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special dividends

Ever heard the noise a fruit machine makes when you score three gold bars in a row?

Kerching! Kerching! Kerching!

Something similar can be heard gushing from the UK small cap sector at the moment, as public and private companies:

  • Bring forward paying their dividends ahead of April’s tax hike on income for £150,000+ earners.
  • Pay special dividends to get money out of the company and into shareholder’s hands, again ahead of that higher tax rate.

More on these special dividends

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Playing chicken with house prices

Playing chicken with house prices

The housing charity Shelter is highlighting the over-valuation in UK house prices by comparing house price rises with the price inflation of milk, bread or a chicken over the past four decades.

Comparing with 1971, Shelter says UK house prices have gone up 40-fold.

  • In 1971, the average UK  house cost £5,632
  • By 2008, the price was £227, 765

If various foods had gone up at the same rate we’d be paying:

  • £47 for a chicken
  • £20 for a jar of coffee
  • £24 pounds for a small portion of mushrooms

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Weekend reading: Real estate realities

Real estate and Weekend reading

My regular roundup of the week’s best money blogs and financial articles.

I went a bit crazy this week, with four articles on Anthony Bolton. (My last Bolton in China post has links to the other three). I also wrote about a Joseph Stiglitz lecture I attended, and a chap selling his future income for £1 million.

Regular readers may recall my goal to write shorter articles – the Bolton extravaganza was the sliced-and-diced result. But someone going deeper with more forethought was Adam Baker of ManVs Debt, who posted a three-part series on real estate at Get Rich Slowly.

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Bolton’s China trust is worth a small punt

Anthony Bolton

Over the course of today’s celebration of all things Anthony Bolton, or more specifically his Special Situations China Trust, we’ve looked at:

Now it’s time to give my own personal verdict!

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