Does your website need a redesign?

Most web pages include lots of “furniture”, such as branding, navigation, images, advertising and lists of other useful things you might want to look at. Indeed, when we land on a plain text web page we tend to think it is something from the dark ages of the early Internet. These days we expect colour, graphics, video, useful links and so on.

However, new research suggests this could all be working against us, as website owners.

Blinded by science?

Neuroscientists at University College London have identified a phenomenon they are calling “load blindness” – the more information that we see, the more we don’t see it. This is a particular problem in certain professions such as being an airline pilot or a surgeon, where lots of visual information has to be processed. However, it is clearly also an issue for web pages.

What the researchers found was that when we are presented with lots of information in one go, our awareness for that information decreases. Indeed, the scientists found that the impact was the equivalent of turning the lights down to dim – we just can’t see as much.

The problem for web designers, though, is how do you include all the necessary information without leading to “load blindness”?

Information overload

When you only have a small amount of information presented, added extras lead to distraction. So if you design a simple web page with one banner advert, for instance, the advertisement distracts the visitor, leading to loss of attention on what you might be wanting them to read. However, if you overload the page with extra “furniture” the distraction level appears to drop – therefore suggesting that you might get more engagement. But this new study suggests the opposite – it implies that your visitors don’t actually see as much as you think they do. The overload of information is effectively closing their eyes to what you want them to see.

What this study is really suggesting to us as website owners is that we need to think carefully about the pages we produce. Too little visual information can lead to distraction, too much visual information can lead to load blindness. Either way, many web pages could be getting traffic, but not actually having the required impact. It could explain why bounce rates are so high, on average; people simply do not see anything when they land on the pages because there is too much to see.

It is not the extent of the information that is the problem – you can have web pages with thousands of words on them. It is the amount of visual information that can be seen in a glance that is the issue. Too much “furniture” on your web pages could mean that people simply do not see what you want them to see.

Graham Jones

Does your website need a redesign?Dominic2023-12-01T12:39:07+00:00

How does 2014 Budget make ISAs NISA?

You will probably have gathered that the Budget 2014 announced improvements to ISAs. This is good news for investors who have been making use of their annual ISA allowance each tax year. As a reminder, if you haven’t yet used your 2013/14 allowance, you have until 5^th April to place £11,520 into tax free savings… you had better hurry.

ISAs got NISA

So what has changed? Well from July the new ISA (NISA) allowance rises to £15,000 and the restrictions for cash and investment ISAs ends. Today you can convert a Cash ISA into an investment ISA, but not the other way around. This will help clients who are low risk in nature, but also anyone else seeking to hold cash for the short-term, perhaps when planning a significant withdrawal.

Over £443 billion in ISAs

If you followed my recent blog about the ISA millionaire, one has got to now wonder how long ISAs will have before they are attacked. There are now an estimated 3.8million people with at least £30,000 in ISA with around £443bn held in all forms of ISAs by around 15m people (almost 1 in 4).

Tax free income

Let’s take a theoretical example. Ivor is 65 and has around £400,000 in his ISA portfolio. He expects to live to 85 and has a State pension and employers pension providing him with an income of £20,000 a year. He would like to spend £45,000 a year and so draw £25,000 from his ISA each year. So his income is £45,000 a year. I won’t get into the detail of the tax calculations, but this would normally trigger higher rate tax; however only about £10,000 is taxable at 20% due to his personal allowance and ISAs providing tax free income. He pays £2,000 tax on £45,000 an effective rate of tax of 4.4%. Now call me a pessimist, but I cannot imagine that many UK Governments are really keen for pensioners with incomes of £45,000 to pay less the same in tax as someone earning £20,000.

Will you outlive your money?

Just for your information, if the £400,000 ISA grows at 6% a year and he takes income of £25,000 a year and increases this by 3% each year (to keep pace with inflation) he will run out of money in the 23rd year… at which point, he would be 88 (8 years above the average male life expectancy).

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

How does 2014 Budget make ISAs NISA?Dominic2023-12-01T12:39:05+00:00

What Doctors can teach investors

Today’s guest blog is from Andrew Webb, who is a writer, marketing and communications expert. He currently works for Dimensional and used to work for Fidelity. Here he highlights why at Solomons we use evidence based investing, not the latest fad. You may know that I advise quite a lot of medical consultants and I imagine you will find his topic title amusing.

