Happy New Year... and the Joys of January
6 Jan, 2023
Happy New Year everyone and welcome back to the Joys of January. I have completed my dry January – 5 days is quite enough of that – although I am attempting to rediscover my alleged core muscles which have been hiding from me for the last 15 years. It’s also (quick reminder) tax return time, people. The end of January is the deadline. Such fun!
Of course, the New Year typically brings intent to do better and this applies to our money as well. We have a bumper package of calorie-free goodies for you in January, including a webinar next Tuesday night, smaller workshops on topics from care home fees/IHT to our relationship with money, and new courses for beginners.
Before we get to this, a look back at the odd year that was 2022. Who knows what the best performing fund was? Any guesses?
The ‘passive’ or tracker exchange traded fund which topped the pops was iShares’ MSCI Turkey ETF, which rose 114%. "Turkey?!", you shriek. Yup, you think we’ve got problems – inflation in Turkey hit 86% in October! But unusually, interest rates are being cut so sit at around 10.5%. This meant cash and bonds were chocolate teapots so domestic investors looked for opportunity in cheap shares and BOOM.
Of course, oil and gas also soared globally – iShares S&P 500 Energy Sector UCITS ETF was one of the best choices, with gains of 86%. And of all sectors, commodity and natural resources funds ruled the otherwise rather miserable roost. JP Morgan’s Natural Resources fund was one of the top performers.
In Blighty, the FTSE held its own whilst the US market fell by about 20%. One of the worst performers was the Medical Cannabis and Wellness ETF which tanked by 50%. Odd really given the year we had – I would have thought the odd toke was more appealing than Turkish shares, but hey ho.
Now before you all rush to invest your life savings in Turkey, this is of course a very bad idea and breaks the golden rule of diversification and also common sense. So don’t go there. But you might like to browse our new pages on the lovely little creatures called ‘ETFs’ which are a lot more simple than they sound – pre-packaged ways to access big old global markets quickly and easily using Exchange Traded Funds.
Looking ahead, here are some things which we’re doing to help you have a healthier financial 2023:
Investing for beginners – A new and free course which went live last week – share this link with your friends, adult kids, or sign up yourself for a refresher. 7 lessons and loads of tips and ideas on ways to get started, and the whole course takes just 45 minutes over these 7 lessons!
Get Money Fit – A brand new course designed for and with women – AND has a free webinar next week with moi, the FT’s brilliant Claer Barrett and Fidelity’s fabulous Emma-Lou Montgomery – taking all your questions from mortgages, interest rates, investing, pensions and more. Join us live at 6pm on Tuesday or watch on catch-up for the most fun you can have in January! This course has great content supported by brilliant advisers and experts so I really recommend you check it out. Thanks to Fidelity for sponsoring.
Your relationship with money – We have a small online workshop next Wednesday lunchtime with adviser Cleona Lira. This is for women and part of our Visible! series of content. Understanding this can be fascinating and the key to making positive change – well worth a look.
Make your money go further – Our upcoming webinar on 17th January which is all around how to make your money go further as the cost of living bites – budgeting, tips, tax hacks and more – the aim is for everyone to learn something which makes them better off. Sponsored by Standard Life, guests include their MD of Customer Savings & Investments, Jenny Holt; financial coach, Graham Wells; and Yours Truly.
Looking at the best home for your ISA? – We are in the depths of our annual detailed dive into providers. In the last fortnight, I’ve logged into over 30 of our test accounts and had a poke around. Some of my top finds? Bestinvest’s new site has some teething problems with log-in BUT once you’re in, this looks tons better and has support from coaches/the human touch which is nice. And Interactive Investor has released their new app which looks good. And in less positive news, a few others look like their last tech update was in East Berlin in 1988.
Thank you to the hundreds of readers who cast a vote and added their review in our Consumer Choice Awards. Time to sort the money wheat from the wonga chaff. We’ll announce our 2023 Best Buys and the Consumer Choice winners at the end of Feb.
That’s it from us this week. I hope you find something here to enjoy. If there’s anything you think we should be tackling, or you have a suggestion for a course, webinar or article, or just a question – please let me know. I love hearing from you.
Have a good weekend. I will be trying to duck the Harry/’Willy’ stuff. All this dog bowl, magic mushrooms and ‘spanking on the ass’ just makes me want to put a paper bag on my head until it stops! Excru-ci-a-ting….
Holly
