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Savings and Investments thread
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friends in Cyprus had to close their Barclays accounts. spoke to an IFA in Cyprus and have opened HSBC accounts in Guernsey.0
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LargeAddick said:friends in Cyprus had to close their Barclays accounts. spoke to an IFA in Cyprus and have opened HSBC accounts in Guernsey
I just got a text today from Barclays informing me that they are closing my account.0 -
Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?0 -
Ask Nadhim ZahawiCaptain_Birdseye said:Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?3 -
Just wondering how my main pension fund is doing it’s gone up 6.75% since 1/1/23 to me that’s seems quite good, but I wondering how that compares to others. I’m 70 and won’t need to draw on my various pensions for around 8 years. Obviously the % increase may reduce after todays downturn 😀0
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Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period.0
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That’s pretty good, my personal share/fund portfolio is up about 9% in the same period. But, bloody hell wont need to draw for 8 years ? Draw it and get spending, your 70 for gods sake , you can’t take it with you.CharltonKerry said:Just wondering how my main pension fund is doing it’s gone up 6.75% since 1/1/23 to me that’s seems quite good, but I wondering how that compares to others. I’m 70 and won’t need to draw on my various pensions for around 8 years.7 -
Which is odd, because we had clients trying to open with us because HSBC gave them notice to close there. Nothing wrong with the clients, it’s all down to how someone in the bank interprets the rules about opening/holding accounts since Brexit. I saw them change twice in my own bank before I left 18 months ago, but they were all doing the same. Clear as mud!LargeAddick said:friends in Cyprus had to close their Barclays accounts. spoke to an IFA in Cyprus and have opened HSBC accounts in Guernsey.0 -
I so, so agree with this!RaplhMilne said:
That’s pretty good, my personal share/fund portfolio is up about 9% in the same period. But, bloody hell wont need to draw for 8 years ? Draw it and get spending, your 70 for gods sake , you can’t take it with you.CharltonKerry said:Just wondering how my main pension fund is doing it’s gone up 6.75% since 1/1/23 to me that’s seems quite good, but I wondering how that compares to others. I’m 70 and won’t need to draw on my various pensions for around 8 years.
Health wise, when you get to 70, who knows what is just around the corner.0 -
Interesting as if I go back to 1/1/22 and add in my contributions then my present total should be around 4% higher than it is now, so yes it was an ugly year as you say. Wished I hadn’t looked it up😢 but that the chances you take I suppose with investments, you just got to hope that in long run the good times outweigh the bad.mendonca said:Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period.0 - Sponsored links:
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Yes, sorry to outline that reality but it's important as we (retail investor) can often get seduced by a time period of excellent performance, because of that being presented to us.1
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The UK banks that have a presence in Dublin only have corporate licences. They don’t, at the moment, have personal banking capabilities there. AIB and Bank of Ireland, as examples, do offer GBP accounts, but I’m not certain that would be acceptable to NS&I as they would be international payments and not UK sort codes.PragueAddick said:
Wouldn't it be enough to find an Irish bank that offers a multi-currency account? Maybe it doesn't exist yet, but it occurs to me that if HSBC are there, they might offer a Global Money account soon. The UK launch isn't the first from them, they've offered it in Australia for several years. Personally I'd rather that than Revolut. Dodgy Russian shit. But then again. that's just me...TelMc32 said:
Revolut are certainly positioning themselves as a main bank and saying you can have your salary paid in. Looking at the NS&I site, you just need to provide your sort code, account number & account name. If he can do that, he should be fine.guinnessaddick said:My brother moved back to Ireland last year, kept his Barclays account here, this is now being closed in April due to Brexit. He wants to keep an account here so he has sterling. Any ideas how he could do that without using someone else’s address?
Would his Revolut account do? He has PBs and wants winning to go into account.
All the banks had a “purge” on accounts that they deemed were affected by Brexit. I had my Euro account closed and I worked for them. We also closed accounts for EU entities of our clients who were holding accounts here as a “just in case” scenario (they had been cautious about their own country’s economy several years previous.The other alternative could be for him to open an account with one of the Irish banks that have branches here (or the North).0 -
I’d be happy with that. Mine is up 5.23% since the start of the year. Now 2.54% down since my pension went into the SIPP on 30 June 2021, but had been nearly 12% down last year.CharltonKerry said:Just wondering how my main pension fund is doing it’s gone up 6.75% since 1/1/23 to me that’s seems quite good, but I wondering how that compares to others. I’m 70 and won’t need to draw on my various pensions for around 8 years. Obviously the % increase may reduce after todays downturn 😀0 -
big week for the dollar imo, big pump and equities are fucked, a small pump like a few weeks ago and equities will continue to go up only.0
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Captain_Birdseye said:Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?
