What matters more at Christmas – presence or presents?
PRESENCE or presents? That is the question! Christmas is quite something. I’m no humbug, unless you speak to my daughters who might have a different view. They know where I’m coming from. They understand my thoughts. I always had a ‘no present’ policy for me because I wanted them to leave behind nuts consumerism that […]
What is financial planning, financial kindness and what are the ‘Human Givens’
WHAT is financial planning and what needs are we really meeting? For all our self-importance, we’ve been on this earth for a tiny, tiny fraction of its existence. From our development as homo sapiens over the last 200,000 years, one characteristic is more evident in us than other species. Emotion. I’m writing this on World […]
Cryptic crypto and FTX
BACK in 2017, when asked about crypto currency, I gave my honest answers in this column. In short, buy and read the book ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’. There. I could stop now. In this book there were countless examples of crowds rushing to solutions and ‘investing’ ‘full tilt’ only to find […]
Is it really a mortgage panic and housing crash?
IN 35 years of financial services, much is like the yogi-ism from Yogi Berra – it’s déjà vu, all over again. There are crises, and that, mixed with the ‘new kid on the block journalist’ keen to get his front-page panic headline, bashes families into emotional turmoil. Poor financial decisions ensue. These are financial decisions […]
National pension (cauliflower) tracing day
It was ‘National pension tracing day’ (who thinks these up) last week, which I am sure took priority over pretty much everything you had planned and involved the cancellation of holidays and parties too. If you did miss it, which is possible of course, here’s what you missed – Popcorn at the ready. In ‘olden […]
Pensions, mortgages and The Muppet Show. What’s going on?
PENSION funds are supposed to be safe, boring and forgettable. As are government bonds. So, when news broke that some defined-benefit (company pensions) pension funds had inadvertently created an unstable, self-devouring feedback loop that made a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo sound like the Deerhunter theme, the government bond market shuddered. What happened? Why did it […]
Assessing your money’s potential for loss
LAST week we covered concentration risk with your investments. To summarise, it’s when you spread your investments too far and find yourself buying the same shares in different funds. That’s not diversification. I’ve had a couple of questions around that which can be covered in one sentence. No, pension providers and investment funds do not automatically […]
De-worsification – and swimming in the nip
YOU will have heard the investment terms: ‘not having all your eggs in one basket’, or ‘spreading your risk’. There is sense in that of course, and if your pension or investment valuations are currently coming through, you will know what that means. Over the last 34 years, I’ve been through many cycles. ‘History doesn’t […]
You’ll be just fine…
AS fancy as financial advice can be, some of the very basic requirements can often be overlooked. One of those is insuring yourself against death to ensure bills can be paid, your family is protected, and they can live with dignity in the face of the pain of an extraordinary emotional impact. This was hit […]
The mortgage nightmare scenario – get advice!
FOR the record, I’m still looking for a decent wall to bop my head off when I think of the UK’s financial policy now. On the one hand, it’s repeated carefully everywhere that ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing the crisis’ (when it isn’t and didn’t), yet they want to: increase your mortgage rates to […]
Mortgage rates and the economy
MORTGAGE rates are rising for sure, and with the Bank of England’s announcement that the base rate will now rise by 0.5 percentage points to 2.25 per cent, the highest level since 2008, homeowners and investors alike will really be counting the pennies. Last week I was interestingly asked about an onward index swap (OIS) […]
Should I downsize to save energy costs?
WITH house prices at reasonably good levels, inflation and the cost of living at bad, but ludicrous levels, it’s easy to see why some are considering downsizing or selling and renting. Undoubtedly, with inflation continuing to surprise on the upside, more upward pressure is being placed on interest rates which will, in turn, put house […]