A snapshot of what we do as wealth managers
What’s the state of the nation?
So the Autumn Statement is behind us. Taxes are up and so we now face the highest tax burden since WW2 as well as ‘enjoying’ the biggest public spending since the 1970s.The ‘Office for Budget Responsibility’, a relatively recently created quango and chaired by Richard Hughes, (Ed Miliband’s former policy adviser who was a...
The science of investment explained
So US inflation is tidier than expected and the NASDAQ rises by 7.5% on the day (as it is hoped further interest rate rises may not happen and indeed the next may be downwards) and a further 2% the next day. The mainstream market likewise rocketed and the US Dollar fell significantly too.Generally, investors...
Should I sell my US Tech stocks?
So according to Refinitiv, the drop in US markets has seen $3.5trillion wiped-off the ‘Faang’ stocks plus Microsoft (with $250billion last week alone). Yes, that’s primarily the US Tech leaders including Facebook (Meta) which has plummeted. That’s a third off this year – ouch. Thankfully we stuck to our guns and have had...
Urgent news if you have a deferred pension
Yes, pension transfer values from salary- schemes have plummeted – see below. So welcome Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister! We wish him and his new government well and so far, things are stabilising again - Sterling is up and Gilt yields are lower.Time will tell of course and Mr Sunak has a Herculean task...
Prime Minister resigns
I feel I can’t keep sending ‘emergency’ eshots as things are changing so fast and the consequences and implications will take some time to digest by ‘everyone and everything’.It was sad to see the Prime Minister resign today. I don’t say that in any other way than criticism at the behaviour and reactions and...
Death by a thousand cuts
Volatility has been unrelenting. Contrary to our media’s interpretation too, it’s not just ‘us’ and the whole world’s meltdown these last few weeks is not all because of our Mini Budget where only two small unannounced tax cuts were made, if we ignore bringing forward one year Rishi’s promised 1p off the Basic Rate...
Government turnaround and market opportunities
Well, economics and turnarounds where the Government would be lambasted whatever it did. However, the reversal of the 5% tax cut is purely political as the suggested £0.6-£2billion it raises is a tiny sum of the total tax take HMRC collected last year of £716billion.As an economist and not a politician speaking, I still...
How will the Mini Budget affect your finances?
Markets? We are holding our own reasonably though Mini Budget week was savage and the negativity is continuing. Our hedging Dollar assets rose in Sterling terms and so many ‘value’ equities now are exceedingly attractive, with high dividend incomes.Do we trim some of our Defensive Dollar-based assets now? Growth areas were hit hardest –...