magazine archive
magazine archive
Money Matters
Doing the maths on the temporary stamp duty relief
Thursday 16 Jul 2020Homebuyers will face far lower stamp duty bills for the next nine months after the Government vastly reduced the cost of the tax. The mini-Budget from Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed that a temporary stamp duty relief would be implemented immediately, running to 31 March 2021. Currently no-one pays...
The funds which have seen the biggest outflows in 2020 so far
Thursday 09 Jul 2020The volatile markets this year have sent some investors running to cash, while others have switched to relative safe havens, such as bonds or gold. As we’ve now reached the six-month mark in the year it is a good time to look at the individual funds which have seen the largest outflows during this...
Drop in investment ISA demand but more women are saving than men
Thursday 02 Jul 2020The latest ISA data from the Government, covering usage in the 2018/19 tax year, shows that the worries about the Brexit vote and whether we’d have a hard Brexit hit investors and fewer chose to save their money in an investment ISA. The Government figures show 450,000 fewer people subscribed to...
How much does it cost to buy overseas shares?
Thursday 25 Jun 2020As the world has become more international more investors want to buy shares listed on overseas stock markets, particularly in the US. The likes of Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are all listed in the US, as are emerging innovative companies such as Uber, Tesla and Spotify. However, while it’s...
Coronavirus causes spike in scams – how to stay aware
Thursday 18 Jun 2020The Covid-19 crisis is creating a surge in fraud reports, as scammers target vulnerable people who have lost their income in the past few months. Action Fraud, the police department that deals with fraud, has seen 2,151 reports of fraud from the start of February this year to the start of June –...
The impact of Covid-19 on the property market
Thursday 11 Jun 2020The coronavirus crisis has had an unprecedented impact on the UK property market, as viewings and sales ground to a halt and the market stalled during lockdown. Activity is now starting to resume, but at a slow pace and with a number of big changes that househunters and sellers will have to adapt...
Maxed out your pension and ISA? Where next…
Thursday 04 Jun 2020Most people can put up to £60,000 a year into their ISA and pension combined. But some people might find they exceed this limit and want to know where to invest next, while others may have lower limits and so be able to put away less each year. What are the limits? Those aged 18 or over can put £20...
Pocket money apps: what are they and which is best?
Thursday 28 May 2020For many families it now seems old fashioned to hand over some shiny coins to your child each week to be deposited into a piggy bank. These days many parents have turned to apps to pay their children pocket money and keep track of where they are spending it. In the UK the most popular ones are...
Lifetime ISA exit penalty cut – but what does it mean for savers?
Thursday 21 May 2020The Government has temporarily cut the exit charge that savers pay when they withdraw money from their Lifetime ISA for anything other than buying a first home or reaching age 60, reducing it from 25% to 20%. During the current crisis the Government has recognised that people might need to access...
50 days of lockdown: how have fund investors fared?
Thursday 14 May 2020We’re now 50 days into lockdown in the UK and during that time, despite all else that’s been going on in the world, there has been lots of positive news for investors. Even though there’s been plenty of turmoil to businesses, markets are rising, the vast majority of funds have delivered positive...