Serious illness or injury can strike at any age – regardless of health – and change your life completely. We see it in the news all the time. One recent story tells of how Maria O’Neill, aged 28, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. 5 weeks later, her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. From November, Maria’s sick pay will be halved and she will stop getting paid entirely from April 2022 – leaving her financially vulnerable, as well as sick.
Wouldn’t it be useful to know exactly when the stock market will rise and fall? Having this ability would allow us to sell at the “peak” and buy at the “trough” for each investment, allowing us to get the best returns. Unfortunately, no one has a crystal ball and it is unfeasible to predict what will happen. Given this situation, why do investors still try to “time the market”? Are there any “clues” about how the stock market might behave in the future, even if we cannot be completely certain? What does all of this mean for an investor’s strategy, going forwards?
Workplace pensions have changed in recent years. Traditionally, the responsibility was on the employee to join their workplace pension scheme. Today in 2021, however, most employees are automatically placed onto their employer’s scheme under the UK’s “auto-enrolment” rules – although you can choose to opt out. The amount that you pay in depends on your salary, since contributions are a percentage of your pay. The higher your pay, the more you automatically pay in. However, given that the rules have changed a lot over the years, many people are still not getting the most from auto-enrolment. Below, we explain some ideas showing how to do this.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate that in September 2020 around 55 million people worldwide were living with dementia, and Alzheimer’s Research UK project that cases will have risen to 152 million by 2050, a rise of some 276%.
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