Whether or not you’re the kind of person who sees the start of January as the time to set yourself resolutions and stick to them, the period after the excesses of Christmas and New Year is arguably one of the best times to actively get your finances into shape. Here are five great money-related resolutions […]
Introduction Since the Spring Budget, the UK has held a General Election, the negotiations to leave the European Union have continued – not always at breakneck pace – and there has been the usual collection of mixed news for the UK economy. The General Election started as an expected coronation for Theresa May and ended […]
What’s the saying? ‘Close, but no cigar’. That’s how it was in October as all but two of the markets we cover rose in the month. Brazil’s market did manage to stagger up by just 14 points, meaning it was unchanged in percentage terms, but the Russian stock market let the side down, falling back […]
Recent figures have suggested that over 17,500 older homeowners took out equity release plans on their homes during the first six months of 2017, marking an increase of 44% compared with 2016. Equity release plans, also referred to as ‘lifetime mortgages’, allow homeowners aged over 55 to access their home’s equity without the requirement to […]
Not beginning to save towards your retirement until you reach your fifties would not so long ago have been considered leaving matters far too late to put anything meaningful away for your life after work. Previous generations saw building a pension as something to do over an entire career, with contributions throughout your working life […]
A recent study by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has suggested that people who have saved into defined benefit (DB) pension schemes have only a 50/50 chance of receiving the payouts they are expecting, resulting in millions missing out on the retirement income promised to them. The pressure on some employers to meet […]
Well, we’re still here. Despite the seemingly best efforts of the leaders of the United States and North Korea – the world is still turning. But September was a month of ‘another day, another North Korean rocket flying over Japan’ and it ended with Kim Jong-un threatening to explode a nuclear bomb over the Pacific. […]
As more and more services become available online, the number of login details you need to remember also increases. But whilst the growth of internet banking, shopping, film and TV streaming offers ever more convenience, it also puts your sensitive information at increased risk. This is because it can be tempting to help yourself to […]
If your family has grown up and flown the nest and you’re moving closer to retiring, it’s likely that you’ve at least thought about downsizing your home. For some it can be for practical reasons, for others it might be a desire to be closer to their children if they’ve relocated, for others still it […]