magazine archive
magazine archive
Personal Finance
Why people are flocking to ISAs
Thursday 11 Jul 2024Tax-efficient ISAs have never been more popular, with £4.2 billion being saved in cash ISAs in May – a record for the month. We saw £12.3 billion saved into cash ISAs in April, at the end of the tax-year end, as people rushed to use their annual limit before it was refreshed on April 6th. But this...
Can property really be your pension?
Thursday 04 Jul 2024If you’re thinking about using property to fund your retirement, you wouldn’t be the first. The post-financial crisis boom in house prices, propelled by low interest rates and government support schemes, led many budding property tycoons towards investing in buy-to-let instead of saving in a...
What to do when you’re pushed into the next tax bracket
Thursday 27 Jun 2024The freeze on income tax thresholds is dragging millions more people into higher rates of tax, as their wages rise but the tax thresholds don’t increase alongside them. The OBR estimates that by 2028-29 the deep freeze on tax thresholds will see almost four million extra taxpayers, 2.7 million more...
How to invest as you approach retirement
Thursday 20 Jun 2024When you’re building your pension up, what you’re looking for from your investments is well defined: growth. Likewise in retirement, for most people, the goal is simply to generate income. But there is a period in the lead up to retirement, when things are a little more nuanced. During the...
The real losers from frozen tax allowances
Thursday 13 Jun 2024The Conservatives fired the starting gun in the election campaign on personal tax, pledging to uprate the personal allowance for pensioners using a ‘quadruple lock’. This was quickly followed with confirmation that personal tax thresholds and allowances for working people would remain frozen until...
Are investment trusts better than open-ended funds?
Thursday 06 Jun 2024Investment trusts are beloved of many investors and have a rich history stretching back to the jute boom of the 19th century. Despite its longevity, the industry’s primacy has been usurped by a relatively young pretender in the form of open-ended funds. The first such fund was launched by M&G...
Pocket money: how much to give and how to give it
Thursday 30 May 2024How much pocket money you should pay your children is a common dilemma among parents, but new data shows how much the nation is paying its kids. The Natwest Rooster Money report shows how people using its pocket money app manage the payments and how much they pay their kids. And children have felt...
How to avoid the great cash swindle
Thursday 23 May 2024Life as a cash saver is great now interest rates are higher right? Wrong, for a lot of people. While the very best rates available on the market are comfortably beating the rate of inflation, a lot of cash is still languishing in accounts paying miggins in interest, if that. Bank of England data...
Should I overpay my student loan?
Thursday 16 May 2024The cost of going to university has ballooned, and it means the average graduate leaves university with around £50,000 worth of debt. That’s a large sum to pay off, and the way the student loan system has changed means that many people will have this debt for 40 years before it’s wiped out. The...
How to use ‘refer a friend’ deals to boost your savings
Thursday 02 May 2024Lots of companies are willing to pay out money if you introduce a friend to their services. Whether it’s mobile phones, bank accounts, broadband, investment accounts or insurance, there is often a deal where if you introduce a friend you make a bit of money for your troubles – and often the friend...