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Please click the link below for our latest monthly figures for the five model portfolios.  The figures show the performance of our model portfolios versus various indices over the month of May.

May 2021 Panel Performance Figures

Click here for further information on the investment management service we offer, or contact one of our consultants.

Read our latest update on our March 2021 Sustainability Portfolio factsheet

Please click the link below for our latest monthly figures for the five model portfolios.  The figures show the performance of our model portfolios versus various indices over the month of March.

March 2021 Panel Performance Figures

Click here for further information on the investment management service we offer, or contact one of our consultants.

Establishing a regular savings plan out of surplus income could be an extremely effective way to help you build your wealth and achieve your financial goals over the medium to long term.  As we are at the start of a new tax year, this is particularly relevant as funds can be invested in a Stocks and Shares ISA, whereby UK residents over the age of 18 have an allowance of £20,000 per tax year.  Junior ISAs can be considered for children, where the allowance is £9,000.  Any growth and income from such ISAs if free of tax and therefore can be very effective as a savings plan.

There are a number of benefits to “drip-feeding” even small sums of money into an investment portfolio such as an ISA each month via direct debit, as I will outline in this article.

Firstly, it can help to achieve smoother returns and balance out the risk.  Part and parcel of investing is the fact that investments go up and down in value.  Investing after prices have fallen means buying into your portfolio at a lower price and bringing down the average price you have paid since the start of the investment.  This is known as “pound-cost averaging” and through regular investing, the peaks and troughs will be ironed out or smoothed over the longer term.

Furthermore, market timing is extremely difficult and even investment professionals do not have a crystal ball and cannot predict with any certainty which direction markets will move in the short term.  Therefore, regular investing helps take the guess work out of when to invest, as investments will be made automatically on a given date each month.  In fact, the average investor tends to follow the herd and invest more when the market is rising and less when it is falling, which will lead to worse returns over the long term.

Investing smaller sums on a regular basis could enable you to start investing sooner than if you were to wait for a lump sum to build up.  This gives you more time to take advantage of the growth potential of compounding investment returns.

You also do not have to commit to a fixed amount each month, and can change the amount invested if required to suit your circumstances.  Even investing a relatively small amount each month can lead to a significant pot over the long term, as shown in the following table, which assumes net investment returns of 4% per annum.

Another benefit is the fact that you will not forget to invest as the investments are made automatically and you should view the investments as part of your regular monthly spending.

Finally, when investing a larger lump sum, you may be committing all of your money to the markets in one go.  By “drip feeding” money into the market every month, if the stock market does fall, you have only invested some of your savings and therefore future payments benefit from the cheaper share prices.

When it comes to investing, we highly recommend that you seek financial advice and we are happy to discuss your requirements with you.

Please remember that past performance should not be seen as an indication of future performance. The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount they originally invested and in some cases you may not get back anything at all.

Elliot Gothold

Chartered Financial Planner

Please click the link below for our latest monthly figures for the five model portfolios.  The figures show the performance of our model portfolios versus various indices over the month of February.

February 2021 Panel Performance Figures

Click here for further information on the investment management service we offer, or contact one of our consultants.

We are delighted to announce an exciting development for our company.

We have now joined the Truinvest Group, one of the country’s most innovative emerging financial services groups.  We will be the core business within the group, offering our investment management service via our discretionary platform to other companies within the Truinvest Group.

Truinvest was established in 2019 by co-founders Mark Smith and Micky Johal, former colleagues at wealth management advisors Mattioli Woods plc. Truinvest has the backing of Stonewood Wealth Management, a prominent family office that looks after assets in excess of $2.5 billion.

The addition of NLP Financial Management to the Truinvest Group, results in a new Group already handling assets under advice and management of almost £1.1 billion.  This also provides a great platform for the NLPFM group to develop and provide new avenues for the delivery of financial services and bespoke specialist advice to our clients, complementing how financial planning has been “traditionally” delivered.

There will be no changes in the day to day management of your affairs, it’s business as usual from our point of view.  Adam Katten remains NLPFM Managing Director and Lee Pittal, Chief Operations Officer.   Adam and Lee will also join the Truinvest Leadership Team.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with a high quality and ever-improving financial planning service.

If you do have any questions about this exciting development, please do not hesitate to contact your usual financial planner or contact us at [email protected]

The 12 months between the March 2020 budget and the one delivered on 3^rd March 2021 has been, to coin a popular phrase – “unprecedented.”  We have seen 3 lockdowns, the economy shrink by 9.9%, Coronavirus support measures costing upwards of £280 billion and a tragic death toll within the UK from a pandemic we simply never saw coming.

As a result, Government borrowing – the budget deficit – is expected to rise from a forecasted £55 billion to about £355 billion by the end of 2020-21. Meanwhile, national debt is already approaching 100 per cent of GDP at £2.1 trillion and could rise to 120 per cent of GDP during the first half of the decade according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned late last year that around £40 billion of tax rises will be needed by the middle of the decade to keep borrowing down to £80 billion a year and debt down to 100 per cent of GDP, prompting intense speculation that they could come as soon as this Budget.

With the Conservatives having committed in their 2019 General Election Manifesto not to raise the rates of Income Tax, National Insurance or VAT, there was much speculation about where and how the Chancellor would start to recoup these huge losses and over what period of time.

Thankfully, the UK is feeling the optimistic effects of a robust vaccination programme which at the time of writing has seen more than 20 million people vaccinated against Coronavirus, with set dates in the diary for the pathway out of lockdown.

So what does this new Budget mean for you and your personal finances?  Read more in our highlights document and as always, if you have any questions about your financial goals, investments or portfolio please do get in touch.

Please click the link below for our latest monthly figures for the five model portfolios.  The figures show the performance of our model portfolios versus various indices over the month of January.

January 2021 Panel Performance Figures

Click here for further information on the investment management service we offer, or contact one of our consultants.