In this blog:
What’s inside the grey box?
Probable v possible: the cost
Guarantees are contractual, dividends are discretionary
It’s tempting to think of retirement as one long long holiday where we kick back after years of hard work and indulge in hobbies and interests. As a vision that’s appealing, but it fails to take into account that ageing is not a choice it’s inevitable. This is fine to a point, but a more realistic view is to think of retirement as a series of phases during which lifestyle wishes and healthcare needs can change dramatically over decades. The good news is that planning for later-life financial security IS achievable if you are proactive now. To help you along the way, we’ve compiled this baby boomer’s roadmap.
Read More
What ever happened to the Blackberry? I have a friend, a banker who runs the IT team, and who still has one in daily use. Swears by it. Mind you, he has a vintage Jaguar also in daily use, which says something about him. Launched in 1999, it…
Read More
Piers, it seems, are making something of a comeback with today’s younger generation enjoying them as much as we did as children. As a child I was occasionally taken to Blackpool. If it was summer then it was buckets and spades, donkey rides and ice cream, whilst in the winter it was the…
Read More
Guinness is Good for You, was the advertising slogan made famous by the firm from the 1920’s until it was banned in the 1960’s, no longer considered a healthy option. Guinness also claimed to Give You Strength, and according to The Royal College of Physicians Museum, Guinness wrote to…
Read More
Wine drinking was a habit only for the elite in Britain, but an everyday necessity for our French and European cousins.
In the sixties, cheap, semi-sweet drinks such as ‘Babycham’ and ‘Cherry B’ took over from sherry and eventually Portuguese ‘Mateus Rose’. So exotic was this wine considered that…
Read More
In this blog:
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns
Consider two investments side by side, one with a return of 4% and one with 8% - which one is the more profitable?
High or low relative to what?
What the data says.
The Beatles song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) was about an extramarital affair that John Lennon was involved in. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said:
"I was trying to write about an affair without letting my wife know I was having one…
Read More
In this blog:
Investment trusts have two problems for IFAs
The data behind an income portfolio
Inflation – a key differentiator made transparent with data.
In this blog:
The storm elements in western France
The storm elements in the investment atmosphere
Data driven research.
Eighteen months ago, I posted a piece called The Great De-Cluttering Dilemma, as we moved out of our house following an underfloor leak. This week we are moving back in to the house, complete with all our goods and chattels…
Read More
Some guarantees cost more than others – is your money at risk? In this blog:
What’s in a rate?
Understanding preference shares
As a company we are probably unique in having a section in our website that outlines for you how to write and give a eulogy. In this blog:
“With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.”
“A billion here, a billion there …”
Here’s some good news (not in the headlines or Today on R4). And if someone runs $27bn, we’d like to hear what they think. In this blog:
A key part of inflation has gone negative
Here comes the bill
‘The weirdest time in 40 years’
My dad’s first job was as a projectionist at The Picture House Cinema in the market town of Beverly in East Yorkshire. There was no TV at the time and so news and entertainment were to be found there and he saw it all though the tiny square window of his projection booth. Then he went off to war.
Read More
In 1992 Marc and Robert spun out a company from the MIT ‘leg lab’ that worked on developing robotics. In 2004 they demonstrated BigDog, which you’ll probably have seen. With the seed development already done at MIT it took the team twelve years to get to here – I don’t who was funding this, who the backers were/are, and surely in robotics there can be no certainty.
Read More
Interest rates are up, gilt yields are up, and the Sunday Times is covered in adverts and editorials talking about annuities; we look at the numbers, not the commentaries. In this blog:
t’s all in the maths
“Colin” the Client’s Story
Once upon a time and by a fortuitous chain of events, I was very lucky to have a 1-2-1 tennis lesson with Rod Laver at Wimbledon. He was such a gent he even said I could tell my kids I won. More recently I’ve tried out tennis’ rival sport, Pickleball - billed as “a game for all ages”. And then there’s the other rival Padel.
Read More