The Mental Health of Business Owners

It may not have appeared on your radar, but the week of June 14th to 18th was Loneliness Awareness Week. We’ve heard a lot about loneliness over the past 15 months. Mental health in general has, rightly, occupied a lot of column inches during the pandemic. Understandably, there has been…

Who will Pay the Bill for Covid-19?

Government borrowing is at its highest level since the Second World War. According to the Office for National Statistics it reached £303.1bn in the year to March – nearly £250bn higher than in the previous year. Borrowing in March was £28bn – the latest month to set an unwelcome record.

Is it time to abandon Diversification?

For many years it has been the accepted wisdom that you should diversify your investment portfolio. That means diversifying by types of investments – with say, your exposure to the stock market balanced by more cautious investments in bonds and, perhaps, funds that invest in property. Common wisdom says you…

What to do about the ‘bulls’ and the ‘bears’

You have likely heard the terms ‘bull market’ and ‘bear market.’ A bull market is one where stock markets are rising and investors are feeling confident: a bear market is the opposite. ‘Bullish’ has even come to be used in a wider sense, meaning generally optimistic: “I’m feeling bullish about…

Lessons in Work Life Balance from Mr. Frostick

You may have come across the recent story of Jonathan Frostick. Mr Frostick is a contractor, managing a team of 20 people for HSBC. In the middle of April he sadly suffered a heart attack. Starting his recovery in hospital he wrote a post on LinkedIn, vowing ‘to restructure his…

Financial planning in a post-pandemic world

‘Fail to plan, plan to fail.’ It’s an expression that anybody who has worked in management or the military must have heard a thousand times. Like all oft-repeated clichés, it carries a kernel of truth – and in no aspect of human life is the phrase more apt than in…

The Beijing Billionaires

For the last seven years the title of the city with the most billionaires has been held by New York, but this year a new name has taken over and that city is Beijing. According to the latest Forbes annual rich list, the Chinese capital added 33 billionaires last year,…

Could the UK have its own digital currency?

At a seminar in March, Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, suggested that the central bank should immediately start “preparing thoroughly” for a future with its own cryptocurrency. While there were no immediate plans to introduce a cryptocurrency Kuroda stressed the importance of being ‘thoroughly prepared’ should the…

Could using a pension reduce higher rate tax payments?

At the beginning of March Chancellor Rishi Sunak presented his Budget. His aim: to chart a course out of the economic damage wrought by the pandemic. A year earlier he had said he would do “whatever it takes” to protect jobs and businesses. Twelve months on, with Government borrowing breaking…

The Chancellor’s Mortgage Guarantee: a Good Idea? Or a Big Mistake?

“Generation Rent,” declared Rishi Sunak in his Budget speech, “will become Generation Buy.” Had the House of Commons been full, this announcement would no doubt have been greeted with loud cheers by Conservative backbenchers. At last, someone is doing something to help young people get on the housing ladder… So…
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