This year’s Budget feels notable as much for what didn’t happen as for what did. Pre-Budget speculation hinted at radical changes, such as capping or removing pension tax-free cash, but I am happy to report that this, and many other rumours didn’t materialise. Instead, the Chancellor signalled a different direction of travel, and some would say a more obvious broken…
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Currency movements can affect investing outcomes. Investors owning overseas assets therefore are naturally concerned about what to do with this risk. The two options are to accept currency risk, or transfer it to another party willing to accept it, for a cost. The decision of what to do with currency exposure differs based on the role of the asset class…
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Periods of volatility in markets can feel unsettling, particularly when the news headlines remain relentlessly negative. On any given day, a company’s share price essentially reflects two things. Firstly, the consensus view of the value of future cashflows, whether such profits are paid out to shareholders as dividends, or reinvested to continue growing the business. And secondly, what is known…
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This shiny metal always glistens most brightly when it has just risen in value. In the past 12 months, the price of gold has nearly doubled. Recency bias and the fear of missing out (FOMO) always results in ‘should it be in my portfolio?’ type questions. Somewhat bizarrely, investors tend to get excited about assets that have already risen in…
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The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily. Charlie Munger In Indian folklore, a minister and wiseman called Sessa, apparently invented chess for his King, and in return asked for payment in grains of wheat: one grain on the first square, two on the second and doubling each square thereafter. The…
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Almost four months after the Labour victory in the general election of early July, Chancellor Rachel Reeves finally delivered the new government’s first Budget on 30 October 2024. Since taking over the keys of 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his team had consistently telegraphed the likelihood of “painful” tax hikes. As well as the alleged £22 billion…
read moreBy its very nature, the investing industry is full of differing views on how one ought to invest their hard-earned cash. One of the more polarising debates is whether an investment in gold, physically or synthetically via an investment fund, makes good sense. The debate tends to flare up each time gold experiences a rapid growth in value, such as…
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It is a simple statement that the decision to invest in the first place provides an opportunity to protect hard-earned savings from inflation, and perhaps grow further. It is not easy, however, to have the foresight, as well as the discipline to deny oneself spending today for the opportunity of a better tomorrow. It is also not easy to work…
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Most investors would probably like to forget the poor performance of both bonds and equities in 2022 and early 2023. For many investors, it was their first real experience of bonds falling in value, particularly at the same time as equities. Different investors would have experienced different outcomes in 2022 (and subsequently) depending on the type of bonds that they…
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In July, the markets were affected by general elections taking place in the UK and France, and the ongoing presidential campaign in the US. Read on to find out what else affected investment markets in July 2024. Uncertainty and numerous other factors may affect the value of your investment portfolio. However, for most investors, long-term trends…
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