Are you banking on an inheritance to help pay off the mortgage, clear your credit card bills or prop up your pension plans? If so, you are not alone. A recent survey suggests the majority of people in the UK are optimistic about receiving a generous inheritance, with seven out of ten saying they expect
After this week, the centrepiece of the financial year is being shunted to the Autumn. Good news, no doubt, for the city bigwigs, fund managers, chief executives and financial hacks and flacks who’d rather be betting on which horse will romp home at Cheltenham than which tax relief, pension allowance or benefit will be axed
Unwanted Christmas gifts have always been part and — excuse the pun — parcel of the festive season, whether it’s an unfeasible number of French hens, or an over-pungent celebrity-endorsed Myrrh bath oil. We all have our favourite stories of mis-judged pressies: from the husband who bought his wife a gravy separator for Christmas (we
The Prudential seems shocked to find that many couples aren’t entirely honest with each other when it comes to their finances. The deceptions uncovered were manifold: there were secret squirrel savings accounts, undisclosed credit card debt and personal loans (and occasionally mortgages)- as well as a general lack of truthfulness about how much each earned.
There was one nugget in Philip Hammond’s first – and last – Autumn Statement that was met with almost universal approval: a crackdown on pension scams and cold-callers. ‘About time too’ seemed to be the general response, including from two former pensions ministers. I certainly wouldn’t disagree with this sentiment. Pension Life, a group that
It might seem far-fetched, but in recent years a couple of financial companies have started hiring from the gaming industry in an attempt to make their products more appealing to consumers. Let’s face it, most of us find pensions, savings and investments dull and confusing. Could more engaging money management apps, or elements of ‘gamification’
Millions of us will be tuning in to The Archers this week to see if Helen is found guilty of the attempted murder of her abusive husband, Rob Titchener. For more than a year his bullying and controlling behaviour has made for compulsive, if unsettling, listening for many regular fans like myself. It is interesting
It might seem as though houses are priced in monopoly money these days – but don’t assume the roof over your head will be your ‘get out of jail free’ card when it comes to saving for a pension. It’s not hard to see why so many are lulled into a false sense of security.
It’s a riddle of the modern age: when is your bank not experiencing ‘unusually high call volumes’? You can puzzle the answer while listening to 20 minutes of looped Vivaldi interrupted sporadically by a disembodied female voice apologising for this delay. I recently called my bank at around 10.30 at night and endured exactly the
Price comparison sites are being investigated by competition regulators. Good. It’s about time there was closer scrutiny of these meerkat-loving, opera-singing, stiletto-twerking financial behemoths. To be fair, this current investigation centres on ‘one or two’ energy price comparison sites who are alleged to have breached competition rules for online advertising. This isn’t my main beef
The pension revolution rolls on. Next year more than five million retired people will be able to enjoy the new ‘pension freedoms’ and cash in their annuity. I imagine the daytime TV ads are in the pipeline already, showing cheery pensioners completing the Daily Telegraph crossword in their new conservatory, or heading off into the
