Finance

Sterling soars to one year high

Sterling soars to one year high. The Bank of England’s strong hint that an interest rate rise could be sooner rather than later pushed the pound higher yesterday. Sterling continued to make gains against the dollar this morning and moved above $1.35. Its highest level since September 2016. Is a …

Markets

Sterling on the move

Sterling on the move Following the Bank of England’s interest rates comments Sterling is surging ahead. The pound smashed through $1.33 to reach a high of $1.3355 I’ll keep you posted.

Finance

Euro up against the dollar

Euro up against the dollar. The euro has been on a roll recently. This year it is up 15% against the US dollar and just a few months off a three year high. So far, the pound holds on to gains and is currently (08/09/19 AM) up against both the …

Finance

UK consumer credit

UK consumer credit Latest figures from the Bank of England (BoE) show UK consumer credit rose by 9.8% and is now at £201.5 billion. This figure excludes mortgage lending. That’s high, even though it was the lowest since April 2016. Debt in the UK and globally is unsustainably high! Is …

Finance

Pound vs Euro

Pound vs Euro. This week (Tuesday) we saw the pound fall to an eleven month low. Could the pound hit parity against the Euro? BREXIT indecision, slow growth, sluggish GDP, low interest rates and party political naval gazing are adding to UK woes! Will £1.00 = 1.00 euro ?? If …

Investing

Compound interest – investors best friend

Compound interest – investors best friend. I didn’t quite know where to start with this post. So I decided to go back to school. In particular to my school maths lessons and Friday afternoons. Yep, that’s right maths on a Friday. What kind of person would schedule two hours of …

Investing

Sterling one pound – a brief history

Sterling one pound – a brief history. NOTE: this rambles a bit, but bear with me… I’ll come back to it and tidy it up at a later date – maybe. A pound coin originally weighed one troy pound of sterling silver. This gave the currency the name pound sterling …

Money

Is UK state pension system broken?

Is the UK state pension system broken? It started in 1909 when approximately 500,000 people aged 70 and over, who qualified,  were given an old age pension of five shillings a week. That’s 25 pence – equivalent to £20 in today’s money. The pension we have now by comparison is …

Money

Cash is king!

Cash is king! Cash is king and is still a popular payment system world-wide and resilient against the ever increasing rise of cashless payment systems. De La Rue, the biggest and oldest commercial producer of banknotes in the world, suggest that some 37% of the world’s population don’t have a …

Finance

Interest rates low – 10 Year Anniversary

Interest rates low – 10 Year Anniversary It’s been ten years since the last UK interest rate raise. On 5th July 2007 the Bank of England raised rates to 5.75% and now, ten years later, the rate is 0.25% with the next UK rate decision due on 3rd August 2017. …