magazine archive
magazine archive
Money Matters
How to beat the gas price hike
Thursday 19 Aug 2021Millions of households will see their energy bills leap in October, as rising gas prices mean the energy price cap will increase. The rise comes just as winter begins, when everyone’s energy use spikes, and is the second hike this year. We explain how the price cap works, who will be hit and how to...
How to invest in Boris and Rishi’s ‘big bang’
Thursday 12 Aug 2021The prime minister and the chancellor have written an open letter to the UK’s institutional investors, challenging them to ignite an ‘investment big bang’ by investing in illiquid assets, such as infrastructure and unquoted companies. The chancellor is also setting the groundwork for the launch of...
The reasons inflation could be short-lived
Thursday 05 Aug 2021Inflation is one of the biggest puzzles bedevilling financial markets right now. It’s rising, but central banks maintain that it’s transitory, and so they’re resisting raising interest rates to keep prices rises under control. This is a conundrum for individual investors trying to work out how to...
Lifetime ISA savers could face a life-long cash drag
Thursday 29 Jul 2021The Lifetime ISA has proved to be a bit of a hit with savers and investors, confounding the many sceptics who disparaged the account when it was first launched. Latest figures from HMRC show that 545,000 people subscribed to a Lifetime ISA in the 2019/20 tax year, up from 223,000 in the previous...
The case for making the big pension switch
Thursday 22 Jul 2021Pensions are a bit like puppies; they’re for life, not just for Christmas. Since pensions auto-enrolment was introduced in 2012, almost everyone will hold a pension of some description for most of their life. But pensions themselves come in different shapes and sizes, and many that were set up back...
Is a pensions tax raid coming soon and how might you be affected?
Thursday 01 Jul 2021You will have been hard pressed to flick through the financial pages of a national newspaper in the past couple of weeks without reading rumours that the Treasury is considering a tax raid on pensions to help pay for the costs of the COVID crisis. This is by no means the first time such speculation...
Can property ever replace a pension?
Thursday 24 Jun 2021The Bank of England’s outgoing chief economist, Andy Haldane, got into a bit of bother in 2016 by claiming he preferred investing in property to pensions. As many were quick to point out, it’s easy to be blasé about pensions if you’re a member of a gold-plated final salary scheme. But clearly the...
The great ISA mysteries
Thursday 17 Jun 2021The amount of money held in ISAs reached a record £620 billion in 2020, according to freshly published figures from HMRC, demonstrating how successful these tax shelters have been in the two decades since they took over from PEPs and TESSAs. The number of people contributing to a Lifetime ISA also...
Everything you need to know about pensions tax relief
Thursday 10 Jun 2021Successive governments have encouraged saving for later life by offering the financial incentive of not paying income tax on money paid into a pension plan. Pension tax relief boosts pension savings and the final amount available to retire on, thereby increasing the chance of a decent income to...
Inherited money? Here’s how to avoid paying tax
Thursday 27 May 2021Inheritances are growing as a share of national income, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. For those born in the 1960s, their inheritance is estimated to make up 9% of their lifetime income, but that is projected to rise to 16% for those born in the 1980s. Much of this...