From January, National Savings & Investments (NS&I) will increase its premium bond prize fund rate to 3% and reduce £25 prizes, instead increasing the number of higher-value prizes that are up for grabs. In January 2022, about 98% of all the premium bond prizes paid out by NS&I were just £25. You were lucky if […]
Although fraud and cybercrime comes in many forms, there are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself. 1) Do not give any personal information (name, address, bank details, email or phone number) to organisations or people before verifying their credentials. Always question unsolicited calls, texts or emails requesting your personal or financial information (name, […]
Sensible investing is about taking on sensible risks in your portfolio, which starts with owning equities over cash. Historical data and logic tell us to expect a premium for doing so. In the long run this has been in the region of 3% to 4% per annum. It may not sound much, but when compounded […]
The Value In Thinking Ahead Retirement is something most of us look forward to − particularly on a Monday morning. However, those thoughts are often little more than a whimsical cocktail of not having to work and prolonged holidays. The reality could be rather different. For a start, retirement has increasingly become a gradual process, […]
New data from HMRC show the Treasury’s inheritance tax (IHT) receipts have doubled since 2012/13. Of all the various taxes levied in the UK, IHT is one of the most peculiar: For a start, its name is misleading. In other countries that levy inheritance taxes, the tax is usually based on the inheritor and […]
The Bank of England has said that inflation could reach over 13% before the end of the year. But that’s the lower end of the speculation. The inflation figure in July 2022 reached an eye-watering 10.1%, as measured on the consumer prices index (CPI) yardstick. That was the highest level in 40 years, a reminder […]
