Blog
Paying yourself first Before you pay any bills, consider paying yourself first. This means saving and investing a portion of your earnings before you do anything else with your money. In the book The Richest Man in Babylon, written by George S. Clason, the parables are told by a fictional Babylonian character called Arkad, a
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Last year, Autumn arrived without an Autumn Budget. In fairness, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, had already presented one 2020 Budget. This took place last March, and the pandemic made forecasting for 2021/22 all but impossible. The result was that, for the second year running, the Budget was deferred to the Spring. Whether Mr Sunak’s job
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Around three in four people risk outliving their savings in retirement, a report looking into the impact of the pension freedoms indicates. The research found evidence many retirees risk potentially running their pension savings down. It termed this as “sleepwalking into retirement”. The study examined retirement planning and spending habits following the introduction of pension
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The Covid-19 pandemic has produced the most pronounced economic shock in nearly a century. In 2020, recessions around the world were sharp and deep, with significant supply-chain disruptions at times. That said, perhaps more than in previous recessions, policymakers were aggressive in supporting financial markets and their economies. While the global economy continues to recover
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Demonstrating value to our clients is crucial. There have been a number of studies by industry bodies and providers, including Royal London here and Russell Investments here, which quantify the value advice can give to our clients. The results are clear; individuals are better off, net of costs, by taking financial advice. What about business owners? Let us
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There are many ways for the directors of a business to buy its premises. Below we will look at the benefits and drawbacks of the main ways. Company purchase Benefits If the company buys the property, it does not affect how the director’s pensions are invested in any way. If the company owns the property,
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The British Medical Association (BMA) has written to doctors reminding them of the 2019/20 Annual Allowance Charge Compensation Scheme. What is the compensation scheme? The compensation scheme aims to cover annual allowance charges arising in the NHS pension scheme incurred in the tax year 2019/20. The scheme covers NHS England and NHS Wales, but not
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IHT receipts for April to May 2025 were £98 million higher than for the same period last year. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast, published at the Spring Statement, predicts that IHT will raise £9.1bn in the 2025 to 2026 tax year. What this shows is that many families who haven’t done any planning
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We have written a post previously about focusing on income when investing. I wanted to go into some of the evidence behind focusing on income when investing not being the best strategy. When looking at this, there is probably no more famous theory in Finance than Modigliani/Miller. Known as the Dividend Irrelevance Hypothesis it says investors
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Buried amongst the other announcements made on 25 November was a paper from the Treasury looking at measures of inflation. It revealed a decision about replacing the Retail Prices Index (RPI) with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) including owner-occupied housing costs (CPIH). The RPI has not been an official National Statistic since 2013 because of serious deficiencies
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