Forget the bank of Mum and Dad – today’s young people are now receiving help from the bank of Gran and Grandad, with millions of grandparents offering financial support to their grandchildren.
Investors like to sort things into neat categories; it helps make sense of a highly complex world. Categories like ‘Emerging Markets’, ‘BRICs’ and the ‘Fragile Five’ have all been invented as easy-to-understand groupings of supposedly similar countries. Yet we have to be careful of such generalisations, because the more research you do, the more you realise that there are often more differences than similarities between these groupings.
It’s important to review your pension planning regularly to make sure it still meets your specific requirements. Over time, your circumstances may have changed, so we have provided ten areas that, if appropriate to your particular situation, should be reviewed.
The Government’s flagship scheme to encourage more people to save towards their retirement is well underway – but there’s still a distance to go.
Since the global financial crisis, both the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve have used the policy of quantitative easing (QE) to try to revive consumer spending and economic growth.
Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have been around since 1999, providing a tax-efficient wrapper for savings and investments. However, in the recent Budget, the Chancellor, George Osborne, promised to increase the simplicity and flexibility of ISAs. As of 1 July 2014, there is now a single ISA which has been named the new ISA, or ‘NISA’, which provides a bigger tax break than ever before and more flexibility about how it can be used.
How you choose to allocate your wealth between different asset classes will be one of the most important investment decisions you ever make. Asset allocation can account for the majority of your portfolio returns over the long term, so it’s essential that you achieve the right balance of cash, fixed income and equities in your portfolio.
Investing for income is not simply about establishing a portfolio of income-generating investments. It is also about the strategies you use to withdraw income from this portfolio.
Utilise personal pension tax relief
When you contribute to a registered pension scheme, you automatically receive basic rate tax relief on your contributions. Your personal pension tax relief depends on your circumstances. These are the current UK pension tax relief rules for the 2014/15 tax year, so don’t miss out.
Do you know how much your pension is worth? Do you know how many you have or where they are? How about the type of funds they’re invested in or how much risk is involved?