But for those of you who, like me, can’t stand Valentine’s Day and all its commercialism and mushyness, perhaps you can use the big day to your advantage and make some money out of it instead!

1. Sell cards

Many people are suckers for buying Valentine’s Day cards to show their loved ones how much they care (why they can only show they care on one particular date is beyond me, but who I am to judge?). So why not take advantage of this and make some cards to sell?

Shop-bought cards are usually ridiculously expensive – in the region of £5 to £7 in many cases – so lower your prices slightly to make things competitive and you could make a fortune!

If you’re thinking of selling your goods in the street, you should check with your local authority to see whether this is permitted. Alternatively, sell your cards at work, at your gym, or at any other classes you attend.

2. Sell baked goods

If crafts aren’t really your thing, perhaps you’d rather whip up a few chocolates instead and sell them on as Valentine treats?

How about some easy chocolate truffles to get you started? Or perhaps Port and Stilton truffles or chocolate orange truffles?

Alternatively, why not test your skills at cupcake baking?

3. Get cooking

If you’re feeling particularly brave, you might want to try cooking an entire Valentine’s Day meal. See whether any couples you know would be prepared to pay for a three-course meal and service provided by you!

After all, it will save them the stress of cooking at home and they’ll still be able to enjoy being waited on, without being crammed into a crowded restaurant with lots of other loved-up couples! What’s more, you’ll be able to make some money out of it, while they will probably save money – restaurants are very clever at boosting their prices in time for 14 February.

4. Babysit

If you know of anyone who might want a night off looking after the kids, why not volunteer your services and babysit? Babysitting rates tend to be between £6 and £10 an hour and if you’re sitting after midnight, you can ask for even more (although your request may not be accepted!). Of course, you’re more likely to be able to charge more if you’re fairly experienced in looking after babies and children.

You could also post an advert in shop windows – providing you’re granted permission.

5. Throw a singles party

Unsurprisingly, the people who are most likely to hate Valentine’s Day are singletons. After all, it’s a reminder that they’re single. This, of course, won’t bother everyone, but if you know some singletons who need cheering up, why not throw a house party and charge for entry?

The fee doesn’t have to be much – perhaps just enough to cover any drinks and snacks you might provide, and to make a little extra on top. After all, why let couples have all the fun? And you never know, this could be your opportunity to play Cupid!

6. Sell your jewellery

Why not take advantage of a rise in demand for jewellery at this time of year and sell any unwanted stuff of your own? Use websites such as ebay and ebid to try and get a good deal.

Alternatively, if you’re feeling crafty, you could make your own jewellery and sell it on an online marketplace such as Etsy, Folksy,Coriandr, Misi and Not On the High Street.

In fact, you could also sell your cakes and cookies or any other Valentine’s Day gifts on these websites. But you may need to act quickly in order to get your goods on the website in time!

7. Make music

If you’re a talented musician, you could always try your luck at busking. Have a go at singing a few romantic songs, strumming the guitar, playing the keyboard, and see if you can earn a few extra pennies.

(Be warned that if you’re going to do this, it’s a good idea to contact your local authority to check whether busking is prohibited anywhere.)

Alternatively, you could ask your male friends if they will pay you to romantically serenade their girlfriends – obviously on the boyfriend’s behalf! (Or it could be the other way round, of course, with the boyfriend being serenaded!)

Good luck!

Treat the Emergency Fund like An Expense
This one might not be so creative, but why not add a twist to it by having your family member bill you for it? The plan actually works best if your kids collect the money because late payment is going to be painful. Trying this idea will also involve your children in a real world situation earlier in life while giving you a chance to teach them about financial matters.

Pretend Everything Cost 10% More
If you automatically put 10% of the purchase price into the emergency fund every time you buy something, you will very quickly build a big emergency reserve. Doing this makes everything more expensive, so if you are disciplined enough to implement this, you may end up buying less too.

Alternatively, pretending our utility bill is double the cost will also work the same way. Be creative.

Save Every $5 Bill
I didn’t come up with this idea because a lady already managed to save a good amount of money doing this. I bet it was fun every time she received cash.

