Financial Expert

Part of my article series on investing mistakes. This article will explain a mistake made by new investors following active investing strategies. When actively trading, an investor is attempting to buy undervalued shares and sell shares when they have reached an optimal price point. Successful active trading is incredibly easy to describe, but incredibly difficult to pull off in practice. …

Part of my article series on investing mistakes. Enthusiasm and zeal can have a downside when investing. For this reason, it’s important to ‘dial it in’ and ensure you exercise control over your investing hobby. Investing versus collecting Investing and collecting are similar pursuits and probably engage the same parts of the brain. When you collect objects, you: Spend time …

Sometimes a big bet can really pay off. Take a look at some individual success stories from investing in the stock market in recent years: An investment in Apple Inc on 31 December 2009 would now be worth 10,000% of its original value. An investment in Tesla Inc at a similar time would be up by 2,500% An investment in …

If you’ve been comparing stockbrokers against one another online, you’ve probably noticed a stark difference in the fees they charge.  Some stockbrokers charge just £4.95 for a share trade, whereas others happily charge £13.95 to buy a share. The trade itself is exactly the same, so this level of price difference doesn’t feel sustainable. How does the more expensive broker …

Stockbrokers come in many shapes and sizes. There are the expensive boutique firms that offer a chat and tips over the phone before you trade (£££), and there are the low-cost ‘share dealing’ websites which give you little more than the bare minimum functionality of a stockbroker account from an equities perspective.  Then there’s the fund supermarkets, which specialise in …

At school, work and during retirement, we are encouraged to save money. It begins with the ‘piggy bank’ we are given as children++++ and is reinforced with encouragement from our parents. We’re asked to save our pocket money for larger items rather than spending it all each week on sweets and chocolate. Whether that behaviour takes hold or not, later …

Thanks to the evolution of the British stockbroker market, alongside improvements in technology and changes in investor appetite, the current selection of stockbrokers to choose from in the UK is absolutely mind boggling.  If you jump onto a stockbroker comparison service, you’ll first notice that brokers tend to be compared by their investing costs. This typically includes the platform fee …

This article is part of my Q&A series on financial advice. Today’s question is ‘Why you should not use a financial adviser?’ One of the biggest questions that investors grapple with is not how to find a financial adviser, but whether to use their services in the first place! After all, financial advisers are seen by some as a ‘luxury’; …

This article is part of my Q&A series on financial advice. Today’s question is ‘Do banks have financial advisers?’ With each year that passes, we seem to visit the bank branches less and less frequently. When we do visit a branch, it is usually to either conduct an unusual transaction, or speak to a staff member in person. This could …

This article is part of my Q&A series on financial advice. Today’s question is ‘Do financial advisers invest your money?’ The question of what a financial adviser does beyond giving a recommendation This is often a mystery until you’ve had your first meeting with a financial adviser. An adviser will use this face-to-face meeting, as an opportunity to get to …