Keeping your head in markets
WADING your way through the extraordinary noise that is financial markets at the moment is an interesting experience. ‘Will coronavirus hit my finances?’ and ‘will Brexit trash the economy?’ are two common questions from investors worried about losing large amounts of capital from their pensions and investments. It isn’t always a pleasant investment world and […]
The investment lie which serves no-one
WHO said: “This is a big deal . . . something that could become systemic. These funds are built on a lie, which is that you can have daily liquidity for assets that fundamentally aren’t liquid”? It was Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, who was referring to illiquid assets (assets you can’t […]
Invest your money tax efficiently
THERE are many ways to invest your money, and to do so efficiently, and tax efficiently. From a tax efficiency viewpoint, ISAs ensure that all gains in your investments are tax free, as do pensions. A unit trust, open ended investment company (OEIC), or Investment Trust have the benefit of gains being offset against losses elsewhere, […]
Pension tax relief loss in Budget?
THE UK Budget is due on March 11th and will have consequences for us all for sure, whether it be the short, medium or long term. It will no longer be delivered by Sajid Javid. Instead it is likely to be delivered by Mr Cummings….ooops, Rishi Sunak, who was surprisingly on hand to be available […]
The £47,000 benefit of taking financial advice
WITH the ever changing political, fiscal and economic tides, how on earth can a person wade through those financial changes and the impact on their life goals, especially given that only a minority seek financial advice? So is it really worth having a financial adviser to do that? Few of us are aware of what […]
How will the Coronavirus outbreak impact stock markets?
RIGHT now the scale of the Coronavirus outbreak makes it impossible to gauge how badly it will impact the global stock markets, just as it was in 2002/3 for the Sars virus, 2003 and 2009 for the Iraq War the impact of the 2004 tsunami in Asia, solely because it’s difficult to be mindful of […]
Will mortgage rates fall or rise?
AS we move towards the Brexit deadline on Friday, should we look at refixing our mortgages? Do we bet on inflation remaining benign and interest rates dropping, or will Brexit throw sterling a sledgehammer, and mean that inflation is rocketed through the UK being a net importer? The fundamental answer to that relates to your budgeting […]
The mosquito in passive investing
I REMEMBER the Virgin tracker fund launched back in the mid 90’s. This was supposed to be a low-cost way for investors to grow their money by avoiding expensive managers. From memory, the annual fee was circa one per cent. Since then, those fees have plummeted, and investors can access one tracker today for an ongoing […]
Financial resolutions for peace of mind (and eating that toad)
IN my last two columns I covered New Year’s resolutions on debt, and the psychology of that debt. Today I’ll cover the broader areas of financial advice, keeping your money safe and serving you. Avoid procrastination. There is a great book called “The Best Time to Eat a Toad”. Have a read. Simply put, if […]
25 per cent or 1.49 per cent interest on your debt
LAST week we covered some of the psychology behind debt, and I’ll just turn that into some practical ideas. For sure, the best outcome for us all is that we are feeling in control of our lives rather than reacting. That gravitational pull of the ‘new’ fangled shopping ‘thingy’ cedes control to the advert man. Its […]
New Year’s debt resolutions 2020
THERE is perhaps nothing more sobering as January’s credit card bill, especially now we can ‘tap’ our way through bars at Christmas. I’ll dedicate this column to debt and managing it with further resolutions for next week. As I explain to my daughters, you can spend your life in ‘control time’ or ‘reaction time’. Which is […]
Sterling bubbles and your post-election finances
WITH an election out of the way, what is the potential change for sterling and how will that affect your finances? Much razzmatazz in the press greeted UK readers after the Conservative victory in the election. Headlines of ‘sterling sky rockets against the euro’ were pretty mainstream. Currencies, and in particular sterling, map political uncertainty and […]