Philip James Independent Financial Advice

12/07/2026

This apparently took Barbra (she changed her name from ‘Barbara’ to stand out and has spent her life removing the ‘a’) 10 years to write and I won’t be the first to say (I’ve checked) that it felt like it might take 10 years to finish it.

In print it’s 1000 pages, in audio (which she reads and to which I listened) it runs to 48 hours. I started it on hols last year and to finish it has been a feat of dipping-in-and-out concentration, although she does read it very well, despite what seem ad lib tangents to lengthen it still more.

As with pretty much all showbiz and other celeb autobiogs, it’s the before-they-made-it which is both most interesting and entertaining. A girl from Brooklyn with a heck of a voice, she started in New York nightclubs, had the proverbial bit-part in a Broadway show in which she became the stand-out future star.

I didn’t know that she met first husband Elliot Gould in that show and that he, too was a struggling hoofer who made it in the movies. As she did, when ‘Funny Girl’ went from stage to screen. I remember seeing both that and her other early-breaker, ‘Hello Dolly’ at the Astoria in Purley with Mum (big musical fan) in the ’60s, so both have special places.

As we move to life as a star, for me it’s more a list of names and problems. And why is it so long? Because, my goodness, the detail is overpowering - her diaries must have run to volumes, or maybe she has an amazing memory or imagination. There’s no need, it’s self-indulgence and her editor should have been firm.

Same applies to you, Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling. The latest ‘Strike’, at 31 hours, has been sitting in my ‘Audible’ inbox for some months. Will keep you posted.

12/07/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/panning-crypto-adviser-qas-goodbye-wimbledon-philip-hanley-rbone

Remember those Gold Rush prospectors in cowboy movies, panning in rivers to get rich? Few did. The real money was made by those who sold the pans and bribed politicians to let them build railroads to get the prospectors to California.

10/07/2026

When someone talks to us for the first time, they will have a problem which they hope we can solve - or question we may be able to answer. We often, more often than not, find that there are other more important issues to tackle and with which we can help.

Parents with young children who have no life insurance, many of all ages who have neither wills nor powers of attorney; and those who have no idea that they are likely to leave a big IHT bill for the family when they die. If they have an idea, most will have no idea how much it may be, how much it will be when pensions are added next year, nor what, if anything, they can do about it.

Some are not bothered, some don’t want to think about it yet but others would rather leave more to family - or good causes - than to whichever complexion of government or chancellor we may then have.

08/07/2026

We have a savings crisis. Most of the talk is of its long-term effects, less than a quarter of Millennials, 40-somethings, on track for a ‘moderate’, at least being able to pay the bills, retirement and less than 10% for a comfortable one, by which read going out for a meal now and then and getting further than Clacton on your hols.

There is, however, a short and medium term problem, too. A majority of us (or, if you’re reading this, probably ‘them’) don’t keep even a month’s worth of spending as a cash reserve, nor or are we/they thinking even a few years ahead. Many, of course, are hand-to-mouth - which should not be a thing in the 5th richest company in the world.

Most, however, just need a plan - and some financial education at a younger age; including my own cobbler’s children. Work to be done by us all in the financial advisory world.

07/07/2026

As a confirmed Boomer, I’m as confused as the next old person about the various Gens. In very round figures, Xs are 50 somethings, Milennials 30-40 somethings and the Zs teens and twenties.

The Gen Zs are most likely, of their own accord, to invest in stocks and shares rather than a bank savings account; albeit they are unlikely to have much to invest. Those that do (37%, allegedly) will almost certainly DIY-it, hopefully somewhere safe and reputable, but quite possibly and increasingly, via soc med and an influencer of some kind.

Few in my experience pay much attention to the workplace pensions into which they will have been auto-enrolled - and from which some will have un-enrolled.

Picking their own funds from the choices available and taking more risk is often a good idea there, as they can’t get their hands on the money for at least 30 years. Which really is more than a lifetime away at that age.

05/07/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wimbledon-weather-watching-we-waffle-philip-hanley-vcrze

As you may already know, I’m by no means an avid football-watcher. I did inadvertently, however, switch over from Wimbledon in the 80-somethingth minute of England/Congo - talk about stressful.

05/07/2026

Not, as I fleetingly thought, a political polemic (which could currently have come from left or right). Clare Leslie Hall’s ‘Broken Country’ is set in post-war and 1960s Dorset (where she lives), her third novel and a big bestseller.

The story moves between ‘Before’ (late ’50s), ‘1968’ and ‘The Trial’ - for murder at the Old Bailey, but of whom and by whom is part of the much-later dénouement. In the ‘Before’, village girl (but teachers’ daughter), bookish Beth meets entitled posh Gabriel in the grounds of the Big House. They quickly and passionately fall for one another, to the dismay of his snob mother who eventually engineers their separation.

Beth gives up dreams of Oxford, marries the local farmer’s son who’s always loved her and has a son who dies as a child. No big spoilers there, that’s all clear in the first chapters. Rich Gabriel, divorced and with a young son, returns. Moving between times, the tragedy, repressed and lost love unravel as we head towards what becomes a long-awaited climax and its aftermath. It’s not much fun, but it is, yes, a page-turner. Given its cast of characters, you could pick two or three plot directions and be pretty confident that you’d be right with one. Although you’ll want to get to the end for some redemption, I doubt you’ll thence skip down the street with a smile on your face. But maybe that’s just me.

A million other readers can’t all be wrong - and there’s a Hollywood movie to come.

03/07/2026

The ‘base’ rate of interest both here and in the US, set by the Bank of England here and The Fed over there, is 3.75%. Increasing it theoretically reduces inflation, reducing it, again theoretically, should boost the economy, making it easier for businesses to borrow and expand.
They can then take on more people who will spend more and, quite possibly, increase inflation.

What next? In America, inflation is up (the war and tariffs, surprise) and employment ‘weak’, worst of both worlds. Over here, mortgage fixed rates are reducing, which means that’s the future expectation, although the Bank Governor is talking up not down.

So it’s a mess but It matters, because it affects you whether you’re a saver, borrower, investor - or politician. if they want a quick fix of prosperity and popularity, low rates are great. But,a s we saw after 10 years of very low rates, those who benefit are rarely those who need to…

03/07/2026

Two thirds of over-55s don’t know that or understand how pensions will come into the IHT net next year. Fewer still discuss inheritance, taxable or otherwise, with their family and more than half of adults have not made a will

As we’ve said before - and been told many times by No.11 - less than 5% of estates currently pay Inheritance Tax. Pensions could make that ‘less than 10%’, but it still won’t be a problem for the other 90%. Many of those will be very pleased to see the price of their home increase - which (see previous) it will over time. IHT allowances have been frozen, however, since 2009 and will remain so until 2031 and quite likely beyond - more tax-take stealth.

So, as with many things in life, doing something about it before it becomes a problem and you realise you may not be immortal, is perhaps a good idea. A bit like giving up smoking.

30/06/2026

‘Property is always a good investment, isn’t it?’ ‘I’d rather invest in my house/another house/a flat’. ‘If I let it out it will be like a pension, won’t it?’ ‘Stocks and shares go up and down all the time, house prices always go up’

Phrases which fall into the ‘If I had a pound for every time…’ category for us. So why have nearly two thirds of homes put on the market this year not sold? ‘Well, sometimes it can take a while to find the right buyer’.

No. The reality is that everything will sell if the price is right. But in the minds of both sellers and agents, they’re worth what the one round the corner sold for last year and not a penny less.

If the property market had to function like the stockmarket, with buyers and sellers matched every hour of every day, then, my goodness, wouldn’t there be some peaks and troughs.