Parents – the ninth biggest lender in UK
IF the leader of our council tweeted their policies rather than documenting them, we would demand their sacking, yet a president can tweet his intended threats of war, and we shrug our shoulders. Some risk is logical, others isn’t but who cares about logic? Most decisions on investment carry a potential risk and potential return, […]
Jumping market jitters
IMMEDIATE gratification, immediate data and nonsense news, immediate response. The new world? The oxymoron of ‘smart’ phones is lost on me. If they were smart, or as smart as a teacher, they would tell us to turn them off. I hadn’t thought at all about how people use their phones in relation to investments until […]
How to lose 57 per cent of your pension … 1, 2, 3
AS we covered last week, the impact of tax can be a considerable brake to your finances. In a standard working week, a basic rate taxpayer works all day Monday to pay the taxman, and it’s late Tuesday afternoon before a higher rate taxpayer sees the light of day. This is before we include other […]
£109 billion in overcharging investments
SO you’ve worked hard all week and put some of your money into your pensions and ISAs for rainy, and hopefully sunny days, hoping it rises. Yes, the market might be up, but how much did you pay to be ‘up’, and how ‘up’ are you? In our recent column we explained the difference between […]
Mortgage stress test at 7 per cent
AS a 16-year-old, William Shakespeare held little other than an unwanted puzzle, or an obstruction to a football pitch or running track. Not much has changed, but one line from Hamlet still holds true: “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. I have had numerous chats with house purchasers who […]
Debt domino effect on economy
I REMEMBER the domino world record attempt that was thwarted by an insect during set up – one simple nudge. With consumer debt (car finance, personal loans, credit cards) standing at a staggering £200 billion, could any of its sectors trigger that little moment when we just watch it all click away through the economy […]
Savage buy-to-let remortgage lottery
FOR some, the words buy-to-let ‘landlord’ might drag us back to the feudal system from which it was derived, and give the meaning: ‘the bad man in top hat with lots of money’. For others, it’s the person doing their best to stay alive in an ever-problematic, heavily taxed and low interest rate environment. When […]
House prices – the imperfect storm?
NEWS that house prices dipped in January shouldn’t come as a surprise, with new buyer enquiries falling for the 10th consecutive month, sales dipping and valuations (for potential sales) showing no signs of optimism. You should be forgiven, however, for being apathetic about house prices or stock markets, if the headlines were anything to go […]
The cause of the mini crash
MR FERGUSON coined the phrase well with ‘noisy neighbours’ referring to Man City – a phrase his current successor has not bothered with articulating. Last week saw an example of that noise, and investors could easily have made a leap at the wrong time – in either way. Observing from the fence, each time there […]
Income tail wags investment dog
WITH current cash ISA rates paying at best 2.15 per cent, investors struggle to do what’s best for their personal financial security. Most will need the ‘interest’ as income, but of course with inflation at 3.9 per cent (RPI), your real capital is falling at a rate of knots. I recently mentioned the cost and […]
Are you a home-owner thinking of moving house?
IF you’re a home-owner thinking about moving house, upsizing or downsizing, and given the current state of the market, should you stay or go? Well, the answer very much depends on where your loyalties/needs are with your property. Having excellent tenants doesn’t always mean you will have excellent tenants, and as any business person will […]
Bitcoin bubble burst? Read between the lines!
BITCOIN bubble burst? Read between the lines! It was F Scott Fitzgerald who said: “The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” In a world where the extraordinary choice of data on any subject can perfectly […]