Blog

COVID 19 – MEASURES

Last week’s Budget from the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, included £7 billion of expenditure targeting the impact of Covid-19 on employees, the self-employed and businesses. Six days later a further raft of measures was announced, amounting to an additional £20 billion of support expenditure plus £330 billion of loan guarantees. The Chancellor’s 17 March statement…

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299 – LIFE EXPECTANCY SHORTENS…. OR DOES IT?

New calculations from the Office for National Statistics have lowered life expectancies. Every two years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recalculates its national population projections (NPP). As part of the exercise, the ONS reviews and updates its assumptions about future mortality, which in turn will have an impact on population size. The latest figures,…

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298 – A BUDGET DAY….AT LAST!

In early January Chancellor announced a new Budget date: 11 March 2020. This could be a significant Budget. Traditionally, the first Budget of a new Parliament is when the Chancellor delivers the medicine of tax increases and/or unpopular reforms. To borrow from Macbeth: ‘If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were…

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297 – NEW GOVERNMENT, NEW TAX TARGETS?

How will the new government affect your financial planning? December’s general election delivered a Conservative government with the sort of majority which consigns the knife-edge parliamentary battles of recent years to the past. So what will the new government do, apart from “get Brexit done”? A look at the Conservative manifesto, easily the shortest of…

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296 – LISA LEFT STANDING

The Lifetime ISA is now on its own as the ISA option for first time buyers. At the start of December, the Help-to-Buy ISA was withdrawn for new investments. Its disappearance means that the Lifetime ISA (LISA) is now the only ISA plan that offers incentives for those savings towards their first home. However, anyone…

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295 – THE 2019 INVESTMENT YEAR

The world’s share markets enjoyed strong rises in 2019. Index 2019 Change FTSE 100 +12.1% FTSE All-Share +14.2% Dow Jones Industrial +22.3% Standard & Poor’s 500 +28.88% Nikkei 225 +18.2% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) +24.8% Shanghai Composite +22.3% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) +11.0% 2019 was a very different year for investors from 2018. Whereas 2018…

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294 – CALLING A HALT ON MINI-BONDS

The Financial Conduct Authority has announced a temporary ban on the promotion of most ‘mini-bonds’. Have you ever been tempted by those advertisements offering 8%+ yields on property-backed bonds? If you have, then you’ve probably been looking at a promotion for ‘mini-bonds’. These investments are not always what they seem and have already resulted in…

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