One of the things that I have always found myself good at is making sure that I find enough time to do the things I love doing.

I spend my whole working life talking about this with clients, and so it’s also vital I 'walk the talk'. Seeing yet another client reducing work to spend more time sailing/golfing/travelling or whatever they are into is always very satisfying.

It’s the same with friends who quite often use me as a sounding board – "do you think I should look at this Graeme" and "is that a sensible thing to do?" It comes with the territory of being a financial planner I suppose.

Having turned 50 last year, and seeing 51 looming in March, I sometimes ask myself " where did that year go then?!" It does seem like 5 minutes not 365 days!

So after promising myself last year to travel to a long fancied European city each March with a friend who shares my love of history/food/wine/running etc, next month we are off to Jerez.

Ahh, I can taste the Tapas already!

Lovely daughter Charlotte, turned 12 going on 21, is now amazingly grown up all of a sudden. She is on holiday this week, and it would be so easy to get on with client work (and writing newsletters!) to find the week gone and we haven’t had some father/daughter time. 

So we are going to see Avator at our local Imax Cinema, and no doubt fit in popcorn and a chocolate ice cream. It is supposed to be an incredible film, so we are looking forward to it already.

Then there is my Dad, who is 79 this year. His poor eyesight means that he had to give up the car two years ago. So he and Mam love to be taken out for lunch, and see Charlotte blossoming. So we will make this happen before the cinema by visting a cracking pub restaurant that they love.

Dad also loves talking about the family tree almost as much as me! I am now pretty good at using the various search engines on the internet, and he invested in broadband recently to make it easier for us when I visit. Way to go Dad!

If you haven’t got into your family history yet but would like to, then just let me know and I will help if I can. Have 'a dip' with the 1911 census (google it) by inputting, say, a grandfather and see where they lived, and with other tools you can get back to the mid 1800s usually quite easily.

I will also reach another landmark come next month. I will become a pensioner! What, at age 51 I hear you ask? Well, yes.

I was very lucky to have a very good pension scheme with the Medical Sickness Society built up in the 1980s and 90s. I was aware that due to recent rule changes, I could take it before April, but would then have to wait to at least age 55 before I had my next chance.

Of course there are actuarial penalties if taken now, however, having looked at all the figures it makes sense. Just like I give advice to clients thinking of taking benefits early, you need to do your due dilligence. Basically, it would take around 17 years for my smaller pension taken now, be 'overtaken' by a higher pension at age 55. 

So it makes sense. Do I want to do lots of living between now age 68, or wait until my 70s? Hmmm.

Talking of the MSS, it was quite ironic that while writing this an old MSS client from my Kent days has emailed me. He had remained loyal to MSS when I left Kent in 2000, and I accepted this as he is that sort of guy. But he has got to the point now where he has lots of products that have been sold to him, but has no idea if he is on track to achieve his goals in life. He saw the way we work on our website and wants to learn more.

So not only will MSS be paying me money through my pension, they are still sending me clients regularly by remaining a sales organisation! Sweet irony.

So, all in all, I guess that the most important lesson I have learnt in life is – LIVE IN THE NOW.

By the way, I asked my dad what it was like to have a son who is a pensioner. He is still considering his answer.

Q. I invested £50,000 into a With Profits Bond in 2000 on the advice of my adviser. He has told me that as it hasn’t performed very well, and because the plan has a 10 year option where there are no penalties if I cash it in, he is recommending I take out another With Profits Bond with a different company.

Reading articles on your website and others, this type of investment seems to have fallen out of favour. Why is this?

A. With Profits Bonds were incredibly popular in the 1990s and into the early noughties. In 2001, something like £15bn worth of this type of bond was sold. Even in 2008,  £3.4bn found its way into With Profits Bonds.

You are right that this type of investment is not favoured by many financial planners. Some advisers do continue to recommend them to their clients – maybe the 7% commission from the product provider is too hard to resist…

There are a few negatives:

• they are tax inefficient as the fund is taxed at source at the basic rate
• even worse if you are a higher rate tax payer, you will be hit for more tax on taking any money out
• the often quoted 'you can take out 5% of your money each year without a tax charge' is simply a return of your capital and is tax deferred, not avoided 
• the insurance company commonly also has penalties if you want access to funds
• these bonds lack transparency of what charges the company are taking annually
• high initial commissions could reduce the value of your investment
• there are many alternatives available for you to invest your money!
• and, crucially, the annual bonuses and returns from with profits bonds have been falling during recent years

And some positives: 

• if you ARE a higher rate taxpayer (HRT) then you will only pay  basic rate tax on the underlying fund during the life of  the investment (providing you don't withdraw more than 5% pa)
•  if you then cash in the bond/it matures and you are still  a HRT you could then assign the bond to, for example, your spouse/partner if they are a basic rate taxpayer. No further tax would be due in their hands at that time.

