Read the latest news and articles from the Gem & Co team
If you’re looking for ways to ensure you can enjoy as much of your hard-earned pension as possible when you retire, then moving elsewhere in Europe could be your best bet. The benefits aren’t limited to a different culture to explore and better weather than the UK; all the retirement destinations we discuss below offer
Read moreA survey carried out by YouGov only a few years ago found that over half the respondents who contributed to either a personal or workplace pension scheme had not reviewed their pension in the preceding three years. More worryingly, many of these people admitted that they had never carried out a pension review. If this
Read moreMathavan our administration officer is busy training to run the Royal Marsden 10k London Run on 10 July 2016. Here we have attached a note that he’s written about this run and the reason for doing it. If you would like to help Mat raise money for this great cause please go to his justgiving
Read moreIntroduction Another month, another dire warning from the economic great and good. In March it was the International Monetary Fund’s turn to warn that the world faces ‘economic derailment.’ As always, the blame was laid firmly at the door of the Chinese economic slowdown, with IMF second-in-command, David Lipton, warning that steps needed taking to
Read moreBucket lists are, of course, very individual things. We will all have places that we want to travel to and things that we want to do which don’t necessarily chime with everyone else’s goals. However, bucket lists can also be surprisingly difficult to generate! The things that you really want to do one day might
Read moreIt’s been 75 years in the making and the topic for countless philosophers to muse over, but a US study seems to have finally uncovered the secret to happiness and health. Speaking during a TED Talk, Harvard professor Robert Waldinger revealed that, though wealth and fame continue to be commonly cited desires amongst millennials (those
Read moreI recently read an article by a wine expert that resonated with me. The wine expert makes the point that she (a genuine expert with numerous appropriate qualifications and 35 years experience) has to shout louder and louder to be heard in a world inundated with a 24-hour news cycle and endless social media. There
Read moreIntroduction It was famously said that ‘all roads lead to Rome.’ In British politics, all speeches currently lead to the EU Referendum. George Osborne’s Budget speech, delivered on Wednesday March 16th, was no exception. More than ever, the Chancellor was seeking to balance politics and economics as he rose to speak. On the politics front,
Read moreThe new dividend allowance will mean that from 2016/17 the first £5,000 of dividends you receive will be free of any personal income tax liability, regardless of your marginal tax rate. However, once the allowance is exceeded the effective tax rates are generally 7.5% higher than currently apply, as the table below shows. Extra Tax
Read more2015/16 marked the beginning of pension flexibility for money purchase schemes. In the first six months following the reform over 380,000 pension arrangements were accessed under the new rules of which nearly 240,000 were fully encashed, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. The introduction of flexibility, radical though it was, is by no means the
Read more