Thinking of buying a whole town? It is not cheap and may well lead to bankruptcy. Just ask Kim Basinger. The Batman star planned to turn the town into a tourist attraction, building movie studios and hosting a film festival and paid and initial £20 million for her troubles, but met financial difficulties 4 years later in 1993, and sold her stake. Her loss was untimely as she shortly after pulled out of movie Boxing Helena, which led to the studio suing and winning a cool £5.5 million. Bankruptcy was filed for soon after.

Shane Ritchie may have been the landlord of the Queen Vic on Eastenders a few years back, but if you ever bump into him in your local, he is unlikely to be the one buying the drinks! Ritchie faced arrears on the £8,000- a month mortgage of his £2 million mansion which he eventually sold to avoid bankruptcy. His fresh income was then splashed across a 40th birthday party before putting his final pennies into a film, box office flop Shoreditch. Friends then stepped in to help Ritchie after he failed to pay the mortgage for a year and he had his car repossessed.

Self proclaimed ‘baddest man on the planet’ and former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson earned more than £165 million in his career, which saw him become a household name. Tyson’s career skewed off course however, as he openly admitted to being addicted to a rather unhealthy concoction of, “…chaos, money, jail, drugs, alcohol / liquor, girls & strip clubs”, and his knock-out blow came in 2003, when Tyson declared bankruptcy. ‘Iron Mike’ has long since sold his mansions and fleet of fast cars and now lives in a rented home.

“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” Famous words from the late George Best, the Manchester United football legend. Indeed, George’s life was one long party. After his drinking problems spilled onto the pitch causing Best’s career at the top to end prematurely, he turned to gambling to ‘fill the void’. Neither his money nor his liver could keep up with his hectic lifestyle however, and Best was declared bankrupt in November 1982, and sadly passed away in November 2006.

1. An IVA. These were introduced by the Government as a way of debt management without resorting to the complex legal process of Bankruptcy. You negotiate a percentage with creditors of how much you can pay back, and if they agree you may end up paying significantly less than before. It’s not an easy option however, so you should seek advice.

2. Debt Consolidation. Instead of paying the huge interest and fees on separate credit, store cards and loans, these firms can give you one loan which means one payment. Although these are advertised heavily on TV, they are rarely suitable as they mean a very long term commitment.

3. Remortgaging. If you have equity in your home, remortgaging can be an easy way of getting some extra cash at a low rate. It does mean however that the length of your mortgage will increase and again, it’s not for everyone. It could be a risky option, given the ups and downs of the mortgage market.

Most home improvement loans are borrowed money, usually that either increase your mortgage balance or run along side it for the entire duration of the loan. Now then, lets do the sums, supposing for argument sake that you borrow ten thousand pounds.

This in theory adds, say twelve thousand pounds(£12000) to your home. Now that great if your going to sell up and move on to something bigger and better, but what if you don’t.

You will be paying a massive amount of interest on the initial borrowing, which will far outway your accumulation. Paying ten grand for twenty five years at even five percent interest is a massive amount.

Don’t do it unless you can afford to pay it back early, paying for a new kitchen for twenty years when It may only have an expected life span of 5 years is a mis-noma. Necessity should be giving in online saving as this will be the foundation of saving for a home upgrade.

10. Fish

Could these fish possibly be the most expensive around?

9. Toilet

Talk about flushing money down the toilet!  All that’s needed now is toilet roll made of money to complete the look.

8. Camera

This camera certainly looks expensive but does this latest gadget have the quality credentials to match?

7. Elephant

This is fantastic; the creator has even managed to give the elephant an eye and tusks!

6. Shirt

Is this going to be the next big fashion trend amongst men in the office?

5. Snail

Who knew that you could make a snail out of bank notes?

4. Hang Glider

This is very inventive and with the level of detail in this particular origami it is likely that a lot of time and effort went into this one.

3. Flower

A flower made of money, which woman wouldn’t be happy to receive a bouquet made up of such flowers this Valentines Day?

2. Queen Elizabeth’s Hat

The Queen adds a new hat to her already really rather extensive collection.

1. Spider

Most people are scared of creepy crawlies but it’s doubtful that people would shy away from this spider.

Which one’s your favourite? Let us know with a comment below!

Make a budget; you can never underestimate how much this saves you, work out your monthly incomings and outgoings. If you want to be really thorough keep a diary of all your spending over a month. Cut out all the unnecessary things, cut out the things you can live without and shop around for anything at all you can find cheaper. Every penny helps.

Secondly, cut out the vices in your life, drink, fags, gambling, woman or whatever is your passion for spending too much money unnecessarily. Lastly, don’t buy things that you don’t need, it sounds easy but it isn’t, impulse buying was always a weakness for me and its easy to bang it on a bit plastic and worry about it later. Avoid the worrying about it later part.

