Good news, says Jay Palmer in Barron’s: life expectancy is rising fast. The average American can now expect to live to 78 – up from 62 just a few generations ago. And thanks to enormous …
How the experts are saving for retirement
Category: Personal Finance
Should you go for a mortgage guarantee?
Mortgage lenders are being urged to do away with the Migs (mortgage indemnity guarantees) that they make those with only small deposits take out, says Rupert Jones in The Guardian, and quite right too. Mig …
The biggest tax-and-spend spree in peacetime history
According to the 17th century French finance minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, “the art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing”. Little …
Make sure you get paid the best rates on the market
With interest rates on the rise, savings institutions are boasting about the great rates they are offering, says Liz Dolan in The Sunday Telegraph. Take Northern Rock’s 5.01% rate. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But there’s …
Don’t buy: rent instead
I can’t for the life of me understand why first-time buyers in the UK make such a fuss about not being able to get on the property ladder at the moment. You’d think from the …
Four better ways to pay for long-term care
Around 70,000 family homes have to be sold each year to fund long-term care fees for their elderly owners, says Moira O’Neill in Money Observer. And as the population rises, this number can only rise …
Fannie Mae: a hand in the cookie jar
Rumours of accounting shenanigans have been swirling around Fannie Mae, America’s biggest mortgage finance provider, “like flies around a cow’s flank for years”, said Dailyreckoning.com. And quite rightly, as it turns out. Last week, after …
Where to trust your pension money
A professional investor tells MoneyWeek where he’d put his money now. This week: James Budden, marketing director of Witan Investment Trust. Over the last few months, I have, out of necessity, been reconsidering where I’ve …
The problem with pensions
My mention last week that I was going to pull myself together and get a pension sparked a flood of emails. Some came from independent financial advisers (IFAs) very kindly offering help (not yet, but …
Interest-free credit cards: on the way out?
Could the days of the card-hopping ‘rate tart’ be numbered? According to a recent survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), credit-card users who shift their debt around to take advantage of 0% balance-transfer offers are hitting the …