How to get rich slowly and avoid the puddles. The hullabaloo over gilts has had a knock-on effect with interest rates, and you’ll have noticed that interestingly large rates are now being advertised. We should probably repeat ‘if it looks too good to be true …’,

There was a distinctly ‘sausagey’ Sunday in Suffolk this month. First was an attempt on The Guinness World Record for the number of animals on a sausage dog walk which stood at about a thousand (which was well and truly busted) but with a decided snag in the proceedings.

I’m never sure whether the Chinese regard it as a curse or a blessing to live in interesting times, and I’m pretty sure anyone connected to the media in the UK is having a blast with our current shenanigans. Last week’s newsletter came to you a day early due to Kwasegate, and it happened that we pressed the button a mere five minutes before his disciplinary at the head mistress’s office.

And now again – as I write this on Thursday we’ll try to ensure we

This week I spoke at a Financial Services conference which was snappily entitled Empowering Pensions: From Products to Outcomes. Other speakers opined on the search for new products and services whilst some talked about digital wizardry, algorithms and financial engagement programmes. There was discussion about how to get younger people to understand pensions, how important they are in later life, and how to persuade them to commence or increase their contributions in troubled times.

I'm leaving this question in for you - it's rhetorical, but it is very important in setting the right frame of mind for income investing. A quick question to ponder on: are you more anxious about what your income will be in the next 12 months, or in 10 years time?

Baby boomers know about inflation, today’s 60 year old hit teenage years when the price of his Spirograph was shooting up in price by 24%. Spikes always occur, however from 1970 to 1980 the average of the annual inflation rates was 13.3%. Yikes.

My wife and I have to move out of our house for perhaps a year whilst it undergoes repair and refurbishment. This was not something we planned for but a decision thrust upon us by ‘an escape of water’ under the ground floor quietly causing severe damage. Ever the optimists we…

The 4% Rule was defined in America by Bill Bengen using US stocks and bonds records, along with US inflation. This is Bill's original essay and calculations. The study does not transpose to the UK because UK equity, fixed income and inflation levels are not the same; the principle is valid in the UK but not the calculation.

This is what’s called macro – it’s to do with wealth in a country, a continent, the world, and within that macro environment we all exist, earn and pay our bills. The macro measures big ticket items, like the price of everything at the factory gate

We draw on Irving Fischer’s book “Money Illusion” and examine what inflation and deflations means to us.

Warren Buffet first invested in Coca Cola in 1988. He (Berkshire Hathaway) now own 400m shares, 9.4% of that company.

As a result, on the 15th March of this year he received a payment of $168,000,000 from Coca Cola. In cash. It’s a quarterly dividend.

This is the most important calculation any investor needs to know. It is simply a shortcut to estimate the number of years required to double your money for a given rate of return / interest / yield.

In this free white paper, we argue that Modern Portfolio Theory is an inappropriate basis for generating a retirement or other long-term income for individual investors because their main objective is reliability of income, not capital growth.

Latitude is a wonderfully inclusive festival where young people can be let loose and those of us theoretically more mature can do the same.

The golden goose of low fees and high yields has been the dream for investors and advisers alike and a common way to try and achieve this has been to predict the markets. However, in reality, this is akin to trying to predict the lottery.

Very little work is done to help people understand what risks they face with investments, and you’ll have had ‘investments may fall as well as rise, and you may not get back the money you invested’…until the cows come home.

“People are coming into this time of life not wishing they were still working and productive, but quite the opposite. They’re saying: ‘Finally, I can do what I want, when I want and on my own terms. That’s what I’ve been dreaming of my whole life.'”

The point is its not just about the money.

Arranging a reliable income is an enabler for people to do the things that financial security is intended to bring. The gift of time.

Here we explore some of the new things we face as we grow older; providing care for our parents, writing a eulogy and more.

Dr Harry Markowitz received the 1990 Nobel Prize for Economics as a result of his 1952 paper that defined Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT).

MPT has incorrectly been migrated from its intended use in the fund industry to investment planning for individuals: we provide Markowitz’s own evidence of that error.

Research from the actuary Lane Clark & Peacock assessing modelling of retirement portfolios alongside consideration of relevant asset allocations for decumulation. It also outlines their thinking on why the heuristics on spending rules and portfolios need to be updated.