Remember, your adviser will have earned commission 10  years ago on this money, and by the look of it will be doing this again. Ask yourself if he is doing this for your benefit or his/hers?

Readers of Financial Tips will have seen many articles that we have written talking about how to invest your money. It goes something like this:

Check if you even need to invest more by having your planner build you your own financial forecast. After all, if your big picture looks very good, why not spend more/semi retire/gift to children and therefore reduce any inheritance tax issues?

Presuming investing is sensible, then:

• check your capacity for risk
• buy your risk assessed funds that make up your portfolio at the 'wholesale' price through a Wrap Platform (Admin Centre)
• Use lower cost passive funds that track the market
• Be as tax efficient as possible by using tax wrappers, like an ISA
• Rebalance and review each year to ensure your risk levels remain the same as when you started

So lets look at some tracker funds, which are becoming ever more popular.

By their very nature, they are supposed to track a given market. Trackers tend to be cheap because you don't have to pay for the stock selection expertise of a fund manager. With a fund managed by a manager, hoping he/she can beat the market, there inevitably will be extra costs, not least of which will be the costs of buying and selling shares.

So trackers should cost less, and since they aim to replicate the market return, logically their performance should come somewhere in the middle of the thousands of competing active funds.

Sounds logical doesn’t it?

So how do trackers actually measure up against managed funds?

Well, if we look at the UK market, and the UK All Companies sector, a fund here will hold most of their assets in UK shares, and their aim will be the growth of capital.

There are, according to a recent study by lovemoney.com, 321 funds in this sector, and the results over a 5 year period were:

% growth    5 year sector ranking
Tracker fund                                   5 years          out of 321 funds

HSBC FTSE 250 Index                     40.2%                  32

Halifax UK FTSE All Share Index      30.6%                  70

L&G UK Index                                  28.7%                  82

F&C FTSE All Share Tracker              27.8%                 87

M&G Index Tracker                           27.7%                 89

Gartmore UK Index                           27%                    90

Fidelity Moneybuilder UK Index        26.7%                  93

Scottish Widows All Share                26.6%                  94

AXA UK Tracker                                 26.5%                  97

Liontrust Top 100                             25.9%                 103

So, this study echoes many others done over the years. Far from being somewhere in the middle of the rankings, because of their very low costs, trackers regularly outperform managed funds!

To further emphasise this, we read a recent Wealth Management article in the Mail On Sunday. An ex fund manager was 'spilling the beans', and was sharing his thoughts on why active fund management was fatally flawed.

His name is Alan Miller, who has been a fund manager at Gartmore, Jupiter and New Star. His remit was to beat the returns of the stock market, but he became increasingly disillusioned, not only with the difficulty of beating the market regularly, but with the realisation that the average investor is "astonishingly badly served".

He bases this on what he calls the five 'truths':

1. High annual fees have no correlation with superior returns. Quite often the most expensive funds are the worst performers.
2. When they reach a certain size, most retail investment funds become more cautious and end up tracking the market. Of course, they may still charge high fees.
3. Few fund managers regularly outperform the market.
4. Essentially, the average fund manager will deliver a return equivalent to the index – minus costs. The more an active manager sells and buys shares, the more likely his fund will underperform because of higher costs.
5. Many funds are too complicated to justify even higher charges.

They should keep it simple.

So the 'poacher turned gamekeeper' view is very clear and perhaps it's time to avoid active funds.

What we find quite depressing, however, is that he then goes on to advocate the type of trackers that we have been advocating for 6 years now, saying that he only recently stumbled across them!

He obviously doesn’t read this newsletter!

Key Considerations

Academic evidence abounds that Active Managed Funds do not deliver over time, and they are usually expensive.

Don’t be caught out – it will most likely cost you.

Acion Point

If you are invested in managed funds thorough your ISAs, Pensions or Unit Trusts, really think about the reasons you bought them. Were they sold to you years ago? Have you reviewed them recently?

Investigate the costs and performance of your funds. If you have an adviser, ask them why you are invested in them.

Above all – take action!

(If you want to know how we can help just get in contact).