What Doctors can teach investors

Newspaper reporters who interview centenarians on their landmark birthday cannot seem to avoid the temptation to ask how they have lived so long. Because most people haven’t the faintest idea how they have reached 100, they tend to attribute their good health to something like a weekly tea dance.

Medical professionals will say that the most likely reason for a long life is a combination of favourable genetic and environmental factors, access to reliable medical care and a healthy dose of good luck. It follows, therefore, that anyone serious about improving their chances of a long life is better off seeking the credible advice of a doctor, not taking speculative tips from a pensioner.

But these facts rarely get in the way of a good story.

The treatments doctors use to keep us healthy are tested by a process of empirical research and clinical trials. Considering health and wealth are both high on the list of priorities for many people, it is a shame that the investment industry is typically less rigorous than the healthcare industry.

Most people turn to the investment industry to help them research their investments. This is the same as asking a pensioner how they have lived so long. The industry’s self-analysis can range from outlandish to plausible, but it will almost never be based on scientific study.

We take a different approach; one that is based on scientific rigour and hard evidence. This approach identifies the sources of investment return and we aim to deliver them to you. This gives us confidence that we understand why your investments behave the way they do and why we are more able to design investment portfolios that suit your needs.

Andrew Webb

What Doctors can teach investorsDominic2023-12-01T12:39:04+00:00

Valentine’s Day love and passion

Tomorrow is Valentines day and whilst retailers attempt to describe love and passion, I thought I’d take you back to a memory 30 years ago. The Winter Olympics in Sochi, for all the issues, remind us about commitment and focus and it was 30 years ago that Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean wowed the world with their performance of Bolero and in the process sweeping the board with top marks for artistic expression. Watching the video now, despite its very poor quality, transports me to the gripping moments, hoping that nothing went wrong and that they did themselves justice by winning a very deserved gold medal. It was a moment of great joy, perhaps because they were British, but more than that – they were simply remarkable, the best. Even 30 years ago, I had sufficient life experience to recognise that the best didn’t always triumph, that hard work, commitment and passion wasn’t always rewarded. It is therefore all the more pleasing when “justice” is done and nobody can deny it.

The last thirty years have seen a professional ice skating career that has involved many repeat performances of Bolero, today in an interview is seems that the chances of seeing this seminal piece performed by its creators is coming to an end, tour dates have been announced for “The Final Tour”. You have until April…. but perhaps tomorrow’s soundtrack should be Bolero.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Valentine’s Day love and passionDominic2023-12-01T12:38:59+00:00

“What have I missed about auto enrolment?”

What have I missed about auto enrolment?

Yesterday I suggested that auto enrolment was not really about pensions, that’s because despite it being about setting up a pension, the real emphasis is much more about communications with staff and with Government agencies. The new system is rather like PAYE, though nothing quite as simple. I have come up with 11, that’s eleven, key issues where auto enrolment will challenge your business or charity.

Contracts of employment

Contracts of employment will need to be altered reflecting the new pension arrangements; this may be a difficult discussion depending upon your type of business and workforce. Do you need to get the help of HR or even legal advice to do this properly?

Pay reviews and salary sacrifice

Some employers may use this as an opportunity to consider “salary sacrifice” or “salary exchange” this is a bizarre scenario where having a reduced gross income with the reduction paid into a pension, saves both employer and employee national insurance contributions and PAYE, yet invariably the net pay is a bit more, with more money going into a pension. Odd but true.

Payroll integration, live and up to date

Your payroll software will need to be able to integrate the new scheme, if you are a small firm and outsource this to your book keeper or Accountant; they need to be up to speed and have software that does the job.

IT overhaul

Schemes will be managed online and the Pension Regulator may demand data going back 6 years in a format that they can readily use). This therefore has implications for your IT systems and security and in particular how you hold and backup your data about staff.

Garbage in, garbage out?

Communication with staff is also a big deal. You need to be able to evidence that you have provided all of the relevant information to your staff, email is the most obvious and cheapest delivery option, but we all know that not everyone uses email or has provided you with an up to date email address, so do you need everyone in the business to have a company email address, and what happens when they leave? Do you maintain records properly?

