Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Manchester United played Aston Villa for the Cup today, and I waddled along to the pub with a few friends to watch the game on a wonderful, large screen, while drinking fantastic local drinks.

I must admit, after the busy week I’ve had, it was nice to be able to sit back and relax. However, with drink and food and conversation sometimes come unexpected plans. And now, around October, I have planned to go for a little weekend road trip around America. The vague plan, as I recall, is to watch a university American football game, and watch an NFL game – watch a real, thriller of a game, if we can, and see some true great players.

The trouble arises when it comes to the financing. I’m not quite sure how to fund the trip. So I’ve been looking at everything from cash ISA savings accounts, to browsing through the vaults of finance and savings news to try and come up with some sort of genius plan.

I’ve even been looking over Nationwide’s savings and investment schemes, which reminded me of the premium bonds I have. A moment of wishful thinking, but realistically I need to plan the adventure on concrete things.

I suppose, at the very least, I have a graduate loan to fall back on, but that comes with the added worry of more debt.

I’m a little worried about debt. Because I’m starting a post-graduate course on the first of February, and whilst I am very excited about it, the finance part of it does worry me.

The fees are like all college or university fees: horrendously expensive. So expensive that the only way I can really afford it is to take out a career development loan. Thankfully this, as far as loans go, is quite nice: you pay no interest over your course, and you don’t even start paying it back until it’s finished.

It is different to a student loan, though, because it feels like a very real debt. The student loan goes away if you haven’t paid it off by a certain time. You don’t need to start paying it until you’re earning a certain amount of money. But this, this is a real loan, with real money that will need to start being paid back pretty quickly.

I’ve tried looking for debt advice. There are websites out there that can usually help with this sort of thing. Or, at the very least, give you information on it. Tell you your choices. There are websites like This is Money, which specialise in giving you the latest up to date news on all things finance, as well.

In fact, a quick Google shows all sorts of money advice websites, much like this.

None of them touch on my main worry, though. With my course starting so quickly, what it my loan application falls through? What if I’m left stranded in the middle of a course that I then can’t pay for?

I suppose the only option then would be to look at the other options my bank offers: personal loans, or some of their other loans that you can supposedly apply for in a matter of minutes online. But they worry me even more than the career development one does…

Manchester United are in serious debt. Liverpool are, too.

The economic downturn has a far reaching shadow that extends well beyond us to every aspect of society.

We hear about it through the television, through the newspapers, through every aspect of the media. People are struggling in every aspect of society – even football teams are struggling. Struggling to balance their titanic wage books, struggling to keep afloat when, for so long, they have had to pay millions and millions of pounds to player after player.

What can we do? The average Joe, the everyman, working and working for just a scratching of the money that these sports players and celebrities make? What can we do? How do we manage money when even people whose job it is to manage money are struggling to do so?

Financial protection and, with it, now more so than ever, financial planning becomes key, becomes incredibly important. We need to be careful in everything we do, everything we spend money on, because it is so easy to misstep. And in times like these, financial missteps can be tremendously costly.

Today is the day of good deals – looking for them, finding them, and taking them, where you can. There are places that can help out with this, Money Supermarket, and other websites designed with you in mind, to help you out with your finance and your spending. And they can be tremendously beneficial.

And, it goes without saying, that insurance of every kind is as important as ever. From the small things, whether it’s your mp3 player, or if you’re just looking for home insurance reviews – or the bigger, more important things.

You can get life insurance that covers health problems, critical illness, and other things.

And, based on the premise that your home is the biggest investment you’ll ever make, there are some impressive (and not so impressive) mortgage life insurance cover schemes out there, as well.

The problem is that there are so many of these kinds of deals, you need to do your research and make sure that you find the right one for you.

Now that the film has finished, it doesn’t look like there’s much on. In fact, the television shows seem to range from shows on the economy and finance, to shows on the essence of beauty, and that is as sure a sign of anything that I should be getting to bed.

When I said as much to my dog, though, who was slobbing out beside me on the sofa, and she promptly looked at me in disgust. When I repeated myself, it was obvious she wasn’t having any of it, and she crawled sleepily off and hid underneath the table.

Not Insomnia — quite the opposite, in fact: she’s plain lazy. Although I don’t feel like walking much myself, I must admit. But then, when I look again at the TV, my decision becomes just that little bit more reinforced. Although if there’s one good thing about hearing three people chatting about the economy late at night, it’s that it reminded me to get in touch with my friend the banker, and bring that subject of offshore financial services again – I think he would appreciate that, this time, I can sound a bit more knowledgeable on the topic that he was so interested in last time we met.

Today has been great. I met up with, and had lunch with, a friend I haven’t seen for at least 3 years. It’s a shame, really, because we grew up together, went through school together, and then, as happens after you finish school and start university, we went our separate ways. He’s a fantastic guy, though, and I wish I had made more of an effort to stay in touch with him.

He was always very clever, and hard working, and it’s paid off. Now a graduate, of course, he’s got a job in finance, and moves between banks in town working his magic. Over drinks, I asked him about the local ones, because I’m considering doing a masters, and will probably open a bank account with a new bank at some point in the near future, because I’m not sure how much of a good deal I’ve got at the moment with my current one. I suppose it’s usual to feel that way.

All of a sudden, the topic changed from offshore finance to ideal jobs, and that sort of thing. I suppose it’s because when you’re younger, you don’t really set out to be a banker, or work in insurance, or any of that stuff – you want to be footballers, or actors, or astronauts. My friend wanted to be a footballer. I wanted to be an athlete; a track runner. I love the Olympics, and track and field, and all of that stuff. So today has been particularly magical for me, because Usain Bolt has been at it again. I had an awesome lunch, and got back in time to watch both the semi-finals and the final itself. I had a feeling the final would be epic, when he managed to cruise to a time of 9.8 seconds in the semi, slowing down after about half way. And then to go and beat his own world record with 9.58? It’s just beyond words.

It can only be beneficial in these tough financial times, to have as swish a CV as possible. So I think I’ve decided to do an MA degree. Spending a year getting more qualified, and, on top of that, using it as an opportunity to take some time to expand the CV further with work experience and other writing just seems like a good idea at the moment. In a year’s time, with luck, the job market will be looking a little bit more peachy, and my more peachy resume will be right at home in it. That’s the hope, at least.

The most interesting courses, for me at least, are in London. It’s an interesting place, too – obviously, being a thriving, bustling capital. But there is an interesting video on You Tube, too, where someone has seen and recorded a UFO flying around the city. It seems the general consensus is that it’s a bunch of balloons drifting on the air, but still … it’s nice to have an air of mystery about a place. My worry is that to study there, and pretty much do anything there, really – well – it’s very expensive, though … there’s no getting round it. To make it possible, I’d probably need a loan, even if I can manage with a small one, and try and work up the rest of the money. So I’ve been looking around at the various current accounts to see what sort of deals they have on offer, and some of them don’t look too bad. With so many banks available, I suppose it’s always nice to have some healthy competition.

There also appear to be foreign currency bank accounts, which seem quite interesting, allowing you to bank offshore. I’m not sure it’s for me at the moment, but having leafed through quite a lot of pages on these bank websites, I stumbled on it and thought it quite an interesting idea. There are so many different accounts out there, and so many benefits, and so many different loan packages that I think I’ll certainly have to look into it more before I make a decision which to go with.