It's 1:08pm on Sunday 20th May, 2012

Do you own more than one residential property?

If a property has been your main private residence and it has been rented out, there is a lettings exemption available which is the lower of an amount equal to the Principal Private Residence (PPR) exemption and £40,000. What does that mean in normal English? Let’s look at an example to find out. Sara and [...]

What alternatives are there for the cautious investor?

The bank of England base rate hit an historical all time low of 0.5 per cent last year. This has driven bank and building society deposit rates down substantially so that an account offering over 3.5 per cent gross currently looks comparatively very attractive. One view is that interest rates will remain low for the [...]

Why alternative investments could work for charities

As the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King recently predicted, Consumer Price Inflation reached 3.5 per cent in January – the fastest annual pace for 14 months – requiring him to write a letter of explanation to the Chancellor. In it, the governor said the inflation rise was ‘temporary’ and he anticipates this [...]

What a difference a year makes on money markets

It’s a year this week since the FTSE 100 – the stock market index of the UK’s biggest companies – hit a six year low of 3512. At the time, financial markets around the world appeared to be in meltdown, fuelled by poor economic data and the seismic events of the previous six months when [...]

Posted by
Laurence Kelly
in
Advice for Individuals, Wealth management
On February 17 2010

What are the alternatives for savers?

Q. I have been extremely disappointed over the years with the amount of interest received on savings. In the past we were encouraged to take out TESSAs and ISAs as they were tax-free investments but, since the recession sent interest rates plummeting, the interest is, on average, a measly 0.25-0.5 per cent. It seems the [...]

Posted by
Laurence Kelly
in
Advice for Individuals, Wealth management
On February 2 2010