I favour world wide tracker funds and use two : Fidelity and HSBC.

Why is it they both have different performance ?

Fidelity

HSBC

I saw this online and enjoyed the post so thought I'd share:

Considering starting a business in 2026? Some friendly advice from someone who has experienced both success and failure - thankfully more success than failure. 

I’ve built businesses, run businesses, invested in businesses. It is hard bloody work. Do not underestimate that. Long hours. No holidays. Safety net? What safety net. It’s on you. Take responsibility. 

But here’s a few thoughts that you may wish to consider if you are thinking of going for it. And despite everything, the risk is still worth it...

Cash flow is everything.

Profit is nothing until it’s in the bank. Cash is fact. Plenty of good businesses fail not because they weren’t viable, but because they ran out of money at the wrong moment. Watch it obsessively. Chase your invoices. Do it politely, but firmly. You did a job, get your money for it.

Find an unregulated or lightly regulated sector if you can.

The modern British state has an extraordinary talent for smothering initiative with compliance, paperwork, and box-ticking. Regulation favours incumbents, not newcomers. The less of it you have to navigate, the better it is for you.

Avoid fashionable sectors.

If everyone is talking about it, your opportunity is already gone. The best opportunities are usually dull, unfashionable, and misunderstood. Boring often pays very well. 

Be careful with import-heavy businesses.

Sterling is overvalued. If your margins depend on a permanently strong pound, you are exposed. This is why domestic businesses, particularly tourism, can still do well. 

Own hard assets where possible.

Land, property, plant, stock. Always worth something. Invest where possible. 

Beware of experts.

Experts are trained to tell you why something can’t be done. Entrepreneurs are paid to find a way to do it anyway. Don’t outsource judgement. Trust your gut, and beware of the advisers trying to create a role for themselves. 

Don’t grow too fast.

Slow, controlled expansion lets you fix problems before they become business threatening. Bite off more than you can chew, you’ll choke. One step at a time. Ask for help if you need it. Find good subcontractors and treat them well. 

Control your costs.

Small leaks sink ships. Pennies add up to pounds, lots and lots of pounds. Good approval processes save pennies, which then save pounds. It all adds up. 

Credit is suspicion asleep.

Cheap money hides bad decisions and turns small problems into awful ones when conditions tighten. Use credit sparingly, understand its true cost, and never build a business that only works if borrowing stays easy. It won’t. Things will change, I expect them to soon.

Know when to say no.

Bad customers, bad partners, and bad contracts can destroy a good business. Walking away is often the smartest decision you’ll ever make. Don’t get blinded by cash. Be sensible, take your time and operate with the right people. It may mean giving up money in the short term, but it’s often worth it. Play the long game. 

Understand tax properly.

You don’t need clever schemes, but you do need competence. Poor tax planning kills more businesses than competition. You are going to get screwed. Just try to get screwed as little as possible. Easier said than done.  

Reputation is an asset.

Especially outside big cities, word travels fast. How you treat customers, suppliers, and staff will follow you. It’s worth investing a few quid in showing your customers, staff and even suppliers how much they mean to you. A small investment goes a long way. 

Keep decision-making tight.

Committees slow businesses down. Responsibility should be clear. Someone must own the outcome. With success rewarded, failure punished. Incentives matters. Take responsibility. If it goes wrong, take it on the chin. Don’t assign blame. You’re the boss. Own it. 
 
Watch the markets.

The partially gold-backed yuan challenging the dollar is happening. The era of endless money printing is wobbling (don’t get me started on QE). Just how much in 2026 is yet to be seen. Precious metals will prosper again, and I expect them to do particularly well in 2026. Ignore this at your peril!

Use the digital age properly.

Technology allows small, nimble businesses to compete with giants. But don’t overly rely on it. AI isn’t that smart. Yet. 

Most importantly? Train your staff properly and treat them well.

Loyalty, pride, and competence are built - and they repay you many times over. We have employees at our companies who have been there decades. Over 50 years in some cases. It matters, more than anything else. 

Without these people, your business is nothing. So act like it. 

Starting a business has never been easy. It certainly isn't now. But in business let's control what we can control, and not stress too much about what we can't. Monitor, but don't let it paralyse you. 

For those willing to think independently, take calculated risks, and work hard? 

The reward is still worth it.

We need a Britain of entrepreneurs willing to risk their capital to make things happen. THEY built Britain, they drive the economy, they create wealth and opportunities. 

Done right, it will be one of the best decisions you can ever make. 

If you are considering giving it a go, I sincerely wish you well.

• Joint ventures with investors

• Vendor financed

• Still under construction or awaiting refinance

• Part owned or simply optioned rather than bought outright

In truth, this sounds less like a stable portfolio and more like a patchwork of borrowed money and promises. The difference between ownership and control matters. Control can vanish overnight when investors, lenders or partners pull out.

Numbers That Do Not Add Up

In one video he proudly lists deals that supposedly make up the £10.5 million figure. A closer look shows several issues:

• The “farm” valued at £1.04 million has not appreciated or produced income for years

• “Collett Court” was described as “bought with no money left in”, yet it relied on vendor finance and investor funds

• The claimed valuations are self-declared rather than backed by any public record or RICS assessment

• Many projects are half finished or still “ongoing”

What he calls a portfolio could easily be a string of liabilities held together by optimistic valuations.

A One-Man Operation

KML Group Ltd, the company behind his projects, is registered as a micro-entity with under ten employees. There is no sign of an established office, lettings department or asset management team. For someone who says he runs multi-million pound developments, this is strikingly thin. Even the construction arm he promotes has little evidence of staff or current activity.

It raises a simple question: who is actually running the show?

