Investing shorts

In this blog:

• Buffett on gold

• The budget – will she, won’t she?

• China and involution – bigger may be a lot more dangerous.

• One way to retire with friends

• Gordon Brown, and now Ms Reeves?

• “Private credit defaults” – cockroaches? It’s US sub prime again

• Perfect dip buying.

• The market crash: it’s coming, read this.

• Tariffs – things ain’t what they seem

• Getting your head around your age

• The bit of your wealth that’s missing.

• Avoid the folly of the crowd

In this blog:

1. No commission or ketchup: be a customer not the product.
2. Fidelity’s Magellan Fund, 29.2% annual return from 1977 to 1990 (from $20m to $14bn)
3. What to expect: outsourcing your key income decisions.
4. This pension paid the beneficiaries for 135 years: how long do you need yours?

In this blog:

1. Just how bad can your provider be? From pension co to Swiss private bank
2. “Even God can’t beat pound/cost averaging (“This is the last article you will ever need to read on market timing”)
3. “We should never be so old as merely to watch games instead of playing them”. Like food? Have you ever eaten this sandwich?

In this blog:

1. GDPR – sorry, you can’t read it, it’s GDPR chum
2. Buy low sell high: current underlying index criteria that should make any investor think.

In this blog:

1.    A recording of a real client conversation: it’ll amuse you.
2.    All your tax free allowances – use them to generate £16,000+ tax free.
3.    Hey you, don’t watch that watch this…
4.    So you think you understand pensions? Try this.

In this blog:

1. How the wealthy – very wealthy – spend their money.
2. The £XXXk pension mistake most people never spot.
3. Personal wealth – not about picking funds
4. From the Wall Street Journal – how to choose a financial adviser
5. Tax-smart income: minimising HMRC’s share.

In this blog:

1. The anxiety we deal with.
2. The most common pension mistakes made by DIY investors.
3. Buffet: the fallacy of great fund managers.
4. When you probably do need an adviser.
5. How to tell the difference between cost and value.

In this blog:

1. Ageing: from Slush Puppies to a Glenfarclas, Bluey to the Old Man and the Sea, a Bullworker to a Garmin watch – things change.
2. MSCI World, 10- year annual returns – 14.5% or 0.9% for exactly the same investment.
3. Why the FT wrote about Chancery Lane
4. The data on gold – should you?

In this blog:

1.    Gilt ladders – how they work, and the giant downside.
2.    Did you ‘beat the market?’
3.    Is your income increasing or decreasing? Know the right question to ask.
4.    Sweden – flat pack pensions, really.

In this blog:

1.    Are we normal?
2.    The influence of behavioural economics on personal pensions
3.    Investment decisions: How much people save
4.    Asset allocation: How people invest
5.    Income drawdown: How people spend in retirement.

In this blog:

1.    S&P500 – like Tiffany it’s expensive though is it value for money?
2.    It’s not about the money: a grown up in America
3.    The Pension Revolution: Doug Brodie & George Aliferis live on YouTube
4.    All the way from America: What’s the best withdrawal strategy in retirement?

In this blog:

1.    Gulf Oil and the 500% dividend.
2.   How to leave $8m in your will.
3.   Yes, you are paying more tax.
4.   “Forever young” – the problem with DIY investing.
5.   If Buffet and Munger were partners, how come Warren got all the wealth?
6.  You might not need us, here’s a wider used alternative.

In this blog:

1. Are investment trusts better than tracker funds?
2. A comparison table showcasing top-performing UK investment trusts and tracker funds, detailing their total returns over 1, 5, 10 years, along with their ongoing charges.
3. People study this: What do you need to be happy in retirement? How many items in this checklist do you still need to work on? (Alternatively, have your spouse fill yours out for you).

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

In this blog:

1. Nvidia - up when it’s up

2. This was when you were a teenager

3. When irrational kicks in.

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.

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…

In this blog:

1. The make-up of investment growth

2. Gearing investments – not what you expect

3. Tariffs – what Trump has done to smoothies, mangoes and the Chevy Silverado

4. The difference between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, in Warren’s words

5. When the rich get richer

In this blog:

1. Giving it all away: no one gets out of here alive

2. Gifts into discretionary trusts – the tax consequences

3. “Our team aim to respond to all emails within 11 working days…”

4. Current annuity rates and how they have moved

5. Cut your 40% / 45% tax on interest to 36% / 40% permanently

6. Henderson International Income – what to do if you hold it

7. Long-term income versus RPI – the data

8. What did you do last Tuesday?

In this blog:

1. Jack Bogle’s Rules

2. What a final salary portfolio looks like – would you know what you’re looking at?

3. Your self-insured Defined Projected Benefit pension

4. You have £700k in pension and savings, what’s a reasonable NET income expectation?

In this blog:

1. 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.

2. Client case study – how much income does £256k get you?

3. Investment trusts – the trend is your friend until it’s not

4. Doug in the FT

5. Treating pensions as assets rather than income threatens their true purpose

In this blog:

1. Investing with leopards and elephants

2. How to lose Mastercard entirely

3. Mag 7? We’ve seen this before

4. American tech stocks are not all winners