Forget Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen et al. There is another more significant septet in the United States these days. The original version of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was released in 1960 and remains to this day an iconic Western film. However, the term ‘Magnificent...
What was almost certainly the last Budget before the election was a serving of the widely expected, sprinkled with a handful of small surprises. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered the Spring Budget 2024 on 6 March. As anticipated, it was a typical...
Recent research on planned retirement ages has produced some unexpected and perhaps unrealistic results. The next increase in State Pension Age (SPA) to 67 will start to take effect in about two years’ time. Under current legislation the move to a SPA of 68 begins in...
This new tax year starting on 6 April brings a range of changes that could affect your financial planning. The start of the new tax year will see many allowances and tax bands frozen once again. In reality these freezes are tax increases as the government has...
New data on marriage and civil partnerships shows a significant threshold has been crossed. ‘Population estimates by marital status and living arrangements, England and Wales: 2022’, sounds like a rather esoteric piece of academic output from the Office for National...
New research has put some surprising numbers on the income needed in retirement. Each year since 2019, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has set about answering the question of how much retirement costs for couples and single retirees. It considers...
Individual Savings Accounts will celebrate their 25th birthday on 6 April 2024. A quarter of a century ago, Personal Equity Plans (PEPs) and Tax Exempt Special Savings Accounts (TESSAs), both inventions of Conservative chancellors, were replaced by Individual Savings...
As the FTSE 100 turned 40 on 3 January 2024, we look at how it compared to its predecessor and the lessons learned from four decades of growth versus inflation. The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index, to use the Footsie’s full name, has celebrated its...
A date to note in this year’s calendar is the early Spring Budget on Wednesday 6 March. The Treasury issued a press release in the time between Christmas and the New Year revealing the Spring Budget date, a week earlier than in 2023. The unusual timing of the...
The media storm surrounding HMRC taxing eBay and other online sellers from the start of 2024 was, in fact, itself counterfeit goods. A crop of stories across social and traditional media swirled across the start of the new year about HMRC cracking down on ‘side...
Public opinion is pessimistic about the future of the State pension. Ask yourself these two questions: Do you believe that the State pension will be around in 30 years’ time? Do you think that the State pension will keep pace with prices over the next ten years? If...
At the start of 2023, the Prime Minister pledged to halve inflation. The goal was reached, but how much credit can he take for the achievement? Inflation across 2023, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) ended at 4.0%, a far cry from the 10.5% of 2022 and...
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