A report on Q3, which features world capital market performance and a timeline of events for the past few months. Compare small cap vs large cap, and emerging vs developed markets at a glance.
Why small really is beautiful when it comes to investing
Years of academic research has shown that small cap investment can pack a big punch – with risk mitigated by substantial diversification.
National Savings & Investments closes the Children’s Bond
When National Savings & Investments (NS&I) announced the launch of their new Junior ISA, they said that the Children’s Bond would be closed to new sales from September 2017, this is disapointiung, but with the JISA and the abilty to fund Pensions for children I can only asusme the demand was not there. NS&I have now […]
Buy and Hold
What’s better for retirement: property or pensions? That’s the ‘killer question’. The vast majority are wrong. Over the last 30 years house prices have risen 434% (i.e. more than quadrupled). But the stockmarket has done far better. Assuming dividends are reinvested, the FTSE 100 has turned £10,000 in 1986 into £126,870 now. And if you […]
Back to School Funding – grandparents get top marks
Grandparents can make a real difference to their grandchildrens’ futures by helping with the costs of education. With the cost of a 3 year university course topping £50k*, grandchildren could otherwise be faced with a sizeable debt on leaving university, or worse, could be put off going altogether. The right combination of trust and investment […]
LISA savers face losing their £1,000 bonus
The Lifetime ISA (LISA) which launched in April 2017 enables savers to subscribe up to £4,000 a year and receive a government bonus of 25% on the money. The LISA allows individuals to save for retirement or to buy their first home. For the first year only the government bonus will be paid annually (i.e. at the […]
Marriage Tax Allowance – What Is It?
As you may be aware the Government has introduced a tax break called the Marriage Tax Allowance. The allowance, which came into effect from 6 April 2015, is available to couples who are married or in a civil partnership and enables a transfer of a proportion of their tax free personal allowance between them. The […]
The FTSE 100
The FTSE 100 – the “Footsie” – is the UK stock market index which garners most of the headlines. It was launched on 31 December 1983 with a base value of 1,000. Today it is about 7,550, which equates to an average annual return (excluding dividends) of 6.2%. RPI inflation over the same period averaged 3.5% […]
Personal Allowance – Do I lose it if I earn over £100k?
The Personal Allowance is the amount of income an individual can earn before they start to pay Income Tax but it will be reduced and potentially lost altogether for those whose total income exceeds £100,000. The Personal Allowance (under age 65) is currently £11,000 but you will lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 […]
How much can I pay into my pension?
The maximum you can personally invest into a pension and receive Tax Relief on, is 100% of your salary subject to an Annual Allowance limit which is currently £40,000. Please note dividends are not classed as salary. If, as an example, you have a salary of £8,000 and dividends of £45,000 the maximum you can […]
