News/Events

Crystal ball tells us what to expect in the year ahead [14th January 08]

At this time of year most columnists and so say experts are simply giving their predictions for the coming year and where you should be investing your money or what may happen to a particular investment sector in 2008.

Upon looking at the Financial Times the Saturday before last numerous experts were first asked what they thought would happen to the residential property market and their responses varied between +5% and -10%. Similarly, another set were asked where the Footsie would be at the end of this year and this range was even wider with 7200 and 5850 bearing in mind we are currently hovering around 6450. If you were to take an average of these predictions, then you end up with 6400 so the market in the UK is going to be flat and we don’t have much to look forward to! Another article was headed up ‘Desperate to invest? Try- Russia, wine and cash’ – and this is an interesting mixture to say the least especially as when I buy wine, I tend to drink it! Seriously, Russia is full of expectation but highly volatile, wine has shown consistent gains when laid down and cash, as I have said before, offers no risk with a high interest rate as long as you have the right account. Mind you, Mike Lancroft of Brewin Dolphin Stockbrokers, who is at the lowest end of the spectrum, predicts Base Rate coming down to 4.75% and this will change the whole complexion of savings rates.

I did, however, alert you earlier last year to the initial worries to Property Funds and that many people will be moving off fixed rate loans this year and ‘yes’ I am one! Interest rates are falling so fixing may not be the answer at present but getting a fixed rate bond for savers could be?

For the New Year, my wife and I decided to see it in with Jools Holland on TV which was surprisingly very entertaining and he suddenly spoke to an astrologist who stated quite categorically that the US would have a woman as President for the first time and both the UK and the States would have ‘stonking’ markets.

Confused? Well in my opinion, the answer is quite simple, only take a risk with that part of your capital you can afford to tie up for, say, 5 years whilst you should keep your existing portfolio under review and that applies to both your capital investments in shares, unit or investment trusts etc and more importantly your pension portfolio.

But, your New Year’s Resolution should be to maximise your Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) during the current tax year either equity or cash or indeed both!

I believe this will be an exciting year for the IFA who is prepared to invest their time into technology and expanding their knowledge especially with the growing market of Self Invested Pension Plans (SIPPs), Fund Supermarkets and more importantly WRAPS which is not an acronym but an up market investment platform for holding all of your investments under one roof.

May I take this opportunity for wishing you all a Prosperous 2008!

This article was written by Langtons - Published in the Western Morning News, This is Money, 14th January 2008