How much mortgage can I get?
In the olden days it was a pretty easy question to answer, based on a multiple of your salary (ie a single person earning £30,000 a year could get up to a £150,000 mortgage). But a friend looking to buy a house recently had a frustrating conversation with a mortgage broker that went along the lines … Read more
The Nanny State? Swedish style? Take our poll…
This weekend Simon Kuper wrote an article in the FT about the worries he has managing his finances, which basically stop him ‘smelling the flowers’. Now I’m not a big fan of Mr Kuper after a (to me) incendiary article he wrote a few months ago, over which I’m still spitting feathers*, but, anyway, this time he … Read more
Our favourite cash ISAs
It’s now what they call ‘ISA season’ (sadly no strawberries and cream); where financial providers actually start making a bit of an effort to relieve you of your cash. Although savings interest rates are still pretty deplorable at the moment (particularly when compared with the general rate at which prices are rising (4%)*), it is … Read more
Rented property and capital gains tax
Last year we wrote a Very (brief and) Nice guide to how capital gains tax applied to property, as we get questions on this all the time. It used a very basic example to show how tax was applied in principle. In actual fact, most of our clients don’t have property empires as such, but … Read more
Almond croissants in the Age of Austerity
While we can lecture with the best of them about cutting down on skinny lattes and looking after the pennies if you’re feeling the pinch, we were cheered to read this guide in the Guardian at New Year as to how to be a better person. Specifically Oliver Burkeman recommends not to take frugality too … Read more
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