Pretend Gas is $5 a Gallon and Save the Difference
Gas is expensive but not many are driving less. Maybe you should try to pretend that each gallon actually costs $5 and save the difference. Do the calculation every time you fill up our cars and deposit the difference into your savings account.

Rewards from Credit Cards
If you use a credit card without a generous reward program, do yourself a favor and switch to one that does. Once you start receiving the rewards, transfer them directly into your emergency fund.

Sell Your Old Stuff
Everyone has stuff lying around the house that can be sold. Start selling them and put the profits into your emergency fund. (Maybe if you add a note that explains the reason for selling is to build an emergency fund, people will actually not haggle you as much on the price.)

“Be a Company Man”
There are two problems with this lesson.  First, there are no company “men”.  Just as many women are pulling down a fair wage in today’s economy, and the occasional guy who spouts this lesson may also still think “women shouldn’t be in the workplace”.  The second issue I have with this is becoming more obvious in this current economy.  Companies try to take care of workers, but they can only do so much.  Be a family man.  Be a man of truth.  Be a funny man.  But don’t ever base your identity solely on the corporation who signs your checks.

“Always Pay with Cash”
This can be a terrible piece of advice that assumes we live in a one-size-fits-all world.  It is also nearly impossible to abide by.  If you use water, gas, or electricity that costs more per month than the deposit you put down when you opened your account, you are using credit.  Unless you waltz in with a wad of cash and tell your utilities manager that you would like to only use the amount you prepay every month, you are “charging” your bill for a short time.

Most should avoid credit until they have developed the ability to use it responsibly.  But let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?  This adage should never be given to your kids without a lengthy lesson on credit.  It would be better if it were changed to “pay with cash if you aren’t good for your word of paying back the things you buy with credit.”  You may also add in “credit rocks if you are good with your budget and like earning perks for the shopping you do anyway.”

“Don’t Spend it All in One Place”
This is one that many of us still hear.  The thought behind it is that if you “blow” all your money on one purchase, you won’t have it for other things.  But don’t we already know that?  Similar to the “play the field” advice for relationships, it can discourage kids from setting, planning for, and committing to a financial goal so that they can one day buy a large purchase that would otherwise be unattainable.  So yes, “spend it all in one place” – if that’s what it takes to make that mega purchase of a home, car, or college tuition.

“Time is Money”
Yikes! To some extent this is a true statement.  If I burn minutes and hours waiting for a doctor that is late for my appointment, and I’m missing time in the office earning a paycheck, then time is money.  If I’m spending a day off from work (unpaid even) to visit my sick aunt in the hospital or to witness my daughter’s first volleyball tournament, then this is very simplistic thinking.

I can always earn more money.  I can never get the precious moments of life back.  Be sure that when teaching this to your kids, you are qualifying the value of time in units other than cash.  You only get one life, and you can take none of your belongings with you when you die. (Both are traditional lessons that parents should be passing on to their kids!)

~ LINSEY KNERL ~

Airlines engage in versioning by selling the same travel service to all customers while offering different levels of amenities for first class and economy tickets. Grocery stores bundle products together, offering a discount on the purchase of several of the same item.

Both of these techniques are used to increase sales and promote products, while offering savings to consumers. However, some instances of versioning and bundling are designed to fool and confuse shoppers into overestimating the value of an offer. To make sure you aren’t falling for false deals, you need to learn the details of versioning and bundling and the pros and cons of each tactic.

Versioning
Versioning involves selling a product to a group of consumers and then altering that product and selling it to different consumer groups. A classic example of versioning occurs when an information technology firm sells professional and standard versions of software. A higher-priced professional version may have all the features of a software program, whereas a standard version may have limited features.

Versioning can be applied to non-software goods and services as well. An automobile dealer engages in a form of versioning when it offers “fully loaded” cars equipped with options like navigation and heated power seats, while offering the same model car, without additional features, at a lower cost.

Is versioning good or bad for consumers? If the different goods or services are seen as imperfect substitutes, then consumers are able to maximize their utility by choosing between the altered versions. But if the goods are not seen as substitutes, firms can earn higher profits as certain consumers may be paying for features they do not need, and aggregate consumer satisfaction is not being realized. A firm might even be earning higher profits by illegal price discrimination.

