Worldwide Financial Planning

Retail inflation has continued to rise as the UK faces a new warning of recession. The British Retail Consortium said shop prices increased by 9% in May, up from 8.8%. Food prices are still rising fast but have slowed slightly as lower energy and commodity costs begin to filter through. Rising prices have supported listed retailers but this appears to be running out of momentum as retailers report sales volumes are falling.

Those with pension pots of in excess of £1million will undoubtedly benefit from the proposals of abolishing the lifetime allowance. The annual allowance hike will also benefit those earning between £100,000 and £260,000.

The decline in the UK’s headline rate of inflation was not as big as expected as food, housing and services continue to rise, leaving the Bank of England’s recent upward revision to its inflation forecast in doubt.

Peter McGahan reluctantly writes about the US debt ceiling farce. He said 'reluctantly' because headlines are everywhere describing all the potential chaos around the likelihood for the US to default, and each journalist wants the public to read their wonderful variation.

In the US, negotiations over the debt ceiling appear to be making some progress and this helped the positive sentiment towards US equities. However, bond markets remain far more sceptical.

Often financial advice looks straight at the money side of things, but that isn’t really in the right order. What’s the point in turning the heat up in a house when the windows are broken? So, we should sort the attitudinal pieces first, then fine tune the finances.