Blimey, I woke today to find 309 unread items in my Google Reader. Everything from an instructable on how to make garden gates, to the latest gadget from the CES show in the states.

My reader does have a few ecclectic feeds I have to admit, including the instructables.com but I do feel I have to keep up my R&D persona with my subscriptions to the various tech blogs at gizmodo, engadget and the like. Now, even though I've returned to Interchange Group after a little sojourn into the travel industry at Comtec I haven't returned to my old R&D post. I do miss that on my business cards, having Research & Development on there did appeal to the nerd in me.

Still I can't complain about the varied work I'm in now, which makes keeping up with the tech feeds still quite useful. Every now and then I get a punt from the head of R&D asking if such-and-such is possible. Which brings me back round to the original topic.

The Bank of England has just cut interest rates to an all time low. Am I naive enough to believe that the tech companies think we're going to invest our new found surplus cash in their gadgets? The CES2009 show is selling the virtues of wrist watch phones and thinner than thin plasma TV's. Why?

Anyone with an ounce of sense will take the extra money they've got in their pockets and squirrel it away somewhere. Martin Lewis was just on the Jeremy Vine's Show on R2 extolling the virtues of 5% interest bank accounts. Excellent, I'll have two but the essence of what he's saying is right.

There's a little boy in me that is crying out for a 50 inch LCD screen (which is why i'm in the process of building a cheap projector but that's another story) but the grown-up that I am now is winning out. I guess I'm finally coming round to the responsibility of having two kids (yes me, two kids) and I don't feel so much like I'm pretending to be a parent anymore. Hence curtailing of frivolous expenditure and I feel quite righteous about it.

So put your money somewhere safe and make do for a while. Soon you'll find that the money you've put away will be working for you and that's the time to spend your earnings. Never spend against your capital and then suddenly one day you'll hit 65 and have enough money to have a great life.

All great on paper, but when you've got about a fiver to spare each month, retirement seems a long way off and just around the corner both at the same time.