Personal Finance

The Budget will take place on March 24, in what is expected to be the opening battle in the general election. Today's confirmation of the Budget date suggests the government is planning on May 6 for the election.

The imminent election means this year's Budget is likely to be more of a balancing act than ever. The Labour government is on a rock (the need to prove it is serious about cutting record levels of public borrowing). It is also close to a hard place (the need to woo the electorate and win votes). Neither aim is particularly compatible with the other.

Having looked at the pros and cons of cash ISAs, many investors may well decide to instead opt for the potentially better but riskier rewards on offer from equity ISAs.

Nigel Walker head of research with online broker Torquil Clark provides his top six funds for ISA investors in 2010.

It might sound a little calculating, not to mention downright paradoxical. But if you want to save on your tax bill, consider giving money away. As they say, giving is a form of receiving. Nowhere is this more true than in the UK tax system.

"Making charitable donations through the gift aid system is very tax efficient for both the charity and individuals who are higher rate tax payers," says Jason Butler of Bloomsbury Financial Planning.

Scrimping. Saving. Pinching pennies. Whatever you call it, many of us are doing it. Nearly a third of the population has cut down on everyday luxuries such as eating out, theatre and cinema. A fifth of us are spending less on holidays. The same proportion has switched to cheaper supermarkets.

Amid so much frugality, you might think we would all pay as little tax as possible. Wrong. We are set to waste a collective £9 billion in unnecessary tax payments, reveals a financial website.

Did you think HMRC was a highly-oiled professional machine dedicated to tackling and confronting the world of tax avoidance and its nefarious practitioners?

Some still labour under this idea apparently. The Treasury Select Committee isn't one. It reckons HMRC is badly organized, performs poorly and that its employees suffer from low morale.

If you smoke, you probably can't add up, according to policy comparison firm Defaqto. That's not exactly what they said. They said: "Smokers could save nearly £2,000 on life insurance by quitting mid policy." But to save that much in a year, smokers would need £3.3m worth of life insurance.

Smokers could save about £60 a year for every £100,000 of life insurance, according to Defacto's figures. They'd save more than 30 times that just by giving up smoking. They could save £2,000 on £100,000 of life insurance, but it would take 33 years.

Sales of 'enhanced' annuities rose by an astonishing 24% last year. But what on earth is an 'enhanced' annuity, I hear you ask. Want to know the bad news? The only people who qualify for 'enhanced' annuities are those who can prove they are one step closer to the Grim Reaper than the average pensioner.

We're talking smokers, the overweight and those with 'serious medical conditions', here. People one step closer to the executing that funeral plan than the typical pensioner. As euphemisms go, the phrase 'enhanced' annuity should take the biscuit. It makes it sound like you're getting a great deal. What you're actually getting is closer to death.

The Co-operative has reported a 21% increase in funeral plan sales in claiming it reflects the loss of confidence in other types of savings and investments, traditionally relied on to cover funeral costs.

The Co-op always used to joke that if it didn't get you when you were alive it would get you when you were dead - because it arranged so many of our funerals - currently about 100,000 a year. Now it seems people are planning in advance.

There's been plenty of talk about a rise in interest rates. But it hasn't happened so far and if most economists are right, it still won't happen for some time yet.

And that means there are plenty of savers out there who have been waiting patiently (or not) for their savings situation to improve.

If you are a regular reader of this column, you'll be getting constantly updated with the best ideas of how to make your money work harder for you. That's vital if you don't have money to waste and want to make sure you have a financially comfortable life - both now and in retirement.

But what if you don't have a mortgage, savings or any investments? What if simply surviving on your salary feels like an almost impossible task?

Motorists are being urged to check their car insurance policies to ensure they're not caught out by costly expenses that they assume are automatically covered in their 'comprehensive' cover.

Will Thomas, motor specialist at comparison site Confused.com, warns: "Lots of people assume that certain benefits are part and parcel of comprehensive cover – such as a courtesy car - but this isn't always the case.

It means that motorists are often caught out and end up having to pay a lot of money for things they assumed they would be covered for as part of their comprehensive policy."

Interest rates have been stuck at 0.5% for almost a year now, and though many mortgage holders may be celebrating, savers and investors are not, especially those with pitifully low cash ISA deals. When cash ISAs were first launched in 1999, the average rate was 5.71%, now, it is just 2.12%, and if you want instant access to your cash, the average rate is a miserable 0.76%.

So what are the options?

Everyone has enjoyed having a pop at the Greek Government's spending habits but figures released earlier this week suggest the UK is actually running up debt even faster.

The Government was reported to have borrowed a whopping £4.3 billion last month - just under £100,000 every minute - making January the worst month ever recorded, in terms of debt, for the UK.

More British consumers will need to stick to the own-brand muesli and keep an eye on the thermostat. A new YouGov survey suggests 16m workers – half the UK's workforce – don't expect to get any pay rise at all this year.

The YouGov survey was conducted last month with more than 4,000 adults. Just one in 10 workers expect to get a rise more than the rate of inflation, with less than a third expecting a rise less than the rate of the cost of living.

It seems the world is not yet ready to welcome back the split cap investment trust. This is the type of fund that gained notoriety for leaving thousands out of pocket in the early 2000s. Invesco Perpetual has withdrawn the planned launch of a new split cap fund, according to today's Financial Times.

The fund was originally due to launch last December, in response to investors seeking products taxed as capital gains, rather than income. The top rate of income tax is due to rise to 50% from next month, whereas capital gains remains at only 18%.