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 […]
Life insurance and family protection
LOCKDOWN has given us all the chance to sort out many unsorted items. Buying another jet washer to wash your jet washer was a step too far, perhaps! We have had many calls asking about life insurance and protecting families over the last two months, so I’ll endeavor to answer those questions here. I asked […]
Incentive investing – when do you pay your adviser more?
SHOULD you pay your financial adviser an incentive fee that charges more when they do well and less when they do not? That’s a good question, so let’s look at its pros/cons. A better starting point for all investors to look at is the actual benefit achieved by their adviser in pointing them to an Investment […]
Some investing is based on Titanic style management
FOLLOWING last week’s column on passive/index investing, we had a number of questions I would like to follow up on. Index investing arose from the view that the huge volume of institutional investing is effectively ‘the market’, so the investor simply benefits from the returns less the fees (expensive ones at that). There was an […]
Algorithmic selling risk of your money
OVER my last 32 years, I have seen many a ‘latest fashion’ encourage investors to run toward emptying their bank accounts. There have been financial advisers with scruples, with a full understanding of their own competency and limitations, and there have been others. The last few months have naturally brought up the passive investing debate. […]
Finance support for businesses in Covid time
THE Government’s ‘finance support’ or bounce back loan scheme has been met with much applause after the poorly thought through and disorganised original CBILS scheme. I wrote about its extraordinary initial flaws at design, and like many commentators, I was stunned to find some banks offering loan rates of 12 per cent, coupled with a […]