Earning a crust: With Centrica, Rolls Royce, BHP Billiton and others cutting their dividend, where should investors look for income? March 31, 2016 As central banks have pushed down interest rates, income has become ever harder to find. While returns on cash savings have remained low, dividend-yielding stocks have looked like a source of stability. But now, trouble in the global economy is forcing reliable dividend payers such as Centrica and Rolls Royce to slash their payouts. Companies [...]
Five reasons to think twice before investing in buy-to-let March 31, 2016 You hear it all the time. A relative or a friend has just inherited some money. They want to make it work for them. So they make what seems like an ironclad financial decision: they invest in buy-to-let. Why is this so common? After all, property ownership is a relatively recent trend. Well, rental properties [...]
Why some IPOs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be March 30, 2016 Despite a high number of hotly anticipated flotations in recent years, 2016 has been slow going for initial public offerings. Now the dust has settled, it is interesting to examine the wide variations in performance. Compare Just Eat, Auto Trader, Poundland and AO World. All four came to market in the first few months of [...]
Fuel success: The tricks that will make you faster at work March 23, 2016 Entrepreneurs and business leaders alike seem to have developed an obsession with boosting their own productivity. From apps to manage our time to installing sleeping pods in offices, we’re all concerned about how to get as much done as possible. This idea of “hacking” productivity, to discover new shortcuts to maximise efficiency, can apply to [...]
Tom Hiddleston shines in High Rise, a stylish adaptation of JG Ballard’s architectural dystopia March 17, 2016 Dir. Ben Wheatley | ★★★★☆ "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.” The opening sentence of JG Ballard’s High Rise is up there with the English literary canon’s very best. It’s all [...]
Budget 2016: Chancellor George Osborne has broken two of his three golden fiscal rules. Here’s what economists are saying… March 16, 2016 Keen to depict himself as a safe pair of hands, George Osborne introduced three golden fiscal rules after last year's general election. Unfortunately for the chancellor, he has already broken two of them, while the third is hanging by a thread. Rule 1 concerned the welfare cap, which Osborne breached towards the end of last year following an abrupt U-turn [...]
The eight best dim sum in London: where to find the pick of these steamed delicacies March 15, 2016 We recommend the best dim sum in this great city of ours. 1. Hutong 31 St Thomas St, London SE1 Why not eat your dim sum up London’s biggest sky scraper? Hutong has a large selection of dim sum, with highlights including shredded turnip puffs with spring onion and shrimp rolls with thousand-year egg. 2. [...]
From the Personal Savings Allowance and Dividend Allowance to the Help to Buy Isa, how can savers make the most of their Isa this tax year? March 15, 2016 The world of Isas was once a sleepy one. At every Budget, the chancellor would typically increase the amount you could contribute each tax year by some measure of inflation. You had a simple choice between putting that money into a cash or a stocks and shares Isa (or a slightly restrictive combination of the [...]
Know your audience: Quantcast CEO Konrad Feldman talks starting out in Silicon Valley and IPO March 14, 2016 Over the last decade, the marketing industry has laid down its scatter-gun and embraced big data, creating a virtuous circle which promises to make the ecosystem more efficient. Extant viewability issues aside, marketers can reach those likely to buy their products, publishers can monetise better, and consumers, in theory, are served ads they are likely [...]
Damien Hirst restaurant Pharmacy 2 review: Why this Pharmacy is a cure for your foodie ills March 8, 2016 I feel like I should start this review with a personal anecdote about Damien Hirst. Everybody seems to have one, like the time he pulled his foreskin through a hole in his trousers, pretended it was a blob of chewing gum and got people to try to brush it off. My anecdote would recall a [...]