This month I was going to look ahead at 2010 and consider what might lie in store for us all.

If I had done that, no doubt I would have looked back in 12 months and realised it was a stupid idea with my 'predictions' way off mark, thus allowing me to join Alistair Darling and his annual Budget GDP growth projections of late (which, as you may be aware, have often been dismissed by many economists as being totally unrealistic).

The great news is that I have a good excuse to avoid all of that dry talk.

The arrival of my baby daughter just before Christmas!

My wife was due to give birth on January 19th, but baby decided to come early. Here's how it all happened…

21st December, 3.30am

I was woken to the words "My waters have broken"!!!

Being in a state of shock, I confirmed to my wife that this was definitely the case (she didn't want to look).

'Operation Baby' was now in full swing…

Bizarelly, my wife had packed her hospital bag the night before (did she know?) so we were pretty much 'good to go'.

A quick call to the hospital confirmed that we had to get down there pronto as the baby was a month premature.

We drove to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle at 4am, which incidentally is a great time to travel

My wife was 'plugged in' and the monitoring started. By 6am she was moved to a delivery room and the birthing ball was put to good use.

Fast forward to 2pm and we now had the gas and air and diamorphine, much to the relief of mother-to-be. Labour was really motoring now and at 5pm the midwife said she expected baby to arrive by 7pm.

Well, she was spot on! At 6.27pm Ava Isabelle was born, weighing in at 5lb, 10. Mum was totally exhausted but absolutely delighted. I'm sure you know the feeling if you're a parent.

Here's Ava a couple of days later.

Mum and Ava managed to leave hospital on Christmas Day, so it was certainly the best Christmas present one could hope for!

Since then, the last month has been one of those learning curves that I'm sure will continue forever. But the alarm calls at 2am have been well worth it

Q. I have 2 personal pension plans and am thinking of taking the benefits from these in the near future. I'm 52 now and have read that the age that I can use the proceeds from these plans will change in April 2010. Can you tell me more?

A. Yes, you're right, the rules will change at the start of the next tax year. At the time of writing (January 2010) you are able to take the benefits of your personal pensions from age 50. On April 6 2010 this will change to age 55.

So, if you think that you'll need to utilise the proceeds prior to your 55th birthday, you'll need to take action now. And by now, I mean immediately, as you'll need to submit all the necessary paperwork to your pension provider asap – they'll need sufficient time to process all the paperwork prior to April. Also, don't forget that if you are purchasing a pension annuity you can shop around all providers for the best rate by using the Open Market option (OMO). 

One alternative to an annuity is to utilise Unsecured Pension (often referred to as Drawdown). This is where you can take your entitlement to the 25% tax free cash lump sum, with the remainder of the fund continuing to be invested (preferrably with the right amount of risk for your comfort zone). You can elect to receive an income from this fund subject to Government limits. 

The good news is that the lower limit is zero so you don't actually have to take an income. Do bear in mind though that Unsecured Pension should only be used by those with a minimum pension fund value of 100k.  

This week we have a guest article from specialist dental solicitor Edwin Ross. Edwin looks at a new twist for the sole practitioner – Who will get the practice if you die before retirement?

Take it away Edwin…

Are you a sole practitioner?  Have you ever considered what would happen to your practice in the event of your death?  Under general dental law, as a sole practitioner, on death your estate has three years to find a buyer.  But what if you have an NHS contract?

In those circumstances, your local primary care trust is obligated to provide continuing service for your patients. 

Your NHS contract is terminated seven days after your death, unless the PCT agrees with your executors to extend that time for three months.

The PCT can opt to extend this period to six months if they know of another contractor who can provide services you would have provided, but for your death.

To extend this PCT agreement, the BDA recommends: ‘In order to obtain this agreement, the personal representatives have to confirm in writing that they are employing or engaging another dentist or dentists, to provide units of dental activity, which would entail employing a locum’.

This means that during an initial period of shock and grief, the personal representative(s) (which is likely to be the dentist’s widow or widower) will have to contact the PCT/LHB to gain their written agreement for continuance of contract.

For sole practitioners it is therefore recommended that their personal representatives are aware that they need to contact the PCT/LHB (include contact person and telephone number) within seven days and that the PCTs/LHBs written agreement needs to be obtained.

The PCT/LHB can also agree (but is not obliged to do so) that the contract can be continued for a further period of up to six months following the end of the three month period. 

The only reason for such an extension is that the PCT/LHB thinks that another contractor may wish to enter into a contract/agreement to provide the services. 

