As we near the end of a turbulent year for our finances, we look back at some of the highs and lows as reported on Walletpop...

The UK has always had a bit of a superiority complex. For all sorts of complicated historical reasons we believe our small country has all sorts of rights - to win the World Cup, to be the best at the sports we invented, and to have some sort of world strength economically.

However, a leading think tank has predicted that by the year 2015 our days as an economic powerhouse will be firmly behind us.

We're currently the seventh biggest economy in the world, but at that point we will apparently drop out of the top ten.

We've already seen our relative power in free-fall in recent years. We were the fourth-largest in 2005, but overtaken by China in 2006, France in 2008 and Italy this year.

So what are we doing wrong, and why does it matter?
The reason for the collapse down the rankings is two-fold. Clearly plenty of it is to do with the growing economic powers in previously less-developed parts of the world like Brazil, India and China. China has already shot up the rankings, and is set to be the largest economy in the world by 2015. Brazil and India are expected to have overtaken the UK by 2015.

The other reason is the recession, and the fact the UK has been slower to recover because of our massive debt hangover. This means we have been rapidly losing ground in the rankings to those with the power to bounce back.

It's this economic misery that will see it overtaken by a host of countries including Germany, Canada and Russia by 2015.

And why does all this matter? Well on an international stage your clout is all about money. If we become minnows in the world we could lose our seat on the United Nations Security Council and voting rights in international forums such as the International Monetary Fund.

The group behind the study, the Centre for Economics and Business Research added: "We will have to be prepared to put up with economic, political and social decisions made internationally in countries with very different approaches to, for example, human rights."

It also pointed out that there are plenty of countries holding a grudge against the UK for historical reasons, which isn't going to serve us particularly well in the years to come.

And there was me thinking things were going to get better at the end of the recession!