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Harish Patel

August 5th, 2010


Current rating: 5/5

Harish is Pensions IT and Systems Manager. He is married with two children. He loves his gadgets but rarely has time to play with any of them. His latest is a Canon X500D and a Nintendo XL DS.

We asked Harish:

Are you a saver or a spender? I was a saver but as I am not getting any younger and do not want my children to unduly worry about inheritance, I have started to spend.

Have you ever dabbled in the world of stocks and shares? If so, what has been your best/worst experience? Yes, Halifax because I got free shares. The worst experience is also Halifax, as look at what has happened to them now? If only I had cashed them earlier!

Are you a fan of price comparison sites? I must admit the only one I have really used is confused.com for car insurance, home insurance and ISA's. I really should use them more.

How important, do you think it is to start financial education in schools? My children think money comes from the bank of mum and dad so there clearly is a problem. Did you know that around two thirds of adults believe finance lessons would have helped them deal with today's financial challenges? I think schools need to educate children in basic personal finance as soon as they understand how to use the internet so that they appreciate the issues of identity theft and where money comes from.

Another statistic I have great trouble with is "50% of England's teenagers have been in debt by the time they are 17" according to the Personal Finance Education Group. If today's children are growing up into a debt culture they will simply find it norm to being in debt for the majority of their lives increasing their dependency on state handouts or help from their parents.

If you were Chancellor for a day how would you deal with the country's deficit? This could be a huge list but at the very least I would increase inheritance tax for estates over 1 million, remove student loans but introduce a graduate tax of 1% for life for those earning over 20k, remove both introduction of 50% tax and the 1% increase in NI and alter stamp duty so that it is a bit like income tax bands.

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