Earlier this week I did something slightly strange: I went to the branch of a High Street Bank and interacted with…a human! I can scarcely remember the last time I did this and it wasn’t easy to...

As the days begin to cool, the nights start to draw in and many of us return to work, September can often be a time of reflection. In my case it calls to mind many happy occasions when I’ve enjoyed...

Last week’s King’s Speech included a proposal for a Pension Schemes Bill intended to deliver “better outcomes” for private sector pensions savers and “support the Government’s mission to deliver...

Making any investment involves taking risk. Deciding on the level of risk one is prepared to take should therefore be the foundation of every investor’s decision-making process. Business success is...

When asked what the greatest challenge was for any statesman, Harold Macmillan purportedly replied, “Events, dear boy, events”. Last night we witnessed a seismic if widely anticipated political...

For those of you who fancy a flutter on political developments I have good news… The Garrulous Jay has, through a secret contact known only as ‘JA’ (perhaps recently repatriated to Australia),...

This week I celebrated my birthday so I hope you will forgive me the self-indulgence of writing about the wonderful gift I received from my colleagues, Fiona and James. As you can see from the...

Readers of a certain age will recall the bonkers TV game show It’s A Knockout. The programme aired on the BBC from 1966 to 1982. It involved teams from different towns competing to win a series of...

The opening lyrics of The Smiths song, “What Difference Does It Make?” are as follows: All men have secrets and here is mine So let it be known For we have been through hell and high tide I think I...

Just when we thought the summer had nothing much to offer other than wet weather, sport and Glastonbury, Rishi Sunak delighted us all with a surprise General Election. We can now look forward to...

This week’s back-and-forth in Prime Minister’s Questions made me think it’s time to consider giving up the universal State Pension for a means-tested replacement. The current system has the kind of...

Yesterday the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s largest stocks closed at an all-time high of 8,078.86. This continues a remarkable four year run since the Covid trough of the 23rd March 2020, which has...

When Larry Fink, Chairman of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, leads his annual letter to shareholders with the heading "Time to rethink retirement", it’s probably worth reading… Given...

If you want to know what failure looks like you need search no further than Thames Water. There are many ways to define failure. One would be a situation in which there are only losers. The eventual...

On Tuesday this week Forbes released its 38th Annual World’s Billionaires List. It provides a fascinating insight into the planet’s mega-rich whilst also giving pause for thought. The media made...

The last week has seen three high profile individuals from very different walks of life announce their ‘retirements’. All had the opportunity to carry on in their roles but took the difficult...

Thames Water is the UK’s largest water utility. As their website proudly boasts, they “take care of water for 16 million people”. That’s around 24% of the UK population. This concerns me, but not...

Last Saturday singer-songwriter RAYE took the Brit Awards by storm, winning a record six gongs over the course of the evening, including Album of the Year. Not wanting to be upstaged, three days...

Last night I was privileged to attend a lecture by Tom Little KC, a barrister who has prosecuted some of the highest profile criminal cases of recent times, including those of Sarah Everard and Jo...

When I was a youngster I remember walking down East Street in Chichester, passing the doors of The Body Shop, and being rather alarmed at the idea of people purchasing ‘bodies’. More recently the...

The average Bond movie and Premium Bonds don’t have an awful lot in common, although one might tenuously argue that both carry an element of risk and reward. Premium Bonds were launched on the 1st...

It’s not every day that pensions make the BBC 10 O’clock News, so you can imagine my excitement when Dharshini David popped up on Wednesday evening with a piece about the cost of retirement. She was...

Remember where you heard it first… My first encounter with the word “securonomics” was this week in the foreword of Financing Growth – Labour’s Plan For Financial Services. But what did I learn from...

Despite some of my wilder adolescent dreams I will never be a music producer: I lack both the ear for a tune and the technical know-how. But if I was, and I was asked to produce a record that was...

Every now and then throughout our working lives we screw up, or become aware of somebody else’s screw-up. We get that prickly feeling on the back of our necks and start to wonder if anyone is...

“A dog is for life not just for Christmas”. So runs the phrase coined in 1978 by Clarissa Baldwin, the then CEO of the National Canine Defence League (source: Zigzag.dog). At the time pet rescue...

On the 28th November the world of finance lost one of its investment Titans. The passing of Charlie Munger, at the age of 99, brought to an end the double act, with his business partner Warren...

It could have been a fairytale. Perhaps not a story of girl-meets-boy, they fall in love, settle down and live happily ever after, like the dreams they try to create for their clients. But for...

This week it fell to Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor to give the Autumn Statement one year on from Kwasi Kwarteng’s economic suicide note. Two words you won’t find in the Statement are ‘fiscal’ and...

Some of my earliest shopping memories are of trips to Marks & Spencer in Chichester with my mother. I can remember the car park, the shopping trolley ramp, the smell entering the store and the...

Sometimes, on a wet Wednesday evening in winter I fancy a warming glass of red wine. This presents me with a First World problem: do I open a bottle and end up finishing it, or do I find myself...

I read a fascinating article last weekend, recounting the success of the Costa Express coffee machine. These 12,000 big burgundy boxes now deliver a profit that is eight times greater than the 2,500...

Over the last few years the outlook for electric vehicles has improved in leaps and bounds, supported by government interventions and rising consumer demand. Surely the only way is up for this...

At close of business yesterday Apple had a market capitalisation of $2.74 trillion, exactly the same as the market capitalisation of the FSTE All-Share. In other words, the 576 largest companies...

Over the last week I’ve had a couple of press articles drawn to my attention about the inversion of the US yield curve, and been asked whether investors should be worried about this as a harbinger...

This week saw the end of the on-going speculation about the HS2 rail project as Rishi Sunak called time on the Birmingham to Manchester section of the line. Are there any lessons to be learnt by...

I have just finished reading John Carreyrou’s gripping book, Bad Blood, which documents the rise and fall of blood-testing company Theranos. It has much in common with its predecessor, The Smartest...

Question – when is/was the more attractive time to leave funds on deposit: (a) today when the bank might give you 5%, or (b) eight years a go when you probably would have received about 0%? Answer –...

Are the days to the State Pension ‘Triple Lock’ coming to an end? And if so, why might this be the case? As a reminder, the so-called Triple Lock is the mechanism by which the State Pension...

Whichever way you cut it the headlines from the High Pay Centre’s most recent report on the pay of Chief Executive Officers don’t read well… FTSE 100 CEOs get half a million pound pay rise… FTSE 100...

Are A levels, and exams more widely, fit for purpose in the 21st century? Thursday last week saw the publication of this year’s A level results. As had been widely expected, grades were down...