About 8 years ago I looked into a management buy out with 2 others. The banks would loan upto a maximum of 70% on the fixed assets, which I thought was fair enough. On top of that, the bank insisted that they have our homes as back up in case things went wrong. I only had 18 months left to pay my mortgage off.
Just what incentive would the bank have had to help keep our business as a going concern? We told them to stuff it.
Anyway, anyone opened a Paragon account? Good saving rate but seemingly rubbish administrative back up. I have applied following the NS&i rate drop, but not confirmed.
I won't put money in until I get confirmation of a working account.
Paragon are fine, I know the Chief exec, but yes their administration is slow.
An alternative is things like Shepherds and Unity Mutual who do a life type bond paying 2+%. They are Friendly society so can't offer your usual cash account but it's basically the same.
Shepherds have dropped their rate though, was about 2.8% not long ago for 5 years, now 1.5%. Unity Mutual is 2.25% I think, again 5 years.
A friend of mine bought his first flat with his fiance using the 120% NR mortgage. When the IFA was applying he asked if they had any credit card balances they wanted to add. Without thinking (so he tells us) he said yes and put his on the joint mortgage. Thing is his balance was the amount he used to buy his fiance her engagement ring. She has paid half of it ever since... Not sure he ever told her though!
Anyway, anyone opened a Paragon account? Good saving rate but seemingly rubbish administrative back up. I have applied following the NS&i rate drop, but not confirmed.
I won't put money in until I get confirmation of a working account.
I opened a one year fixed rate deposit account with them
last week, just before it was withdrawn.
So far everything has gone smoothly in terms of funding and obtaining
relevant documentation etc.
Had a punt on these as well (NYCT), stupidly sold @ £3.50 but still made a very good return, any pharma outfit with potential Covid vaccines or symptom reliefs will give great returns, ODX, AVCT as examples - my humble opinion of course.
Just out of interest, for those of you with Premium Bonds, how much do you roughly have invested in them?
I only have £500 in them, had them for about a year and have won £50 (2x£25 in one month) so a pretty good return by any standards I would think but some people on here seem to be winning much more frequently! Obviously its a lottery and i'm pretty sure I have a small number compared to others but i'm curious how small my little pot really is
Just out of interest, for those of you with Premium Bonds, how much do you roughly have invested in them?
I only have £500 in them, had them for about a year and have won £50 (2x£25 in one month) so a pretty good return by any standards I would think but some people on here seem to be winning much more frequently! Obviously its a lottery and i'm pretty sure I have a small number compared to others but i'm curious how small my little pot really is
£50 on £500 is amazing! Both I and Mrs R7Lee have the maximum £50k each. We get about the average, so around £1200-£1400 a year between us. I think on £500 the average is about £7 a year so a win once every 3-4 years as the minimum is £25 so you are doing very very well.
Just out of interest, for those of you with Premium Bonds, how much do you roughly have invested in them?
I only have £500 in them, had them for about a year and have won £50 (2x£25 in one month) so a pretty good return by any standards I would think but some people on here seem to be winning much more frequently! Obviously its a lottery and i'm pretty sure I have a small number compared to others but i'm curious how small my little pot really is
£50 on £500 is amazing! Both I and Mrs R7Lee have the maximum £50k each. We get about the average, so around £1200-£1400 a year between us. I think on £500 the average is about £7 a year so a win once every 3-4 years as the minimum is £25 so you are doing very very well.
Oh, I'm not complaining don't get me wrong - I'm well aware that a 10% return is excellent, especially considering how things are at the minute. Thanks for your reply, I'm pretty green to investing at all really so had no idea what the max is!
It used to be £20k some years back but they upped it in stages finally to £50k about 5 years ago.
To win twice in a year on £500 is extremely rare so very well done! You do get the odd large prize winner with low values. This month someone won £10k who only have just over £600 so you never know! I seem to remember a while back a£100k winner who had something like £20 from the 70's.
If you are bored you cans all winners here and what they held;
September was unusual with both £1m winners having less than £20k (one only £10k).
It's a bit of fun and any winnings are tax free. If interest rates weren't so low I probably wouldn't hold them, not that amount anyway but it's a safe place to keep some cash with in general returns as good as a bank all be it not guaranteed.
I'm going to do some research and workout what to do with my successful US based funds, what with the election pantomime coming up.
