New research has shown that a fifth of people over the age of 55 are expecting to have to work past their 70th birthday. Many of these are continuing their working lives because they have a large mortgage and/or no savings or private pension. Many will opt for ‘part-tirement’ and will switch from working full-time to part-time work.

Aviva interviewed over 1,400 people over the age of 55. More than half said they intend to retire between the ages of 66 and 74. Indeed, 18 per cent said they expect to retire between 71 and 74. The most common reason for continuing work was to improve their finances, although other reasons included to stop getting under their partner’s feet or to help keep their mind active.  Read more... (268 words, 1 image, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

New figures have shown that couples need around £600,000 in the bank if they want to retire. These figures show that the average pensioner needs an income of around twice the basic state pension in order to cover everyday costs such as food, clothing and petrol according to MGM Advantage.

The figures are a third higher than five years ago, and form a double blow when falling pension income and rising living costs are taken into consideration. This means that people need to start saving from an early age if they wish to save enough money to ensure they are able to retire on a sensible income. Pension incomes have started to decline thanks to ever-increasing average lifespans and lower returns currently from the financial markets.  Read more... (282 words, 1 image, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

For years now the most popular theory of investing has been the theory of efficient markets. However a new theory – the adaptive markets hypothesis – is gaining momentum and many people believe that it has important points for investors.

The efficient markets theory first came to prominence in the 1960s. However the major problem of the theory is that although it looks good on paper, markets are rarely as efficient in real life as investors do not always make fully rational choices and investments.  Read more... (374 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

SIPP is short for Self Invested Personal Pension and is a do-it-yourself pension scheme that allows you to choose how your retirement savings are invested.

Sipps allow you free rein as to where your money is invested whereas standard personal pensions tend to have quite narrow choices.

The beauty of Sipps are that if your funds start to struggle, you can take full control and switch the investment to other areas to make your nest egg grow further.  Read more... (570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Whilst the Bank of England’s low interest rates are benefiting those with variable rate loans and mortgages, savers are losing out massively. New research has shown that eight in ten savings accounts are effectively losing money.

Some savings accounts have been given rates as low as 0.05 percent. To put that into perspective, a basic rate tax payer with £5,000 in an account with this interest rate would receive £2 a year after tax; for a higher-rate tax payer, this equates to just £1.50 a year after tax. The low rates mean that savings rates are lower than the rate of inflation – September’s inflation rate was 1.1 percent, October is 1.5 percent – thus savers are losing money in real terms.  Read more... (237 words, 1 image, estimated 57 secs reading time)

Commodities are always a popular thing to trade, however one particular commodity seems to be catching the eye of many investors.

Water – the stuff we often take for granted – has so far been ignored by many investors however interest in this precious commodity is on the increase. So why has it been ignored so far? The first reason is that it isn’t often traded by itself. Many investors also look to the more traditional trades such as oil as these have the potential for big gains whereas water tends to be seen as quite a defensive strategy.  Read more... (259 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

The current upturn in the UK stock market is said to be being driven ‘ordinary’ householders buying shares because they are sick of the poor interest rates attached to their savings account.

The FTSE 100 index was pushed up 3.2 percent last week. This has followed a six month rally that has driven blue-chip shares up 50 percent over their March low.

Experts believe that both of these rallies are in part due to ordinary buyers, that is buyers who are not represented by big investment firms. Since June, the number of these buyers has risen to levels equal to the dotcom boom of 2000, and in the last three months, deals placed through execution-only stockbrokers has risen to over 4 million.  Read more... (294 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)