magazine archive
magazine archive
Money Matters
Revealed: the ultimate income funds
Thursday 18 Oct 2018Income-seeking investors want to find funds that deliver a healthy payout but not at the expense of growing their capital. We’ve found four income funds that have done that – in one case delivering almost £9,000 of income over 10 years on a £10,000 investment. When assessing income funds there are...
Is it time to re-think annuities?
Thursday 18 Oct 2018Before former Chancellor George Osborne stood at the House of Commons despatch box on 21 March 2014, most people who retired were shovelled into an annuity contract with their existing insurance company. In many cases these products represented poor value for money, either because the rate on offer...
What will Chancellor Hammond pull out of his red box on 29 October?
Thursday 11 Oct 2018Embattled Chancellor Philip Hammond has already dropped one surprise by announcing an earlier-than-expected Budget on Monday 29 October. In doing so he has broken with the tradition of holding the economic set-piece on a Wednesday, immediately after Prime Minister’s questions. As always the event...
Make hundreds of pounds from your friends
Thursday 11 Oct 2018Thanks to lucrative offers from a number of businesses you can now make hundreds – or even thousands – of pounds just by referring friends to sign up to services and companies. These ‘recommend a friend’ schemes often give both the referrer and the friend money off, vouchers or cash. Here we round...
Should I overpay my mortgage or invest the cash?
Thursday 04 Oct 2018You find yourself with spare cash at the end of the month – are you better off saving the money or using it to pay down your mortgage debt? It’s the question that homeowners are faced with: to save a pot or relieve themselves of debt sooner. Typically the adage is to pay down any debt before you...
Could it pay to breach the pensions lifetime allowance?
Thursday 27 Sep 2018Rising numbers of UK pension savers will find themselves facing a charge of up to 55% on their retirement pots after breaching the lifetime allowance (LTA). This is because successive governments have chipped away at the figure since 2010, reducing it from £1.8m to just £1m in 2016/17. From this...
A new breed of apps can help you save money and have a brighter future
Thursday 27 Sep 2018An app on your phone can now help you to budget, save money or just organise your finances. But how do they work and what is on offer? Since the start of this year so-called ‘open banking’ means that organisations can share information on your personal finances to enable you to look at all your...
What’s the best way to get my pension’s tax-free cash?
Thursday 20 Sep 2018While the main purpose of a SIPP (self-invested personal pension) is to provide an income as you transition away from work and into retirement, for many one of the primary attractions is the 25% tax-free cash available once you start accessing your money. If you choose to keep your money invested...
How has your income fared since the crisis?
Thursday 20 Sep 2018Millennials have been hardest hit by the financial crisis, with their wages being affected more than older generations, a new study has found. The Institute for Fiscal Studies report looked at how different age groups have fared since the global financial crisis, sparked by the collapse of Lehman...
What does a no-deal Brexit mean for your pensions and personal spending?
Thursday 13 Sep 2018The Government has released the first of a tranche of papers outlining how different industries would be affected by a no-deal Brexit. They include details on how the financial services industry, covering banking, insurance and pensions, would change as a result of a ‘no deal’. Much of the...