Thinking about this more, and in the lack of any better ideas, I reckon the new HSBC UK Global Money account might be the best solution for you. If the inheritance payment is more than around £25k then you run into problems with many banks when transferring those larger amounts. The lawyers may not want to mess around sending money via Wise or Revolut, especially in more than one transfer. They want to use a "proper" bank, I expect.
If you've got your HSBC account, they can at least send the money direct in OZ dollars, so you avoid any exchange rate costs. Then the big advantage is that you can then shift the money inside your HSBC account to GBP or USD according to your needs, and there will not (I think) be any daily limit to the amount you shift within the account.
You'll need an HSBC current account too, I believe but if you are UK resident that's no issue. You don't have to make it your main current account.0 -
Do you know how much of your pension is invested in bonds? I'd suspect, a fair bit. Maybe 40% in line with the old thinking of 60:40 mix. So its worth following the discussion here about the future direction of bonds (don't pay attention to me, I'm just a disgruntled punter, but pay attention to the consensus answers from the more knowledgeableCharltonKerry said:
Interesting as if I go back to 1/1/22 and add in my contributions then my present total should be around 4% higher than it is now, so yes it was an ugly year as you say. Wished I hadn’t looked it up😢 but that the chances you take I suppose with investments, you just got to hope that in long run the good times outweigh the bad.mendonca said:Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period.
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FWIW I can't actually tell you how much my SIPP is up since 1.1.23 because H-L doesnt offer mug punteres such useful information, but I can see that the bond-heavy funds making up 40% of my portfolio are up between 4-5.5%, over that period so that shows how the recovery in bonds is affecting our pension funds, and then the question is, will it continue?0 -
I've used OFX for many years, good rates and easy to use. You can see their quote before you decide to proceed.Captain_Birdseye said:Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?0 -
Up 7.9% since the turn of the year. 2022 I managed around 3% increase but almost all was due to changing providers and striking lucky with timing of being out of the market.CharltonKerry said:Just wondering how my main pension fund is doing it’s gone up 6.75% since 1/1/23 to me that’s seems quite good, but I wondering how that compares to others. I’m 70 and won’t need to draw on my various pensions for around 8 years. Obviously the % increase may reduce after todays downturn 😀
EDIT, just checked my other much smaller SIPP, that's up 9.05% but I tend to play with that one so it's predominantly trading shares.
My works pension is up 3%
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Thanks for all your commentsPragueAddick said:
Do you know how much of your pension is invested in bonds? I'd suspect, a fair bit. Maybe 40% in line with the old thinking of 60:40 mix. So its worth following the discussion here about the future direction of bonds (don't pay attention to me, I'm just a disgruntled punter, but pay attention to the consensus answers from the more knowledgeableCharltonKerry said:
Interesting as if I go back to 1/1/22 and add in my contributions then my present total should be around 4% higher than it is now, so yes it was an ugly year as you say. Wished I hadn’t looked it up😢 but that the chances you take I suppose with investments, you just got to hope that in long run the good times outweigh the bad.mendonca said:Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period. )
FWIW I can't actually tell you how much my SIPP is up since 1.1.23 because H-L doesnt offer mug punteres such useful information, but I can see that the bond-heavy funds making up 40% of my portfolio are up between 4-5.5%, over that period so that shows how the recovery in bonds is affecting our pension funds, and then the question is, will it continue?
