Anyone that follows this blog will also likely have seen my profiles on Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter. Although I wouldn’t call myself a prolific user of social media, I engage with it fairly regularly, in addition to my work on this blog. The longer I’ve been on the platforms, the more connections I’ve made. Most, […]
The various news feeds and sources of financial commentary I follow are becoming increasingly vocal about the rising risk of global debt. Starting in early 2018, commentators have been warning that global debt levels are spiraling out of control, possibly leading to a repeat of the 2007/8 financial crisis. Global debt levels are at historic
Earlier this week I was speaking to a friend about his portfolio and some options he was considering taking to reduce volatility. Put simply, he wanted to sell out of a number of positions which were rapidly declining, move into cash and then buy in again at a lower level. When I asked him why,
Reader Question: How often do you sell positions? Read More »
A few days ago it was put to me that investing requires little skill and is essentially no different to gambling. If that’s the case, then why do I bother investing in equities (which takes up quite a lot of my time to research and manage), rather than just buying hundreds of pounds worth of
If you’ve been following global financial news, you’ll have noticed the increasing wave of emerging market crises that are spreading around the globe. From South Africa to Turkey, Argentina and Venezuela, emerging markets are facing a torrid time. Add Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and China to the list, and what started out as a currency crisis
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 »
Browsing the headlines this morning, I spotted an article from an Australian source talking about how one million property owners are about to default on their mortgage payments. Admittedly, I’m not 100% certain how many people are in the Australian mortgage market, but one million defaults sounds like a significant volume to me. The key
One of the biggest challenges that small businesses face is getting in front of their customers. Last week, I was chatting to a contact who was interested in my public speaking experience and wanted to know how I’d made a success of it. The truth is that it was entirely word of mouth contacts! Despite
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
Hello and welcome back to The Ethical Entrepreneur! I hope you’ve all had a good Christmas break and are well-rested for the start of 2018. This Christmas was another great one for me and my family – a lot of travelling (as usual), but thanks to the construction industry closing down over Christmas I had
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 »
Today, I want to share a personal story with you. I was travelling to Nottingham last month and was getting on the train when I came across a young Mother and her two kids struggling with their luggage. Noticing that she was struggling with her case, I gave her a hand to get it onto
Welcome to Part 4 of my ‘How to Build a Website’ series. In this article, I’ll be talking about how to handle challenges and re-programming a schedule to keep things on target when things get challenging. If you’re only just joining us, I’d recommend reading Part 1, where we launched our website project, Part 2,
Build a Website Series: 4. Re-programming for success Read More »
