Exploring 2024's Global Markets The global market outlook showed an improvement for 2024 with the US achieving more than 20% returns for a second consecutive year. A quick look at a Global Market Growth table (below) comparing changes across key global indices puts...
Not every interest rate moves in the same direction. If you are approaching the end of your five-year fixed rate mortgage and currently enjoying an interest rate of around 2%, you have probably been watching the fluctuations of interest rates with some trepidation....
The impact of the Budget’s increases in national insurance contributions (NICs) are not limited to employers. There were three main changes to employer’s NICs announced in the Budget, all of which will take effect from April 2025: The secondary threshold – the...
The Pension Crisis There are now over three million ‘lost’ pensions worth over £31 billion. We all lose things, be it the proverbial change down the back of the sofa or TV remote. But how do you lose a pension? The answer is very easy as suggested by recent research...
The End of the Student Tuition Fees Freeze The long freeze on student tuition fees in England has come to an end in 2025. Do you know what the RPIX is? You might guess it’s related to inflation given that RPI is the Retail Prices Index. But what does the X mark? X...
New statistics show that cash ISAs remain a popular investment. Every autumn HMRC publishes a set of annual savings statistics, setting out detailed information about individual savings accounts (ISAs), lifetime individual savings accounts (LISAs), child trust funds...
A third deadline for topping up State Pension entitlement is now coming into view. “Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?” The words of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, recorded over half a century ago, always come to mind when...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget was a significant one in all senses. “…this Budget delivers a large, sustained increase in spending, taxation, and borrowing.” So said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in the first paragraph of its overview of the...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has been crunching the numbers on the adequacy of pension contributions and retirement savings. One of the unremarked government successes of the 2010s was the introduction of automatic enrolment of employees into pension...
HMRC is uncharacteristically keen to give money away, reminding young adults again that they may be due unclaimed child trust funds (CTFs). The amount still to be paid out comes to just under £1.4 billion. As the UK settles under its first Labour government in 14...
Autumn won’t leave much time for the new government to settle before important pension policy decisions need to be made. When MPs return to work after the summer recess, many areas of policy will require attention. Some are inheritances from the last government, while...
‘Tick the Gift Aid’ box to boost your donation to charity and save some tax. The number of national and international calls on our goodwill to donate to causes has grown in the last few years. You are probably familiar with the ‘Tick the Gift Aid’ box, or a request to...
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