E-s are good
In this blog:
1. What ChatGPT says you need to retire.
2. $2.41 billion – the interest that the US pays on its debt every single day (including Sundays).
3. Lifting the lid – a quick look at a technical tool we use (warning: it involves ratios).
4. Vietnam, inflation and the real biggest risk you have as a retiree investor.
Chinese takeaway
In this blog:
1. How the US owes China money.
2. What is the your severity of failure?
3. Were you born at the right time to invest your pension?
4. People rarely do what they plan – the stats from the Society of Actuaries.
5. M&S vs The Entire Cybercrime Ecosystem.
Cocaine vs cyber hack – why M&S was hit
In this blog:
1. M&S under attack: What happened
2. Why hackers find cybercrime so lucrative – and almost risk-free
3. An industrial-scale scam factory
4. Businesses unprepared
5. What data hackers stole from M&S customers
6. How one of our very own directors turned the tables on a would-be fraudster
7. Stay safe checklist: Simple steps you can take to protect yourself from fraud today.
Death in the office
In this blog:
1. Death in the office: not a terribly good idea.
2. The Five Boxes to tick to know you’re facing the right decisions.
3. Buffett challenged hedge funds to a $1m bet – this is the outcome.
4. Why more investment choices make you unhappy and dissatisfied.
5. Claire-ly Speaking’s second part of pension-thinking for Gen-X’ers
27 and out
In this blog:
1. 29.2% per year 1977-1990: his golden rules to invest by.
2. What is your funded ratio? How much do you need?
3. Death, IHT, and what happens if the value falls before you can sell the assets?
4. Pascal’s Wager – ultimately it’s never about money.
5. Not same same, or is it? US v UK on CPI records over the last 25 years.
6. Your biggest threat to independence in retirement.
Every investment decision is a simple yes or no
In this blog:
1) Bessent – the world’s biggest bond salesman
2) Get married – the biggest possible IHT saving wheeze
3) The relationship between investments and charges
4) Sometimes you come across a very, very bright person.
Name that song
In this blog:
1. Swap ‘overdraft’ for ‘bonds’ and ‘tax’ for ‘tariffs’ and the picture becomes much simpler
2. The free lunch that protects your investments (you did, didn’t you?)
3. Are you cheap? Nutmeg, Vanguard, Interactive Investor, Passive, Index not active?
4. Don’t pay the ferryman – who is paying the most income tax.
“What did the Romans ever do for us?”
In this blog:
1. What happened in the markets to cause the sell off.
2. What the man from Investors Chronicle did to an annualised 15% return.
3. Where the US is hiding $7.4 trillion.
4. Robbing trains – yep, it’s still the Wild West in the US.
Sitting pretty in Namche Bazaar
In this blog:
1. Charges? A word on St James Place’s recent change
2. The Trump Effect on the markets
3. The average age of a client is 62
4. I’ve Got Random Pension Pots Everywhere – Now What?
5. The Gen X Takeaway
6. Can I Retire Without Selling a Kidney?
Don't go chasing rainbows
In this blog:
Nvidia - up when it’s up
This was when you were a teenager
When irrational kicks in.
You might need to get out more
What financial independence is really like: how others have retired
Meet Steve, Betsy, Tilly, Lawrence, Martin, Jack, Derek, Bruce, Jessie, Stephen and Jim.
Lives well lived.
The same but different
In this blog:
There’s just one subject: a meeting with a prospective client brought a realisation to us when he said ‘But I had no idea you did all that’. We take what we do for granted, and for that I’m sorry, so let me explain…
Come on Silver Lady, take my word
In this blog:
The make-up of investment growth
Gearing investments – not what you expect
Tariffs – what Trump has done to smoothies, mangoes and the Chevy Silverado
The difference between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, in Warren’s words
When the rich get richer
Slightly awkward
In this blog:
Giving it all away: no one gets out of here alive
Gifts into discretionary trusts – the tax consequences
“Our team aim to respond to all emails within 11 working days…”
Current annuity rates and how they have moved
Cut your 40% / 45% tax on interest to 36% / 40% permanently
Henderson International Income – what to do if you hold it
Long-term income versus RPI – the data
What did you do last Tuesday?
Jack Bogle’s Rules
In this blog:
Jack Bogle’s Rules
What a final salary portfolio looks like – would you know what you’re looking at?
Your self-insured Defined Projected Benefit pension
You have £700k in pension and savings, what’s a reasonable NET income expectation?
As good as gold
In this blog:
The US market is broken: 20% of the entire S&P 500 gain in 2024 was from only one company. Why index trackers have created a huge problem.
Client case study – how much income does £256k get you?
Investment trusts – the trend is your friend until it’s not
Doug in the FT
Treating pensions as assets rather than income threatens their true purpose
Investing with leopards and elephants
In this blog:
Investing with leopards and elephants
How to lose Mastercard entirely
Mag 7? We’ve seen this before
American tech stocks are not all winners
Got a Sharona
In this blog:
What would you guess is the most common annual % return from the FTSE All Share over the last 30 years?
How to gift wealth to mitigate IHT
Understanding Henderson Far East Income
How the S&P 500 outperformed hedge funds – and it wasn’t even close
Smoke and numbers
In this blog:
Great Uncle Cecil and the African savannah
Here’s how much discount you get with us…
Who stole your cheese?? When 3% is more than 6%
Slide 99 – what’s the point of trying to guess annual asset allocation?
Friends with benefits
In this blog:
“At any moment, you are one good choice away from a meaningful better life”
Why the valuation extremes are not as bad as 2000 (yet)
2024 dividend increases, listed trust by trust
The single item needed to be a client of Chancery Lane (it’s not what you think)
RPI, CPI, US and TV’s
A sage warning on how some investments work