Financial news

• See the big picture: the art of making money from upcoming artists

  09-11-2019 21:31
  
  With a Banksy selling for close on £10m, is there now a knock-on effect for investors?It is the artwork for our times. A four-metre-wide Banksy depicting MPs in the House of Commons as chimpanzees set a record for the artist when it sold for close to £10m at Sotheby’s in London after just 13 minutes of bidding.The £9,879,500 winning bid was notable not just for its size but by how much it exceeded the pre-auction expectations of between £1.5m and £2m. It also,
  
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• Back in the loop: why cassette tapes became fashionable again

  09-11-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Magnetic ribbon for format once the preserve of police interviews is in short supplyForget the vinyl revival. The cassette tape will be back on Christmas lists this year as high-profile artists ranging from Coldplay to Robbie Williams and Liam Payne release albums on a format that has come back from the dead.The tape’s comeback has caught the industry off guard, with manufacturers struggling to get their hands on the magnetic tape needed for their production when demand suddenly picked up.
  
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• Halifax, why are you treating older customers so shabbily?

  09-11-2019 08:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Some of the excuses for home insurance price increases are preposterousIn September, Michael Goulding visited his parents-in-law in Birmingham, who live in a modest semi-detached house. They are pensioners, both in their 90s, and asked Michael to take a look at their home insurance, which was worrying them. They had received a bill for the coming year which had gone up by 20% and, on their relatively low income, wondered how they were going to pay. It was for £579.08, compared to £48
  
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• Is it worth buying a pricey electric toothbrush?

  09-11-2019 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  I’ve seen models for almost £300, but I’m not sure if they’re a lot better than the basic onesEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.I’ve seen electric toothbrushes in Boots and there’s a huge price difference. There are Philips ones for £299, Oral-Bs for £140, but other Oral-Bs for £35, and a Colg
  
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• Investment funds: where should you go after Woodford?

  09-11-2019 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  More than £3bn will be returned to small investors – experts suggest where to put the money insteadHundreds of thousands of people will be receiving cheques from administrators winding up Woodford Investment Management over the next few months. The question for many, after the failure of the industry’s one-time star manager, is who can they trust now.Neil Woodford’s demise ranks as the biggest calamity to hit the retail fund management industry in decades. At its peak, th
  
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• ‘I give away half to three-quarters of my income every year’

  09-11-2019 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Allan Saldanha, 41, on how he achieved financial security and now hopes to help save livesName: Allan Saldanha
  Age: 41
  Occupation: Audit manager
  Income: £125,000 (salary plus investment income)From a young age I’ve believed in giving to charity. Visiting family in India and witnessing the poverty there encouraged me to donate to charities active in developing countries. At work I organised annual matching fundraisers for developing world charities such as WaterAid and Sightsavers and
  
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• Child benefit: father gets sent shock £6,000 tax demand

  09-11-2019 08:01
  
  A man is battling an HMRC charge for a claim made by his ex-partner over which he had no controlYou break up with your partner and move out, and at around the same time you get a bombshell tax demand for £6,000 for overpaid child benefit that she had been claiming. Most of the bill relates to money that your ex received for two children who are not even biologically yours. Yet the tax authorities aren’t pursuing her for the money, or the kids’ natural father – they have c
  
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• ‘We bought a Simba mattress, but we’re sleeping on the sofa’

  09-11-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Happy customers leave five-star reviews – so why is our inbox receiving so many complaints?Simba claims its mattresses are the stuff of dreams – the most five-star reviewed mattresses in the world – and come with a simple 10-year guarantee promising a replacement if it fails in that time.So why then are so many Simba customers contacting Guardian Money and going online to complain that their initially loved mattress has developed a ridge down the middle or significant depressio
  
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• Paying for care: Expert on 'key thing’ to consider when self-funding your residential care

  09-11-2019 05:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  PAYING for care is something which many people will need to think about, whether it’s for themselves or a loved one. Should care homes be a path an individual takes, then there will be many considerations to make, and this includes cost.
  
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