Sitting next to my desk are a raft of copies of my old book The Money Diet. I just picked it up, at the start of the New Year, as a minor trip down memory lane. And I turned to one of the musings I'd jotted down in the book – bringing back bittersweet memories. It says…

As regulars will know, I'm obsessed with fitness-tracking statistics. So this is my annual steps report for 2019. According to my tracker, I did 8,877,851 steps – a ridiculous number, a healthy obsession.

Beware student loan statements, they're dangerous and misleading. I wish I could tell you to rip 'em up without looking at them, but occasionally there's practical info you need. Over five million uni leavers still have outstanding loans. Many panic seeing £100s interest added each month – a financial canker that's led some into making catastrophic decisions.

Nick Cann used to be the boss of the Institute of Financial Planning, a great communicator who'd also dabbled in stand-up. I too am in the financial world, a communicator by trade, and once dabbled in stand-up. I met Nick to give him an award for fundraising after he'd had his serious 'brain attack' and lost most of his ability to talk.

I can reveal that on 1 October, it is almost certain the energy price cap rate, for all but those on prepay meters, will drop by roughly £80/year. This means 11 million households on these tariffs will get cheaper deals. Yet that worries me. It risks giving people a false sense of security that they're getting a good price – when nothing could be further from the truth. 

It's enough to make even the Great Train Robbers blush. A staggering £30 BILLION of payment protection insurance (PPI) has had to be repaid, typically £3,000 each, due to systemic mis-selling. Yet still no one has been prosecuted for fraud.