Investing shorts

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

In this blog:

1. What would you guess is the most common annual % return from the FTSE All Share over the last 30 years?

2. How to gift wealth to mitigate IHT

3. Understanding Henderson Far East Income

4. How the S&P 500 outperformed hedge funds – and it wasn’t even close

In this blog:

1. Great Uncle Cecil and the African savannah

2. Here’s how much discount you get with us…

3. Who stole your cheese?? When 3% is more than 6%

4. Slide 99 – what’s the point of trying to guess annual asset allocation?

In this blog:

1. “At any moment, you are one good choice away from a meaningful better life”

2. Why the valuation extremes are not as bad as 2000 (yet)

3. 2024 dividend increases, listed trust by trust

4. The single item needed to be a client of Chancery Lane (it’s not what you think)

5. RPI, CPI, US and TV’s

6. A sage warning on how some investments work

In this blog:

1. Annuities vs bonds

2. Why fund prices are (probably) a red herring, used as sales tools for retail.

3. Who’s paying the bill? Net contributions to the EU budget.

4. The Passive Ponzi, aka, all rivers run to the sea.

In this blog:

1. Your state pension – the deferral decision

2. Our fees are 0.75% initial and 1% per annum (VAT free) – how does that compare?

3. No portfolio income has ever fallen – how it’s done

4. Maths & English – are you better than the 20% identified by the Economist?

5. The Next Big Thing – you pay us to keep you away from these

In this blog:

1. The world’s most expensive investment fund? (Probably)

2. Is this how your pension should look over your lifetime?

3. The client query: Fancy a dabble in a hedge fund? (Ed: Why?)

4. Physically backed crypto?

In this blog:

1. It’s… the World Chess Championship in Singapore

2. 5% fixed for 10 years – is the US Treasury about to start sweating?

3. Why there is no Nvidia, Intel, IBM etc in the UK

4. Understand your yield (not hers or his or theirs)

5. The figures behind buy to let – costs, tax, gains, profits

In this blog:

1. The LTA rule changes – there’s more detail than most people know

2. How much it cost one client to get an extra £3,286 state pension per year

3. Data: Merchants Trust v Vanguard FTSE ETF

4. Data: a peek at a part of what tracking trusts entails

5. How French succession law works

In this blog:

1. No surprise there then

2. A day in the life of Chancery Lane

3. Henderson International Income – the big ‘why not’

4. ‘My friend said ….’ Is that enough respect for your lifetime income?

In this blog:

1. Lifestyling, how to lose ¼ of your pension

2. The data comparing Vanguard FTSE Income vs Merchants Trust

3. The biggest threat to security as we age