In this blog:

1. We don’t use Lowand, but…

2. The question they all ask

Guinness is Good for You, was the advertising slogan made famous by the firm from the 1920’s until it was banned in the 1960’s, no longer considered a healthy option. Guinness also claimed to Give You Strength, and according to The Royal College of Physicians Museum, Guinness wrote to…

Wine drinking was a habit only for the elite in Britain, but an everyday necessity for our French and European cousins. 

In the sixties, cheap, semi-sweet drinks such as ‘Babycham’ and ‘Cherry B’ took over from sherry and eventually Portuguese ‘Mateus Rose’. So exotic was this wine considered that…

In this blog:

1. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns

2. Consider two investments side by side, one with a return of 4% and one with 8% - which one is the more profitable?

3. High or low relative to what?

4. What the data says.

The Beatles song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) was about an extramarital affair that John Lennon was involved in. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said:

"I was trying to write about an affair without letting my wife know I was having one…

In this blog:

1. Investment trusts have two problems for IFAs

2. The data behind an income portfolio

3. Inflation – a key differentiator made transparent with data.

In this blog:

1. The storm elements in western France

2. The storm elements in the investment atmosphere

3. Data driven research.

Eighteen months ago, I posted a piece called The Great De-Cluttering Dilemma, as we moved out of our house following an underfloor leak. This week we are moving back in to the house, complete with all our goods and chattels…

Some guarantees cost more than others – is your money at risk? In this blog:

1. What’s in a rate?

2. Understanding preference shares

As a company we are probably unique in having a section in our website that outlines for you how to write and give a eulogy. In this blog:

1. “With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.”

2. “A billion here, a billion there …”

Here’s some good news (not in the headlines or Today on R4). And if someone runs $27bn, we’d like to hear what they think. In this blog:

1. A key part of inflation has gone negative

2. Here comes the bill

3. ‘The weirdest time in 40 years’

My dad’s first job was as a projectionist at The Picture House Cinema in the market town of Beverly in East Yorkshire. There was no TV at the time and so news and entertainment were to be found there and he saw it all though the tiny square window of his projection booth. Then he went off to war.

In 1992 Marc and Robert spun out a company from the MIT ‘leg lab’ that worked on developing robotics. In 2004 they demonstrated BigDog, which you’ll probably have seen. With the seed development already done at MIT it took the team twelve years to get to here – I don’t who was funding this, who the backers were/are, and surely in robotics there can be no certainty.

Interest rates are up, gilt yields are up, and the Sunday Times is covered in adverts and editorials talking about annuities; we look at the numbers, not the commentaries. In this blog:

1. t’s all in the maths

2. “Colin” the Client’s Story

Once upon a time and by a fortuitous chain of events, I was very lucky to have a 1-2-1 tennis lesson with Rod Laver at Wimbledon. He was such a gent he even said I could tell my kids I won. More recently I’ve tried out tennis’ rival sport, Pickleball - billed as “a game for all ages”. And then there’s the other rival Padel.

In the 1970’s there were 132 listed British sitcoms. From the 1980’s to the 2010’s it increased from 143 to 172 sitcoms. But this decade so far there have only been 54. An academic writing in a new book is claiming that some of those sitcoms make sense of the political attitudes that prompted Brexit…

In this blog:

1. Don’t retire until you want to

2. The sweet spot in retirement

3. A big list of things to do over the next 12 months while you’re in the sweet spot.

This White Paper calculates the different outcomes of investing for income via FTSE & MSCI World trackers, traditional 60/40 portfolios and investment trust dividends, from 1986 to 2022. It applies four amounts of income against each strategy, and applies inflation to income drawn so investors can see the reality of the £-numbers separated from the mist of theory created by institutional research being mis-applied to personal portfolios. It further compares annuities over that time, and the resulting capital values for all investment strategies, and all income choices.

It’s important to get what you’ve already paid for throughout your life, including your full state pension. If you haven’t done so already, then you can follow the outline below from Ian, our project director, who has had spells working in both the US and Switzerland. Here’s his take on how to find out and fix any gaps.

Billy No-Mates is the poignant title of Max Dickins new book in which he explores the problems men can have with maintaining friendships. Women it seems, are much better at it. When Max proposed to his girlfriend, he realised…