It’s been a busy month with lots of financial information (and speculation) in the news.
Banks to charge for holding your money?
Our Bankers are apparently contemplating a charge to businesses for holding their money – euphemistically known as “negative interest”. With Lloyds having recently announced that job losses will rise from 9000 to 12000, they are certainly spreading the pain around.
Do you just go along with it? Hopefully not! Whether it is corporate cash or pension pounds, there are better solutions.
Why not visit our website? Or, better still, arrange for a consultation – there is no charge for the first meeting and you will be under no obligation.
Trigger points
Are you concerned about market volatility? Would you feel more comfortable if your investment was monitored on a daily basis?
If so you could take advantage of a service offered by Cambrian that we call trigger points. Put simply, we set levels for each geographical area – UK, Europe, USA. If the relevant index falls through a trigger point, we take you out of that investment and move your money to our least volatile portfolio. Mostly the index bounces back but crashes occur regularly (on average every 5-10 years) and our investors would then be enjoying peace of mind because of trigger points.
Why tolerate dreadful interest rates?
With interest rates already at an all-time low there is even talk that the Banks will start to charge for taking care of your money.
But income levels of 4% and more are available through investments – we call it “natural income”.
Your capital can be invested in a cautious, middle-of-the road or adventurous portfolio. We’ll put as much as possible into an ISA so the income is tax-free. Over the years we’ll offer to move the maximum amount into a tax-free environment so that, as much of your investment as possible, can be sheltered from tax.
The outcome is impressive. Depending on your investment attitude, current yields (all quoted net of any income tax) are:
Cautious: 3.88% to 4.18%
Moderate: 3.85% to 4.22%
Adventurous: 3.94% to 4.02%
Is now the time to review your mortgage?
The Bank of England Base Rate has just been cut to an all-time low of 0.25%.
Anybody who is thinking of buying a house or remortgaging should consider a fixed rate deal while rates are so low. The examples below are available today:
| Purchase | Remortgage | |
|---|---|---|
| 95% 2-year | 3.49% | – |
| 95% 5-year | 4.20% | – |
| 90% 2-year | 1.99% | 2.39% |
| 95% 5-year | 2.99% | 3.15% |
| 75% 2-year | 1.49% | 1.55% |
| 75% 5-year | 2.25% | 2.39% |
You will still have to pay your mortgage if you lose your job or illness prevents you from working. Your home may be re-possessed if you do not keep up with the repayments on your mortgage.
