still have some educational expenses that aren't covered. For those situations, NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company, features private student loans that can bolster financial aid plans for a wide range of educational programs. NextStudent Private Student Loans are credit-based student loans that can be used for tuition, school fees and other education-related expenses. And NextStudent Private Student Loans aren't just for the college-bound.
Profits: WAN, AUN, CXP, PBL Split Late
Perth-based newspaper monopoly, West Australian Newspapers Holdings, yesterday reported a near 20% rise in 'normalised net profit' (before noteworthy items) to $128.4 million for the 2007 financial year, ending June 30.This result includes 53 trading weeks for all business units other than Hoyts Cinemas and Community Newspapers, so the additional trading week accounted for 1.9% of the increase, making the underlying increase 17.6%. Directors also said that the outlook for the current year was "favourable". "The strong advertising market in 2007 has continued into the first quarter of 2007/08. "Combined with a relaunch of Saturday's The West Australian in August and the benefits to flow from the Herdsman upgrade, the outlook remains favourable."(That's the continuing upgrade of the company's new printing plant at Herdsman in Perth.)Net earnings (not normalised) as reported (after noteworthy items) fell 22.1% to $54.0 million as a result of accelerated depreciation on Herdsman printing equipment, employee redundancies and a write-down of the Hoyts carrying value to $145 million.Directors said that while the pre-tax contribution from Hoyts "rose 17.4% to $16.2 million, this included a non-recurring item of $2.4 million relating to a gain on surrender of a lease.
Companies not allowed to solicit students on campus
CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University Carbondale took action a few years earlier to remove itself from student credit card solicitation - a problem that embroiled many major universities."Southern Illinois University does not allow credit card companies on campus to solicit to students. The university does not sell names to credit card companies," said Rod Sievers, SIU chancellor's office spokesman.
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Work to get out of debt
DEAR BRUCE: I am 21 years old and need some serious help. I am $14,000 in debt, and it seems to be getting higher every month. Last year, I decided to go to a private tech school but dropped out after three months. Now I owe $7,800 just for that one mistake! I also spent around $4,000 last year because my cat got very ill. I also have little problems like gas, food, college and the occasional trip to the mall. I really need help. I tried to consolidate but that didn't work. I would like to get out of this mess as soon as possible so I am debt-free. I make around $1,000 a month. - C.H., via e-mail DEAR C.H.: You've reached a wonderful age and have some serious problems: You're $14,000 in debt. That's a difficult number, and, in your case, is more than a year's gross income. You say that you've made just one mistake, but the school of hard knocks has a very high tuition.
Bajaj Electricals rejigs business
After the main Bajaj Group led by Bajaj Auto, it is now the turn of the other extended family arm, Bajaj Electricals, to realign its businesses. Shekhar Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Electricals, is redefining responsibilities in the two most important units of the company. Under the plan, Anant Bajaj, Shekhar Bajaj's son, is set to take complete responsibility of the Rs 500-crore company's export-import businesses and its new arm, Bajaj International, which plays a crucial role in view of the company's outsourcing of goods from China. R Ramakrishnan, additional director at Bajaj Electricals, is being promoted to be executive director of the company. This would effectively define his role inside the boundaries of the company's electricals and electrical appliances business.The company has also proposed to enhance his salary from the current 1.5 lakh per month to a scale of 1.5-3 lakh per month in view of his new responsibilities, according to the company's annual report.
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