Bundling
Bundling involves combining multiple products and selling the items as a package. A typical example of bundling involves installing software on a computer and selling both the computer and the software as one product. In this case, the software would have to be purchased along with the computer, regardless of the consumer’s desire for the embedded software. When firms engage in bundling, the combined products might not be able to be separated, leading to the possibility that consumers are being disadvantaged.

Bundling can benefit the consumer if:

• A price advantage is realized compared with the total cost of the individual items.
• Individual items within the bundled package can be purchased separately.

Consider a bundled bedroom furniture set – such as beds, bedside tables and dressers - that may be purchased at a discount to the total price of individual products sold separately. In this case, if the consumer were interested in purchasing all the items, they would potentially benefit from a bundled discounted price. If the consumer wanted the bed and dresser but not the tables and could not purchase the items separately, this form of bundling would not be mutually beneficial.

Bundling in the form of tie-in sales can be illegal if consumers are forced to purchase a product only when combined with another item. Assume a business requires that only branded parts of computer hard drives can be used to retain a consumer’s warranty. Warrantors cannot illegally bundle the sale of only branded items in exchange for the warranty.

Bundling is targeted by antitrust agencies, particularly when done by monopolistic firms as a form of illegal price discrimination.

In the wake of the financial crisis, “Sesame Street” is teaching children financial literacy. Ron Lieber talks to Elmo about saving and sharing.

A year ago, it was only cheaper to buy in 40 out of 50 towns.

As the banking industry, rocked by the financial crisis, has tightened lending criteria on mortgages and demanded bigger deposits, it has left many more would-be first-time buyers stuck on the sidelines.

This has forced many more people to rent rather than buy, and spurred landlords to cash in on the rising demand and charge tenants more.

Average rents have been on the rise for most of 2010 and 2011.

Meanwhile the UK bank rate has been pinned down to 0.5 per cent for nearly three years, keeping mortgage repayments exceptionally cheap for those already on the property ladder.

Swansea, Plymouth and Bournemouth are the only three locations included in the study where renting works out cheaper than buying a property, according to the study by property website Zoopla.

Milton Keynes was named as the place where buying a home was the most cost-effective compared with renting, with renting being 36% more expensive than owning, leaving renters typically £2,436 a year worse off.

In London, renting is 31% more expensive than the cost of ownership, leaving renters paying £6,888 annually on average compared with owners.

Nicholas Leeming, business development director at Zoopla.co.uk, said: ‘The shortage of financing, especially for first-time buyers, has pushed demand for rental property through the roof.

‘But for those lucky enough to be in a position to get a mortgage, there may never be a better time to buy.’

However, any rise in interest rates or a fully-blown second credit crunch  could rapidly and dramatically alter the affordability of UK property, sending mortgage repayments soaring for new borrowers in particular.

Markets currently predict no rise in the UK base rate until 2015 but the best rates on mortgage trackers have risen in recent months in reaction to the worsening situation in the eurozone, which threatens another banking crisis.

Britain’s record low interest rates has been largely only of benefit to those already sitting on substantial amounts of equity in their homes and therefore able to offer up the typical 25 per cent to 40 per cent deposits needed to get the best deals when remortgaging.

For some, they have enjoyed dirt-cheap credit even without substantial equity. If they took one of the overly generous deals on offer in the credit boom – mortgages that track the base rate with only a slim premium were not uncommon – they might today still be paying between 0.5 per cent and 1.0 per cent.

And those who borrowed from Nationwide Building Society before the spring of 2009 continue to benefit from the lender’s pledge to only charge 2 per cent above base rate, leaving hundreds of thousands of borrowers paying just 2.5 per cent.

Nationwide’s standard variable rate for customers who have joined it since then is 3.99 per cent.

Zoopla based its research on buying a two-bedroom flat paying a rate of 5 per cent but taking an ‘interest-only’ deal, which is significantly cheaper than a ‘repayment deal’, and offering no deposit. It says these were the best assumptions to give a fair comparison for the real cost of finance.

