magazine archive
magazine archive
Money Matters
Top deals on the retail bond market
Thursday 02 Feb 2017Income investors looking for a higher yield might want to allocate part of their portfolio to retail bonds. These are available from many well-known UK companies with some paying in excess of 5% or 6% per year. Familiar names issuing bonds include Aviva, Severn Trent, Tesco and Unilever. How do you...
Brace yourself for state pension turbulence
Thursday 02 Feb 2017When do you think you’ll receive your state pension and how much will you get? In an ideal world retirement investors would like to know the answers to these two questions. The UK state pension system is fiendishly complicated and riddled with uncertainty. As a result, you might feel like you’re...
Beware the pension tax taper trap
Thursday 26 Jan 2017The Government has had an insatiable appetite for tinkering with pension tax perks. George Osborne when he was chancellor continually hacked away at the lifetime allowance – the limit the Government sets on how much you can have saved in all your pensions. It went from £1.8m to £1m. He also oversaw...
Absolute return funds are not living up to their name
Thursday 26 Jan 2017The dire performance of absolute return funds in 2016 has lent a lot of weight to the saying, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’. These funds aim to deliver positive returns in any market condition. Even if the stock market has plummeted, the funds should keep on growing – or at the...
Cash machine fee debate points to contactless payment danger
Thursday 26 Jan 2017Last week’s news about possible fees for withdrawing cash from machines in the Link ATM network puts the spotlight back on the UK’s cash usage. Many people were outraged at the thought of having fewer free-to-use cash machines in the UK. Yet the public reaction was divided. Half were angry; the...
Where to save your cash for unexpected events
Thursday 26 Jan 2017Every person should hold some cash alongside investments to guard against unexpected expenses or periods of unemployment. Cash can also be useful for making investments when opportunities in the stock market arise. Most investment platforms pay very small levels of interest on cash balances held in...
Three ways to boost your pension pot
Thursday 19 Jan 2017When it comes to planning for retirement, a dose of reality can be helpful in spurring you into action. The latest shock therapy came from the Office of National Statistics, which last week published annual data on household income. Headlines focused on the fact that, since the Great Financial...
How to buy Apple and other foreign shares
Thursday 19 Jan 2017Fancy getting your hands on Apple (AAPL:NDQ) , Facebook (FB:NDQ) or Samsung (005930:KRX) shares? There is a whole range of exciting stocks listed on exchanges around the world that are tempting to UK-based investors. Buying overseas-listed stocks can take a little bit of extra work but certainly...
Pensions central to retirement planning
Thursday 12 Jan 2017The Treasury appeared to suffer a moment of post-Christmas brain freeze when it published an infographic detailing the ISA and savings options available in 2017. The document attempts to guide you through the myriad savings vehicles available from cradle to grave. Under ‘My parents are saving for...
How to invest a lump sum
Thursday 12 Jan 2017If you inherit a large lump sum of money deciding what to do with it can be an overwhelming task. Should you pay off your debts or save for the future? Which tax wrappers and investments should you opt for? It’s a nice problem to have, but making the wrong choices could result in the legacy of your...