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The price of gold has rocketed to a record high due to a combination of global turmoil and interest rate cut hopes. It surged to $2,529.75 (£1,936.41). We look at whether now is a good time to invest in gold and how you can get exposure to it.
Markets taking a tumble didn't do my Isa investments any favours but the crucial mistake I made was looking in the first place. Sharp falls worry investors, but corrections are natural. Markets don't rise in a straight line and big down days will always come along, so I should expect this to happen and be willing to ride it out. The important thing is not to make rash decisions - here are my tips to do so.
Retirement ages is a hot topic. When I talked about this here, the response was remarkably polarising. My suggestion was that working longer, beyond the retirement ages that we mostly aspire to, was not necessarily such a bad thing. And my Career Happiness can Inspire Longer Lives - or CHILL - idea can feed into cutting the amount you need for a comfortable retirement.
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Compare the best investing account for youFreeTrade launched the flexible feature to allow investors to withdraw and replace money without impacting their annual Isa allowance, so long as it is put back in the same tax year. Flexibility is a useful tax-beating feature to have, allowing savers and investors to dip into funds and pay them back without losing allowance - and is more commonly found in cash Isas.
Despite rumours that Labour will stage a CGT raid, the Liberal Democrats are the only main party committed to hiking capital gains tax rates. But they also have a plan to radically overhaul the tax - and it could even save some long-term investors money. So, is this a better way to deal with profits on shares, funds, property and other assets? We look at the Lib Dem capital gains tax plan in detail.
Barely a week passes without mention of the powerfully appealing phrase 'early retirement' - on social media and news websites, and among bloggers and podcasters. Escaping the rat race has always held appeal but the allure appears to be growing and becoming more intense. I checked on Google Trends, just to check the rise is real. And yes, the number of searches for 'retire early' has risen three-fold in a decade. At the sharp extreme end of the 'retire early' movement is the FIRE brigade. Coined by bloggers, the acronym emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis and captured the aspiration of many young workers who wanted Financial Independence and to Retire Early. They still do, the Google data tells us.
An increasing number of retail investors are moving away from social media 'finfluencers' as a source of investment advice, and instead heading back towards more traditional channels, data claims. So-called 'finfluencers', social media influencers who specialise in financial advice, have grown in popularity on platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube in recent years, having seen a boost during the Covid pandemic as more people looked to investing.
Global government bond markets are vast and affect everyone who pays tax, saves or invests. But it's often hard to tell what's going on when there's a surge in bond buying or a sell-off because the jargon used by industry insiders can be pretty impenetrable. We unscramble it here to help everyone else fathom what's going on.
You don't need to attempt the perfect strategy. But be mindful of the current market climate, how much you have to invest and for how long, and your attitude to risk. Financial markets have been volatile of late, which makes investing a large lump sum at once even more daunting than usual. But money experts say if you plan to stay invested for a long time it is better to get your money in the market immediately.
Anyone wanting to save a deposit to buy their first home should consider putting money into a Lifetime Isa - and earn a 25 per cent bonus on contributions. Alternatively, the Isa can be used to save for later life, as the cash can also be taken out at the age of 60, but if it is taken out before then for anything other than a first home purchase then a hefty 25 per cent penalty applies.
Once someone has decided to start investing some of their money in the tax-beating shelter of an Isa, what's the quickest and simplest way to do it? From why investing makes sense, to how to manage your risk, what DIY investing platform to use and some ideas for funds to pick that invest around the world, Simon Lambert explains what you need to know as briefly as possible.
Work out how a lump sum or regular monthly savings would grow
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