Two questions: 1. Imagine that you are richer by €20,000 than you are today and that you face a choice of two options: 1. Receive €5,000; or 2. A 50% chance to win €10,000 and a 50% chance to win nothing 2. Imagine that you are richer by €30,000 than you are today and that […]
There is a lot going on in the world at the moment. Inflation is out of control. Central banks are raising interest rates to try to combat it. This will reduce spending and growth, leading almost certainly to a recession. China is in lockdown again so the supply chain is impacted again. And there has […]
A question arose recently about deemed disposal. Would it actually be better to pay the tax every 8 years and start anew than be subject the the deemed disposal? There are a number of factors that show the deemed disposal is better than real disposal every 8 years and immediately reinvesting. Tax and Returns There […]
Warren Buffett published his shareholder letter for 2021 back in February. As we have seen over the last few years, his letter has gotten shorter with less advice on investing and more focus on numbers and facts. There are still some nuggets of advice to take away. 3 ways to increase the value of your […]
2022 has been an awful year so far for investors. Both equities and bonds are down, there is no return on deposits and inflation is only getting higher. Yet investors are not panicking as before. What has changed? Experience It is now easier than ever for people to invest money. More people invest than in […]
Russia produces about 10% of the world’s oil. They are also the world’s second biggest producer of gas and supply and they produce 30% of Europe’s gas. One of the economic consequences of Russia invading Ukraine is a sharp increases in the price of energy (this is nothing compared to what the Ukrainian people have […]
Structured products have been around for a long time. We have always viewed them to be a poor quality products for our clients so they are not something that we use. But people do use them, otherwise they wouldn’t have survived as long as they have. They have always been complex products which traditionally used […]
I did the following recently: Profit off the table We sold some money in an investment account that we have. With investment returns doing so well, we decided to take some profit off the table and pay down some of our mortgage. Some money was taken out in December and another amount in early January. […]
As a financial advisor, we always talk to clients about the relationship between risk and return. I’ve even written about it and again and again. When you invest in funds, you don’t see the rise and fall of individual stocks and it can be of little interest. That’s because investing should be boring. Now you […]
How can Google make so much money when their service is free? It took a while before people discovered what was going on. Tech companies were using all the information we were giving them and using it to allow companies to use targeted advertising. We were the product all along. Free Trading Now there is […]