When they get pocket money, encourage them to save a little each week. Then tell them about bank accounts; make it fun, tell them “when you put pennies in the bank, then you get more pennies back.”

Explain about savings accounts and where they can find the best rates by checking newspapers or online. Explain how their money will earn interest. And especially tell them about the sense of security if they have some money saved.

You’ve told them the good news about interest on savings, now is the time to explain how interest works the other way ….. when someone is in debt. Tell them how interest is added …… and at a much higher percent than on a savings account ……. and how the debt can spiral out of control.

If you instil in your children the need to save, put some money aside, then they should be off to a brilliant start.

If you’re in a long lasting relationship then couples should share debt problems and should not lie to each other about their problems. This is what I do, and I find that a problem halved is a problem solved. I often share my financial problems with my mother who is also willing to lend a helping hand whenever I need it.

My sister has suffered from debt in the past, and did not share it with her husband for a long time. He was unaware that she had huge debts on her credit card. Eventually it all came out, and they divorced suddenly. She is now financially solvent and has no more debt problems.

Richard Hurley, communications manager of the UK’s Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System, offers a timely warning: “the festive season traditionally reminds us of the high street threats of thieves and pickpockets stealing our wallets. We must, however, protect ourselves equally from their latter-day counterparts who target our identities.” CIFAS noted at the start of December that 68,000 people suffered from online identity theft in the first ten months 2009 – a 37% increase from the year before!

But just as serious a problem as actual fraud is the perception of fraud; if consumers have no faith in online security, they won’t be willing to take advantage of the many great online offers and settle for more expensive, but seemingly safer, real world purchases. A survey from Verisign claims 22% of British consumers are “held back” from shopping online this Christmas due to fears of having their identity stolen and 14% automatically distrust ecommerce sites on principle.

While is is always more comforting to have rely on picking up tangible goods from a trusted brick-and-mortar store, it isn’t as though real-world credit card purchases are truly much safer. Last month, the BBC reported on the largest credit card recall in history. In Germany, over 100,000 German credit cards were replaced due to the threat of personal data theft. The breach supposedly took place by a Spanish company, potentially posing a threat to any visitors to the country over the last few months.

What is important, no matter where you shop, is to spot the tell-tale signs that suggest your credit card is in safe hands. At present, there are numerous safeguards shoppers can look out for ensure they are as protected as possible. Most importantly, make sure the URL in the address bar either begins with https:// or has a padlock sign, to see that any data you enter will be encrypted. To check the security of the encryption, it is worth checking to see if the the payment service has been verified with an ISIS (Internet Shopping is Safe) or Shopsafe logo.

Jack Dorsey’s ‘Square’, a portable phone-based card-reader, stores no transaction data, making it far safer than any contemporary practice – so perhaps we are headed to a more secure future. But as they won’t be ready for Christmas, caution and common-sense are two of the best friends you can have over the holiday season.

This is a Guest Post from the team at Financial Facts, a great UK personal finance blog.  If you’d like to write a guest post for MoneyStand, get in touch!

There are many things that you can do to get you started.

• How about looking at the interest rates on credit cards. Is it possible to switch these over to something that is 0% and stop you wasting money on just paying off the interest which can take years to clear off the balance?

• Earning more money is also a good way to chuck some extra money at the debts to get them paid off quicker. How about extra shifts, a second job or even selling unwanted items on the internet. It can be hard work but remember your aim – to be debt free. It can help setting yourself a goal and give yourself something to work towards.

• Something that is definitely worthwhile doing is drawing up a list of all your incomes and out goings. This way you can pin point areas which may need a bit of work and help to save any money which you can throw at the debt. A budget for food etc can stop any wastage. Also it is a good idea to work out which debts need the most attention, these are usually the ones with the high interest.

Option 1

Review current finances and consolidate debt; take into consideration incoming and outgoing finances and prioritise payments. There are payments that you must not miss at any cost and these include your mortgage and household utilities. Cut out non-essential outgoings and lower loan or credit card payments by consolidating debt into lower monthly payments.

Option 2

Use a debt management company to devise a debt management plan and act as a middleman between yourself and your creditors. Debt management companies will review what you must pay, for instance household builds, and split the remaining money between the creditors. Beware: not all creditors will be willing to go down this route and County Court Judgements (CCJs) may ensue.

Option 3

Many of us will have already seen the glossy television ads promising to wipe away 75% of our debt. Individual Voluntary Arrangements or IVAs is a formal arrangement between the debtor and creditor, arranged by an Insolvency Practitioner (IP). Unlike bankruptcy the IVA should protect your home during the term of the arrangement. However, IVAs are complicated solutions and should be investigated in detail before being pursued.