Imagine that you worked for a mortgage bank in America and a few years ago you were called to a presentation by the Chief Executive. He started by explaining that the mortgage business had become …
Update: read Should you buy a yen mortgage? for more expert advice on yen and foreign currency mortgages. Interest rates aren’t likely to stay at 4.75% for long now that inflation has unexpectedly jumped up …
Life, as we all know, is 100% fatal, whether you are unfortunate enough to die young, or, as Ronald Reagan put it, “you leave it until the last minute”. On the other hand, with a …
If you work in a city, particularly London, riding a bike could save you a fortune, says Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard. A “little-known concession” lets taxpayers claim a 20p-a-mile allowance for using their …
Stretched by the five interest rate rises that have hit your mortgage payments over the last year? Not to worry. Why not take advantage of lower rates abroad by switching to a foreign-currency mortgage? You …
Last year it suddenly became fashionable for the well-off to take their summer holidays in the UK. Instead of heading to Heathrow and beyond for the months of July and August, the City and all …
Private-equity bosses are under fire for paying almost no tax, but while the way they use tax breaks is “peculiar to them”, ordinary investors can benefit from the same techniques, says David Budworth in The …
The Tories say the budget contained 40 new stealth taxes, and it’s hard to find anyone who thinks Gordon Brown has made them better off. But there are ways to protect your cash from him. …
A few weeks ago The Spectator ran a cover story on “The New Hatred of Wealth”. A dozen years after Tony Blair called an end to the politics of envy, said Ross Clark, “it has …
What do you do if – like a great many people – you have sold your house and, as a consequence, are holding a large lump sum earmarked to be spent on another house in …