Weekend reading: deckchair rearranging derailed
What caught my eye this week. Well so much for the adults in the room. It turns out all the grown-ups in government are on the front benches. But Corbyn’s kiddos are still pulling the strings. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves reminded me this week of college students back home to do a bit of babysitting. At last it’s their…
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Some Things About Inheritance Tax You...
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” According to polling, Inheritance Tax is the most unpopular tax in the UK. You pay taxes on your work, you pay taxes on your spending, you pay taxes on your travel, you pay taxes on your investment gains, you pay taxes on your pension and right…
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Will the boom in defence spending...
How has defence spending increased globally? Total military spending by nation states reached $2.72 trillion in 2024, a rise of 9.4% in real terms on the year before, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That’s the tenth consecutive year of increases, and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988 – and takes spending on defence to about…
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The Slow and Steady passive portfolio...
This time three months ago, the Slow & Steady passive portfolio was suffering under the strain of Trump’s one-man assault on the global trade system. But we’ve made up all our losses since then. Indeed we’re now ahead, albeit by a none-too-convincing 1.6% year-to-date. Our four equity funds have put on double-digit gains in the space of a quarter. Global…
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Review of Sprive – An Automated...
Over the past 12 months I have overpaid my mortgage by £600 using the automated Sprive app, if I carried on over paying by this relatively small amount of money each year it would save me an estimated £2,800 in interest and would reduce my mortgage term by a year! Small overpayment can have a really big impact. This process…
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Why Labour’s Pension Megafunds Are A...
When it comes to this Labour government and pensions their big focus is on their Pension Review. Like when any new government comes to power, they always promise a review when they don’t necessarily know the full details of or have yet to come up with, ideas that are developed enough to present to the public. They want to criticise…
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Zohran Mamdani, “Trump’s worst nightmare”, wows...
“It’s an awkward moment to be an American billionaire,” says The Times. Zohran Mamdani, who has just won the Democratic candidacy to become the next mayor of New York City, is calling for their extinction. “I don’t think we should have billionaires,” he told NBC News. Even the merely wealthy are in his crosshairs. Mamdani, 33, plans to partly fund…
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Time to move into prime London...
How’s this for a contrarian opportunity? Prime London residential property. I’m thinking about flats and houses in South Kensington, Chelsea, Notting Hill, and Knightsbridge. Okay, you could easily spend £1m just to secure a very bottom-rung apartment near the Natural History museum – so perhaps ‘houses’ is a stretch for all but a handful of moguls. But then again, if…
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How to Budget for Bills, Savings,...
Budgeting for Success 2019 means a shake up to my finances and a new methodology for budgeting for spending money, repayment of debt, saving money for the short term and the long term. The end of 2018 was all about getting back on track with cash flow. Overdrafts needed to be repaid and safety fund money needed to be built…
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Shielding Your Pension from Inheritance Tax
Shielding Your Pension from Inheritance Tax Smart Strategies with Annuities and Life Insurance Inheritance Tax has long been a concern when you are looking to pass down your wealth, but pensions have traditionally been an exception as they are not normally subject to Inheritance Tax. However, the UK Government’s recent Budget announced that from 2027, pensions will be subject to Inheritance…
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