As I’m sure everyone is aware, the main news at the moment is the so called “credit crunch” which is happening all over the world. I’ve been following it with interest because I’ve always had an interest in economics, but it has come at a very apt time for me because I’m just having to start thinking about my career, pensions, savings, mortgages and so on.

So from what I can see at the moment, if I put money into a pension fund, it’s likely to lose money! But according to my financial advisor at HSBC there are some no-risk and low-risk options where essentially the money is stored as cash and therefore isn’t subject to the market falls and rises. So there’s definitely options there.

As is common in all economics, you have to look at the long term and the short term. In the short term, anything you invest today is going to lose money. In the long term, anything you invest today is going to make money, you hope. It’s this ‘hope’ which is the inevitable part of all investments which makes it exciting for some and daunting for others.

So all this got me thinking about whether I care or not that the markets are tumbling at the moment. Realistically it isn’t going to affect me – at least in the long term. It might even be a good thing for me because in a year or so I’ll be thinking about buying a house and by then the markets may have stabilised a little so that I can at least get a mortgage, but still enjoy the lowered house prices.

It’s also quite poignant for me that the banking sector has destabilised because I went for a job in a hedge fund in London which is the exact sector that is being legislated against at the moment with the introduction of a ban on the short selling of 29 particular shares (mostly stocks from the banking sector). I’m quite glad not to be in that industry now that I see what’s going on as my job could have been in jeopardy even before I’d started!

From all of it I can conclude that this won’t affect me all that much, but I shall definitely have to keep an eye on the news to see if I can make the most of what the banks will be offering in the way of bonuses on savings rates in the months/years to come.