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%.
Will you have enough money to sustain you in retirement? According to the UK Poverty 2019/20 report, over 2m people live in pension poverty. This refers to when “A person’s resources (mainly their material resources) are not sufficient to meet their minimum needs (including social participation)” in retirement. The biggest subsets seem to be in London (23%) and Wales (20%), but it also affects people across the whole UK.
Should you invest in a single stock or in multiple companies at the same time? With an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), you can do the latter by using a single vehicle to invest in several bonds and/or shares simultaneously.
There is a widespread perception that using a trust can help someone avoid inheritance tax (IHT). This is not strictly true, although trusts can help with IHT mitigation when used properly. Part of the confusion lies in the wide range of trust types that exist. In this article, our financial planning team at WMM offers a brief overview of the main varieties that exist in 2021, and how they can be used in estate planning.
UK inflation has been rising in 2021. It more than doubled in April to 1.5% as clothing, footwear and energy prices rose. Inflation erodes the “real returns” of investments – e.g. if an equity fund rises 4% in value over a 12-month period but inflation also rises 2%, the “real value” of your returns is 2%. As such, many investors are concerned about what this could mean for their investment strategy. Unfortunately, there is no cast-iron method to predict whether inflation will rise significantly within a given timeframe – or by how much.
Pension rules in the UK are notoriously complex. Not only are there multiple types of pensions to deal with, but drawing from them needs to be planned carefully. For instance, did you know that the State Pension is accessible from your State Pension age – 66 in 2021 – but you can only access your defined contribution pension(s) from age 55 (under the 2015 Pension Freedoms)?
Pension rules in the UK are notoriously complex. Not only are there multiple types of pensions to deal with, but drawing from them needs to be planned carefully. For instance, did you know that the State Pension is accessible from your State Pension age – 66 in 2021 – but you can only access your defined contribution pension(s) from age 55 (under the 2015 Pension Freedoms)?
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