Financial advice – is it worth it or not?
‘WE don’t know what we don’t know’ is a pretty powerful statement. None more so than underwater electrics, being a pilot, or perhaps an explosives disposal expert, but money is up there too. According to Ken Blanchard, under his situational leadership model, we begin any task at unconscious incompetent stage (the two-year-old beeping dads car horn […]
Forgotten or rotting child trust funds?
THE baby in our house turned 16 last week. That moment of my parent’s sigh of ‘where did all that go’ repeated itself with a slightly different tone. Faced with the thought of saving for my girls, which seemed such a long way off it was not worth thinking about, but whoosh and it’s gone. […]
The end of property investment funds
THE Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has at last published a discussion paper around property funds and is looking for input between now and November before making decisions. Property, as in good old bricks and mortar, has been seen as a safe investment, but problems have occurred for many reasons over the last five years. Moreover, […]
Income dilemma for investors
WHERE is an investor to go to for income these days? Deposit based, property, income funds? Negative interest rates look like a target for central banks and with cash already producing little more than a mattress, building societies have nothing to offer. Commercial property is really having a hard time, and what will the near and […]
Ask what is possible rather than obvious – negative interest rates are more than possible
Following last week’s column, what are the chances of negative interest rates? To make the best returns on our investments, we always need to be fleet of foot. If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we’ve always got. Markets and economies have surprised as long as I can remember. […]
Fancy a 20-year mortgage at 0 per cent?
OVER the last few weeks we have had a number of questions on negative interest rates and what that actual means to the man on the street. Last year, we covered both negative interest rates and a cashless society (they go hand in hand in many respects) and such a thought seemed strange if not […]
Dreaming of low fuel costs
IT had baffled me for many years why governments were allowed to be lobbied on any subject. That was until I understood the neo-liberalist model in full. Lobbied or ‘bought’ votes seem to conflict with the word ‘democracy’, a distant fantasy in a monetary society, it would seem. As we sat in our cages through […]
Investing with less stress
PEOPLE often ask me whether they should be investing their money now as a lump sum, or stage the payments? The only time we will know the true answer to that is in 10 years’ time. Markets fall as well as rise as this year has shown to dramatic effect. I have read countless arguments and […]
Paying for pandemic measures through capital gains – a tax on your personal home?
YOU may well have seen the headlines of ‘how will we pay for the pandemic measures’ circulating, and Rishi Sunak’s recent announcement to review how capital gains tax is charged, will not have gone amiss. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a tax paid on the gains of an asset such as second home, as well […]
Making money through ESG investing
LAST week’s column on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing has significantly more gravitas when we consider the comments from Fatih Birol. The executive director of the International Energy Agency has openly declared the world has just six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis, just as governments pump over £7 trillion […]
The power of investing sustainably
WHEN I was younger, I remember listening to a song which, every time I heard it thereafter, I learned more and more from. It is said when the pupil is ready, the teacher arrives. “Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old and when you do, you’ll fantasise […]
Can we expect a UK stock market bounce?
IN March, when global investment markets were like Zebedee the hopper after four hours on an après ski, we mentioned a number of obvious shortcomings in the market, along with opportunities. As is always the case, markets look ahead no more than six months for positive data, and respond initially with knee jerk movements as […]