Investing shorts

In this blog:

1. Avoiding those black swans

2. Middle East virtual war, US fractured election and the markets rise -defying gravity?

3. Reassuring email from a duly elected MP

In this blog:

1. Affordability: Demographic breakdown of the source of personal tax revenue

2. Teach your children well – do you trust them?

3. ETFs – active not passive so not what we thought

4. Your pension money: spent on TV subscriptions perchance?

5. Did you get confused by the nine months income comparison table?

In this blog:

1. What WAS her name??

2. The pension revolution you didn’t spot

3. End of Q3 – income stats for each trust in our research pool comparing figures for 2023 to 2024

4. Can you spot a TOAD? (Apparently it’s a thing)

In this blog:

1. Your pension – does the patient need surgery or reassurance?

2. 2024 tech giants versus 2000 tech giants – cliff edge again?

3. Talking about money…there’s an awful lot of it around

4. Just one thing – about pensions and tax

5. Can you spot the difference?

In this blog:

1. Afraid of Ms Reeves? A simple cut to tax on interest and investment gains

2. Just one thing about your pension

3. Because there’s no plan B

4. From the £900 million Merchants Trust – where they are finding income

5. It's cooking on gas (or riding at ‘full gas’ as the cyclists say)

6. “Doesn’t play well with others”

7. The right thing at the right time

8. Pension issues – global not local

9. Opinions versus data

10. Last word goes to Peter Jay

In our 2024 White Paper, we look at the data and provide a comparative analysis of alternative income drawdown strategies 1986-2023

We collate, tabulate and compare the data from the main retail investors’ drawdown strategies over 37 years, look at the two biggest risks for an individual depending on drawdown income are sequence and longevity, and what we found when we analysed more than 1,239 balance sheets, reserve statements and cashflows.

In this blog:

1. A tale of two trusts

2. Hargreaves Lansdown vs Chancery Lane

In this blog:

1. Guarantee? My bond is my word

2. Everyone’s heard of Warren Buffett – and yet the “Yes but”s

3. Is it infinity?

4. It's not just you

5. Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Dundee farmers 1888

In this blog:

1. The white paper

2. Data – rolling five-year increases

3. Taking two to tango: cutting an Apple in half

4. Race to the bottom

In this blog:

1. Just one thing – grow your income before you need it

2. If you think it’s just you?

3. And if you think it’s just Ms Reeves…

4. Retire Well

In this blog:

1. Annapurna circuit

2. Tahiti catamaran charter

3. Bootcamp art workshop in Provence

4. Riding in Montana

5. Beat the kids at their own game: villa in Ibiza

6. Le Mans Classic – drive, don’t spectate

7. Learn to kitesurf in Egypt

8. Volunteer in daycare in Nairobi

In this blog:

1. Just one thing about pensions

2. You owe how much??

3. Cue the semantic debate?

4. Supermarket Income REIT

5. On Golden Pond

In this blog:

1. The single biggest error

2. The second biggest error

3. Morgan Stanley and the 10% correction

4. Speed dating (with JP Morgan)

In this blog:

1. Are annuities worth it? (And other questions)

2. Two governments, left of centre

3. Reality of drawdown

4. Working hard?

5. The infinity return calculation

In this blog:

1. The client who got 10%

2. And another client who emailed yesterday

3. How systemic risk drives a tank through total return strategies

4. An authoritative voice on the fallacy of using Monte Carlo analysis for retirement income

5. Tale from the far side – one person’s personal summary of his retirement life

In this blog:

1. How can you lose $430,000,000,000 and not get fired?

2. Mortgage? Try this for size - $1 trillion interest only

3. How to create a small fortune

4. Delete the pension app

In this blog:

1. “I’d rather have a sheep than a Rolex”

2. Is £500,000 enough to retire on?

3. Tech rampant

4. Same toys, different prices

5. Here she comes, just a-walking down the street

In this blog:

1. Winning the Losers’ Game

2. It might not say so on the tin but…

3. Big, bigger, biggest

4. China and gold – who knew?

In this blog:

1. Comparative returns

2. Charlie Munger’s Almanack

3. Where DIY investors get stuck

4. In the FT

5. How many of these have you got?

In this blog:

1. Teach your children well

2. You think you know us?

3. The really very obvious investment (that stumbled)

4. Remember 1996?

5. Why we don’t recommend total return investing for drawdown.

In this blog:

1. Currencies will turn investment stats upside down

2. “If I had a million dollars….”

3. Why fixed income won’t work for long term retirement

4. What trackers are not particularly good at

In this blog:

1. Debt – hitting countries not people

2. Monte Carlo or Bust – trouble with random stats

3. Does my company look big in this?

4. Chancery Lane in the Financial Times

In this blog:

1. Lucky vs repeatable

2. Trouble at the EV offices

3. Ros Altmann – Baroness – and the trouble with trusts

4. I had an interesting conversation with my three-year-old granddaughter about a bear that is really called Winnie the Pooh (you can fill in the gaps)

5. Standard deviation and Sortino Ratios in portfolio comparisons

In this blog:

1. 5 years annual returns of major hedge funds

2. Crunch data: today’s annuity vs investment trust

3. When should you move your DC scheme?

4. Starting drawdown – the tax pitfall

5. What’s the score with Fisher?

6. God bless America!

In this blog:

1. Saying ‘No’

2. Shenanigans

3. ESG – who’s the war-monger?

4. Jolly hockey sticks

5. In the technical part of the income market

6. How to gift to married children and keep it in the family

7. Target date funds: a technical note

In this blog:

1. How was the 4% Rule calculated?

2. How not to get lost

3. Don’t drive your lifetime savings without accurate navigation

4. Hey Uncle Sam, slow down there a minute

In this blog:

1. The new tax rates and allowances

2. The student loan interest rates and income thresholds

3. What is S&P talking about? Active v passive

4. Cool runnings?

5. Transitional certificates

6. Investment maths – 51.5p share price, 34.4% discount

In this blog:

1. Is cheaper better in investments?

2. What are you expecting?

3. It’s not just you – the proof

4. Chapter 5 – your retirement

5. This is the new Key Chart

In this blog:

1. We have a huge amount of respect for Christine Lagarde

2. If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit…

3. Investing in reverse

4. Remember Harry Patch

5. What a discretionary portfolio looks like – and what they charge you. Or, this is what Consumer Duty is all about.

6. Valuations and hot air

7. “I need a pension of £60k per year, I’ve got £90k in my pension”

8. Pay rises in 2023 – what’s in your wallet?

In this blog:

1. Buy your pension at a discount

2. The maths is simple

3. Putting the jigsaw pieces together – use the data, not the crystal ball

4. Recycling your ISA – don’t forget it

5. Are you wealthy? How do you rate?