Last week I was speaking to a colleague who was reviewing their pension and had seen the term ‘convertible security’ but didn’t know what it meant. A convertible security is essentially just a type of investment that can be ‘converted’ into another. For example, a convertible bond paying 5% could come with an option to […]
Reader Question: What are convertible securities? Read More »
A friend of mine was recently contacted by a fine wine salesman. The pitch was fairly straight forward. In addition to buying wine to drink, individuals can also create investment portfolio of fine vintages. Wine is a finite product for which demand is currently outstripping supply. The great chateaus of the world only produce so many
Reader Question: Should I consider investing in fine wine? Read More »
In addition to monthly and quarterly financial reviews, once a year, I take the opportunity to conduct an annual ‘super report’ on my finances, covering everything from account balances to performance against benchmarks and my financial forecasts to setting my strategy for the next twelve months. As part of this exercise, I measure a number
Reader Question: How much of my assets should I keep in cash? Read More »
A reader recently wrote in asking whether I use stop losses during trading. For those readers that aren’t aware of what a stop loss is, it essentially consists of an order to your broker to sell a listed share if it reaches a certain price (usually only in the event of a fall in price
Reader Question: Do I use stop losses in trading? Read More »
Earlier this year, a friend wrote to me asking for my opinion on Bitcoin. Despite having some meteoric rises in price in 2017, I have been – and still am – firmly against putting money into bitcoin, or any other ICO. Early 2018 has already seen a massive market correction in the price of the
How much was your first passive income? I’m not talking about the first investment you made, but about the return it generated for you. How much was it? I was asked this question by a reader this week, and the answer is a simple one. £1.67 I was 18 years old, and had recently started
Reader Question: How much was your first passive income? Read More »
I received an email from a reader last week, asking about shares and the reader’s concerns about the growing risk of a share market collapse due to record high stock market valuations. This reader had primarily invested in dividend focussed funds and investment trusts, rather than individual shares, thinking that these provide sufficient diversification to
Reader Question: Are my dividends sufficiently diversified? Read More »
Last week, I was speaking to a colleague about investing and why he’s not riding a Rolls-Royce when he spends so much time saving and investing. Once I’d stopped laughing at the idea of driving a Rolls (although I think they’re classy vehicles, I think they’re a horrendous misuse of capital!), I asked him what
Reader Question: What’s the secret to making ‘great’ investments? Read More »
You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting as frequently as I had earlier in the year. I wish I had some super exciting project that was taking up my time, but truthfully, I’ve actually been swamped by the day job. To give a quick precis of what’s been happening, I’ve ended up with
A few weeks ago, I was engaged in an email chain with one of my readers who asked me whether I thought he should be using his paycheque to pay down debts or to invest in income-producing assets. This sort of sent alarm bells ringing for me, as I’m clearly not a financial advisor, so
Reader Question: Should I pay down debts or should I invest my money? Read More »
At a recent dinner with a friend, we were talking about my blog when my friend asked me a pretty simple question; I’ve always had the view that savings and investments are a good way to protect myself from the uncertainties of life. Given that you lost your parents early on, how do you view
Reader question: How much money should I be saving in my 20s? Read More »
One of my goals for 2017 is to improve the diversity of posting formats on my blog. It’s not exactly ground-breaking stuff, but I’ve decided one of the new formats is going to be a Q&A – based off questions I’m asked in everyday life. If you’ve got a question you’d like to know the
One of the most well developed dichotomies of the modern world is the division between successful business and social responsibility. For me the most important debate during the 2015 UK Elections was about big businesses, and the wealthy members of our society paying their ‘fair share’. As ’ The Ethical Entrepreneur’, I believe that the success