My company pension which is my main pension fund is invested with Aegon, I’m 70 now and been investing with this fund for around 15 years, it seemed to have done fairly well. I’m very lucky I will not need to touch this or any other of my pensions (other than the state one which I’m already taking) for around another 8 years, so I can be a little adventurous with my investments over a fair period.These are the % of my main pension fund, no idea what are bonds however.Fund nameRegular (%)SE Baillie G Bal Man25.0050/50 Caut Man Coll20.00SE Schroder UK Mid5.00SE Schroder Income5.00AGN BNY MLN GLOB INC6.00SE BLACKROCK AB ALPH8.00AGN CT AMERICAN5.00SE M&G PROP PORT8.00SE M&G OPT INCOME8.00AGN FUNDSMITH EQUITY10.00Total100.000 -
PragueAddick said:
Do you know how much of your pension is invested in bonds? I'd suspect, a fair bit. Maybe 40% in line with the old thinking of 60:40 mix. So its worth following the discussion here about the future direction of bonds (don't pay attention to me, I'm just a disgruntled punter, but pay attention to the consensus answers from the more knowledgeableCharltonKerry said:
Interesting as if I go back to 1/1/22 and add in my contributions then my present total should be around 4% higher than it is now, so yes it was an ugly year as you say. Wished I hadn’t looked it up😢 but that the chances you take I suppose with investments, you just got to hope that in long run the good times outweigh the bad.mendonca said:Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period. )
FWIW I can't actually tell you how much my SIPP is up since 1.1.23 because H-L doesnt offer mug punteres such useful information, but I can see that the bond-heavy funds making up 40% of my portfolio are up between 4-5.5%, over that period so that shows how the recovery in bonds is affecting our pension funds, and then the question is, will it continue?
A sad accountant I may be, but I track my investments on a spreadsheet on a weekly basis. I know Excel is anathema to you marketing types, but it does save backtracking and trying to scratch historical info together after the event2 - Sponsored links:
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The only Bonds will be the M&G Optimal Income & possibly the BNY Mellon fund (but that is possibly a global equity fund but with income units rather than accumulation). The 2 major holdings (BG Balanced Manged & the 50/50 Cautious Managed) will have an element of Bonds in them, and I would imagine the 50/50 is what it says on the tin - 50% Bonds & 50% equities. So, in essence I think your "portfolio" is about 22% in Bonds, 8% Property and 70% equities.CharltonKerry said:
Thanks for all your commentsPragueAddick said:
Do you know how much of your pension is invested in bonds? I'd suspect, a fair bit. Maybe 40% in line with the old thinking of 60:40 mix. So its worth following the discussion here about the future direction of bonds (don't pay attention to me, I'm just a disgruntled punter, but pay attention to the consensus answers from the more knowledgeableCharltonKerry said:
Interesting as if I go back to 1/1/22 and add in my contributions then my present total should be around 4% higher than it is now, so yes it was an ugly year as you say. Wished I hadn’t looked it up😢 but that the chances you take I suppose with investments, you just got to hope that in long run the good times outweigh the bad.mendonca said:Similar, but 2022 was still an ugly year if look at the performance over that period. )
FWIW I can't actually tell you how much my SIPP is up since 1.1.23 because H-L doesnt offer mug punteres such useful information, but I can see that the bond-heavy funds making up 40% of my portfolio are up between 4-5.5%, over that period so that shows how the recovery in bonds is affecting our pension funds, and then the question is, will it continue?
My company pension which is my main pension fund is invested with Aegon, I’m 70 now and been investing with this fund for around 15 years, it seemed to have done fairly well. I’m very lucky I will not need to touch this or any other of my pensions (other than the state one which I’m already taking) for around another 8 years, so I can be a little adventurous with my investments over a fair period.These are the % of my main pension fund, no idea what are bonds however.Fund nameRegular (%)SE Baillie G Bal Man25.0050/50 Caut Man Coll20.00SE Schroder UK Mid5.00SE Schroder Income5.00AGN BNY MLN GLOB INC6.00SE BLACKROCK AB ALPH8.00AGN CT AMERICAN5.00SE M&G PROP PORT8.00SE M&G OPT INCOME8.00AGN FUNDSMITH EQUITY10.00Total100.00
PS. I've never really liked Scottish Equitable or their funds. Obviously its now under the Aegon name, but still.1 -
News for all those on Bonds, especially @PragueAddick with his Vanguard LS20 fund.
I watched a webinar earlier from Jupiter, mainly about their Strategic Bond fund but started off with some current macro economics.
Their view is that both the Fed & the BofE have overcooked the interest rate rises & that to avoid serious problems they will have to ease up or even stop any future rate rises. Their view is that there will only be one more 0.25% rise for both countries & the US will then start cutting with rates reducing by 1.5% by Q2 2024. The US will start having problem with renters & in the UK there are 2 million borrows with fixed rates ending this year, mainly on rates between 1.25-2% and now borrowers will be looking at closer to 4.5%. That will have a major impact on spending and economic growth.
