Making money: what the experts think
Marvellous motors
The classic car market “is really motoring”, said Hugo Greenhalgh in the FT. Values have enjoyed “a steep recovery” over the past three years, according to the latest HAGI classic car price index. The best-performing marques – Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Porsche – are up by 85%, 65% and 60% respectively. By comparison, the FTSE 100 fell by nearly 3% during the period; while wine, “a useful comparator for alternative assets”, fell by almost 2%. “Scarcity value” is what drives investors. A winning combination of “rarity and racetrack pedigree” saw a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sell for a record-breaking $38.1m in 2014. Bear that in mind when looking for the classics of the future, advises HAGI’S Dietrich Hatlapa. He tips the 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder: just 918 models were released.
Savings strike
Spendthrift Britons appear to have ditched the idea of saving, said Tom Knowles in The Times. Market research group GFK recorded a 16-point fall in its savings index between July and August – the “sharpest month-on-month fall” since the index began, in 1996. GFK analyst Joe Staton argues that record-low interest rates are having a greater shortterm impact on consumer behaviour than economic uncertainty around the Brexit vote. “People are saying to themselves: ‘I am not getting any return so I may as well go out and treat myself.’” Hence the summer surge in retail sales.
Isa shift
Staton reckons the savings strike is a “knee-jerk” reaction to the Boe’s rate cut to 0.25% last month, and he thinks “it will rebalance”. But ultra-low rates appear to have taken a more permanent toll on the popularity of tax-free cash Isas, said Patrick Collinson in The Guardian. Having peaked at about 15 million in 2010-11, the number of new Isa openings fell to 12.7 million in 2015-16, according to Revenue and Customs. Yet Britons appear to have discovered a new appetite for risk, noted Naomi Rovnick in the FT. Cash Isas may be in the doldrums, but contributions to stocks and shares Isas jumped by a fifth in a year, to £21.4bn – the highest amount since Isas were launched, in 1999. It’s a recognition, said Danny Cox of Hargreaves Lansdown, that “equities are pretty well the only game in town for yield”.