Firstly, don't sell out of America entirely. Sure, pear back your exposure if you want to, maybe by taking the gains you've made over the past 12-18 months or even taking another 20% out too - but have some exposure to the US.
As for where then to put that money - depends on where you might be underweight in your portfolio or where you think it's worth a punt. The UK is still more than 20% off where is was at the start of the year. Brexit (deal / no deal) is still weighing heavy on everyone's minds but its got to be resolved one way or t'other soon and short term either scenario will make money somewhere (currency & overseas earnings on large FTSE stocks). I invest in an Absolute Return fund as a hedge for this (Argonaut) but there are other funds & strategies.
Bonds are currently out of favour - all my fixed interest funds have fallen over the past couple of weeks but you have to have something on this space for balance & diversification. Keep being told that High Yield is the place to be although I don't see it myself.
That then leaves Asia (China & Japan mostly) and Europe as the major other economies / areas to invest. Again, depends on how much exposure you have to these regions- usually I go for no more than 15%-18% combined in the big 3 just mentioned - and that probably includes a bit of emerging markets too.
Does anyone have any thoughts about children's stocks and shares ISA's? One of my kid's grandparents insists on gifting them £4-5k/year but he's adamant it must go into an ISA. They already have quite a lot of money in Jr cash ISA"s but I was hoping to counteract the risks of all their eggs being in one basket. My kids are 9 - 11 so it's a medium term investment which I plan to persuade them to reinvest for another 10 years when they reach 18.
BTW. Last time I poked my head above the parapet on here I was given some warnings about children having access to large amounts of money when they turn 18 which I completely agree with but the grandparent in question isn't going to change his mind so I just have to focus on making the best investment decisions up until that point. Thanks in advance.
Does anyone have any thoughts about children's stocks and shares ISA's? One of my kid's grandparents insists on gifting them £4-5k/year but he's adamant it must go into an ISA. They already have quite a lot of money in Jr cash ISA"s but I was hoping to counteract the risks of all their eggs being in one basket. My kids are 9 - 11 so it's a medium term investment which I plan to persuade them to reinvest for another 10 years when they reach 18.
BTW. Last time I poked my head above the parapet on here I was given some warnings about children having access to large amounts of money when they turn 18 which I completely agree with but the grandparent in question isn't going to change his mind so I just have to focus on making the best investment decisions up until that point. Thanks in advance.
The S&S ISA will be a different egg and basket to the Cash ISA's, the only commonality is they are both ISA's/tax free. I'd do it, for the medium to long term should be fine. I'd caution putting large chunks in at once. See if they'll put say £400 a month in each month.
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
You could always use the services of an IFA 😉.......although if, as your name suggests, your are not in the UK it may be problematic.
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I consolidated a number into Fidelity (including one DB pension) but have subsequently moved to Interactive Investor for the large part as fee's were cheaper, worth comparing fee's based on your overall fund size and also the type of funds you want to invest in. Personally I wouldn't use a PensionBee type but i'm quite active with mine, trading fairly regularly.
As golfie says, an IFA if you are UK based, not sure how it all would work if you don't have a UK address?
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I am not a financial advisor or work in the industry, but I can tell you my situation.
It was very simple to consolidate all but 1 of my pensions into 1 pension provider. Two of the pensions (including the largest pot) were with Scottish Widows who also seemed to offer the most decent online service and flexibility of some control of funds for a novice like me.
They had a form on the Scottish Widows pension site that I completed with all my other pension account details (name, accountno etc..) and Scottish Widows did all the work. Was very very simple and complete in a couple of weeks. As it was pension to pension there were no fees, no taxes to pay, very seamless and did not seem to cost me anything materially for doing so.
Some gotchas I was warned about:
1. non Stakeholder pensions (final salary, some specific SIPPS setups) are complicated and you should consult a financial advisor 2. make sure the provider is one you want to be with for an extended period of time. Sometimes it is better to leave your eggs in more than one basket, but each to their own and only you can make that decision.
It's great I can track the majority of my pension portfolio in one place and the economies of scale mean I can potential earn much more in the 20+ years I have left to work
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I did this about 5-6 years ago. I went with an IFA in the end who did the work for me and now manages the money. I only regret not doing it sooner. It has made great gains in that time and he uses an online platform that I can access to monitor things. There is a cost to it but it is not massive but it not only made things easier it the gains since he took it over have been way better than what I saw in the previous 5-10 years by a large amount.
