I’ve written previously about the importance of optimism and the fact that the life we enjoy today is better than that experienced by previous generations. In reality, never before have so many people enjoyed good health, lived in safety, and appreciated an affluent lifestyle. But despite so much empirical evidence to the contrary, it’s still seems to be far too easy to be prone to a pessimistic outlook than one of positivity. So, if life is better than ever before, why do things often seem so depressing? Read about some of the reasons why the world seems that way, and why having an understanding of how easy it is to fall into a negative mindset can help you overcome the... Read More

Your journey to financial success can often appear to be fraught with anxiety and uncertainty as you struggle to identify the most effective path towards your desired lifestyle. With countless investment options, complex economic conditions, and unique personal financial situations, selecting the best course of action can feel overwhelming. As an investor, you may also have to contend with contradictory advice, misinformation, and your own behavioural biases, while all the time knowing that decisions you make today can profoundly affect your future financial security and aspirations. In these moments of confusion, it’s understandable for you to seek financial advice for guidance and clarity. However, in my own experience, the key to overcoming such struggles often lies not in new and... Read More

While financial planning is the theme of most of the newsletter articles you’ll read here, I think it’s also important to reflect on what’s important to you in your wider life. So, in a change from the usual articles relating to managing your money, I’ve set out 20 different lifestyle tips and suggestions that I hope you’ll find useful. There’s no overarching theme to the first 15, as I have deliberately tried to make them as random and varied as possible. So, they cover a range of diverse subjects such as eating, sleeping, and watching sport. However, as your finances are so integral to the rest of your life and wellbeing, the final five are all about aspects of financial... Read More

To my mind, there are two distinct stages in your financial planning lifetime. The first requires you to squirrel away money for your future, hoping to benefit from the magic of compounding returns. I often call this the “savings stage”. At retirement, you then transition to the “spending stage” of your life. From this point, you will likely withdraw from, rather than continue to add to, your investment portfolio. While any habit of frugality you developed during your life will continue to be beneficial, this major change in direction can be a difficult adjustment for you. In this phase of life, I always flag two risks you’ll face. One is a risk I often think my clients fear a little... Read More

The 2024/25 tax year is just a month away, and chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered his 2024 Spring Budget, outlining the government’s plans for the next fiscal year and beyond. With a general election looming – prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he will call it before the end of the year – the chancellor claimed that the government had met the prime minister’s three economic priorities laid out at the start of 2023, having: Halved inflation, down from highs of 11% last year to 4% in January 2024 Kept debt falling in line with fiscal rules Grown the economy, fully 1.5 percentage points higher than expected. Amid this backdrop, the chancellor called this a “Budget for long-term growth”, with... Read More