VCTs: Exploring unique investments while saving on your taxes
Once considered a niche investment option, Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have seen a boom in demand over recent years, raising a total of £619m during the 2019-20 tax year, the third highest amount since 2006. Investors are attracted to these vehicles by the lucrative tax breaks and the innovative areas they invest in, but they don’t come without caveats.
Property funds: Safe as houses?
Investors wishing to profit from property prices and rental yields don’t have to buy a house, when they can invest in property funds instead. Rather than heading to an estate agent, try an investment platform. You can snap up a stake in a property fund with much less money and hassle than buying a building.
Make your money travel: Explore developed, emerging & frontier markets
Diversification can sound pretty dreary, but one way to achieve it is to let your investment portfolio travel the world (ok, only metaphorically). By spreading your eggs across different geographical baskets, you can minimise overall portfolio risk at the same time as gaining access to a range of opportunities, including some niche and exciting ones. Some countries can be accessed directly, while others tend to come in a set. This is our introduction to regional investing.
Impact funds: If finance and philanthropy had a love child
How do you marry a financial return with making the world a better place? Is it even possible or is it an oxymoron? Impact funds are here to prove that it can be done.
What’s so special about specialist funds?
Once you’ve decided on an asset allocation strategy that suits your plans and expectations, it is time to get more granular within each asset class. There are a number of ways to do this, for example last week, we wrote an introductory piece on Growth versus Value style investing. Another way to mix up your portfolio is to invest in specialist funds to express a particular view on the future direction of markets.
Income investing
Investing is a great way to grow your wealth over time, pretty much as you sleep. But what if you want to see returns on your investments sooner? This is where investing for income comes in. Income investing is an investment strategy that is centred around building an investment portfolio that aims to generate a regular and, crucially, passive income stream.