In 1984, Unitas and partners bought National Circuits for $3.5 million. The company foundered, and six years later they could only sell it for $1 million. Unitas declared bankruptcy in 1991 after he couldn’t pay back loans he took to purchase National.

“The No. 1 reason athletes lose money is they invest in areas they don’t really understand and not related to their expertise,” says Alan Lancz, a wealth manager who works with a number of professional athletes.

Björn Borg’s another good example. When he retired from tennis at the age of 27 in 1983, the Swede had won 11 Grand Slam championships. He tried to replicate his on-court success in the world of fashion with the Björn Borg Design Group; it didn’t work.

The company quickly ran into liquidity problems and shut down in 1989. Borg refused to take outside financing for fear of losing control of the company. Creditors later sued Borg, but he claimed he couldn’t pay because he was “more or less bankrupt.”

While failed business ventures often take a wrecking ball to an athlete’s net worth, they are hardly the only source of money woes. There’s also the expensive cars, the jewelry, the lavish parties, the mansions. The cost of the lifestyle adds up.

In a Prince & Associates survey of sports agents, 69.1% said their athlete clients live a luxurious lifestyle. The Rothstein Kass-sponsored survey also found only 26.4% of those athletes worried about paying for the lifestyle. More should be so concerned.

One estimate pegs Mike Tyson’s career earnings at $400 million. But the hard-punching heavyweight, who earned up to $30 million for some of his fights, declared bankruptcy in 2003. Documents from Tyson’s divorces said he spent $400,000 a month on care for his pet tigers, legal fees, limos and plenty more.

”He spent enormous amounts of money that were inappropriate at best,” a lawyer for Tyson’s ex-wife told The New York Times after the bankruptcy filing. ”Part of it can be attributed to a lack of willpower.”

Jack Clark was in the middle of a three-year $8.7 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in 1992. The power-hitting designated hitter was also filing for bankruptcy. In a filing, Clark revealed debts of $11.4 million. His assets only totaled $4.8 million.

“He had some expensive hobbies, and I think they got ahead of him,” Clark’s lawyer told a reporter. Clark’s bankruptcy filing revealed he owned 18 cars, one a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717,000. He still owed money on 17 of them.

Another potential financial pitfall for pro players: Their big paychecks make them a target. The agents in the Prince survey say they’ve seen 77.5% of their athletes exploited by friends and family. They’ve seen 71.9% exploited by advisers.

When NHL great Bobby Orr retired in 1978, one accountant estimated the defenseman owed more money than he had. A few years later, Orr accused his agent Alan Eagleson of mismanaging his finances. The former Boston Bruin sat in the courtroom when Eagleson pleaded guilty to schemes to defraud National Hockey League Players. Justice was served, but it didn’t bring the money back.

Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass, two examples of mobile money, work by storing your card data (from credit cards, prepaid cash cards, and loyalty cards) on your phone, then transmitting the info to the checkout stand when you wave or tap your device.

With new applications and improved phones making mobile money more common, this is a good time to master the basics:

Tap-and-pay systems. Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass transmit your encrypted payment information wirelessly from your phone or a keychain gizmo to a special reader. Some systems require physical contact between your phone and the reader, but a new generation of phones hitting the market in 2012 will turn the tap to a wave.

While this may not sound like a big improvement over swiping a credit card, it might save you time and money as daily deals, coupons, gift cards, and loyalty rewards programs are integrated. Meanwhile, transit systems in London, New York, and Singapore are all evaluating PayPass as a replacement for metrocards.

PayPal mobile payments. Suppose you’re at a San Jose Earthquakes soccer game and suddenly want a hot dog. You can order it from your seat with an app called Yorder, settle up using PayPal’s mobile app, and wait for delivery. Customers of PizzaExpress in London can pay by entering a code from their restaurant check using their PayPal app.

Some mobile banking applications similarly let you transfer funds; expect to see more as mobile payments explode in popularity. In 2010, PayPal customers spent $750 million in mobile money. This year, the company expects that amount to grow by a factor of four.

