Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Everything is bad, bad, bad in the news at the moment. First there was volcanic ash. Now, apparently, there is all sorts on the way which is going to be horrible for your holiday. There is bad weather, and bad traffic, and the bad combinaition that these two combine to create — and

Now, on top of everything, the BBC is reporting that there will be horrible amounts of engineering work taking place on lines used by most of the major UK rail companies.

And even the AA themselves are predicting bad news. Roads will be congested to kingdom come as people visit DIY stores and garden centres, according to the story.

But then — should we not expect busy and congested roads when holiday season comes around? It’s part of the holiday experience. It’s to be expected. And bad weather — weather is weather: it’s not that that makes the holiday. Not really.

Of course it’s not very nice if it rains constantly while you’re abroad, but while you’re travelling?

My biggest worries abroad have always been financial ones. I remember going on tour while I was at university, and I just expected to be able to take my card out there and use it. But the first time I tried, it simply didn’t work. I wouldn’t want to carry too much cash in any case: it’s protecting your money abroad that can be a difficult thing.

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.

I’m not sure how it came about, but today, my friends and I were talking about the lottery. Probably, it was one of those instances where you’re lounging and talking for so long that the topics run dry, and change, and change again. Perhaps something about the lottery came on the television.

The news has certainly been filled with lottery stories recently. Here is one such example: someone has won despite not even buying a ticket. Quite nice, I would imagine.

We were debating what we would do with the money, if we were ever lucky enough to win. The jackpots are so huge these days that I can honestly say I don’t really know what I would spend it on. It would be important to me to take care of my parents, that much I do know. I would happily sort their mortgage out, and would be tempted to get my dad the sports car he’s always wanted, that sort of thing. Apart from that, I would just bask in the joy of not being in any debt, I think. Maybe put a fair bit of it in something like one of these high interest savings accounts, and then you could just live off the interest.

That’s not to say I’d be as laid back with it as these two, who are content to live in their parent’s home despite winning over £2 million. But I would be quite relaxed; it would just be nice not to have to worry about anything.