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I am not a financial advisor or work in the industry, but I can tell you my situation.
It was very simple to consolidate all but 1 of my pensions into 1 pension provider. Two of the pensions (including the largest pot) were with Scottish Widows who also seemed to offer the most decent online service and flexibility of some control of funds for a novice like me.
They had a form on the Scottish Widows pension site that I completed with all my other pension account details (name, accountno etc..) and Scottish Widows did all the work. Was very very simple and complete in a couple of weeks. As it was pension to pension there were no fees, no taxes to pay, very seamless and did not seem to cost me anything materially for doing so.
Some gotchas I was warned about:
1. non Stakeholder pensions (final salary, some specific SIPPS setups) are complicated and you should consult a financial advisor 2. make sure the provider is one you want to be with for an extended period of time. Sometimes it is better to leave your eggs in more than one basket, but each to their own and only you can make that decision.
It's great I can track the majority of my pension portfolio in one place and the economies of scale mean I can potential earn much more in the 20+ years I have left to work
BallardMan I have a Scottish Widows pension. Are you able to view all you pension details online and switch funds online? SW tell me with mine they can’t do it (it’s not a stakeholder personal pension).
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I am not a financial advisor or work in the industry, but I can tell you my situation.
It was very simple to consolidate all but 1 of my pensions into 1 pension provider. Two of the pensions (including the largest pot) were with Scottish Widows who also seemed to offer the most decent online service and flexibility of some control of funds for a novice like me.
They had a form on the Scottish Widows pension site that I completed with all my other pension account details (name, accountno etc..) and Scottish Widows did all the work. Was very very simple and complete in a couple of weeks. As it was pension to pension there were no fees, no taxes to pay, very seamless and did not seem to cost me anything materially for doing so.
Some gotchas I was warned about:
1. non Stakeholder pensions (final salary, some specific SIPPS setups) are complicated and you should consult a financial advisor 2. make sure the provider is one you want to be with for an extended period of time. Sometimes it is better to leave your eggs in more than one basket, but each to their own and only you can make that decision.
It's great I can track the majority of my pension portfolio in one place and the economies of scale mean I can potential earn much more in the 20+ years I have left to work
BallardMan I have a Scottish Widows pension. Are you able to view all you pension details online and switch funds online? SW tell me with mine they can’t do it (it’s not a stakeholder personal pension).
Scottish Widows have at least 3 mainstream personal pension plans as well as ones they acquired when they bought Clerical Medical. They have a Stakeholder, a Personal Pension & their "Retirement Account". The latter is their flagship flexible Drawdown plan & I imagine is the one that you can do online. The other 2 are old & antiquated, don't have much fund choice & I certainly wouldn't be using them to consolidate any other pension plans I might have.
The Retirement Account is ok, but not my favoured pension plan by any means. I have a couple of clients in one & a few still in the old Personal Pensions (which I am trying to get them to move, but you know what people are like regarding change 😔) but there are better providers & better pensions out there, as well as using a platform. At the very least make sure you are in a "flexi-access drawdown" plan & not a bulk standard PP or Stakeholder. And anyone who tells you to go for a SIPP isn't worth talking to, unless you are wanting to trade daily or buy individual shares or ETF's.
It's time for me to start thinking about consolidating all the workplace pensions that I have accumulated over my working life; I've probably got 6 or 7 different pension pots on the go at the moment, all with different fund managers. Does anybody have any recommendations as to the best way to do this? Is Pension Bee a decent option? Are there better options out there?
I consolidated a number into Fidelity (including one DB pension) but have subsequently moved to Interactive Investor for the large part as fee's were cheaper, worth comparing fee's based on your overall fund size and also the type of funds you want to invest in. Personally I wouldn't use a PensionBee type but i'm quite active with mine, trading fairly regularly.
As golfie says, an IFA if you are UK based, not sure how it all would work if you don't have a UK address?
I would warn Red_Pete_in_Dubai against dealing with any Brits out there in Dubai who claim to be IFAs. I am surprised if he hasnt already been cold called by some. They are completely unregulated and completely unscrupulous. Same DNA as football agents. I heard some real horror stories. One name that crops up is De Vere. Funny enough that name has cropped up in one of our Dossiers too!
