Category: Blog

We tend to assume that wealth is accumulated over time, often growing fastest in the later working years. Yet, in a broader sense, we are all born with wealth in the form of human capital, which represents the value of the earning potential that we have over our working lifetime.  As younger people have a long time to go before they will need the money, the advice they receive is often that excess earnings should be invested predominantly in equities.  … Read More

Introduction The New Chancellor For the last six years, the government’s Budget and Autumn Statement have been synonymous with George Osborne – but as we all now know, the former Chancellor fell victim to Theresa May’s post-Brexit reshuffle. In fact, with his Tatton constituency likely to be impacted under the proposed boundary changes, our former leading man may well be considering a future outside politics. So we welcome a new actor to centre stage: Philip Hammond, aged 60, father of … Read More

The foundation stones of good investing Investing is the process of delaying consumption from today to some time in the future and employing that money in the meantime in the markets to grow at a rate at least in line with inflation, but preferably more. Investing money well requires a logical and robust framework on which to build a lifelong investment programme. Ten foundation stones provide the solid base on which to build such a programme. Foundation stone 1: Have … Read More

The fall and decline of buy-to-let? The British continue their love affair with being buy-to-let landlords. After all, with bank deposit and mortgage rates so low, and a rapidly rising property market, it all seems so simple: take your cash and make a 20% down payment on a buy-to-let property and borrow the rest at a low rate of interest; then find a tenant – perhaps one of the younger generation who cannot afford to get on the housing ladder – who will pay … Read More

Short term losses are common and a central part of growing wealth Unfortunately, humans are hard wired to ignore their rational thought processes and to focus in on, and become emotional about, adjustments to share prices. Three key behavioural flaws, deeply embedded over millions of years surviving as a species, work against us. The first is immediacy; this is the propensity to focus on something that is happening or has just happened, such as the readjustment of the outlook for … Read More

BRB Wealth Management was founded in 1980 by Mike Barnett, Ken Rawlinson and Steve Bentley. Ken and Steve sadly passed away a number of years ago and Mike Barnett left the business in 2001. We would firstly like to thank all three for starting the business and giving us the opportunity to continue their excellent work. Since the company was founded, a lot has happened in the world. There have been revolutionary developments in technology, periods of booming financial markets … Read More

The following piece has been written by Dan Wheeler, former Director of Financial Adviser Services at Dimensional Fund Advisors 1989-2010. Now retired, Dan writes blogs about investments based around the lessons he learned throughout his career in U.S finance. In ‘Fidelity’s buddy’, Dan talks about the proper use of diversification in a portfolio. Diversification, when applied correctly, is one of the greatest tools to an investor. However, if you invest solely in the latest ‘hot fund’, what do … Read More