Financial Expert

Are you wondering what proportion of your investment portfolio should be invested in brick and mortar assets such as residential and commercial property? If you’re interested in property asset allocation – this article is a great place to start. Buyers often find themselves in a quandary regarding property allocation; in part due to the high prices of properties in the …

Are you wondering what proportion of your savings should you offer as a house deposit as a first-time buyer? Buyers often find themselves in this quandary, in part due to the high prices of properties in the UK. Because the average price of a home in Britain is now £230,000 (2019), the deposit required to buy an ‘average home’ has …

How much truth sits behind the common maxim as safe as houses? In investor-speak, a bricks and mortar investment is an opportunity to buy something tangible and real. It signals security and lower risk. But how closely does this reflect reality? Master the basics of property investment This is a companion article to our ‘How to invest in property‘ ultimate …

About the psychology of investing series This article is part of a companion series to our ultimate investing guides which cover the basics of investing in a variety of asset classes: How to invest in stocks & shares How to invest in property How to invest in land How to invest in commodities Those guides explain how to access those …

In my article Passive funds versus active funds, I explain that the majority of active funds underperform the market. This news might feel very counterintuitive. I was certainly shocked when I first discovered this uncomfortable truth. Perhaps it feels so absurd because the active fund management industry is geared up to provide superior returns: Fund managers pay well and are …

Peer to Peer lending (P2P), is a new form of investment which appeared one decade ago. The return on investment falls somewhere in between bank interest account and the returns from investing in shares on the stock market. Unlike bank accounts, the FSCS £85,000 compensation scheme does not generally cover peer to peer lending investments. Some investors see peer to …

Introduction The ‘Dividend Growth Investing‘ strategy (DGI) has taken root as a favourite strategy across money blogs, particularly websites which are dedicated to saving for retirement. In August 2019 Vanguard reopened its Dividend Growth Fund (Ticker: VDIGX) to new investors, showing a willingness to cash in on the resurgence of its popularity. Depending on where you look online, you will …

Editor note: The article ‘Are Payday Loans a Scam?’ was originally published on Financial Expert in 2010, and received a positive media response. In the years that followed, pressure upon payday lenders from us and other campaigners snowballed. In 2015 and 2017 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finally imposed new, tougher rules on lenders. The article has been updated in …

This guide on how to avoid tax when investing will arm you with a series of tweaks you should consider making to your portfolio to maximise your returns. The reduction of taxes is a risk-free method to bring a basic investment portfolio up one notch in terms of sophistication, which is why we include this article in our intermediate learning …

Initial public offerings (IPOs) are milestones in the stock market calendar. An IPO is where a company gives the public an opportunity to buy shares in the company for the first time. This article will introduce you to initial public offerings and explain how to invest in an IPO. Also, we will highlight some common pitfalls for IPO investors. What …