Once upon a time, in what seems another life, I worked for the Financial Times. I edited Stock Exchange reports into something people could find easy to read. Back in the 1990s it was a job and I needed one, but I was happy to move onto something else and put it behind me in 1993.

Fast forward to 2006 and I find myself writing about financial matters once again. Credit cards, mortgages, loans – you name it, I write about it.

When I had that FT job, I never thought it would lead to this. In fact, at one stage the whole operation was under threat of closure (not the FT, just our bit). So it's strange to think that 15 years later, I'm still writing about personal finance and all the information I learned about mortgage and loan companies is still useful.