Ms Storrow suggests he could simply give his father his Isa.Solution 3: CarMs Storrow suggests Mr Richards could consider selling his car, paying off the debt and buying a banger. Although this would not be good for his street cred, she says it would be very healthy for his bank balance.Mr Loydall says Mr Richards does not need the car to travel to work. Ideally, he should sell it and repay the loan, but he would need to check this, since it is possible he now owes more on the car than it is worth. If so, he may not be able to sell it without the permission of the credit company.. Five Arrows, the retail arm of the mighty Rothschild merchant bank, this week urged investors to copy the big City institutions and put money into corporate bonds – company debt that is traded on the stock market – to avoid the dramatic drubbing that equities are suffering. Moneynetsavingssearch Five Arrows, the retail arm of the mighty Rothschild merchant bank, this week urged investors to copy the big City institutions and put money into corporate bonds – company debt that is traded on the stock market – to avoid the dramatic drubbing that equities are suffering. On the day the London shares market crashed for a second week running, Abdallah Nauphal, a director of Rothschild Asset Management, told a seminar in the City: "We feel bonds as an asset class have been ignored and misunderstood for a long time. They don't make up as much of a typical client's portfolio as they ought to.

They have beaten equities over the past 10 years, and we think that trend is going to continue over the next five years or so at least."Support for the Rothschild view came from Phil Wagstaff, managing director of UK retail at M&G, the Prudential unit which runs £48bn of fixed-interest securities, including the market-leading M&G Corporate Bond fund. He says: "There are £73bn of personal equity plans (Peps) outstanding. Only £5bn of that is in bonds, but most Pep investors are 15 years older now so they should be switching more of their money into bonds. A lot of people are looking for lower risk and higher income, and bonds fit that profile. Equities are a long-term hold, but particularly for people who are retired or nearing retirement bonds offer a more suitable alternative."The Corporate Bond fund is managed by Anna Lees-Jones, who says: " We hold about 95 per cent of the fund in investment grade bonds. We look at performance, risks and what we think the price should be."M&G is offering a free Pep transfer service into both its Corporate Bond fund and its High-yield Corporate Bond fund. The high-yield fund offers income of 7.2 per cent, compared with 5.5 per cent for the more conservatively run Corporate Bond fund.

The higher return comes from investing in more risky bonds issued by the likes of France Telecom, while the main fund is confined to so-called "investment grade" bonds from companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland. Some advisers put clients into a mixture of the two funds.As Mr Nauphal said, "corporate bond funds are difficult to classify because they are not homogeneous, but that diversity creates opportunities for investors The higher the risk, the higher the return". One of the biggest changes in the UK bond market in the past 20 years has been the extent to which government stocks – gilts – have been supplanted by their corporate counterparts, as British government borrowing has fallen and companies have sought to replace equity with debt.From the investment point of view, the increased certainty surrounding low inflation and the continuing needs of western countries' ageing populations means pension funds are being forced into buying bonds, to the tune of £23bn a year for the next few years, says Rothschild.Mr Nauphal admitted that will eventually squeeze returns on fixed-interest securities such as bonds, because they cannot increase their interest payments, although equities can raise dividends year after year. But Mr Nauphal said bond returns will fall only gradually over several years, giving today's investors plenty of time to get in at attractive prices.But Eddie Middleton, head of government securities at Britannic Asset Management, injects a note of caution. "Whether you should invest in bonds depends on your time horizon, and which sector you want to get into," he says.