13
May
2021

7 ways to help give your children financial security

A subject that often comes up in client meetings is financial planning for children. Understandably, any parent will want their child, or children, to be as secure as possible in the future, and to give them the best possible life chances. As with most financial issues, the key advice I tend to give is that the earlier you start planning for your children, the better. There are various ways of saving for them, and additional ways you can plan your own finances to ensure their future. Here are seven steps to help plan your children’s financial future. Clearly this is a high-level overview. There’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” approach to financial planning for children, but...
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28
Apr
2021

8 common pension mistakes, and how to avoid them

Mistakes happen. We’re all human, and human error is natural. Maybe your attention wanders or you forget you’re supposed to press button B rather than button A. My view is that you take it on the chin and make sure you avoid making such a mistake again. I’m probably not quite as philosophical when it comes to financial mistakes – especially easily avoidable ones. Simple mistakes that cost my clients money, and that wouldn’t have happened with some straightforward planning, can be a frustration! Take your pension fund, for example. You’ve done all the hard work. You’re diligently saving throughout your working life, building up a sizeable pension fund that’ll mean you can enjoy a good quality of life when...
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13
Apr
2021

Why your head needs to rule your heart when it comes to your financial future

This is an article about behavioural biases and investment decision-making. If you think that sounds a bit dry and technical, let us start it off with a drink. Getting your investment tips over a drink The pandemic is over, and you are meeting an old work colleague for a drink. They start telling you about an article they recently read about a company that designs and manufactures mechanical tools. “They’ve just announced some really big developments. I reckon the company is going to take off and the share price will rocket”, they tell you. “They’ve just been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and the share value has gone up 15% in a month. You really need to get...
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10
Apr
2021

I’m delighted to have qualified for the VouchedFor 2021 Top Rated guide

Today, VouchedFor released their Top-Rated guide, which is distributed by The Times and I am delighted to have been included. The VouchedFor Top Rated guide was created to help identify the very best financial planners throughout the UK. To qualify for this award is a huge honour and is a lovely piece of recognition for the work that I do. What is VouchedFor? For those of you who haven’t heard of VouchedFor, allow me to quickly explain. Created specifically for the financial sector, VouchedFor is an online review system for financial planners like myself. The system uses three key criteria to assess planners: advice given, value and service to create an overall score out of 5 stars. These reviews are...
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24
Mar
2021

10 golden rules for investing in 2021

When it comes to investing, there are no shortcuts or magic wands you can wave to generate great returns. Indeed, only recently I looked at why following trends and jumping on the bandwagon can backfire spectacularly. Sensible investing is more about sticking to tried-and-tested strategies. Here are 10 golden rules for investing in 2021. 1. The longer you hold investments, the greater the chances of success Research from Nutmeg has found that, if you had randomly picked one day between January 1971 and May 2020 and chosen to invest in the market for just that day, you would have had a 52.3% chance of making gains. It’s about the same as the toss of a coin. Staying invested for the...
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15
Mar
2021

GameStop, Bitcoin and Reddit – how to avoid “get poor quick” schemes

In the decade after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened nearly two centuries ago, it became a huge commercial success. Of course, Victorian entrepreneurs noticed this. A newly affluent middle class wanted to invest and, with interest rates (and gilt prices) low, they saw an opportunity to profit from the railway boom. In 1843 there were 63 applications to parliament for new railways. In 1844 there were 199; in 1845, 562. When it became clear that not every railway was commercially viable – indeed, many were not – stock prices in railway firms fell sharply. As the railway bubble collapsed, many investors were left empty-handed. Watching the recent shenanigans and news coverage of the US retailer GameStop, and cryptocurrency Bitcoin,...
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