Money Laundering

As a pension is an investment, there are issues about possible Money Laundering and politically exposed people. As an employer do you have evidence that you have done thorough identity and residency checks? Can you prove this? This will also identify any illegal immigrants or visa’s that have expired.

Staying silent and impartial

You might see auto enrolment as a valuable part of your staff package, however some see it as another tax and a whole lot of bureaucracy. You are not permitted to give advice about pensions or entice or discourage staff from joining the scheme. This isn’t just frowned on, it carries hefty financial penalties if revealed.

Disgruntled employees

Non compliance with the rules is a dangerous approach. You may believe that you know your staff, but perhaps you should reflect on what could go wrong for you if a member of staff falls out with you, or is just plain awkward anyway (these people do exist in 2014) so make sure you have complied and that you can demonstrate that you have done so. It is pointless to ask for a bullet proof vest after the event.

Tax triggers

You may not be aware that some people have very large pension scheme benefits. The Lifetime Allowance has reduced and will reduce again in April. Some people have protected their larger allowances, but should they accidentally enrol into a new pension, this would scupper their plans. This could trigger enormous tax penalties (55% of £1m for example) and you won’t be terribly popular with the employee that is presented with such a bill because you didn’t communicate well enough.

Honest guv….

The cynic in me might suggest that this is another way to join-up the Government agencies, which is fine if you are doing everything properly (unless you have concerns about information flow) but of course will catch out more people that have undeclared earnings anywhere.

Impacting your budgeting

Finally, don’t rely on your costs being 3% of your payroll. It is likely that contributions levels will be raised above 8%, in Australia (where they have had compulsory pensions since 1992) employers now contribute 9.25%. You ought to allow funds for the scheme and your systems to be reviewed and of course you might be wise to provide seminars or meetings for your staff to ensure that they understand their pension.

So, auto enrolment is about pensions… well yes, but it is also about rather more besides.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

“What have I missed about auto enrolment?”Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:57+00:00

A New Widow

It is good to see that Scottish Widows have figured out that having a financial plan rather than a collection of policies and investments is the better approach to better results. On Monday they began a new consumer campaign – Life Feels Better When You Have A Plan… its as though they looked at my website! They are also updating their image with yet another “widow” the fourth, Amber Martinez at just 24 (how many 24 year old widows are there really?) is the new face of Scottish Widows taking over from Hayley Hunt, who was the widow since 2005. Here is a link to the new advert that has gone live.

Here are the four widows talking about the role. Am I alone in thinking that the age of the widow is possibly important? by definition to be a widow you have to have been married.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

A New WidowDominic2023-12-01T12:38:56+00:00

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 7

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 7 /7

Ok, this is the last part in the current series and rather than fill you with more information about planning a pension, lets start with what its really all about – your lifestyle. Any decent financial planning should (it’s a requirement, but you would never believe how few “advisers” mess this but up) begin by outlining your current spending. This is an exercise that hardly anyone likes doing, I think because it reveals who we currently are and have been and often this can leave us feeling somewhat disappointed or uneasy about our own “maturity”.

Your Lifestyle

So, lets begin. Running your home – each month what does it cost? That’s mortgage/rent, insurance, council tax, utilities bills etc. Then lets turn to your living costs, that’s food, clothing, haircuts, dry cleaning etc. OK, so now how much does it cost you to run your car/s, commute, use the bus? Next healthcare – medicines, opticians, dental, then how about presents (Christmas, birthdays, weddings) and charitable giving. Finally, how much do you really spend on holidays, your hobbies and entertainment generally? These are all pretty much your lifestyle costs… but we aren’t done yet… and if you have children how much does childcare/schooling cost you?

Current financial stuff

Financial costs – how much are you paying to debt and loans? What are the balances, current rates and when do they end? How about your savings, investments and pensions? What are you currently putting away each month? What are the balances? Any financial protection (life assurance, income protection, critical illness cover? Cost and cover?).

When?

So lets make an assumption or two – but please adapt this for your circumstances. When do you want to have the option of working? In other words you don’t need to earn money to pay for your lifestyle? Pause on this. It isn’t the same question as “when do you want to retire?”. So, lets assume (adapt) that your children if you have had them have left home, your mortgage is repaid and you don’t have a need for ongoing financial products (you might, but just go with it). So what does your lifestyle cost (this is a net – after tax figure for the year or month). Is there anything else? When you reach this point you will have more “spare time” to do the things you’ve been working hard for… so what are they? Extra travelling? that “bucket list”… what?… so what is your required income? When?

