Worldwide Financial Planning

This week, Peak Pegasus, a US cargo ship full to the brim with soybeans, raced across the Northern Pacific to beat a 25 percent import duty on one of the States' most lucrative exports to China

If your savings return less than inflation, you are losing money. Of course if you take an income, you have that fall, on top of the impact of inflation. You can soon eradicate the value of your savings.

This week European leaders gathered in Brussels for the EU summit.

While we might have expected Brexit to be the main topic of discussion, most of the drama has centred on how to handle the large numbers of migrants coming across the Mediterranean.

Following last week’s column on the level of income you can take from your pension in retirement without eroding your capital, I’ll add some tips on how we might maintain your financial security by shoring up your pension values.

This week the government won a hard-fought compromise in its Brexit negotiations.

In years gone by, retirement was straight forward. You built up a reasonable fund of money and bought an income for life through an annuity. It was guaranteed and you had a few choices to think of: rising or flat income; guaranteed length of time after death; and spouse’s or children’s benefits were the key items to consider.