As a personal investor ask yourself just three quick questions: first, do you have more free time now than you had a year ago? (Odds are you said no.) Second: if you could arrange it – painlessly - would you consider gaining free time to indulge things more pleasurable than administration? (Odds are you would at least consider it.) Third: if you could outsource your administrative tasks for less than you are paying now, would you?

It’s a funny old world. Having yesterday noted the impending 10th anniversary of the starting gun going off on the global financial crisis I subsequently tripped over a vignette on Bloomberg which read “Junk subprime auto ABS spreads at record lows”. It really was just a vignette and went on...

A pickup in business and investor confidence, and a hope that inflation and global economic activity might be recovering, drove pleasing performance from investment markets recently in many parts of the world, most particularly in real estate and shares.