Year of paddling furiously

· Rises in council tax and utility bills have been blamed for the cost of owning and running a home rising significantly even though mortgage rates have been at 50-year lows. HBoS, the UK's biggest lender, calculates that the cost of owning and running a home rose four times faster than inflation between 2001 and 2002. This year won't look any better - on average council tax has risen a record 13 per cent. Chancellor Gordon Brown, fearing voter reaction uncomfortably close to the next election, has allocated an extra £406 million to keep council taxes down.

· Precipice bonds sold by companies such as NDF, GE Life, Scottish Widows, Scottish Life and Canada Life three and five years ago have fallen so much they have gone through the 'safety nets'. Thousands of investors whose bonds matured this year have lost much, and in some cases all, of their investment. The number of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman about the way bonds were sold is rising fast - 2,600 last year, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 for the year to next March. The office says it is finding in favour of 'a good number'.

· Interest rates rose for the first time in three years when the Bank of England monetary policy committee agreed a 0.25 per cent increase in November. It added only about £15 to the monthly cost of a £100,000 loan, but further rises are expected next year. Rates are likely to go up between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent - until the British public stops borrowing, says Faisal Islam, The Observer 's economics correspondent.

· National Savings & Investments took a record amount this year as investors, frightened by three years of appalling stock market performance and the bad behaviour of the personal finance industry, poured £12.25 billion into safe investments. Premium Bonds were particularly popular, up 94 per cent compared with 2002 and topping £7.5bn. Typically, this happened just as the stock market started its recovery.

· Bears turned to bulls in March, when the stock market's three- year downwards slide ended. Since then the FTSE All Share has risen 596 points, or 15 per cent. Growth stocks, including technology and telecoms, did particularly well. Japan performed a welcome turnaround, with the Nikkei 225 growing 33 per cent since the end of April after a 13-year slump.

· Employees saw jobs in call centres and legal, banking and insurance administration go down the pan as companies such as Norwich Union and HSBC moved work overseas - where employees cost less.

· Property programmes have taken over from detective series and hospital dramas in dominating the TV schedules. Last week we counted 16 on terrestrial TV alone: Here Comes the Sun BBC 1; Sunday Home and Garden BBC 2; Costa Living ITV 1; Changing Rooms BBC 1; Sublime Suburbia ITV 1; A Place in the Sun C4; Home from Home C4; Property Ladder Revisited C4; The Million Pound Property Experiment BBC 2; Location Location Location C4; How Clean is your House C4; No Going Back C4; Escape to the Country BBC 2; A New Life Down Under C4; House Doctor Five; Dream Holiday Home Five.

· Despite the doom and gloom merchants in the press, property prices continued to defy gravity just about everywhere but London. The Halifax House Price Index recorded an average rise of 14.1 per cent, less than 2002's average of 28 per cent, but lifting the average property price to £139,405. Although prices eased slightly in London, this would still not buy you a lot. Stern Studios sold a 10ft by 11ft microflat in Earl's Court for £129,000. It is still possible to buy something (other than a dog kennel) for less than £90,000 in London though. Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward (020 7639 2029) are selling a 'spacious split level studio' above the God Bless Restaurant and God Bless Hair Salon in Peckham for just £89,000.

Residential property prices have outperformed the FTSE 100 over the 20 years since the index began - while the FTSE 100 has risen 330 per cent over this period, the Halifax House Price Index has gone up 333 per cent. However, research by the Halifax shows that the stock market and the housing market tend to move in different directions - after the sharp falls in the FTSE 100 index in autumn 1987, many investors switched into bricks and mortar, helping to fuel the property boom.

· Stress levels are soaring thanks to a new mental condition - fiscal phobia - identified this year by Dr Brendan Burchell of Cambridge University. If your palms start sweating as you fumble with your bank statement, and you file bills under b for bin rather than p for paid, you could be one of the 20 per cent of Britons suffering from this 'genuine psychological and physiological condition'. Burchell says sufferers experience anything from a 'complete disinterest in money matters' to a racing heart and feelings of dizziness.

· Card fraud fell slightly this year, costing the industry £411.6m in the six months to June 2003. Credit card companies expect to wipe out counterfeiting with the introduction of chip and pin cards next year, but an American company has gone one step further by developing a microchip which can be implanted in your arm. The VeriChip has a variety of potential applications, including a medical bracelet and anti-kidnapping device. But creator Applied Digital Solutions suggests the chip could be used as a digital wallet.

· Parents' spirits lifted when they realised children could bring money in, instead of spending it all the time. The introduction of the child tax credit in April meant 6 million families earning £50,000 or less could receive tax credits worth at least £545 a year. The scheme was marred by administrative chaos and sudden cuts in credits after the Inland Revenue discovered many had been overpaid. Chancellor Gordon Brown's largesse towards children continued with the Child Trust Fund, a gift of £250 at birth to all babies born after 1 September 2002 (and £500 to children from low-income families). What the Government gives with one hand it takes back with both fists - the row over university top-up fees bubbled all year, and parents are girding their loins for argument with offspring about who should pay.

· The number of final salary schemes available to new members fell 25 per cent, according to the National Association of Pension Schemes. Another 11 of 464 surveyed stopped building benefits for existing members. Employees worried that their employer may be considering a similar move may want to invest £14 in the NAPF's Employers' Guide to Pensions. Call 020 7808 1300, or visit www.napf.co.uk.

· Spend, spend, spend. That's what many of us have been doing this year, pushing personal debt to an average £5,530 a person, or £25,000 a household if you add mortgages. As a nation we have borrowed a massive £890bn and - despite a warning shot over the bows from the Bank of England in October in the shape of an interest rate rise - we're still at it. Personal bankruptcy levels are at their highest since 1994, with 9,000 people going bankrupt in the three months to September.

· Up too, the form-filling faced by pensioners with the introduction of the pension credit in October. Elderly protesters took to the streets carrying banners proclaiming 'Pensioners deserve better'. Five million pensioners were expected to be eligible for up to £14.79 for individuals and £19.20 for couples - provided they waded through 60 questions on the application. If helplines jammed with calls from frustrated and confused applicants originally put you off, the lines may be a bit clearer now. Call 0800 991234.