Many of you will know what the IFG/Cur8 mission is: to help Muslims level up financially.  But in this short piece, we wanted to share with you a little more in-depth with you how we think about practically bringing that goal to life.  And, as we enter 2024, we will also share with you where our priorities will be as an organisation over the coming year.  We are aware that most organisations do not share their strategy like this – but we think our mission – which is an economic mission – is a shared one that needs multiple actors to play their part.   We therefore shar ..read more

For our UK readers, we are going to have elections in 2024 and as a Muslim community we need to ensure that we are holding our politicians to account. There are a broad, high level set of pledges that the Community Policy Forum have put forward for the Muslim community as a whole. At IFG we have been closely involved with a number of Islamic finance and money-related political campaigns over the years and we wanted to unpack the “Money” section further. The below are more detailed finance, investment and money-specific pledges that expand on the “Money” Community Policy Forum pledges: The pled ..read more

In this article we will discuss the following:  The top 5 Pension Fund providers in the UK  What size investments do they have in Public Equities & the Defense sector?  Options for Halal Pension investments  The Benefits of managing your own Pension  The Top 5 Pension Fund providers in the UK  Between them, the Top 5 Pension Fund providers in the UK have a cumulative £1,685 Billion (£1.7 Trillion) of AUM (assets under management) and the total Pension market size is c.£7-8 Trillion.  This is invested across a range of asset classes from Government ..read more

We might not realise it but pretty much every large company we have ever transacted with has a contract in place with us. The question is – are these contracts permissible to enter into?  But why would this even be a relevant concern if we know that the vast majority, if not all, our contracts have nothing to do with interest or haram items?  My Eon energy contract should prove the point: in it, it says that if I fail to pay on time then Eon has the right to charge me interest on my late payments.  My Eon contract has nothing to do with a haram transaction on the face of it, but ..read more

One of the most overlooked questions in finance is the question of savings. How much of your income are you actually able to save?  One of the things that people most often ask me is “what’s the best investment right now?”. It is like someone asking a chef what the best ingredient right now is. It totally depends on your appetite. Investment has been glorified: the markets, the live prices, the multiple screens with complicated charts, the allure of big gains. In my experience, all of this attracts folks who are not actually able to save that much and want to make the little that they are ..read more

Tron is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that aims to build a free global content entertainment system.  Tron’s cryptocurrency is called Tronix (ticker: TRX) and is currently ranked as the 15th most popular cryptocurrency in the world. Tron uses a delegated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism which allows for high scalability and fast transaction speeds. The platform allows users to publish, store, and own data, and to freely and autonomously create content on the blockchain.  TRX is used to facilitate transactions on the platform and can be bought and sold on popular cryptocu ..read more

Are you breaking your back day in, day out to make your business a success, or to earn more money, but despite your best efforts it’s just not happening? If this is you, the following reasons may be why. In the materialistic society which we live in, we have become conditioned to focus on the physical, tangible things which affect our lives and we try are upmost to control them. However, we forget that there are hidden, metaphysical elements at play which affect us too. A major Islamic element is Barakah, which refers to the blessings and increase in goodness from Allah. Just as certain action ..read more

Credit cards are something we all carry around in our pockets, yet the industry in of itself is a disgrace and has exploited the poorest in society. In this article, we will dig deep on why you should stop using credit cards in its entirety, how the usage of credit cards has contributed to hundreds of thousands of suicides every year, and the mega industries which are built upon flogging you with credit. How does the credit card industry make money? The credit card industry makes a significant amount of money through interest payments and the APR (annual percentage rate) which is egregious. Th ..read more

The topic of multiple wives and polygyny has always been a hot and divisive topic in the Muslim community, no matter the time and place. Without getting into the ethics of whether or not one person should or shouldn’t, in this article we will answer the simple question: how much does it actually cost to maintain multiple wives – and how much would one need to earn to afford multiple wives. Our methodology To understand how to understand this topic, we refer to the Ultimate reference, the Qur’an which says ..read more

If you had bought shares in Microsoft at the start of 2023, you’d be up 40% right now.  If you had done the same with Meta (formerly Facebook), you’d be up 147% right now. If you had bought gold, you’d be down 2%. Conclusion? The stock market is back with a roaring vengeance. The bull was wounded when the post-covid, high inflation (and high interest rates), recession-facing mood set in and stocks generally plummeted.  But since the turn of 2023, investors have voted with their feet and the results are clear to see. Confidence is high and (some) share prices are soaring.  In thi ..read more