Roaming credit card readers. Use your phone to accept credit cards at your next garage sale, thanks to apps like Intuit’s GoPayment. With that one, all you need is a free credit card swiper, available at www.gopayment.com, that attaches to your phone. Intuit takes a 2.7 percent cut of every sale. One Girl Scout troop in Ohio boosted cookie sales by 13 percent last year when the scouts starting using GoPayment.

Your customers don’t need to worry that your phone will capture their number; the swiper reads the credit card and encrypts the information before transmitting it to the bank. But such fears could mean it takes years before mobile payment really catches on, predicts Sandy Shen, an expert on mobile financial applications with research firm Gartner. With all these systems, Shen says, “the technology is there to address security issues. The tricky part is persuading the consumer” that his money is safe.

But at least the sale means that the beginning of the end of a disappointing British banking saga has arrived.

Northern Rock stood for all that went bad in the UK’s banking system, as those who should have known better bundled recklessly into a headlong rush to throw money at borrowers, believing that the days of easy credit could never end and house prices could never fall.

The Rock dispensed with the idea of backing mortgages with savers’ deposits and instead borrowed huge amounts on the wholesale money markets to fund rapidly expanding mortgage lending – money was cheap, house prices were going up, you couldn’t lose.

It was different this time.

The infamous 125 per cent mortgage was symptomatic of that mindset: you borrowed the entire value of your property and then stuck a bit extra on top to clear any existing personal debts and have some cash to buy some furniture and fit out the new pad.

In theory, if you were buying a place that was big enough for you to not need to move from for a good long while and you were transferring higher interest rate personal debts to a lower rate on the mortgage this was not a terrible plan.

But that wasn’t how many people saw it. What they saw was a shortcut to buying a property, getting some extra cash to spend and, as house prices could only keep going up, soon the property market would have paid off the extra debt for them and they’d be sitting on a nice profit.

Northern Rock wasn’t the only bank doing this, most were chasing the dream to keep profits rising and executives’ pockets full. And our building societies were also guilty of chasing the property and buy-to-let booms – and again keeping executives’ pay packets healthy.

Except it wasn’t different this time.

House prices could fall, easy money wasn’t around forever, and Northern Rock became Britain’s first banking crisis victim, with queues of savers terrified that they would lose all their money.

But this isn’t just a tale of foolish borrowers and greedy bankers, the Government and financial authorities also totally failed to spot or do anything about the colossal problem brewing – but why would you when everyone was making so much money?

That Northern Rock bank run was massively exacerbated by the Government and financial authorities dithering and failing to step in immediately to guarantee savers’ deposits (a penchant for dithering being a characteristic much observed throughout the banking crisis).

Finally now, more than three years after it was taken into state control, Northern Rock is sold.

We have seen it split into good and bad bank, had hopes of it being used as a state-backed Big Society bank to help small business and homebuyers, turned back into a building society, or bundled in with the Lloyds branches struggling to be sold and handed to the taxpayer in free shares.

Instead Northern Rock’s legacy is to deliver a new name among High Street banks.

Let’s hope Virgin Money does better than the sorry bunch we’ve endured over the past decade.

The number of self-employed people has jumped to its highest level since records began nearly 20 years ago, official figures revealed yesterday.

Between August and October, 166,000 more people became self-employed, raising the total to 4.1million, the Office for National Statistics said.

Experts raised doubts over whether all of these were happy about the decision, or simply had no other option.

Michael Saunders, of investment bank Citigroup, said: ‘It may well be some, having lost their jobs, categorise themselves as self-employed but really are unemployed or at least under-employed.’

It comes at a time when there are said to be 461,000 vacancies in the UK.

John Philpott, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: ‘I do not think there has been a sudden surge of entrepreneurial zeal. This is people who cannot get a job picking up bits and pieces of work.

‘It is a sign of economic weakness, rather than strength.’

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said the jump is likely to reflect people ‘resorting to working for themselves.

Yesterday the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, insisted the latest figures show ‘some signs that the labour market is stabilising’ but said the increase in unemployment was ‘unwelcome.’