“Three reasons to steer clear of cash”

Feb 26, 2024 | Companies

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

They’re not talking about the stuff you used to get from a ‘hole in the wall’, now more likely if you’re a country-dweller to be a machine at the back of the Coop. This is cash as an alternative to stocks and shares or other investments which might go down as well as up in value. It’s money in bank and building society accounts, Premium Bonds and the like. The message is the one that all investment and financial advisers would give you, don’t have all your eggs etc. We always recommend a good chunk of what you have is kept in cash, of course, emergency funds and  anything you might need to spend in the next couple of years. However, interest rates are and almost always will be lower than inflation (the ‘almost’ exception being N Lamont’s Black Wednesday, kids etc), and although there is no ‘capital loss’, neither is there any potential for capital growth. So a bit of both or everything continues and will continue to be the best bet, if you’re lucky enough to have enough to spare to spread around. Different matter if you haven’t; and as for actual £notes and silver p, they’lll become more and more difficult to use and find, I’d say.

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.