magazine archive
magazine archive
Personal Finance
Should you overpay your mortgage now that interest rates are shooting up?
Thursday 29 Sep 2022Over the last 15 years, interest rates have been on a downward curve, and while house prices have ballooned, the cost of servicing mortgage debt has been mercifully low. That is now changing rapidly, as the Bank of England tightens monetary policy to deal with spiralling inflation. Many people will...
Higher interest rates are good for savers but watch out for tax
Thursday 22 Sep 2022Cash savers are celebrating as a rates war has broken out in the savings market, meaning they are getting a much better return on their money than they were a year ago. The Bank of England has raised the base rate from 0.1% in December 2021 to 1.75% in August and is expected to raise rates by...
Cash rates are improving: this is what you need to know
Thursday 15 Sep 2022Unless you have been living in a particularly well-fortified and soundproof bunker, you will have noticed that UK interest rates are rising quite rapidly, as the Bank of England does its level best to combat spiralling inflation. While that’s not good news for anyone with high levels of borrowing,...
How you can use a market correction to cut your tax bill
Thursday 08 Sep 2022Falling stock markets aren’t usually a reason for celebration, and the wild ride that many investment markets have seen this year has been unwelcome for many investors. What’s more, with a recession predicted to hit later this year, markets could hit a rocky patch once again. While no investor...
Which is better as a retirement investment: property or a pension?
Thursday 01 Sep 2022The property market has been in boom times ever since the end of the financial crisis. A chronic housing shortage, ultra-low interest rates and government stimulus schemes have all helped to deliver exceptional returns from bricks and mortar in the last 10 to 15 years. The average house price has...
How to use your pension to beat the sneaky 60% tax rate
Thursday 25 Aug 2022A sneaky quirk to the tax system means that some people pay a 60% tax rate on a portion of their income, but there is a way to beat it. Most people think income tax is charged at 20% for basic-rate payers, 40% for those earning over £50,270 and 45% for those on more than £150,000 (except those...
Want a guaranteed income for life? It’s worth noting annuity rates are going up
Thursday 18 Aug 2022There was a time when 90% of retiring investors bought an annuity with their pension pot, but in 2015, that radically changed. The pension freedoms swept away many restrictions and allowed retiring pension savers to access as much of their pension cash as they wanted. The result is that nowadays,...
How to transfer your nil-rate band and avoid a potential inheritance tax hit
Thursday 11 Aug 2022As a nation we’re paying a record amount in inheritance tax, as the value of property and has risen but the tax-free bands for inheritance tax (or IHT for short) haven’t. Government figures show that in the year to April 2022 we paid £6.1 billion in inheritance tax, a record sum and a 14% jump on...
Using a dealing account? You could be better off with an ISA or SIPP
Thursday 28 Jul 2022The surge in online brokers means that more and more people have opened trading accounts. But lots of newcomers to investing have opened the wrong account type that’s costing them hundreds (or even thousands) in tax that they could avoid. Many people who use online trading platforms will just opt...
Holiday reading for anyone who wants to learn more about investing
Thursday 21 Jul 2022The summer holiday season is upon us, and those who are brave enough to be risking travel disruption in search of more exotic climes will no doubt be thinking about what reading material to pack for whiling away the hours on the beach, or in the airport departure lounge. An engrossing bestseller...