Tag: Finance

Taking stock of my share of shares

Holly sh*t what the feck just happened in my bank account it is leaking cash faster than a Trumpian Bull breaks ceramics in a China shop!

Along time ago in a bank account far, far away I started to dabble in buying a type of UK bank account called an ISA (Individual Savings Account). ISAs are seen as a tax-efficient way to save and invest your money. That means you’ll pay no tax on any interest, gains or returns you make. What a great idea I thought. I also thought I could turn a little pot of money into a little bit bigger pot of money with me chipping some in monthly and also with the interest earned on the ISA. The only problem was that at the time I had decided to do this some 15 years or more ago interest rates were so low that in relation to inflation the interest earned was not keeping up with the low inflation rate so it felt like for every year you kept money in a regular ISA it was still in fact degrading over time in real terms.

So like everyone I was looking for a way out of this slightly silly system and so about 5 years ago or longer (I forget how long ago I decided to invest in a type of stocks and shares account with a online stocks and shares company. Again kept my little ISA ticking over to not earn interest on but also started saving into a type of stocks and shares account, again it was small potatoes and did not really have any major success but also did earn a little bit more than when putting money into an ISA so no big wins but no losses either still quite dull I thought really.

But then after a recommendation from a family member I consolidated my many minor pension schemes and cash ISA all into one company in the UK that had a steady higher rate of return for my money than any think I had tried in the past and low and behold I soon started to take interest in the interest and start finally seeing the benefits of my savings whilst at the same time as the stocks market would be stable and go up so would my stocks and shares ISA.

It was all going so well, I would pay a small amount in every week into my account and each week the money as well as the interest would grow. I thought I had finally become an adult without responsibilities that could and was planning for my rainy days and saving for my future. But then comes along President Trump like a bull in a China shop, who after many years of nonsensical speeches and stupid opinions was finally able to put those two things into practice with no less than  a trade war with the rest of the world – a literal economic DO NOT DO under no circumstances economic policy. Oh my the bigger they are the harder they fall kind of economic suicide that he has chosen to inflict on the globe and the US – its quite literally the top number one dumbest thing he could think to do and not only did he think about it he went ahead and did it and now will not back down and spend the next four years saying how it will be other countries and politicians and policies fault for the very dump policy that he implemented all on his own. You wonder how a person can even bankrupt a casino in their lifetime and we now know and start to see just how his logic did that and start to say ahh thats how, that’s why.

Finance and the direction of flow of money, shall always have a flow, an economic flow, it is not personal, it is not prejudicial, it simply flows from what it is able to make from money to who it then  able to buy with money, simple economic rule really on a micro and macro scale.

The barriers Trump is attempting to put up might well speed up or damage even more severely the things that Trump was in fact trying to protect and solve. China has a wall of businesses, bureaucrats, financial clout and desire to beat the US and where as Trump is dismantling the US government machine, China is only getting started with facing its machine up against the US in the trade war of all trade wars that Trump is initiating. Trump put quite simply this is a trade war you cannot and could never win. Just as Brexit saw a painful divorce for Britain from Europe, in a most likely irreversible circumstance so to is Trump trying to divorce himself right now from the economic flows of international finance and trade and oh boy have his shenanigans kicked my savings down right into my stocks and shares! No one can predict where this will end for global stocks or shares or for the US, China or rest of the world just yet. But my money is on the fact that this will not bode well for Trumps Tariffs’ philosophy at all.

Pink Floyd – Money

Planning for a future

I do not normally do New Year’s resolutions but I also find that this is the time of year to reflect on what has happened in the past and where I am now and what might happen in the future.

I am now 46 I have no children or partner I am in full time work, which is relatively stable and if I am lucky I might be able to retire in say 20 years or so. The combination of these facts got me thinking that I should try and do a little financial planning in order to make sure I have a roof over my head and a meal in my belly and can buy what I need not just today but for in the future too.

First things first and I have to admit I find having any money or planning what to do with it not normal part of my life, up until the last few years I have never really had a disposable income to have as savings for years and decades I lived within my means not earning a lot and not spending a lot.

When people were settling into university life and planning how there careers would develop, I went off the rails taking illegal drugs which although my brain loved the experience and times that I had, it did me no good academically and certainly did damage my mental health and long term financial stability. But even without the drug taking I don’t think my brain is made for academic achievement. I have tried a few times trying to study and I get lost in words and tremendously forgetful during exams regarding facts and figures. I’m dyslexic which I only discovered and had diagnosed at my first stint in university and when I undertook IQ tests they would show I have a high capacity for reasoning and problem solving but a low score on such things as memory tests. I find it much easier to remember things that I have an emotional connection to rather than dry facts or quotes of ideas and opinions from others.

Though this is no poor me story as I think I would not be the person that I am pleased to be today had it not been for the long and winding road I have travelled and continue to travel upon. Although there are times in my life I regret doing what I did and I hope I learned from those situations and decisions and there are also times when I think what I have done is something good not just for myself but for others to.

Well with this years planning for the future I am actually trying to find ways to save, invest and provide for myself in the future mainly trying to make sure I have some kind of income when I retire. During the first lock down I was still in work and with not going out and working at home a lot more I had a little disposable income that I wanted to experiment with and so I started putting savings into an ISA a (savings account in the UK that does not get taxed and you try and pay a monthly amount in to accumulate savings in). I also started to look at ways of buying stocks or shares. Now I love a little gamble but the idea of gambling on life savings where you do long term investments into things that go up and down feels a little bit of an oxymoron in other words contradictory.

Small time investors like me have no easy way of saving money and making a reasonably good return on funds that goes on to beat inflation and there for increase the amount of money you have (and after loads of research trials and tribulations I am afraid this is still very much the case.

I have tried slowly saving up a few hundred pounds here or there in a stocks and shares account purchasing a few stocks (the easiest way I can describe a stock is a fund where people invest your money on your behalf in the items they believe will make the most money for you and also ideally risk losing the least amount of money for you also). I also bought a couple of shares in a gaming company in the UK called Games Workshop ( a share is like owning a small amount of a company directly). I have played their games since I was a kid and still play some of their computer games and so thought it would be a good place to buy some shares in a company that had the potential to grow.

I am no venture capitalist but do with what little means I have still invested in my future. I am not used to having savings or thinking about pensions and so trying to make my savings and pensions work harder for me is still a new concept and this is very much an ongoing new thing for me.

I would not invest in crypto currencies and strongly don’t believe that they have any economic grounding or long term future at all. A digital currency not supported by a country, it’s just there for the sake of making someone more money, just makes no real economic sense to me it feels more like a modern day pyramid scheme where those that create the currencies will become exceptionally rich but those that try to follow on afterwards will at some time sooner or later get burned and lose whatever savings they have in said crypto currencies. I do realise that all financial markets and products are in many ways a gamble but I also want to have at least some sort of a chance that my little gamble might at least keep up with inflation and at best make some profit I am not looking to shoot to the stars of crypto currency highs only to fall back down to earth with a bang when the latest crypto currency goes bust.

Money – Pink Floyd