Felicity Glover

Dubai Islamic Bank jumps on the financial literacy bandwagon and unveils the Shaatir Children's Savings account, while HSBC slashes its home loan rate to 3.99%

Alina Asif is the co-founder of Allure, a Dubai-based company she set up to help showcase the creations of South Asian fashion designers

On the money There is no law in the UAE that stipulates we have to pay our rent in a one-year lump sum, but if you sign a contract agreeing to that, it becomes enforceable by law.

We might be living longer, but that is not necessarily good news for our pension pots. Nigel Murdoch, the managing director at BlackRock Middle East, says it is essential that your savings allow you to have a bright future in your golden years.

Plans to inject $40bn a month into America's economy for as long as it takes to spark recovery were welcomed by the markets. But it is a bold and expensive move in increasingly desperate times.

Keeping track of those all-important remittances we send home or elsewhere has become a little easier with the launch of a new iPhone application by Xpress Money, the money transfer service that can be accessed through UAE Exchange.

Chelsea Gregory is the co-owner of DanceFit, a new dance and Zumba studio in Dubai.

There's a new posse of cold-calling cowboys, all of them hoping to corral us into investing in their "next big thing". And they're in a race to round up as many high-net-worth people in popular expat locales such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and parts of Asia, for that next big thing investment of theirs, writes Felicity Glover.

Nigel Green, the chief executive of the deVere Group, a financial services firm based in the United Kingdom, has joined a chorus of experts warning investors about the potential risks involved in carbon credits.

Etihad and Visa team up, while UAB launches FlyWards.

If you've been living a tax-free life in the UAE, with generous allowances for school fees, housing and private health care, you might be in for a shock when you realise these are out of reach when you return home.

This may not seem like a difficult question, but sometimes it can be hard to face the truth - even for the best of us. Here goes: how much money do you save every month?

Tom Smith, United Arab Bank's executive vice president and the group head of retail banking, says loyalty programmes are becoming more important to retain and attract new customers - and what they want are air miles.