21st February 2012

21st February 2012 - Finance and Investment.

John Cumming

At their meeting on 21^st February Biggar Probus Club President, Jim Watt, welcomed members and introduced the speaker John Cumming who gave a talk on financial matters entitled ‘Investing in turbulent times’. Having previously worked in the banking sector for many years John is now an Associate Partner with St James Place Partnership, a wealth management company based in Glasgow.

John outlined what he felt were the major financial events of 2011, these being the situation in Greece, the G20 summit and its outcome, quantitative easing and the establishment of junior ISAs. While he felt that there was a lot of bad news in the financial sector, he also pointed out that dividends were generally rising; corporate earnings were good and developing economies such as Brazil were continuing to grow. As for the economic outlook it is anticipated that the recovery will take time as there is still too much debt and few jobs are being created due in part to the continuing failure of banks to lend to small companies. He then went on to say what it all means for us, the man in the street, and pointed out that the main threats to our wealth are low interest rates and inflation, inheritance tax and the cost of long term care.

Having explained the background to these in more detail he suggested that in order to protect ourselves financially we should adopt at least three strategies for investment, these being to stay invested, to buy low and sell high and to diversify.

John gave a most interesting talk which was very much enjoyed by the members. The next meeting will be on Tuesday 6^th March when Alan Cameron will speak on ‘Capturing the energy’.

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