The idea of retiring in your 50s or even your 40s sounds like a pipe-dream to most, what with the increased cost of living, inflation and other economic factors slowly eating away at your predicted earnings. This hasn’t stopped the rise of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement, though, a new method of frugal […]
Latest News from Radcliffe Cooper
This section is regularly updated to bring you news of important developments in financial planning matters.
Following an in depth study conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), it has been discovered that only one in four people making financial gifts are aware of the risks of inheritance tax. Further to this, they found that only 45% of gifters reported being aware […]
Diversification is a word that seems to get tossed around a lot in conversations around savings and investment. We hear it often, but what does it mean? Put simply, diversification is a risk management strategy that mixes a variety of investments within a portfolio. Through having different kinds of assets in a portfolio, the goal […]
How is your financial wellbeing? Increasingly, people are talking about financial wellbeing. But what does it actually mean? Financial wellbeing is about having a sense of confidence and security around money. It’s about having enough money to meet everyday needs and being in control of your finances; having the financial freedom to make choices that […]
May was a relatively quiet month, virtually nothing of any importance happened at all. Well, apart from the European elections, Theresa May’s decision to stand down and the re-escalation of the US/China trade war. Not content with that, Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Mexico and Angela Merkel decided that her potential successor wasn’t up to […]
Introduction First the good news. None of the leading world stock markets on which we report in this Bulletin fell in April. With just one exception – China – all the markets made gains, with the German DAX index leading the way. Generally the world breathed a sigh of relief as relations between the US […]
A study found in 2018 that one in four adults have no savings. Many residents in the UK wish that they had cash to save, however high monthly outgoings and debt clearance seem to take priority. Saving for the little curveballs that life throws your way is a good way to maintain a sound mind, […]
Benjamin Franklin famously said, ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes’. And if your estate is valued at over £325,000, everything above this figure will be taxed at 40% when you die. Even in death there’s no relief from taxes! However, there are certain steps you can take […]
Equity release is no longer the niche lending area it once was. More and more homeowners over 55 are choosing to release cash tied up in their homes and there are few signs of this trend subsiding. Lending in 2018 increased by 27% compared to the previous year and is now nearly double what it […]
Introduction We have commented before on the difficulty of ‘hitting a moving target.’ Sometimes in writing this commentary you run the risk of what you write being overtaken by events, and that has never been more true than this month. In the short time between us publishing notes and you reading them it is possible […]