This obviously covers a situation where the practice is being sold and the PCT/LHB agrees that it will commission a service from the new owner (which may not necessarily be on the same terms).

In the event of your death, the continuance of the contract process is not at all geared to protect the goodwill value of your practice, or the interests of your family.  Organising a locum to cover your contract is a major responsibility but a short term palliative.

Making personal representatives (widow/widower or grown up children) aware they need to act quickly under tragic circumstances puts a huge responsibility upon the very people who need protecting.

To organise a locum, get PCT approval and decide how to proceed with the practice within three months is asking a lot of the family during a difficult time.

To avoid this situation, there are alternative possibilities available:

1. Set up mutual agreements with another trusted local NHS sole practitioner, either on a temporary basis to protect the practice on death or a binding agreement for the surviving dentist to purchase the deceased dentist’s practice (perhaps with each of them entering into a minority partnership in the other’s practice).
2. Forming a limited company to hold the NHS contract during your lifetime. This may not be acceptable to the PCT.  The PCT may require conditions to control the shareholding ownership of the dental limited company. Ensure a non-family member is appointed in your will to be a special executor, to appoint a locum and secure continuity of the practice, deal with the PCT and to seek the sale of the practice on the best possible terms.

The importance of making a valid will is abundantly clear.  By planning for your death, and appointing executors to ensure the continuance of your practice you are protecting your business, and your family.

Without a will, until the probate court has granted letters of administration to the next of kin, no one has legal authority to make decisions about your practice.  By the time letters of administration are granted, it may be too late to protect the family from losing the value of the asset, whereby the PCT would allocate your patients around other NHS practices in the area.

Edwin Ross is the founder of Edwin Ross Solicitors. You can contact him on 0161 720 7200 or email.

Key Considerations

Hi, it's Ray again. I guess the easy part is reading this article. Just thinking about the implications should motivate all dentists into exploring their options and then to take action if necessary.

I encourage you to give Edwin a call to discuss your situation if you're concerned at all. Edwin has kindly agreed to speak to any readers of this newsletter without charge, so it's a great opportunity to pick his brain. Take action and call him today!

As I write this, I am stranded at home in the Northumberland hills. Looking out over the valley into the village of Rothbury, it is a picture of almost pure white.

The view would grace any Christmas card, and I am reminded of talk in recent years of 'we don’t really get bad winters like we used to'. I have even said this myself, and it is a big reminder of how important it is not to take nature for granted!

Charlotte, our daughter just turned 12, is very happy with the snow. Her school has been closed since Monday and there looks to be little prospect of going back before next week.

Of course it is great fun to pelt snowballs at Daddy, and it is lovely to see the enjoyment she gets sledging with best friend Zebbie.

I had to smile – nay, laugh out loud – when the subject of climate change was on TV the other day. Apparently, the very ‘super computers' which predicted a 'BBQ summer', and a mild winter, are the ones which have predicted that we will be burned to a crisp by 2050-2060. I will say no more!

Looking back at 2009, there were lots of highlights for Ray and myself. For Ray and his wife Laura, they were blessed just before Christmas with the birth of their first child Ava.

Ava was a month early, and as you can imagine it was a bit fraught, but all is well. Ray of course is very happy but very very tired!

In no particular order, here are the a few of the highs and lows that occur to me that happened in 2009:

Highlights

• We are helping more and more doctors and dentists with their financial planning. It is very satisfying to make a real difference to people's lives, and January has started with a bang as I have agreed to work with 5 new clients
• There is a huge amount of talk in financial services about how to change from commission based salespeople to fee based planners. This is because by 2012, all advisers have to achieve certain advanced qualifications, work in a certain way and charge fees. I myself need a couple more exams, but we made these changes six years ago!
• Raised over £700 for the Alzheimer’s Society by doing the Great North Run
• Collected 46 Xmas gifts for the Salvation Army to give to children in needy families
• Did not have any worried clients thinking about selling their investments in January to March when the market kept going  down. This is because of the way we advise and construct our risk assessed portfolios, and ensure such monies are for the long term. Since March, portfolios have increased markedly
• We believe in passive investments, and it’s nice to see that the message is getting to across to many, with index type funds becoming more popular
• Making steady progress with my novel about Robert The Bruce
  with ‘only’ 4 years to go!
• My Dad's eye operation has worked so far, meaning he still has some sight
• Little Ava decided not to wait!