For Bonds this means yields will start to fall & therefore the values will start to rise. This has already started to happen as has been seen since late last year. Lots of great charts which visually showed where we are at the moment & their reasons why investors should now be going back into Bonds were compelling.
Their Strategic Bond fund is currently made up of High Yield (50%) Government (20%) & Corporate (12%) bonds. One reason why I prefer active over passive is just this. Fund managers do a lot of research & if they are right then they can get ahead of the curve. Not only that but Vanguard funds are trackers & so all you are doing is replicating the market. If 80% of your portfolio is in Bonds shouldn't you be in the right ones.7 -
Thank you for the ideas and info @PragueAddick @Killarahales1
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Invest your money and cross your fingers......golfaddick said:News for all those on Bonds, especially @PragueAddick with his Vanguard LS20 fund.
I watched a webinar earlier from Jupiter, mainly about their Strategic Bond fund but started off with some current macro economics.
Their view is that both the Fed & the BofE have overcooked the interest rate rises & that to avoid serious problems they will have to ease up or even stop any future rate rises. Their view is that there will only be one more 0.25% rise for both countries & the US will then start cutting with rates reducing by 1.5% by Q2 2024. The US will start having problem with renters & in the UK there are 2 million borrows with fixed rates ending this year, mainly on rates between 1.25-2% and now borrowers will be looking at closer to 4.5%. That will have a major impact on spending and economic growth.
For Bonds this means yields will start to fall & therefore the values will start to rise. This has already started to happen as has been seen since late last year. Lots of great charts which visually showed where we are at the moment & their reasons why investors should now be going back into Bonds were compelling.
Their Strategic Bond fund is currently made up of High Yield (50%) Government (20%) & Corporate (12%) bonds. One reason why I prefer active over passive is just this. Fund managers do a lot of research & if they are right then they can get ahead of the curve. Not only that but Vanguard funds are trackers & so all you are doing is replicating the market. If 80% of your portfolio is in Bonds shouldn't you be in the right ones.
Seriously though thanks for the updates, all very interesting.0 -
Anybody with savings in Sainsbury bank accounts should check the interest rates they're receiving particularly the cash ISA
Sainsbury's advertised rates look fairly competitive but they're for new investors only
They don't increase existing account holders' rates automatically. In fact they don't increase rates until you ask.
You might think it's earning at 2.something% but unless you've asked them it could be sitting at 0.95% or lower
Sharp practice in my view even if it is attended to with just a message through the website.0 -
it’s worth exploring Revolut.Captain_Birdseye said:Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?
I live in the US and recently purchased a flat in Bromley. I had a large amount of US$ to transfer to GBP. I already had Basic $$ and ££ Revolut accounts which I’ve had for years and I upgraded to their Premium account which cost $9.99 a month but provided no fee FX for any amount. And I found their FX rates to be very competitive. The $9.99 a month comes with a yearly contract but you can cancel it when you’re done for a reasonable fee (I think I paid $19.99) and for me it more than offset the FX fees I would have incurred. With their Basic service, which is free, you pay 0.5% on any FX over $1000 in any given month. Hope this helps.Before I could do this I had to provide proof of funds for anti money laundering purposes but I think that’s pretty standard nowadays for any reputable companies.0 -
PM me - I might be able to get you a decent deal (hopefully near bank rate) through an FX company that I'm involved with.Captain_Birdseye said:Hoping for some advice from anyone slightly savvy about dealing with currencies.
I’m British and my wife is American, so we have UK bank accounts and she has an US bank account. We pay taxes in UK and US. I also have an old Australian bank account still open from many years ago.
My wife has an inheritance payment coming from Australia. The lawyers for the estate are now arranging the payment and want to know where we want it sent. Anyone got any experience on how to minimise any fees and best deal with impact from exchange rates?0 -
might load up on COIN here.0
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Whatever calms your nerves. I'm loading up on PIVO tonight.kentaddick said:might load up on COIN here. 0 -
So after a new record the 3rd Feb FTSE 100 at 7901. Today the FTSE100 has closed at 7911, with intra day high of 7949.Appreciate the FTSE is heavily bias in certain industry types, but personally. I’m winning big time at moment.How are others doing ? Anybody out of this run up, wishing they’d committed funds ??
Even my Lloyds Bank holding was in profit at one state today.0