Calculating your number

Let’s assume the State pension is still viable then, so knock off £5,200 (£100 a week) from the figure. What does that leave? OK, calculator ready? Quick rule of thumb… divide this by 4% to reveal the fund you need IN TODAY’S MONEY (not the same as the money you need today). Example: £20,000 /4% = £500,000. This is a rough estimate. We then need to figure out what this number would be (your number) when you want to stop working. So we really need to do all the sums and pull all the information together about what you have already. This is basic financial advice or as our American friends say “Financial Advice 101”.

This is usually where you need a financial planner to help pull apart your assumptions, explain what you really have and importantly explain what you can do to get on track and what returns you need. Want help? Call me. if you want more flesh on the bone, you might want to buy a book called “The Number” by Lee Eisenberg.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 7Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:55+00:00

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 6

Part 6 in the series “What is the best way to save for retirement?”

Inflation – Power to the people?

Inflation is probably the most underestimated factor within finance and economics. It has a massive impact on what you really need to do and frankly drives the need to ensure that your assets increase in-line with or preferably above the rate of inflation. This sounds easy, but it isn’t. You know all about inflation as it is, I don’t need to explain much. All I need do is ask you to remember going to the sweet shop and what you used to be able to buy, or perhaps how much you bought your first home for.

We forget what we don’t see

Inflation at the moment is historically low, despite what the media and politicians may suggest it is low. In fact ONS statistics reveal that the annual rate of RPI (retail price inflation) has not been above 5% since 1990. That’s now 24 years ago. It has varied since then between 0.7%-4.5%. This is why so few of us really give much thought to the impact of inflation. However, the longer term average rate of RPI since 1948 has been 5.5% and ranged between 2.9%-6.3% as a long term annual average. This was largely due to high levels of inflation in the 1970’s (24.9% in 1975) when we had a decade of high inflation rates, often forgotten, but which in turn led to tighter monetary control introduced as “Thatcherism”.

Size matters after all

My figures from the previous posts about the size of pot you need are therefore somewhat off. Why? Well because I suggested a target income of £20,000 a year from the age of 65, assuming a starting age of 35. I did this deliberately. Investors get really quite distressed by “real figures” the numbers invariably look too big and too terrifying. Here’s what I mean.

Warning: Explicit Information

£20,000 inflated at 3% a year for 30 years becomes £48,545. This is the same amount in real terms (if inflation runs at 3%). So I hope that you are sitting down. Rather than needing a pot of £500,000 to pay £20,000 a year (4% annuity) you really need £1,213,625 in real money. Yes that’s £1.2million. Rather than investing £305.69 a month (increasing by 3% a year) you actually need to invest £741.98 a month – more than double. You are no richer in reality; it’s just that inflation has been properly taken into account. The same facts are accurate, but the amount you really need to invest is considerably more.

Is time is on your side?

If you are rather closer to 65, say you are 50, you still have 15 years of inflation on £20,000 a year which becomes £31,160… worth the same amount… penny drops (literally) on the reason why I asked you to recall the childhood trip to the sweet shop. So in this example, a 4% annuity to provide £31,160 needs a fund of £779,000. You have 15 years to achieve this amount, hopefully you have made a start.

What about that buy to let property purchase idea?

So let’s turn to the property purchase option if you recall it. I suggested saving for 10 years for a deposit. Well starting with the end in mind we used a 5% rental yield. This would need to be £48,545 in 30 years time, so the property value would therefore need to be £970,900. So if property prices rise by inflation (3%) then you would need to be buying a property for roughly £400,000 and a 20% deposit would be £80,000 saved over the first 10 years, so rather than saving £214.71 a month, you really need to save around £450 a month (increasing by 3% each year for 10 years) and taking on a commercial mortgage for £320,000 – that’s quite a lot of debt.

Is it real?