Lowlights

• Bankers illustrate their massive greed with utter contempt for the tax payer
• Ditto MPs and MEPs
• The Financial Services Authority has failed on so many levels, and have awarded themselves ever bigger salaries
• Apparently our local council has also decided to increase their pay by 20%
• The same council fail to plough and grit our hill until our constant complaints shamed them to take some action
• The 'government' have said that they are the only ones to get us out of the mess they have created
• Taxes will have to rise because of their incompetence
• When Blair became PM in 1997, 1 in 7 worked for the government – last year it was 1 in 4
• The number of spindoctors employed by government has more than doubled
• Sunderland football team show their usual consistent  inconsistency 

I could go on here but I won’t!

Let’s hope 2010 shows a steady improvement in all our lives, and Ray and I wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year.

Q. I keep reading about 'Wrap Platforms’ in the press, and have noticed you also use them for your clients' investments.

My own adviser says he prefers to use the 'tried and tested' insurance companies for my ISAs and Pension policies.

What are the main advantages of using this way to manage your investments?

A. This is a subject that is being talked about far more. We have covered this in previous issues and you can read these articles below#. Since then the various Wrap Platforms have continued to attract more and more of the share of the investment market.

One of the companies we use is called Transact, which has been in business for over a decade, and the main benefits we find are:

• all your investments in one place making admin easy
• access to specialised low cost passive funds that in the past were only accessible to the super rich
• totally explicit and quite often lower costs
• easy to pay agreed fees to your planner / adviser 
• it puts YOU in control of YOUR money
• discounts for larger portfolios

We note that your adviser prefers to stay with what we call the 'old world' by continuing to use Life Company funds. 

We agree they are tried and tested, and that is why we hardly ever use them!

# Article 1
# Article 2
# Article 3 
  

Regular readers will know that after extensive research and much experience, we favour passive investments. That is to say that our clients will accept the level of return that fits their appetite for risk over the long term. In addition, we can access institutional funds instead of retail funds and reduce costs which result in 'performance drag'.

This way of investing is backed by investment guru Warren Buffett who said:

"Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees".

Those following this path are sure to beat the net results (after fees and expenses) delivered by the great majority of investment professionals.’

In many cases we also find that the new client does not need to take as much risk as they are doing, and we can reduce the risk whilst still allowing them to achieve their goals in life.

However, there are still many investors who are not aware of this, or who feel that they can genuinely beat the market in the long term despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Many of these investors will use well known investment managers with household names. Well, an article in the press came to our attention recently which, putting aside the passive/active debate, we feel is quite shocking.

We will not name this company, but it decided to float on the London Stock Exchange. It was valued at £676 million, despite losing money last year, and having debts of around £300 million.  

As a result of the flotation, the two key fund managers received £15 million & £9.5 million! The rest of the employees then got £14 million in Christmas cash, and also have something like £70 million in shares.

So, what about all the investors who have given their money to this firm in the hope that they will perform. What did they get?

Well, many of this company's funds have languished at the very bottom of the performance tables.

It looks like the familiar story of growing their own wealth whilst totally ignoring what should be their real remit which is growing your wealth!

Of course, this story of greed is not unique, but adds to our determination to operate as we do now by largely being able to ignore this type of company, and always putting you the client first.

In a similar vain, we met new clients recently who had getting on for a million pounds in various investments such as ISAs and Pensions. Their main remit was to get organised and develop a strategy to be able to work part time from their early 50s.

They had used a standard commission based adviser up until now, but found that he did not contact them very often unless they wanted to buy another investment. This is very common, but what shocked them was that they were not aware of the considerable amounts of commission the adviser was taking each year putting aside new investments.

This is called trail commission, and is typically 0.5% of the total investments held. The insurance companies and investment companies (like the one above) pay this automatically to the adviser. So what it boiled down to is that this adviser was being paid something like £5,000 pa from their investment pot for…nothing!

If he was giving a fantastic service with regular reviews etc then you could argue that is one thing, but as is only to common, this is not the case. We find that what particularly galls new clients is that they have no idea that they are paying this money out!

By the way, if you have bought products in the past directly from the investment company, you may find that this 0.5% that the adviser would normally receive is simply absorbed by the company.

Key Considerations

When you work with an adviser, make sure that they are fee based and will carry out the work you want done not only now, but on an ongoing basis.

You then agree with your adviser what fees you will pay to get this service – this should be a written agreement. But if all they talk about is investments, and it's a fee not a commission, then get another opinion.