But what the hell to do? These regulations hang out to dry all of us traitors who betrayed our country by choosing to settle abroad. In my case it turned out that my decision to keep my UK bank account, registered first to my Mum’s address and now my sister’s, was a golden one. If there is any way to do that, do it. Even if you have to assert that you have moved back home. It is not against the law to move back and then decide, sod it, I prefer Dubai after all, after 6 months. Skirting round the regulations? Yeah, you bet. But it is as nothing to what these arseholes get up to - and they are nearly always British, or certainly their firms are. Doubt they pay any UK tax though.
@Red_Pete_in_Dubai I'm not an IFA but have some pensions experience. I did something similar as you intend with IFA 5 years ago and transferred from 4 providers into one pot. I was advised not to transfer my DB at that time which I am drawing. We transferred into Scottish Widows , who have a whole range of funds at decent charges. We chose them for a mixture of reasons. Flexible Drawdown an option, ability to control online and equally importantly for me was the ability for me as a client to control rather than through IFA. This meant I had one initial set up fee with IFA but not an annual charge. Most fund managers won't let an individual do this but has to be done through an IFA. This means I can drawdown each year without approval or fees from IFA. I intended to put my into funds and leave them rather than regular switching and are mostly in index linked funds. I will have a review and probably due one as it is 5 years but very happy with what I set in place.
The performance of Novacyt shares have been stunning this year. From 14 at the start of the year to 652 today - not sure how much further it can go.
Now up to 847 - somebody must have made a fortune.
Cannot remember who recommended NOVACYT on here but many thanks. My £630 investment (March) is now worth £4350!! Not rich but a fantastic return. Of course I wish I'd bought more but not complaining...
The performance of Novacyt shares have been stunning this year. From 14 at the start of the year to 652 today - not sure how much further it can go.
Now up to 847 - somebody must have made a fortune.
Cannot remember who recommended NOVACYT on here but many thanks. My £630 investment (March) is now worth £4350!! Not rich but a fantastic return. Of course I wish I'd bought more but not complaining...
The performance of Novacyt shares have been stunning this year. From 14 at the start of the year to 652 today - not sure how much further it can go.
Now up to 847 - somebody must have made a fortune.
Cannot remember who recommended NOVACYT on here but many thanks. My £630 investment (March) is now worth £4350!! Not rich but a fantastic return. Of course I wish I'd bought more but not complaining...
Well done you! But don't forget at the moment it's a paper profit until you crystallise it!
Comments
Just what incentive would the bank have had to help keep our business as a going concern? We told them to stuff it.
Anyway, anyone opened a Paragon account? Good saving rate but seemingly rubbish administrative back up. I have applied following the NS&i rate drop, but not confirmed.
I won't put money in until I get confirmation of a working account.
An alternative is things like Shepherds and Unity Mutual who do a life type bond paying 2+%. They are Friendly society so can't offer your usual cash account but it's basically the same.
Shepherds have dropped their rate though, was about 2.8% not long ago for 5 years, now 1.5%. Unity Mutual is 2.25% I think, again 5 years.
I opened a one year fixed rate deposit account with them last week, just before it was withdrawn. So far everything has gone smoothly in terms of funding and obtaining relevant documentation etc.
I only have £500 in them, had them for about a year and have won £50 (2x£25 in one month) so a pretty good return by any standards I would think but some people on here seem to be winning much more frequently! Obviously its a lottery and i'm pretty sure I have a small number compared to others but i'm curious how small my little pot really is
Oh, I'm not complaining don't get me wrong - I'm well aware that a 10% return is excellent, especially considering how things are at the minute. Thanks for your reply, I'm pretty green to investing at all really so had no idea what the max is!
To win twice in a year on £500 is extremely rare so very well done! You do get the odd large prize winner with low values. This month someone won £10k who only have just over £600 so you never know! I seem to remember a while back a£100k winner who had something like £20 from the 70's.
If you are bored you cans all winners here and what they held;
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1637084/Premium-Bonds-winning-numbers.html
September was unusual with both £1m winners having less than £20k (one only £10k).
