Women deserve recognition for their contribution to national life and to the economy; Britain deserves to present at least the appearance of an equal and progressive society; but with its current management, the Bank of England looks both ungracious and reactionary.

In all walks of life there is a gap between what is said and what is understood. But it is in the world of finance that the gap is arguably greatest, and with it the potential dangers. This attitude to finance - that it is necessarily complex and hard to understand - is everywhere and it is corrosive.

But a growing number of us are getting impatient. We don't want to wait until we're nearly 40 to be a property owner. No. We want to be rich, or at least financially comfortable, by the time we're middle aged - which means we need to make things happen much quicker.

People can be their own worst enemies sometimes, and women are no exception. In fact, I believe women can be very hard on themselves. So I have made a list of the top five worst things a woman can do to damage her life.

I think now might be the worst time in living memory to be a young person. But we don't get to decide when we're born - so here we are, in the wake of the 'Great Recession'; the first generation predicted to be financially worse off than our parents since the Second World War.

I can't emphasise enough how important it is that you and your trainer get on. If you like your trainer then when you're trying to squeeze out those last few reps their words can be encouraging and motivational. If you don't like them it just makes you want to smack them in their stupid face.

I'm hurtling towards my 42nd birthday. It's not even around the corner, it's standing right in front of me with a mean look on it's face and it's punching one fist into the palm of it's other hand. It looks like trouble, it looks like it means trouble and for all intents and purposes, it most probably is trouble.

In a recent interview about the digital currency Bitcoin, Stephen Colbert asked Adam Davidson of NPR's Planet Money about the value of money, sparking the response 'The problem with thinking too much about these questions is you start thinking, wait, what is money?'

The future is a scary concept. Whether you're a school leaver, the family breadwinner in the prime of your career, or about to enter retirement, it's natural to have concerns about the years to come. Money is the primary area of worry for most people, but there are simple and painless ways to prepare without winning the lottery.

We've all heard of a mid-life crisis, yet the quarter-life crisis may not be quite so well-known. However, according to research, the majority of twenty- and thirty-somethings will face one.

You've probably heard about The Law of Attraction. A few years ago the film The Secret came out, and the world went crazy for it. Oprah was a huge fan...

This week a friend of mine will walk away from his rapidly growing clothing line. He will switch off his iPhone, turn off his Mac, and drop out from Facebook, Twitter and every other social media. This week my friend will be ordained as a Buddhist monk.

Everybody is looking to maximise earnings and minimise spending in order to have that little bit more to spend on the treats life has to offer. As we enter the new financial year, here are five top money tips to help you on your way.