The problem with real numbers is that they are pretty alarming. In reality you will hopefully have various sources of income for your retirement, hopefully including the State Pension. However the key issues are how well your portfolio performs and it will rise and fall in value which can be concerning. So its important that you consider the inflation adjusted or “real” returns. To give an example, the FTSE AllShare Index has averaged 5.9%pa above inflation since 1956. The average rate of inflation over the same period was 5.6% – so the actual FTSE AllShare return was 5.6%+5.9% = 11.5%. Since 1991 (to end of 2012) inflation has been 3% and FTSE AllShare real return 5.7% = actual returns of 8.7% but what you will notice is that the real return is pretty similar (over the longer term) at about 5.6% but not in the short term!

A suitable portfolio and strategy

Its important to get your investments right as in practice most people cannot stomach the volatility within shares. So you wouldn’t have all of your portfolio in shares, you would typically have some in Bonds and perhaps a bit in cash, thereby reducing but protecting the returns. Getting this balance right is not as simple as picking funds or using some sort of off the shelf “model” it needs to be thought through carefully…. Which is what I help clients do.

Its about your lifestyle, not the money

It goes without saying that £20,000 is not regarded as “a lot of money” by some people. In fact, £20,000 is a fair bit less than the average wage. However, great financial planning is not about value judgements about what is and what is not a small or large amount. No, its all about helping you to get clear about the lifestyle you want and what you need to do to achieve it, if that is possible, when considering your available resources, your appetite for and ability to take risk. When they say time is money, it is perhaps most pertinent in relation to inflation.

Was this helpful? Just plain scary? Too much? What questions do you now have? Email me or post a comment. Tomorrow I will conclude by providing some pointers to what I mean by “lifestyle”. Thanks for reading and here’s something you may remember from the 1970’s.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 6Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:54+00:00

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 5

This is part 5 in the series “What is the best way to save for retirement?”

Using a business as a pension

Many of you, most of you, won’t currently be running a business. You are not excluded from this option. If you view a business as a type of bank account you wont go far wrong. The issue is generating revenue and making profit. A major advantage that business owners have is that they can put many things through a company as expenses, such as cars, pension contributions and so on. There are rules. However a business owner of a Limited company has shares in the company which pay dividends. The amount of dividends paid out can be adjusted regularly. In essence many people in this scenario pay themselves a low salary (low enough to pay little or not tax and national insurance). The rest of their income is paid as dividends, which have a lower tax rate than employed or self-employed tax rates. Yes this is daft, but blame the Governments we elect and HMRC not me. True businesses pay corporation tax, but this is currently only 20% on the first £300,000 of profits and profit is after costs such as salaries.

Unleash the entrepreneur in you

Over the years your business can build up cash, investments, property, goods, services and so on – even goodwill has a price. As the business owner your main objective is to run a successful business that provides the income you want. However the structure of the business should not be overlooked. You might sell the business upon retirement, but tax may be relatively small in this respect due to entrepreneur’s relief, where the first £10m of gains are only charged at 10% tax. Why? Because the Government believes that entrepreneurs create jobs and wealth, risking their own capital in the process in the pursuit of a “successful business”.

On track

However, keeping to our target of £20,000pa from age 65 a business is a shell into which any of the previously mentioned options (pension, portfolio, property) can be placed. Indeed one can place a commercial property into a pension owned by a business…with the pension charging rent to the business which is then paid back as pension contributions. All entirely legal, encouraged and workable in the right circumstances.

Setting aside various taxation issues, to achieve our goal, you need to have a business that generates £20,000 of profit a year. Whilst I wouldn’t wish to suggest that this is easy, is it as difficult as some would have us believe? £20,000 profit is £1,666 profit a month. The best business model is that of royalties. You do your work (say an album or book) and then it sells and sells. The royalties keep coming month after month for that work you did all those years ago. Now imagine that you have several “products” or services that achieve this. Anything from a design on a T-shirt to selling soap or widgets. A successful business is a money printing machine. However the biggest risk or blind spot that businesses face is failing to adapt.

Adapt or die?

In a world of rapidly evolving technology, this years best selling gadget is forgotten in 5 years. Technology is everywhere, not just in IT, in processes and systems. How you do business requires considerable thought. You are now probably not printing off your holiday snaps, or using a travel agent, or actually going to a Bank.. or…or… the world is changing and every business needs to adapt, that is the real risk to any and every business, however as an investment it can be ideal, provided that you only sell (if you do) when you don’t need to.

