magazine archive


magazine archive

Personal Finance

Five levers that can deliver a bigger pension

Thursday 28 Sep 2023

Pensions have a reputation for being arcane and complicated, and there are elements of the pension system which can be hard to get your head around. But when you boil it down, a pension is simply a tax efficient investment plan. Here are five levers you can pull to boost your retirement savings. 1...

I want my savings to go green – what are my options?

Thursday 21 Sep 2023

Interest rates on cash savings accounts have risen the past couple of years, as the Bank of England’s base rate has been hiked. But some people want their cash to be put to good causes, while also earning them a return on their money. The ‘green’ savings market has emerged in recent years, with...

Transferring a pension – how and why you may want to do it

Thursday 14 Sep 2023

Tracking down your lost pension pots and consolidating them into one place is a good financial admin task to tick off your list – if it suits your circumstances. A £100,000 pension pot switched from a product with total charges of 1.5% to a platform where charges total 0.75% could be worth £11,000...

Boom time for cash savers – but you need to be smart

Thursday 07 Sep 2023

It’s boom time for cash savers. The best easy access account is now paying interest of 5% according to Moneyfacts. If you had forecast that two years ago, you would have been laughed out of town. But not all savers are benefiting from ballooning interest rates. Around £250 billion sits in accounts...

Find out how to build an investment portfolio with trackers

Thursday 31 Aug 2023

Investing has transformed over the past several decades, and one of the key innovations driving this change has been the emergence of passive funds. Characterised by their low fees and simplicity, passive funds (including exchange-traded funds) provide investors with an effective way to gain...

Understand the basics on inflation and how interest rates help curb it

Thursday 24 Aug 2023

The headlines have been filled with news of sky-high inflation and the Bank of England’s subsequent interest rate rises. But we thought it would be handy to go through exactly why inflation is high, how interest rates are meant to curb it and whether it’s actually working. Why is inflation high? In...

Lessons from a decade of AIM shares being allowed in an ISA

Thursday 17 Aug 2023

It’s now 10 years since the government allowed AIM shares to be held in a stocks and shares ISA, opening the door to investors protecting themselves not just from income and capital gains tax, but from inheritance tax too. That’s because many AIM companies, though not all, are free from inheritance...

What are the tax implications of having a side hustle like selling on Ebay or Etsy?

Thursday 10 Aug 2023

Lots of people are trying to generate more money and alternative incomes during the cost-of-living crisis, but they need to make sure they are up to date on the tax rules around earning extra money to avoid the taxman asking for unpaid dues. More than one in three adults has more than one income...

Can I give money from my pension to charity at death?

Thursday 27 Jul 2023

I am thinking about how I can make bequests from my estate to my favourite charities and wondered if I can gift some of my pension in this way and whether or not this makes sense, given my estate might have to pay inheritance tax. I’m interested in the pluses and minuses around giving money to...

Why a mid-life financial MOT is absolutely vital in your 50s

Thursday 20 Jul 2023

Almost half of pension savers in their 50s and 60s have not considered how they will access their retirement pot, according to new research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Its analysis suggests lots of us are heading towards retirement unprepared, with little consideration for the financial...

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