Should you try and save money by constantly moving energy suppliers, mobile phone contracts and credit card companies? Should you make sure you make the most of every penny of your savings by moving from bank to bank as rates change? And should you be constantly watching the charges on your current account just in case they rise when you aren't watching?
The answer to all these things should obviously be yes, of course you should. But when people ask me about it, I very often say they probably shouldn't bother because of the hassle factor.
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RICS: homebuyers are returning after stamp duty shockThe housing market has been subdued since stamp duty thresholds dropped in April, but there are signs of a recovery
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Reducing cash ISA limit will make lending difficult and expensive, warn providersAn open letter from the Building Societies Association has urged the chancellor to keep the cash ISA limit at £20,000. We look at whether a smaller cash ISA allowance will make it harder to get a mortgage or loan
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Our pension system, little-changed since Roman times, needs updatingOpinion The Romans introduced pensions, and we still have a similar system now. But there is one vital difference between Roman times and now that means the system needs updating, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
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We’re doing well on pensions – but we still need to do betterOpinion Pensions auto-enrolment has vastly increased the number of people in the UK with retirement savings. But we’re still not engaged enough, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
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Older people may own their own home, but the young have better pensionsOpinion UK house prices mean owning a home remains a pipe dream for many young people, but they should have a comfortable retirement, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
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How to avoid a miserable retirementOpinion The trouble with the UK’s private pension system, says Merryn Somerset Webb, is that it leaves most of us at the mercy of the markets. And the outlook for the markets is miserable.
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Young investors could bet on NFTs over traditional investmentsOpinion The first batch of child trust funds and Junior Isas are maturing. But young investors could be tempted to bet their proceeds on digital baubles such as NFTs rather than rolling their money over into traditional investments
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Pandemics, politicians and gold-plated pensionsAdvice As more and more people lose their jobs to the pandemic and the lockdowns imposed to deal with it, there’s one bunch of people who won’t have to worry about their future: politicians, with their generous defined-benefits pensions.
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How to have a low-tax retirement in the sunNews Greece is to offer a ten-year tax incentive to foreign pensioners. That’s a pretty good offer, says Merryn Somerset Webb. But it might not last.
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Prepare yourself for a rise in capital gains taxOpinion With the UK desperate to raise more money to cover the massive rise in public spending, squeezing more revenue out of capital gains tax looks like an obvious thing to do.
