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Retirement Planning

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The third quarter of 2017 has ended and despite the heavy political news, investment returns were generally positive. Index Change 30 June – 29 September FTSE 100 +0.8% FTSE All-Share +1.2% Dow Jones Industrial +4.9% Standard & Poor’s 500  +4.0% Nikkei 225 +7.7% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) + 4.4% Shanghai Composite +3.9% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) +3.6%   Think about the third quarter of this...

30 October, 2017 /

The Chancellor has announced the date of his first Autumn Budget as Wednesday 22 November. The second Budget of 2017 will be both Mr Hammond’s first Autumn Budget and the first Budget after the general election. Traditionally, the first Budget of a new parliament is the chance...

23 October, 2017 /

Inflation was in the news last month in various guises. August was a month when inflation hit the headlines several times trailing a cloud of acronyms: The Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report (QIR) revealed that the Bank now expects inflation (as measured by the...

25 September, 2017 /

Self-employment is the dream of many, especially as the goal of retirement seems to creep further out of reach. Being your own boss sounds great. But there are drawbacks. Around two million of the country’s self-employed workers are unable to save any money each month,...

18 September, 2017 /

UK companies paid out a record amount in dividends in the second quarter of this year. At a time when there is much heated debate about whether the Bank of England should double its base rate to 0.5%, it can be easy to forget the...

29 August, 2017 /

The long-running saga of the final spring Budget and subsequent Finance Bills is one step nearer the end. The Chancellor’s spring Budget was thrown into disarray by the snap election. It was billed as the last spring Budget, since from now on all Budgets will...

21 August, 2017 /

The government has announced plans for a further increase in state pension age. On the day before parliament shut up shop for its summer holidays, David Gauke, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, announced that the government had decided state pension age (SPA)...

14 August, 2017 /

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has examined the impact of pension flexibility and is worried about the lack of advice. Pension flexibility came into effect in April 2015. In theory, since then it has been possible from age 55 onwards to withdraw your entire money purchase...

07 August, 2017 /

Last month saw the first suggestions that interest rates could increase soon. In June, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, increased short term interest rates for the second time this year and the fourth time since December 2015. The 0.25% increase to 1.00% − 1.25%...

24 July, 2017 /

China-listed shares are finally to be included in the leading emerging markets index. As we as highlighted in May, China has the world’s second largest equity market, but at present shares listed on the Chinese stock exchanges don’t figure in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index....

18 July, 2017 /