Spring budget excitement
I WAS to follow up on the potential impacts of people moving away from the dollar toward using other payment clearing systems and what impact that would have, but forgot the Spring statement was coming and so used this opportunity to get some popcorn out, ask a sommelier to wine pair with the popcorn and […]
Will the world move away from the US Dollar?
IT’S a big subject, so here is Part One of a series on dedollarisation. Please ask me questions as we go along over the weeks. A pub question to me a year back: “Why do countries all use the same money if they’re not the same country?” Smart question, and one the world is beginning to […]
Pension top-up deadline – one last chance
THERE are two types of deadlines in life: fakes ones and real ones. The April 5, 2025 National Insurance (NI) top-up deadline is firmly in the latter category. This is a rare, soon-to-disappear opportunity to boost your State Pension by filling in missing years of NI contributions all the way back to 2006. Miss it, and […]
Extraordinary delusions repeating
OH, I really hoped I wouldn’t have to write about him anymore, but he’s back and I’ve written about him twice in three weeks. Today I’m being asked about Trump’s new plan for building a crypto strategic reserve and I sigh so long a sigh I’m a raisin. At least Father Ted, or the muppets was […]
Financial dietary tips
I WAS looking at buying a house, and in the kitchen, there was a potato salad. It was labelled in a way which was giving the consumer the impression it was made using fresh ingredients from a farm. The builders had obviously left there. It was three years out of date and had been in the […]
How financial planning meets your emotional needs
A YOUNG graduate on work experience asked about life as a financial planner. Is it complicated numbers and complicated statistics and analysis? Not really. It’s about how we use our skills and knowledge to solve your financial plan in the best, most comforting bedside manner we can. Yes, it can be daunting, intimidating gobbledegook, and complicated, […]
How end of the Ukraine conflict will ease our cost of living
Four years ago, Trump’s biggest funder contacted me regarding this column. Last week, I said I might be waiting a long time for Trump to come good on his deal to end the war in the Ukraine. Amazingly two days later, he announced he would be scooting into Saudi Arabia to meet Mr Putin to do […]
Trump Farquaad’s Tariffs
SAT in an armchair writing this very column, with my daughters in Germany in 2001, I watched Lord Farquaad in Shrek, not realising it was probably a training programme for today’s US elections. Complete with eyes squinting like he is still on his sunbed, reading out what his script writers have said about billions of […]
Momentum Investing: When Diversification Saves You from AI Hype
FOLLOWING last week’s column on ‘Diworsification’, Deepseek slam dunked it. There’s an old investing saying: “Trees don’t grow to the sky.” No stock, no matter how promising, can rise indefinitely. And yet, investors often get caught up in momentum, buying into the hottest stocks of the moment, only to find themselves battered when reality catches […]
Diworsification: When Too Much Diversification Hurts Your Investments
THERE’S a fine line between diversification and diworsification, and most investors, unknowingly, run right over it. We’ve all been taught that diversification is the golden rule of investing. Diworsification, describes excessive diversification which weakens investment returns, increases costs, and makes managing a portfolio unnecessarily complex. It’s the financial equivalent of collecting hundreds of ingredients for […]
Money, Emotions and Debt: How Our Psychological Needs Shape Our Financial Habits
GOOD old January and the fear of looking at that bank statement where most of January’s wages are wiped out by the credit card bill. Miserable indeed. Debt, however, is a matter to be taken seriously. It can take away one of your core emotional needs – autonomy. Let’s give you some awareness tips to help […]
What Scrooge Can Teach Us About Money
I MANAGED to stop at Christmas and do something I don’t really ever do – watch TV, and in true spirit cuddled up to watch ‘A Christmas Carol’ (1984). Dickens’ classic tale of ghosts, guilt, and redemption is more than just festive nostalgia – it’s a masterclass in how we think (and sometimes overthink) about […]