They’re not talking about the stuff you used to get from a ‘hole in the wall’, now more likely if you’re a country-dweller to be a machine at the back of the Coop. This is cash as an alternative to stocks and shares or other investments which might go down as well as up in value. It’s money in bank and building society accounts, Premium Bonds and the like. The message is the one that all investment and financial advisers would give you, don’t have all your eggs etc. We always recommend a good chunk of what you have is kept in cash, of course, emergency funds and anything you might need to spend in the next couple of years. However, interest rates are and almost always will be lower than inflation (the ‘almost’ exception being N Lamont’s Black Wednesday, kids etc), and although there is no ‘capital loss’, neither is there any potential for capital growth. So a bit of both or everything continues and will continue to be the best bet, if you’re lucky enough to have enough to spare to spread around. Different matter if you haven’t; and as for actual £notes and silver p, they’lll become more and more difficult to use and find, I’d say.
“Natwest and trio of private equity firms vie for Quilter”
In the 80s and 90s, banks and building societies bought life insurance, pension companies and fund managers, took on lots of financial advisers and sold financial products by the bucket-load, by means both fair and foul, to their customers.
