Long gone are the days when people left school at 16 and went on to work for the same company until they retired at 65.
Today, many people switch jobs and careers, sometimes out of choice and sometimes out of necessity whilst many others prefer flexible working patterns to cope with the demands of looking after or starting a family. Others may choose to take a sabbatical, i.e. to take some time out to maybe travel the world or to return to full or part time education in order to better themselves.
As this flexibility in our everyday lives becomes ever more the norm, then so many of us wish to have a similar degree of flexibility when it comes to our finances. We increasingly want loans and other financial agreements to work in our favour as opposed to being tied to and dictated to by the agreement itself and payment holidays built into the structure of a loan are becoming far more common with people being able to take a break from repayments either shortly before the loan is due to start or part way through the loan.
They can offer an ideal solution to those such as the self-employed whose income can fluctuate dramatically either suddenly or during a...