Investing – like crossing the road
Risk. What on earth is that then? The choice of walking straight across the road rather than walking 20m to the pedestrian crossing? With that split decision comes to component parts – the potential for return and the potential for loss. We save the 40m round trip and time at the pedestrian crossing, but the […]
Korea, China and stock markets
Following last week’s review on the impact of Korea on markets, I had a number of calls asking for further information regarding the instability it would cause. It is indeed a highly complicated situation, and as always, very little of the real information makes its way to the top. Whilst news channels will make the […]
Dow Jones – a chocolate watch
THERE are few better skills than that of seeing through noise. From the razzmatazz of the forecourt salesman selling you extra fluffy dice with your used car he is keen to get rid of, to that of Donald Trump tweeting “Great Dow20k”. In this never-ending noisy world, managing your pensions and investments, it could be […]
Rick Stein price for a chip butty?
CONFIRMATION bias has a lot to be answered for. This is looking for information to support your beliefs and excluding information which does not. It’s a simple method used by PR to ensure your choices are often kept binary, where as indeed the argument or answer is nowhere near there: Brexit v non Brexit, blue […]
Mind the gap
A subject which doesn’t often make the dinner party conversations is that of a will, life insurance or critical illness cover. Funny that. We are often asked how much cover/protection to have, and whilst it’s dependent on circumstances, there are parameters to consider. It is, however, quite disturbing to find out that 8.5 million breadwinners […]
Will the central banks crush your investments?
“Its gonna be different this time”… Good old confirmation bias has a lot to answer for. Confirmation bias is where we look at information that supports our views and reject the information as nonsense that doesn’t support it. And that is how financial bubbles, Brexits or Remains occur. As F Scott Fitzgerald stated: “The test […]
Fix that leaky bucket and ensure a relaxing bath
MANY years ago, faced with the job of filling the bath with water to have a scrub, my late father talked about trailing up and down the hill with buckets of that water. Today we just turn on the tap. I couldn’t help but liken those two situations to managing our personal finances. With our […]
164,000 miles high of debt
I WASN’T brought up on debt. It wasn’t an option I suppose, and the minute I borrowed my first pound, I felt regret. There was no greater moment than repaying that loan for the car that made me ‘cool’ and temporarily altered my cloudy opinion of myself. Today, you could argue that in a world […]
Watch the rain . . . not the jelly
THE housing market appears to be retreating slightly in light of many factors but what might it mean for borrowers and buyers alike? As always, it’s a case of seeing through the noise and being the canary – the live one, not the test one. Some startling statistics by the Council of Mortgage Lenders might […]
Passive investors in bubbles?
THERE are many plus points to investing into passive funds rather than active funds, and of course the opposite can also be said. My late father loved it when I quoted him “when everyone is running one way, I either stop and go to the side, or run the other way”. The similarities in investment […]
What is the antonym for strong and stable?
THIS election will probably be known for bringing the word ‘hubristic’ to the fore in the ultimate backfire in recent politics. As we mentioned in the last column, a hung parliament was a big possibility, so it was no surprise to us as Theresa May effectively avoided press questions with no comment of any substance […]
What impact will the election result have on my finances?
THERE has never, in my opinion, been a bigger election than this. Personally I see it as one of the first I can remember where we are looking at a stall or halt on neo liberalism, or at least the bad parts of it. The impact on the economy could be considerable. The UK elections […]