So I hope you will excuse me for not putting any numbers on this one, but it is a vehicle limited only by your imagination. However before we unleash your creativity, I think it best to blow your mind with some facts about that all very familiar but not well understood concept of inflation, which will challenge many of the numbers and assumptions that we have considered.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 5Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:53+00:00

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 4

This is part 4 in the series “What is the best way to save for retirement?”

Property as an investment strategy

It is a widely held view that property is a safe form of investing. Everyone needs a home right? The property boom was created by a credit boom. Its essentially fake money backing fake property prices. We all know houses are overpriced but are caught in the cycle of needing property values to rise in order to “move up” or “along” the property ladder. So whether this is right or wrong, sustainable or not, it has been our general experience.

Its all about the yield

In essence with a property strategy you are buying houses or flats that then provide a rental income. Let’s keep with the target we had yesterday, needing £20,000 a year as income from the age of 65. We might say that rental yield (the ratio of rent-to-property value) is around 5% a year. So the simple sum is that to generate £20,000 a year you need a property or properties worth £400,000. Lets also assume that you have a 25 year mortgage ending when you are 65. Let’s assume that you spend the first 10 years building a 20% deposit (£38,210) for a buy to let property which you buy for £191,000 so that with 3% inflation it is worth £400,000 at 65 (you may be detecting an alarming theme).

Deposit and mortgage

So you save £214.71 a month growing at 5% (as you want the money out for your low risk investment into property). As before we increase this by 3% a year, so you actually save £29,941 to have your £38,210 deposit. You then borrow £152,800 at commercial rates of an average 6% over 25 years (yes rates are lower now, but ask anyone over 40 what they once were). Your average monthly mortgage repayment costs you £996.09 (which is taxable income, though you are able to offset interest costs). A total outlay of £298,827 on the mortgage (nearly double what you borrowed). However you are letting the property at the 5% yield, so you are getting £9,550 a year, rising by 3% a year so your rental income is £352,950 over 25 years – which covers the mortgage cost completely. Assuming that there are no empty periods. So all you have really paid for is the deposit… and quite a few costs.. but not as much of an outlay as a pension or ISA.

The cost of being a landlord

Setting aside the costs of annual insurance for the entire time (45 years) the evident repairs and improvements, some tax deductions and payments (income tax, stamp duty) and perhaps letting agent fees. Let’s just say that your cost is the cost of getting the deposit together (£29,941), the mortgage is cleared and you have an asset appreciating by 3% a year and generating £20,000 a year. So on paper you have paid considerably less for your £20,000 income. However you have had a mortgage liability and the costs of insuring are probably at least £500 a year as a landlord over 45 years (£46,360 over 45 years). Then there is the cost of accountancy, repairs and given it’s a 45 year period, probably some major plumbing and re-wiring over the years. Still the principle is quite clear – getting someone else to pay for the mortgage and of course you still have the asset (which is appreciating in value). You always have the advantage of being able to sell the property (assuming good market conditions). There would be capital gains tax to be paid on gains. Over a 45 year period naturally one would not expect constantly favourable property prices, but the same is true of investments. However it is certainly true that when it comes to property the most important feature is location, location, location. I have also excluded the possibility of improving the property, increasing both its value and rental income.

Applying leverage

Now, its no walk in the park being a landlord anyone that has been one will tell you that its all about the quality of the tenants, but what I hope to have demonstrated is the power of leverage. That is to say borrowing money with your money, which places you into a high value asset which then appreciates at the same rate as a lower valued asset. Financial advisers are generally not keen on this form of investing, largely because there is little in it for them (no money to manage) however a financial planner is paid for designing and reviewing your financial plan – so ought to be completely impartial about this. There are risks as there are with anything, but this is a valid way of providing for your retirement. The kicker though is that all important inflation factor which I will reveal makes something of a mockery of all my numbers (but I will explain why and how to plan with this in mind).

There are lots of factors to consider with this option, rental income is taxable and may cause you to pay considerably more income tax, you might also have serious problems with tenants and need expensive legal advice and of course if you let through an agency, typically you will see a 15% fall in your income, hopefully in exchange for continued good tenants. Each case needs assessing on its own merits.

Tomorrow – Down to Business – yours as your retirement fund.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

What is the best way to save for retirement? Part 4Dominic2023-12-01T12:38:52+00:00

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