Monday media round-up 26/07/10

This week's pick of recent personal finance stories.
 

• Mary Holm: It may not pay to jump ship
  Mary answers readers' questions about unit trusts, term desposits and financial advisers. (NZ Herald)
   
• Diana Clement: Why do we put up with these rip-offs?
  Rip-offs in New Zealand are big news, following an opinion piece in this newspaper by UK sports writer Peter Bills. (NZ Herald)
   
• Bernard Hickey: We have to fix our pension problems before debt overwhelms us
  "Prime Minister John Key has done his best to shut down any debate about reforming New Zealand's pension system." (NZ Herald - Show Me the Money blog)
   
• The retirement tsunami
  As the baby boomers bound towards retirement, experts agree this country can no longer afford to keep paying superannuation from the age of 65. (Stuff)
   
• Greer McDonald: In case of emergency
  "One of the interesting things to come out of Wednesday's post was that while a lot of you out there are doing well with keeping on top of debt, a few would be caught short if fired or laid off." (Stuff - Lady in the red blog)
   
• Interest rates likely to rise again
  Interest rates are likely to be driven higher by another official cash rate (OCR) increase this week, despite warnings that the economic recovery is weaker than anticipated. (Stuff)
   
• Shoppers more cautious over interest-free deals
  Consumers are becoming wary of interest-free deals as past mistakes come back to bite, despite the lure of longer time periods. (Stuff)
   
• Tips for dividend investing
  These are trying times for investors who rely on dividends from share portfolios for income. (Stuff)
   
• Credit card scam alert
  The Commerce Commission is warning Kiwis not to fall for a scam where people are offered a refund on overcharges on their credit cards, but are then asked to pay a deposit in order to receive the money. (Stuff)
   
• Bruce Sheppard: Thinking about long term independence
  "To be independent long term what you need are two things and they are surprisingly different but interlinked." (Stuff - Stirring the pot blog)
   
• Consumer confidence takes another knock
  New Zealand consumer confidence fell for a second month as more people felt worse off than they did a year ago, amid higher electricity and petrol prices and ongoing weakness in the housing market. (Stuff)
   
• Looking for work
  The recession has hit the older unemployed hard. Helen Harvey talks to a few people eager to find a job. (Stuff)
   
• Sisters doing it for themselves
  There is a social shift emerging that is transforming the way women control their finances. (Stuff)