Education

For many public sector members, the appeal of an AVC is the ability to enhance the tax-free cash lump sum at retirement without commuting valuable DB pension. The LGPS Shared Cost AVC, in particular, can also save National Insurance through salary sacrifice.

AVCs are run within a workplace scheme and are usually cheaper, with limited investment menus and the possibility of generous lump-sum rules in defined benefit schemes such as the LGPS. SIPPs are personal pensions with broad investment freedom but typically higher charges and no …

Inflationary pressure, housing affordability challenges, higher borrowing costs, shifting tax burdens, retirement anxiety, and increasingly volatile economic conditions have forced many households to rethink the meaning of financial security itself. Increasingly, personal finance is no longer simply about surviving expenses or accumulating cash balances. …

Most households do not suddenly wake up financially secure after one perfectInvestmentdecision, one promotion, or one lucky opportunity. Instead, financial progress tends to emerge quietly through repeated behaviours that appear ordinary in isolation but powerful over long periods. The challenge in 2026 is that …

Retail investors searched for winning stocks, followed headlines obsessively, debated companyEarnings, and chased the thrill of finding the next market winner before everyone else.

Instead, retail investors increasingly ask a quieter — yet arguably more important — question:

For years, many households approached investing with a relatively straightforward mindset: identify strong companies, buy shares, hold onto them, and hope for attractive returns. Some investors concentrated heavily in sectors they believed would outperform, while others followed market excitement around technology, banking, energy,Dividend-paying shares, …