In this article.
Welcome to 2018.
Stock Market Risks – Flight of capital.
Bitcoin and other Crypto Currency
Care Fees Planning – Scam Busting.
Estate Planning – Will Writing
2018 is with us. Like it or not we’ll seem more changes this year than we did in the last.
The more erudite of the Sunday papers are asking if Mrs May will continue in office, my guess is – it will depend on how childish some of her backbenchers get.
Interesting to note that some of the so called ‘smart money’ has already started to leave the UK in advance of a Labour victory either before or after the next fixed election. I personally feel that this ‘money leaving’ is due to a few other reasons…
UK Stock Markets at all time highs, driven by a weak pound which has increased earnings for some of the large businesses based on the UK but with income from the rest of world, as the pound starts to rise overseas profits will start to tumble.
Interest rates have started to rise which will strengthen the pound but with Brexit we are all just guessing. My view for this year is more caution, but that’s been the case for a number of years now.
Crypto Currency – once the Sun Money pages start to talk about any form of investing you can bet the ‘party is over’ and to a certain extent that’s true. The rise of Bitcoin and others has taken a few people by surprise.
In the same way a winner in the Grand National at 100-1 or a greyhound at Hackney Dogs at 75-1 takes gamblers by surprise.
Forget Bitcoin as an investment until you’ll accept it as payment for a second hand car or to have your pension paid in it. At the moment it’s very much a fad, like the internet was in 1998 – for geeks and speculators. Of course if you risk nothing you risk everything and Bitcoin is certainly higher risk than most other investments – for that reason there will be spectacular gains in the coming years and then some equally spectacular losses.
Once things settle down we’ll be left with some new technology that makes a lot of sense. It’s been called the democratisation of money and I think this makes sense. The technology is very interesting and will change a lot for all us – but at the moment Crypto Currencies are a bet not an investment.
Nursing Home Fees – Care Costs.
I’ll keep coming back to this subject until it finally sinks in and the ‘bad guys’ stop peddling their wares to an unwary public. My ‘scam report’ is available here – Care Fees
I don’t think for one moment we will see central Government accepting the costs of care for all of those that need it. For the same reason not everyone qualifies for housing benefit or other social security payments – not everyone will qualify to have their care costs covered.
If you are in your twenties or thirties – there is little support to provide you with a roof over your head and the same process applies if you are in your 80’s – it’s just the way it is.
Putting your home in a trust or any other scam you’d like to menton won’t work for Care Home costs in the same way it won’t work to claim Housing Benefit when you are fit and well. Sure there are some plans you can make and you should – just don’t try and avoid your responsibility.
Wills and Trusts – are further in the spotlight with the changes introduced last year in relation to Inheritance Tax bands – honestly if you’ve not reviewed your estate planning or revised your Last Will and Testament in the last five years let me know – I’ll review it with you and let you know what do next.
2018 is likely to bring more change than 2017 and 2016 combined. Personally I think that’s a good thing, sometimes things get a lot worse before they get better and we should be reminded of that more often. Stay safe and remember you can’t change events or happenings you can only change your reaction to them, sure there is plenty of negative and bad news to come, but there is also a lot of good stuff happening.
Richard
www.thefinancezone.co.uk
0774 007 6226