Two years ago I inherited a large (£20,000 ) sum of money after the death of my parents.

I had never invested before and when the counter staff at the Nationwide suggested I saw their financial advisor, it seemed the right thing to do.

Basically, the advice I was given was commission-led. Nationwide served their own interests at my expense.

I still feel angry that as a first-time investor I was taken advantage of, and so when I bought my first computer a few months ago I decided to learn a little about web design. I created my first web site in June and it tells my story.

My web site is far from exciting and may send people to sleep but it feels good to publish my story on the web. I think more people should have a go at such web publishing. Creating the web site is straightforward, the worse part of the process is waiting for the site to be indexed by the various search engines. That can take weeks and I'm still waiting.

I sometimes think that the majority of passive investors are being taken advantage of by their high-street advisors. If someone mugged you in the street and took £100 they would be arrested. If someone in a suit calls themselves a financial advisor and deliberately sells you inappropriate financial products you can lose thousands and yet they seem to get away with it year after year. They tell the big lie over and over again and they seem to do it quite well. First-timers queue at their doors, Monday through Saturday.

Mind you, having said all this, financial mis-selling and other every day stories have been eclipsed by the recent big crash. I think people will be more concerned about the implications of this crash on their own investments than my story.

Oh for a Time Machine and TMF.


The web site is...

www.investing-with-nationwide-your-opinions.netfirms.com