This is our blog page where we hope to pass on valuable information, which could help you be better prepared when dealing with your financial arrangements. Whether we explain basic principles, debunk financial myths, or provide general tips, this page is an opportunity for us to share our thoughts which can help you make better financial decisions.

But to be clear. We’re not providing personal advice here (you have to pay for that I’m afraid!) and any arrangements that you make having read these pages are entirely your own affair.

We don’t believe in forecasting the future, and in the event that we discuss specific products, funds or assets here, our opinion should be taken as that, our opinion and not a personal recommendation to buy or sell.

A Fresh Start

Summer is a distant memory. The children are back at school or University, and from what I’ve experienced many of you have turned your attention to getting things done. The change in season is a useful trigger for making a personal change, as Katy Milkman explains in her excellent and very readable new book ‘How … Continued

What is Financial Advice?

On Sunday I caught up with Rational Reminder, one of my favourite podcasts on sensible investing and financial decision making. At the 18 min 40 sec mark of Episode 142: What is Financial Advice? one of the hosts, Ben Felix, considered a question recently asked of him. It’s a great question! Why would I, a … Continued

Life Expectancy – You Are Not Average

That’s my parents on the cover picture. Today my dad turns 98! Yep, you read that right. My dad is 98. Not my grandfather, my dad. He’s in pretty good shape and continues to live an engaged, active and independent life. My mum, although younger, is still a good 86. When my dad was born … Continued

What Tony Hawk Can Teach Us About Risk

In 1989, I was a teenage skateboarder. When school closed for summer, I’d be outside on my board every day. From sunrise to sunset my friends and I would explore London, visiting the very few skateable locations available to us at that time. It was a brief but hugely enjoyable period of my youth, and … Continued

Why Should You Own Bonds?

Most investors can’t see the wood for the trees. And the latest hot topic for over-analysis is the potential for rising economic growth, inflation and interest rates to negatively impact Bonds. You all own Bonds via our portfolios, so it’s not irrelevant news. But it is worth understanding why you own Bonds in the first … Continued

Remember March? It Was Wild

So that’s it. Christmas week is upon us and 2020 is nearly at an end. What. A. Year. Other than the bleedin’ obvious, you’ll have your own reasons for remembering 2020. Hopefully, some are good. But what you might have already forgotten, or purposely avoided at the time, were the crazy days of March when a … Continued

When a Balanced Risk Investment is not Balanced

The word ‘balance’ is defined by Oxford Languages as “an even distribution of weight, enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady”. In mathematics ‘balanced’ is defined as “when both sides have the same quantity or mass”. Of course, you already know this. But balanced is also a term encountered regularly in finance. It’s … Continued

I’m Here If You Need Me

As you are no doubt aware, the Coronavirus is now a global pandemic. Consequently, the financial media are headlining the news of a decline in the global stock market. When stock markets turn volatile and confusing as they have done recently, even the most patient investors may come to question the wisdom of their investment … Continued

Love Island

I didn’t watch Love Island. And until recently I didn’t know much about the former presenter of the show, Caroline Flack. I knew she was a TV presenter. I’d seen her name and face online, but I’d never stopped to read more than the headline if anything at all. Even so, the ‘breaking news’ of … Continued

Don’t Believe The Hype

A few words on the suspension of ‘star’ fund manager Neil Woodford’s UK Equity Income investment fund, which consumed my professional news feed yesterday and spilt into the broader headline news. And I honestly thought about stopping right there. But that would miss the opportunity to help remind investors of some valuable investment basics. Past Performance … Continued

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