Charity fundraising, cello recital & an unexpected windfall

One of our core values here at Informed Choice is giving something back to the local community.

We had an excellent opportunity to put this into practice on Sunday morning, supporting the Jigsaw Run for a fourth year and raising around £5,000 for our chosen charity, the Jigsaw Trust.

If you’re in Cranleigh on Saturday, you can visit Jigsaw’s pop-up Christmas Shop at our offices in Sundial House to buy Christmas Cards and festive gifts. The shop will be open from 10am to 3pm.

On Wednesday lunchtime this week, the Informed Choice team attended a cello recital at Cranleigh Arts Centre.

Leander Kippenberg was accompanied by Edward Liddell on piano, playing pieces composed by Beethoven and Shostakovich.

We have to wait until Wednesday 10th February 2016 for the next recital in this series we are sponsoring, when Pedro Merchán Correas will be playing bassoon. Book your tickets here.

Reluctant retirees are on the rise with new research finding one in ten UK adults plan to never retire. What does this mean for your retirement planning?

George Osborne was on his feet for over an hour to deliver his Autumn Statement and Spending Review last Wednesday. That’s an awful lot to digest.

HM Revenue & Customs have helpfully shared six key tax announcements from the Autumn Statement.

In our monthly investment update for December 2015, we review the investment markets and economy, giving you the key information you need.

New research is busting the myth of a hedonistic retiree population. The report found that spending on most non-essential items begins a slow decline from our 50th birthdays onwards.

The financial impact of a living wage on adult social care budgets for local authorities is likely to be significant. New research from insurer Partnership in their latest Care Report has warned there could be greater financial challenges to come for local authorities.

This week in episode 52 of the Informed Choice Podcast, Martin talks about how to cope with an unexpected windfall and the level of investment returns we might expect in 2016.

In the press this week, Martin commented for Money Marketing about plans by Department for Work and Pensions to spend £44m on their Workie campaign to promote automatic enrolment.

Martin was also quoted in The Telegraph at the weekend, looking at ways to spot expensive closet tracker investment funds.