Humans are terrible investors. Our brains are primarily driven by emotion and, in certain situations, it can make us act irrationally. This presents a problem for traditional economics, where there is a presumption that everyone acts rationally. To demonstrate this, imagine I offer you a game to play. A simple coin-toss: heads or tails. If you win, I will give you £1; if you lose, you...
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2016 has started in spectacularly poor fashion, eerily reminiscent of 2008 – a story that didn’t end well. In the furore of doom-and-gloom headlines, we prefer to ask a slightly more unorthodox question: How does it make you feel? If all this uncertainty* makes you feel anxious then you should try to go back to basics and follow these three rules: 1. Understand your risk tolerance: research from...
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April heralds a number of major changes to tax and pension rules (as outlined in previous editions of this newsletter). One, that has so far avoided most of the headlines, is the change to the taxation of dividends and the introduction of a new dividend allowance. From April, everyone will be able to receive £5,000 of dividends without incurring any extra income tax. In the right circumstances,...
Read MoreWelcome to the latest edition of the Kennedy Black Quarterly Private Client Newsletter. First off, we are delighted to be able to say that Kennedy Black Wealth Management recently won not one but two prestigious awards: Boutique Wealth Management Firm of the Year and Financial Planning Product of the Year (for our INTELLIGENT WEALTH MAP planning tool). As well as that announcement, we also cover a few interesting...
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