The Ordinary Investor

A mighty question.  Some go for the passive index funds. Others leave it to professional mutual funds.  Some people are avid fans of dividend growth investing – hugely popular among those creating a portfolio for financial independence. Some people firmly believe they can beat the market with small cap and risky stocks. Sometimes savvy investors do.  But, deep down, they know this performance isn’t sustainable year on year. Is it? Surely emotions get in the way leading to under-performance, and then more emotion. It’s a merry-go-round! So what should you do with your money? What is Active Management? These are funds run by professional managers and research teams who decide where your money is going to be invested on your behalf. Depending on the type of fund you choose, the aim is to generate a return that is greater then the market (you could also choose target return funds which aim to generate a constant return without loosing capital). It also me...

Advanced warning - this post is for those interested in a bit of science. What are commonly known as 'fats' are actually called fatty acids. These play an important part in a balanced diet and everybody needs a sufficient amount, but there are 'good' and 'bad' types of fat. Understanding the differences between the two types, and what foods they are found in will help you make healthy food choices. The 'bad' fat is Saturated. Labelled 'bad' as it increases levels of LDL (low density lipoproteins). This is linked to high cholesterol, which is one of the factors that contributes to coronary heart disease. A saturated fatty acid is a row of carbon atoms bonded, with single bonds, together with hydrogen atoms attached to each carbon. As you can see the carbon chains are completely and evenly filled with hydrogen atoms - in other words they are saturated with hydrogen. They also have a carboxyl group at the end (COOH), which is what makes...

Link Asset Services have just released their UK Dividend Monitor for 2017. A whopping £94.4bn in dividends were paid, up 10.5% year-on-year. This is partly due to large special dividends, notably £3.2bn from National Grid after its UK Gas Network sale, and the rebound in dividends from miners. An exchange rate gain of £2.1bn was recorded due to the fall in Sterling, although the strengthening towards the end of the year actually mean an FX loss in Q4. The biggest payers were Shell, HSBC BP, National Grid and GSK. Between them £34.4bn was paid - must literally be cash machines. We took a little haircut to the dividends in 2009, around a 25% decrease. While this would have hurt at the time, those who stayed invested would be sitting on handsome gains today. As can be seen dividends are due to remain relatively flat for 2018, possibly due to the strengthening Sterling. This post is aimed at my Mother. She, without fail, does the lottery weekly - in fact I think its a ...

Initial Article... An explanation of this website. 'You'll regret more of the things you don't do, than the ones you try'.  I’m not a fan of new year’s resolutions, perhaps that’s why it took nearly a month to set up the website and write an introduction! However, I am a fan of trying new things and pushing myself into uncomfortable situations.  At least if this experiment goes up in flames; I’ll still have eyebrows. While I like to follow the stock market and personal finance, writing is not my forte. So one of my new aims is to publish a few thoughts every now and then to bolster my literate skills. Hopefully articles will be of sufficient interest to build a small following – you might find a few unicorn topics thrown into the mix that have nothing to do with finance. Anytime you can combine creating real value with a bit of fun, you’ve hit a jackpot.  ~ DM