Under The Money Tree

Author: Under The Money Tree

  • BRIC Basis: Time For a Bet?

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    What a difference a year makes. This time last year the FTSE 100 had got the year of to a roaring start, soaring from just under the 6,000 mark to 6,529 on the 14th March. That was a whopping 11% gain in two and a half months. This year started in a promising fashion too…

  • Longtermism: The Secret to Investing Success

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    The thing I hate about investing is the waiting. I realised a few years ago that getting rich slowly was a much better bet than trying to make it happen quickly. With a well thought out strategy and a long term view it’s possible to stack the odds heavily in your favour. The hardest part…

  • Unilever PLC – Buy

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    Dove soap, Hellmans mayonnaise, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Surf detergent, CIF cleaner, Lipton tea are just a few of the household goods brands that Unilever owns. There’s a very good chance there are several Unilever products in your home right now. I’ve been looking at the stock for a while now and believe now…

  • Busy Times Under The Money Tree

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    It’s a busy time Under the Money Tree. For various reasons the final two months in the UK tax year are a busy time here at UTMT HQ. Here’s what’s on the agenda… Work bonus As discussed recently I have just received my annual ‘incentive’ bonus. To be honest it is not a massive incentive…

  • The Money Saving Rules

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    There must be a million and one ‘how to save more dosh’ articles on the internet. In this article I’ll be sharing some of the techniques and approached I use to maximize our savings. Hopefully you’ll learn a bit more than the usual ‘take your lunch to work with you’ or ‘pay off your debt…

  • Bonus Day at the Bank

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    I work in a bank and as a result, each year I’m involved in the annual bonus game.  Disclaimer: Though I work in a bank, I’m not a ‘banker’ per se, but a Risk Analyst. This means that I am a cost to the firm rather than a revenue generator. As a result I didn’t…

  • Volatility: An Investors Guide

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    If one thing is certain in this investing game, it is that markets will rise and fall (no matter what Gordon told us). Combine the herd mentality of human beings with a free market economy and you’re guaranteed to end up with a roller coaster ride of prices, yields, growth, boom and bust i.e. volatility.…

  • The Outlook for Emerging Market Equities in 2014

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    Emerging Markets have had a pretty poor 2013 which has been in stark comparison to the performance of UK and US equities. A strong dollar, political instability and weak economic growth appear to have been te main causes of this performance. But what is in store for the year ahead? Below is a comparison between…

  • Household Savings Ratios

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    The Office of National Statistics define household savings ratio as follows: The household saving ratio is the amount of saving that households make in relation to available resources. As you can see below in the early 2000’s the average savings ratio was falling and went as low as 0.2% in 2008. After sharply spiking as…

  • The Buy To Let Trap

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    My portfolio contains 3 buy to let properties that are rented out. Each property has a mortgage on it which over the years I have paid down to some extent. However I have been facing the time honored buy to let issue: when should I pay down the mortgages on my buy to let properties?…