The timing of this year’s Spring Budget was slightly earlier than normal, as far as ‘normal’ can be applied to the scheduling of any fiscal event in recent years.  The choice of 6 March probably reflected Rishi Sunak’s desire to keep open the option of calling the general election alongside English local elections due on 2 May.  An odd corollary was that the Treasury announced the Budget Date on 27 December.  The twixmas press release was necessary because the Chancellor must give the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) ten weeks’ notice of a Budget, so it can prepare its Eco ..read more

Image by Leopictures from Pixabay Cash is the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde asset class of the investing world.  It’s good that Dr Jekyll’s moments tend to come at times of market turmoil, such as in 2022 when bonds and equity markets both fell.  However its evil Mr Hyde persona is its terrible track record of maintaining or growing purchasing power over time for investors.  During the Global Financial Crisis, from November 2007 to September 2009, it provided a real (after price inflation) return of 2% compared to world (developed and emerging) equities, which fell 37%.&n ..read more

Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay At the start of 2024, the UK’s leading Index[1], which covers the top 100 stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange weighted by their market capitalisation, turned 40.  It is the most commonly cited UK equity market index by the media, often referred to as the ‘Footsie’ or the ‘index of the leading 100 companies’.  You will no doubt have heard newsreaders making somewhat meaningless statements such as the ‘The Footsie was up by 23 points today’.  By and large, they refer to the price index, which does not include dividends paid ..read more

Image by Jondolar Schnurr from Pixabay Define how you would like to live your life and create a financial plan to meet the expenses that will entail Not having this is a bit like taking off in an aeroplane without a destination in mind. It is however important to build flexibility into your plan (and to be flexible in your expectations) as reality will never go (exactly) according to plan. Moreover, it is important to be conservative in your financial planning and investment portfolio return assumptions and to think in terms of a range of possible outcomes. It is best to err on the side of c ..read more

Image by Fatemeh Mousavi from Pixabay Happy New Year. It’s that time of year again that inspires us to try and stick to some New Year’s resolutions, whether they be lifestyle, diet, fitness or finance-related.   If you’re like us, life tends to get in the way, and despite our best intentions, our resolutions might already be slipping away. Of all the above, financial resolutions can be the hardest to keep due to unplanned expenditures, booking that summer holiday or just feeling like spending on yourself to make up for the January blues!  But remember, not to be t ..read more

Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay Charlie Munger, the lifetime business partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway[1], passed away in late November at the ripe old age of 99.  He was a deep thinker about business, who focused on the fundamental strengths of companies exhibiting a simplicity that he could understand.  Although he was less high profile than Warren Buffett, he is credited with changing Buffett’s approach of buying ‘fair companies at wonderful prices’ to buying ‘wonderful companies at fair prices’. He and Buffett delivered stellar returns fo ..read more

Just over a year ago, Jeremy Hunt presented his first Autumn Statement in the wake of a financial crisis created by his predecessor’s ‘mini-Budget’.  Last November, the newly installed Chancellor was able to push through tax increases with relative ease: reclaiming the mantle of fiscal responsibility was of key importance for his fellow MPs.  Twelve months on, the financial and political environment is rather different. The UK has recovered some of the market credibility it lost in 2022 and a general election is now fourteen months away, at most.  In the weeks before the Autumn ..read more

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay For many investors, commercial property (often referred to as ‘real estate’) provides an opportunity to diversify some of the pure equity risk in portfolios.  Owning property directly (either individually or via a ‘bricks and mortar’ fund) comes with liquidity and diversification challenges.  To mitigate this, investment via Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which are listed on global stock markets, is often used and is the approach favoured by Bloomsbury Wealth. A common perception is that REITs are made up of exposure t ..read more

Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay One of the greatest temptations in investing is to try to time when to be in or out of markets.  It is logical to want to be fully invested in the equity markets when they are going up and to be in cash or bonds when they are going down.  Yet logic transforms into emotion at times when markets feel a little bit frothy on the upside, such as the late 1990s or even 2020-21, or full of gloom and despair on the downside, such as the depths of 2003 (technology crash), 2008-9 (Global Financial Crisis), Q1 2020 (Covid) or the challenges of ..read more

Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay Everyone has been touched by the horrific events and unfolding human tragedy in Israel and the Gaza Strip and many are concerned about how this might escalate into a wider conflict at a time of great uncertainty in the world.  People’s immediate focus is, rightly, on the plight of those caught up – either directly or indirectly – in the maelstrom of the conflict.  We can only hope that some form of peaceful solution can be arrived at quickly, however hard or unlikely this may seem. At such a time, it may feel a little inappropriate to be worried abo ..read more