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...

Most investment markets performed admirably in the last twelve months, particularly as economic trends have generally been uninspiring. Stock and real estate prices have certainly benefitted from the unprecedented stimulus provided by central banks and governments, in the form of extraordinarily low interest rates, and even more extraordinary money printing programs.