Action Point

Make a list of all your investments and ask your adviser or company what costs you are paying annually. If you find, like many investors,that you are paying out hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year, what are you getting for this?

If you would like an impartial opinion, contact us.

Last weekend my wife and I took our daughter Charlotte to visit London. Charlotte had expressed an interest to see the 'bright lights', and Xmas seemed a good time to go.

She particularly wanted to go on the London Eye, see the London Dungeon and do some shopping. I also suggested an open top bus tour – weather permitting.

Well, we got the train down on the Friday, arrived at 9pm in the hotel, and after a bite to eat hit the sack. Up early on Saturday the rain had held off so we went for the open top bus tour. Even after living in Kent for many years we had never done this. It was really enjoyable, but very very cold!

The girls moaned a bit, but seemed happy enough, and the commentary was excellent. Oh the things you learn. Then we passed the London Dungeon, and Charlotte changed her mind about going in. Too scary apparently!

As I am writing a novel about Robert The Bruce, as we passed Westminster Hall I was reminded that this was the very building that fellow scot William Wallace was taken to to be sentenced to death in 1305. A little further into the bus tour, we then passed a pub called the 'Hung, Drawn & Quartered, where Wallace was killed in this very way.

Many of you will remember the Mel Gibson film Braveheart, and although this film got a lot wrong historically, my research has shown that Wallace and Bruce were incredibly brave and determined individuals. They were fighting to save Scotland against massive odds from Edward Longshanks, a terrible adversary, and went through hardships we would find hard to imagine today.

Back to the 21st century!

Soon we passed the London Eye, and decided to go the following morning. We eventually hopped off at the Sherlock Holmes pub, and had some hot food to revive us. I also took the opportunity to sample some real ales – in the interests of research of course

Unfortunately I was then dragged to the – SHOPS! They chose Covent Garden (originally Convent Garden was run by nuns), and senior and mini management took over. I just did as I was told, and pretty soon the girls had an impressive array of carrier bags.

There was also a few jugglers and comedy acts performing as they do, and I must say it was almost bearable as we homed in on a hot mulled wine stall.

Then it was back to the Hotel and a nice meal, and on the Sunday morning we went on the London Eye. There was only one small problem – it was absolutely pouring with rain. Anyway, after a bit of a queue we got on, and off into the sky we went.  

Now I must say at this point that I am not good with heights. Over the years I have learned to 'face the fear and do it anyway', but this very high wheel really tested me. It is 450 feet high at the top, and seemed to me to be every inch of this as I grimly smiled at Charlotte, who was fine, and my wife Aly who took lots of photos and really enjoyed it.

It was a very interesting 35 minutes, and although the rain and mists restricted the views, it was very impressive. Back on terra firma I breathed a sigh of relief, and we then had to make a dash for the coffee shop with the rain still lashing down.

Then a taxi back to Kings Cross for 3 o'clock, and our train back to Newcastle. Perfect timing, a nice sandwich and cup of tea, and with a novel to read, all was well. An hour later we were a few minutes out of Peterborough when we felt a small bump, and the train slowed to a stop. After a minute or two, there came the announcement that someone had committed suicide by standing in the path of the train!

What strange feelings came over us. Disbelief, shock, and compassion for the person who had been in such despair that they were driven to such an act. And what about about the poor driver?!

Knowing we were going to be delayed for quite awhile, I went to the buffet car to stock up on a few snacks and drinks. Talking to the barman, I couldn’t believe my ears when he informed several of us that suicides were almost a daily occurrence!!

Incredible!

We eventually got back home a couple of hours late at 9 o'clock, whereupon Charlotte announced that she had just remembered some Maths homework that was needed for the next day!

Oh well.

Snippets of News

Ray and I have quite a bit of CPD to do each month, and on one of the recent events we attended talking about the economy, there were some interesting facts and predictions (predictions that may well be right or wrong!).

- 7% of the population earn over £100k pa
- 3% of the population earn over £150k pa
- When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, the public sector employed 1 in 7. It is now 1 in 4
- The average public sector worker now earns £2k pa more than their average private equivalent
- After the election, VAT may well increase to 20%
- China is talked about as massively influential for growth.  But it accounts for only 4.6% of GDP compared to the USA at 27.35%. At present rates of growth, China will overtake the USA in 2050
- It is estimated that over the last year the stock market was 79% driven by sentiment. Over the last five years the figure is 18%
- 5000 bankers will be paid more than £1m this year