Don’t drink the liquid assets

For anybody who fancies himself as a black-belt negotiator, it is important to flex the skills with a proper challenge. Wrangling over the finer details of Brexit with a bunch of recalcitrant Eurocrats springs to mind, and coaxing a reasoned debate out of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would certainly merit a spot on the podium.

But for real fireworks you need to stay close to home, and anybody who could persuade domestic management that it made sense to stick the life savings into Scotland’s finest export deserves a special mention.

Shifting the pension into truly liquid assets has generally entailed buying investment-grade wine, and has always involved the risk that your balance sheet could be pillaged by a bunch of thirsty teenagers the moment your back is turned and the key to the cellar unearthed. But according to premier whisky consultants Rare Whisky 101, its Apex 1000 index — which tracks the price performance of the 1,000 best-performing rare whiskies — has gained a market-busting 36.6% in the past year.

Clearly a whisky consultancy has a vested interest in punting the benefits of its own book, and there is always the concern that a dram or two might have slipped down the gullet while the numbers were being compiled, but demand does appear to be robust at the very top end of the market. The collectors’ items that make up the Macallan M18 index, which includes vintages back to 1965 that can go for north of £65,000 a bottle, have risen a cheeky 87.3% in the year — a compelling investment case in any bar.

There’s nothing wrong with taking some big hits while building your business