Advantages: Crnch, chew, chom, squidge... mmmm!
Disadvantages: You may want to put a bib on! ;o)

...What would life be like with out tracker bars?? Well my life for a start, would definitely consist of many hungry mornings! Being a student, who has 8.30am lectures three days every week and who lives about an hour and a half away from university, I very rarely get time to wake up in early in the mornings to make breakfast.. If I did, I would probably have to be up at 6 instead of 6.30 and you know what, nothing is more pleasurable and enjoyable than half an hours sleep when you really do not want to be up! So yeah, there is just no way I have time for breakfast... so what do I do?? How can I miss the most important meal of the day? I know what happens when I don't have breakfast, by about 10.30am my stomach turns in to a very amateur orchestra!! I swear, if you're sitting next to me, you will not tell it to "encore"! it also means... Read review

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Advantages: Free! Helps with healthy eating as well as calorie contro
Disadvantages: Doesn't have all the foods I'd like in the database, search engine is imperfect

...WHAT IS IT? This product is a free web-based programme that tracks the calorific and nutritional content of your food for you. A couple of years ago I used weightwatchers on line, which is the same idea, but there is a subscription payable for that after the free trial period, of (when I did it) £9.99 a month. Having had another baby and gained a stone, and it being January, I felt the urge to lose weight and I saw an ad for this new Tesco's tracker and thought I'd give it a go. I lost a stone with the Weightwatchers programme, so was happy to give this one a go, all the more, since it is a free programme. HOW DOES IT WORK? Basically you start by signing up, which only takes a few minutes, and you give it your height, weight and, if you want to, your waist measurement. You then tell it how active you are in your daily life... Read review

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Advantages: The fund tends to outperform in flat and falling markets, high dividend yield of around 3%, good long term performance and good manager
Disadvantages: Large £2.6 billion in size makes fund less flexible, 5% initial charge, underperforms when growth stocks are fashionable

...I invested in this fund in september 1998 for my final PEP allowance before PEP's were abolished by the New Labour government. I had been tracking this fund before investing in it. At the time of investing the financial markets were in turmoil caused by the Asian financial crisis, the collapse of the large hedge fund Long Term Capital Management and currency devaluations in emerging markets. I think interest rates in the UK were also on the rise at the time. My strategy in buying this fund was to try and make a purchase close to the bottom of the UK market and get a good price. I didn't quite manage to make a purchase at the absolute bottom of the market but was close making a purchase at around 138p per unit. The fund pays a dividend yield that aims to be in excess of the yield on the FTSE All Share index. The objective of the fund... Read review

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Advantages: tracks ftse uk index,low charges, spread risk , can be ISA'd
Disadvantages: covers all sectors, can miss out on sector over performance

...If you have read the weekend business sections of the papers you maybe forgiven for thinking every fund manager is after your hard earned cash. Your right, although ISA investment inflows have increased this year with the boyant markets, they are still well down on previous years, and with 4 (well nearly 3) days to go until the 2005/06 tax year end , they want your money. There is a vast and somewhat confusing array of funds available, each perporting to be the best investment choice. But take a closer look when choosing the fund for you. One very important thing to check is how much are they charging for investing your money? If you are not careful you could end up paying anything up 7 or 8% what with initial charges, management fees, bid/offer spread. So your fund would have to make 10% to make any investment worthwhile. So... Read review

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Advantages: Superb historic performance.
Disadvantages: Potential change of manager. Volatile sector.

...I have recently heard that the manager of this fund, Tim Woolley, is leaving to set up his own fund management company. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information but I am aware that when something of this nature happens, it can have serious repercussions on performance. The Henderson Global Technology fund has enjoyed amazing success over an extended period, and much of this has to be down to the fund manager. The fund has achieved 530% growth in the last five years alone, without undue volatility (until this year). The fund stands at one-and-a-quarter billion pounds, which is smaller than Aberdeen Technology, which could explain why they've out-performed Aberdeen over that period. A change of fund manager is always worrying, so if you haven't invested in this fund yet but were thinking of doing, it may be worth waiting... Read review

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Advantages: Young, small and flexible. Superb but brief historic performance.
Disadvantages: Little movement in price for several months.

...Jupiter European Special Situations fund was set up less than two years ago and has already seen growth of 140%. Virtually all of that growth was made in the first year but what sets this fund apart from many others, is that it has held on to those gains through what has been one of the most volatile years for shares around the world. Even though the Euro has slipped in value by 30% or so, over the last year, the fund has maintained its value in Sterling terms. When the Euro recovers, as we are led to believe it will, this will be translated into a 30% gain. I bought into this one in January of this year and have no qualms whatsoever about holding. The fund size currently stands at about £140 million, which is miniscule for a European fund. This means it is flexible and can react much more quickly to changes in trends... Read review

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Advantages: Tricky one
Disadvantages: only the well off can go

...A students cost at University at present.is around £7000, this would just about cover most things, and that is without buying clothes and things that youngsters buy. This is a really hard one to write as it is very topical and everyone as different view on it and after writing about it for 2 hours realised I had gone off at an tangent. Now in todays environment universities depend on student funding and also government funding but it is not working and many courses are underfunded. I think that Universities should be run as small businesses. There are a few things that could help:- 1) Universities be more productive and bring in a bit of money for themselves, which some do at the moment. Universities could have a branch that would promote their students and earn a fee rather like Temping Agencies. By placing a student in a job... Read review

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Advantages: Can provide large cash sums to help out
Disadvantages: Not easy to apply, not many people know what's available

...As a mature student, I found it hard to understand why grants had been scrapped and loans put into force. After all, who's likely to relish the idea of £15,000 of debt when they graduate and possibly move on into that grotty part-time job nobody warned them about? I was enticed back into education by a University which had previously been a polytechnic, and was offered lots of extra help by way of Access funds. As a single mum I got plenty of help - but did feel rather guilty as I saw other students struggling, while I could glibly pay my phone bill before the final demand. It was, however, hard to apply for these funds, and the forms were vaguely reminiscent of my Income Support days, when a degree in Nuclear Physics was required to get past page 1. Nevertheless, having got past that I found them to be extremely generous... Read review

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Advantages: good value
Disadvantages: none.

...Virgin direct all shares tracker is one of the best perfoming tracker fund at the moment. While during the last few months many tracker has fell into -ve territory, Virgin still manged to stay a float with a 0% change. Also, the management cost of Virgin direct is extremely low, just amounted to 1% and with negligible further mangement and advise charges. The not only offers good value, good performance but also low management cost. Lots of growth could be hampered by a high management and 'advice' charges as the money that goes in earlier during the investment is those that will grow most, but these advise/mangement charges are usually deducted fairly heavily in the first few years of the investment. Further, their advisors are friendly and efficient. Their website also provide a call back button to save the user from having... Read review

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Advantages: lower costs, lower risks than stock picking
Disadvantages: must be a long term investment, some markets may underperform

...Index trackers are one of the best ways to gain stock market exposure. L and G's multi index tracker goes one better than your average UK tracker and gives you the opportunity to split your investment across 5 different regions - UK, US, Europe, Japan and Pacific. It's up to you what percentage of your lump sum and/or monthly investments you wish to split between these economic regions. By doing so, not only can you gain access to a great lower risk, lower cost investment vehicle (see opinion on index trackers for more info) but you can also spread your risk across global markets, meaning you are not subject to the vagaries of just one country's economy. If you decide to go for this investment, you will effectively be buying shares in large companies based all over the world, from Microsoft to Vodafone to Yahoo! Japan... Read review

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