by The Investor
on August 13, 2009
I went to two weddings last weekend, at opposite sides of the British Isles.
For practical reasons my girlfriend and had to drive from one to the other, which meant getting up at 7am on the Sunday after hitting the pillow at 3am the night before.
Roadworks on the Sunday morning also saw us getting dressed for the second wedding behind an outbuilding in a car park. You can’t fake class like that.
Attending two weddings in a weekend was great fun, but far too expensive. My personal finance tip would be to have less friends, so it’s less likely to happen to you.
When it comes to money and hosting weddings though, I realised that actually I do have something useful to offer.
I might be something of a perpetual bachelor (note: bribing all those brides to throw the bouquet away from my partner doesn’t come cheap!) but I’ve been to a couple of dozen weddings over the years, and watched what works and what isn’t worth the money.
Here then are a few less ordinary tips for any brides, grooms or anxious parents on how to throw a wedding on a budget from the point of view of the most important person there – the bride, the bride’s best friend, me!
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by The Investor
on August 10, 2009
You’re cooking dinner or walking in the countryside, when you get a whiff of some forgotten scent. Suddenly you’re transported back to another time, becoming for a moment the person you once were in the body of the person you’ve become.
Such flashbacks are the closest things we have to time machines.
The French writer Proust famously conjured up a lost past by biting into a madeleine cake. Scientists say the effect is due to the proximity of our oldest memories with the parts of our brain that process smells and sensations. They call it involuntary memory.
I had my own Proustian moment recently. It reminded me of how our perception of the value of money changes over time – or with a growing income and bank balance.
And it reminded me how I’ve tried to control my perception rather than have it control me.
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by The Investor
on August 8, 2009
This week provided plenty of laughs for those of us baffled, bemused and bored by the general public and big media’s approach to capitalism.
The cause of all the fuss were bank earnings, which in the UK has become a political football.
Commentators didn’t know whether to be pleased UK banks were making money, or annoyed that bankers hadn’t been lined up against the wall.
What made it even more complicated is that the greedy capitalists who own much of two of the biggest banks – Lloyds and RBS – are everyday UK taxpayers!
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by The Investor
on August 7, 2009
Investment trusts are companies that invest money in other companies, both listed and private, and/or other assets like bonds, property and private equity. They are in the business of trading and holding these assets for profit.
The particular kind of assets an investment trust holds depends on the mandate of that trust.
For instance, a trust may specialise in smaller companies, fixed income, overseas stocks, or one of a host of other themes, enabling investors to take interesting positions on the market.
There are also specialised property investment trusts that get tax breaks called Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). These deserve a future article in themselves.
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