Even though children will typically have a lot of influences in their lives as they grow up, their inner circle of family and friend and, in particular, their parents, will usually have the biggest influence of all. Part of a parent’s job is to ensure that their children learn the practical skills they will need […]
Finance
Stop Thieves
These days, there is a lot of advice available about how to keep safe online and data-security breaches at major organisations make new headlines. As Kim Kardashian recently demonstrated, however, breaches of physical security can be both frightening and costly (even with insurance). With that in mind, here are three pointers to keeping yourself and […]
NIC U Turn
A week is a long time in politics. It was about the length of time it took Chancellor Philip Hammond (and/or his boss Prime Minister Theresa May) to decide that the proposed increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the self employed was best abandoned. Here is a quick guide to what happened and some […]
Care Changes
Dealing with an ageing population has been an increasing concern for a number of years now. “Pensions freedoms” have been one aspect of encouraging people to save for their later life. Not to put too fine a point on it, the changes made to paying for care in later life are another aspect of the […]
Changes To Interest Rates & Inflation
In principle, interest rates and inflation can be viewed as being the two opposite ends of a see-saw. If interest rates go up, the cost of finance rises and savers get more for their money, if people have less inclination to spend, then there is an incentive for sellers to lower prices and hence lower […]
How Are You Saving?
Saving money probably ranks right up there with joining a gym in people’s lists of New Year’s Resolutions, hopefully though now we’re in February, that determination hasn’t faded. The good news is that there are lots of ways to go about saving money which are much less effort than sweating it out in a gym. […]