Worldwide Financial Planning

I’ve heard many statements regarding markets ‘going’ up, or ‘going’ down. As we’ve mentioned before, that can often lead to knee-jerk reactions where you jump a queue at completely the wrong time, and indeed this was covered in the last quarter for the same reason.

There has been significant volatility this week, mainly caused by the on-going off-again relationship between China and the US.

The difference in fund performance is often lots more than 1%, and if you remember, we recently covered the impact of choosing the best, or worst pension fund over just a twenty-year period. The difference between the top and bottom fund was over £469,000.

This week we saw more of the market jitters that have been with us since the start of the year.

While nothing fundamental has happened yet, fears that something will keep growing, as the list of potential downturn triggers keeps getting longer.

You cannot underestimate the benefit of a pension scheme for tax. As a basic rate taxpayer if you make a contribution of £80, it is automatically topped up by the taxman to £100, which is an immediate guaranteed return of 25%. For a higher rate taxpayer, this has a 66% uplift immediately from £60 to £100.

This week the late news that Donald Trump has singled out China for $60 billion in tariffs, after giving most countries a pass, has led to a dramatic escalation in trade war fears.