Noisy trumpety Donald Trump
I KIND of hoped January 1 would have a new morning with new leaders in charge of this financial world. I’ve been in denial since. Instead, in a world where we try and make sense of information to make good financial decisions, the art of seeing through noise has never been so important. Noise can […]
Bitcoin valued at $20,000? What’s really going on?
HOW is Bitcoin valued to reach $20,000? It isn’t. No one can value it. It’s valued at what speculators push its value to. It isn’t ‘up’ at that price and it hasn’t ‘risen’ to that price. Someone has simply paid that for it. If you remember a column in 2008 where we showed you that […]
Make your financial resolutions this New Year
HAPPY New Year to you all and it’s time to make those New Year financial resolutions. The Roman God Janus ushered in new beginnings whilst placing past endings firmly behind. Good financial plan. So as 2018 arrives, here are a few potential financial resolutions I’ve used in the past for you to consider. Pick three […]
Bitcoin – where will it all end?
WE covered the Bitcoin issue three weeks ago, and despite me saying it could get to $20,000, I didn’t think it would be that quick (it was $7,200 at the time). Whilst Bitcoin could go further, you have to understand the basis on which you are buying it and how it’s valued, and I have […]
Selling winners and buying losers
SELLING winners and buying losers – there are many great mistakes made whilst investing money, either by the individual, or institutional investor. None are more obvious than the loss of a successful discipline. The pilot, who decides on that one day to ‘just have a go’ rather than apply all normal processes, will sell more […]
Passive investing and the risks
PASSIVE investing and the risks – If you are trying to maintain your wealth there is nothing worse than being pickpocketed. For many years, financial services was just that, in between expensive products and commission led product salesmen, but as industries become more sophisticated, so too, does the ability to pickpocket you. One of the […]
Irrational exuberance? What is it and what does it mean?
SOME weeks back we talked about how stock markets are born on pessimism, grow on scepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. Unfortunately there are no bells chimed at any point in the process. And so, identifying the signs is fundamental. Many of the signs of euphoria become obvious as irrational exuberance arises. Irrational […]
Quantitative uneasing and your money
CENTRAL banks attempted to stimulate the economy with quantitative easing (QE), and are now looking to reverse this arrangement slowly. So what might that mean to your money/house prices et al? QE is normally introduced after interest rate stimuli fails. For example, the Bank of England lowers rates which lowers your, and companies’ mortgages and […]
The forgotten children in company pensions
IN June the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulatory body governing pension transfers, scrapped the starting position for transferring a company pension (defined benefit scheme). The starting position used to be that it was always unsuitable. Some ‘sales orientated’ advisers saw the scrapping of this starting position as a ‘green light’ open season to transfer, […]
Is my company pension guaranteed?
LAST week we began the journey of explaining the current potential scandal that is ‘transferring out a company pension scheme’. This is where employees/members of a final salary pension scheme are being offered millions today to walk away, leave their guarantees and effectively have their future pension in their own hands. My calculations have it […]
Do I transfer from my company pension?
Do I transfer from my company pension? It’s a question we’ve been asked lots of late and we couldn’t be faced with a longer answer. I will endeavour to answer all the queries on this subject over two or three articles. Every so often there comes a potential scandal, and in the past, financial advisers […]
Advisers accused of misleading clients on costs
LAST week I talked about the impact of risk on your investments and pensions but failed to mention one of the biggest risks I see within an investor’s (or pension investor’s) hard earned money. That is apathy. Just as on a bright sunny day in a hot air balloon, no-one checks for parachutes, when a […]