An independent (financial adviser's) view

I quite rightly received scant sympathy last week for my ’never have time to watch Wimbledon’ moan, and even less this week for a similar ‘it’s Friday night and I still have 87 emails to answer’ rant to my WhatsApp group of fellow advisers. Their response was, again quite rightly, a familiar one: ‘Take Back Control’. As we’ve all learned in recent years, however, that’s often far easier sloganized than done. Anyway. Heading off to That-There-London?to see some fund managers, some lovely clients and Child 3, who’s seeking his fortune, or at least working there now. I’ll let you know if the streets are still paved with gold. It will certainly be a tad cooler than Sardinia, where lynchpin of PJFS Donna is currently holidaying. 44C today. Ouch.

“Nearly 1.8mn savers trigger tax penalty on cash savings interest”

Like love, stealth taxation is all around us. Those oh-so-reluctantly given public-sector pay rises will be in part repaid by increased tax, with allowances frozen and many more being pushed into the 40% (or for some, just the 20%) tax band. With interest rates at 1%, you wouldn’t have been likely to pay tax on your interest unless you had ￡100k or more in a bank deposit account. At 4 or 5%, that comes down to as little as ￡20k, ￡10k if you’re a high rate taxpayer (when you’re only allowed ￡500 of interest tax-free) after which those rates aren’t in reality quite as good as they sound. Which makes Premium Bonds and their tax-free prizes seem a still-better bet. As previously trailed, an awful lot of those who’ll have to pay some tax won’t have a clue that they should and almost certainly won’t be completing a tax return at the moment. Which will be a dilemma, not just for them, but for the taxman, too.

“UK inflation falls more than expected to 7.9% in June”

There are as many versions of inflation in the big world of the economy as there are in our humble homes. There’s the ‘we really can’t afford that (insert expensive object or project which you don’t really want to be bought or to happen), have you seen the price of (your choice, but petrol and milk are always good) version. Then there’s the ‘look, we all need a holiday, could be the last time they’ll want to come with us and things are not really that bad’ version. And in that big world, we have the ‘I told you it would start to fall, it’s now down to 7.9% so we’re pretty much on target’ spin. Or the ‘that doesn’t mean anything’s cheaper, just that everything's going up a little more slowly and it’s all down to fuel prices anyway’ take on it. You pays your money and you takes your choice. But whichever you choose, your money’s still worth 7.9% less than it was last year.

“Interest rate hike triggers largest wealth decline for UK households since WWII”

You might not have realised it, but ‘over the past four decades, wealth has soared across Britain’. And the sudden and big jump in interest rates in the past few months will have long-term effects, ￡2tn-worth, apparently. Interestingly, it’s thought that the next generation will benefit, as returns from investments will increase (yes, really) and house prices will fall. It may comfort some that the ‘losers’, apart from those who already have mortgages, are likely to be those at the ‘top’ end running private equity funds, who borrowed cheap and bought companies at discounts which may not have been as big as they seemed. Not necessarily good news if they pull out and leave those companies and their employees in the lurch, or at best worse off than they might have hoped. However, I doubt those at that ’top’ end are worried about losing their house. Or even one of their houses.

“The working-from-home illusion fades”

Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted their energy bill more efficiently. Dream on!??Yet many of the many post-pandemic academic studies into the subject now say that bringing back the commute to the office is both good and necessary. I beg to differ, my non-academic view being that those that skive will skive (and so need sorting) wherever they are, and that giving motivated and appropriately skilled staff options and freedom has the be the modern way. The days of office fodder are and should be over and a bit of both has surely to be the sensible answer.

Neither Foofighters nor Nirvana are ‘my’ era. Yes, ‘Teen Spirit’ is still quite something, but I tend to turn into an old person watching Top of the Pops back in the day (‘long-haired urks, call that music etc.’) when others of their oeuvre come on. So why did I read this? A son said it was great and actually, it (mostly) is. It’s his story of the hard work that actually goes into most rises to fame, where the music and not the money is the motivation, and bands did (and still do) travel around in grotty vans and sleep on dirty floors just to have the chance to play. And he tells his story very engagingly, pulling you into a world you might have imagined not for you. The ‘mostly’ is the flaw (in my humble) of many a celeb autobiog, that the once-they’ve-made-it section slips into dinner with Paul McCartney and weekends at Neil Young’s ranch and life’s so cool, which it probably is, but not for me. Interestingly, however, virtually no mention of wife, family or love-life. Which I’d say gives extra cred and brownie points.