It's a bit of fun and any winnings are tax free. If interest rates weren't so low I probably wouldn't hold them, not that amount anyway but it's a safe place to keep some cash with in general returns as good as a bank all be it not guaranteed.
I'm going to do some research and workout what to do with my successful US based funds, what with the election pantomime coming up.
As for where then to put that money - depends on where you might be underweight in your portfolio or where you think it's worth a punt. The UK is still more than 20% off where is was at the start of the year. Brexit (deal / no deal) is still weighing heavy on everyone's minds but its got to be resolved one way or t'other soon and short term either scenario will make money somewhere (currency & overseas earnings on large FTSE stocks). I invest in an Absolute Return fund as a hedge for this (Argonaut) but there are other funds & strategies.
Bonds are currently out of favour - all my fixed interest funds have fallen over the past couple of weeks but you have to have something on this space for balance & diversification. Keep being told that High Yield is the place to be although I don't see it myself.
That then leaves Asia (China & Japan mostly) and Europe as the major other economies / areas to invest. Again, depends on how much exposure you have to these regions- usually I go for no more than 15%-18% combined in the big 3 just mentioned - and that probably includes a bit of emerging markets too.
BTW. Last time I poked my head above the parapet on here I was given some warnings about children having access to large amounts of money when they turn 18 which I completely agree with but the grandparent in question isn't going to change his mind so I just have to focus on making the best investment decisions up until that point. Thanks in advance.
I have approximately 50% US/Canada (Gold), 20% Europe, 10% Asia, 10% UK, 10% cash.
Japan seems to have had an excellent month.
As golfie says, an IFA if you are UK based, not sure how it all would work if you don't have a UK address?
It was very simple to consolidate all but 1 of my pensions into 1 pension provider. Two of the pensions (including the largest pot) were with Scottish Widows who also seemed to offer the most decent online service and flexibility of some control of funds for a novice like me.
They had a form on the Scottish Widows pension site that I completed with all my other pension account details (name, accountno etc..) and Scottish Widows did all the work. Was very very simple and complete in a couple of weeks. As it was pension to pension there were no fees, no taxes to pay, very seamless and did not seem to cost me anything materially for doing so.
Some gotchas I was warned about:
1. non Stakeholder pensions (final salary, some specific SIPPS setups) are complicated and you should consult a financial advisor
2. make sure the provider is one you want to be with for an extended period of time. Sometimes it is better to leave your eggs in more than one basket, but each to their own and only you can make that decision.
It's great I can track the majority of my pension portfolio in one place and the economies of scale mean I can potential earn much more in the 20+ years I have left to work
The Retirement Account is ok, but not my favoured pension plan by any means. I have a couple of clients in one & a few still in the old Personal Pensions (which I am trying to get them to move, but you know what people are like regarding change 😔) but there are better providers & better pensions out there, as well as using a platform. At the very least make sure you are in a "flexi-access drawdown" plan & not a bulk standard PP or Stakeholder. And anyone who tells you to go for a SIPP isn't worth talking to, unless you are wanting to trade daily or buy individual shares or ETF's.
But what the hell to do? These regulations hang out to dry all of us traitors who betrayed our country by choosing to settle abroad. In my case it turned out that my decision to keep my UK bank account, registered first to my Mum’s address and now my sister’s, was a golden one. If there is any way to do that, do it. Even if you have to assert that you have moved back home. It is not against the law to move back and then decide, sod it, I prefer Dubai after all, after 6 months. Skirting round the regulations? Yeah, you bet. But it is as nothing to what these arseholes get up to - and they are nearly always British, or certainly their firms are. Doubt they pay any UK tax though.
I'm not an IFA but have some pensions experience. I did something similar as you intend with IFA 5 years ago and transferred from 4 providers into one pot. I was advised not to transfer my DB at that time which I am drawing.
We transferred into Scottish Widows , who have a whole range of funds at decent charges. We chose them for a mixture of reasons. Flexible Drawdown an option, ability to control online and equally importantly for me was the ability for me as a client to control rather than through IFA. This meant I had one initial set up fee with IFA but not an annual charge. Most fund managers won't let an individual do this but has to be done through an IFA. This means I can drawdown each year without approval or fees from IFA. I intended to put my into funds and leave them rather than regular switching and are mostly in index linked funds. I will have a review and probably due one as it is 5 years but very happy with what I set in place.