Investor Money, Maximum Risk

Daniel promotes fixed-return investments, suggesting they are protected by solicitors and backed by due diligence. Yet he rarely mentions the reality that most investors will not hold first charge. If the projects are already leveraged, any private investor sits at the bottom of the pile if things go wrong.

He keeps the asset. They carry the risk.

The Ponzi Concern? 

We have seen this model before. Glenn Armstrong, Jack Wicks and many others used the same playbook. They promised high returns, took in private money and used new investor funds to patch gaps left by old ones. When the market turned, it all fell apart.

The warning signs are familiar:

• Impressive claims of scale

• Investor cash used as working capital

• Little transparency on accounts or exits

• Growing dependence on new funding

Even if the intent is honest, the structure is dangerous. It only takes one failed refinance for the whole thing to collapse.

Why Investors Should Be Wary

Until verified accounts and proper governance are shown, Kennedy appears to be a highly leveraged individual with little visible liquidity and no evidence of a large functioning business. Before anyone lends him money, they should ask:

• Who holds the first charge on each property?

• Are the valuations genuine?

• What security actually exists?

• Does he personally guarantee loans, and if so, what is he really worth?

A personal guarantee is meaningless from a man of straw.

Behind the online bravado is a pattern we have seen too many times in property: big numbers, borrowed funds, no audited proof and an ever-growing need for new money. Until transparency replaces storytelling, caution is not optional. It is essential.

I generally don't try to time any markets but this is waving some red flags.

Starting and running a business in 2025 Britain - let’s walk through it.

You’ve got a good idea, managed to save a few quid to invest and want to give it a go. Let’s say it’s a cafe.

Generate wealth, create jobs and contribute to your local economy. Great idea. You just picked the wrong country to do it in.

Registering the damn thing is complicated enough, and that’s the easy bit. Next up is the bank account? You’re treated like a criminal and it takes week - opening a cafe, not a terrorist cell.

You manage to find a premise, good location. Oh, it costs a fortune. Rent through the roof and you’re forced to pay thousands to the council. For what? The filthy high street? The rapid customer service? Hmm. Yet another rip off. Inspections are a nightmare, it’s never-ending bureaucracy from people who have never created anything in their lives.

But somehow you get it off the ground and things go well. You need to expand, hire someone.

Ouch. PAYE, national insurance, pensions, HR policies, health and safety risk assessments. One wrong step and you’re facing an employment tribunal. Is it even worth the risk?

It’s becoming more and more expensive, and risky, to hire people? Why bother?

Maybe you try and get independent contracted help. Ah. IR35 puts a stop to that. We wouldn’t want any flexibility now, would we? That would make too much sense.

Your accountants already cost an absolute fortune. They’re bleeding you dry just so you comply with the layers and layers of regulations.

But let’s say it’s gone well, and your hard work is paying off. Turnover hits £90k. The dreaded VAT threshold.

That means if you essentially then have to start charging VAT. That means everything gets 20% more expensive for your customers. Or you are forced to absorb the costs. Or you deliberately make less money to stay below the threshold. Just brilliant.

Maybe you want to keep the cafe open later? Serve some alcohol? Have some music on?

More licences. More costs. More inspections. More bureaucracy. Why bother?

Waste collection even costs a fortune. Remind me, why are you already paying the council? You try and ring the council, you’re on hold for 30 minutes. Brilliant. Customers are waiting. You finally speak to someone. They’re rude, and haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. They promise they’ll get back to you, but they only work four days a week and on Thursday they’re working from home. No answer, you have to chase and chase and chase.

Incompetence reigns.

Right. We’ve got through all of that, now you want to pay yourself? Not unreasonable is it? For working 16 hour days to get the business off the ground?

Corporation tax slices your profit down. Maybe there’s some left. Dividend allowance has been cut, so there’s less to take there. Tax rates are up too. Hmm. Okay, well let’s take a small salary and some dividends. Maybe you’ve got student debt too which takes a large chunk?

It is brutal.

Even making money costs money. It costs to deposit, it costs to accept card payments.

No holiday, no protection, no respect. All risk, and you’re treated like dirt by the Government.

You look at it all and just think, why bother? Why not work for the public sector as some irrelevant bureaucrat obstructing everyone else? Get 60k, 35 days holiday and you can literally never be sacked. What’s the point? Why take the risk? Just do that instead.

We desperately need to back British enterprise. Reward those who take all of the risk. And actually, support local businesses where we all can.

We should be slashing corporation tax, doubling the VAT threshold, increasing personal allowances, abolishing business rates for high street small firms, reducing national insurance contributions, cutting tax on salary/dividends, brutalising red tape and PLENTY more.

If you do these things, you will generate MORE tax revenue. It is really not a complicated principle. Does Reeves understand that? No. The woman is clueless. Absolutely clueless. She does NOT understand what she is forcing on business owners. Let’s see if she can run our cafe for a week. Absolutely NO chance.

I’m with the men and women who build businesses, create wealth, and generate opportunities.

They have my full respect. The politicians running our country certainly do not.

My message to our cafe owner? Keep plugging away, it will get better.

Please know that at least one MP is fighting for you in Westminster.

- Rupert Lowe MP.

The Video you can watch shows you a little about a very underused wrapper

I have been talking about this topic for some tine and the use of Loans trusts ect

In short they are called Insurance Bonds which have lots of advantages for long term planning

a lot who are reading this will have made a lot of money from BTL  and could be sitting on a lot of very good cashflow  which ends up in your bank

Using Insurance bonds long term can give you lots of advantages if your not buying BTL via a Company in 2025

We are all under the heel of futher Taxation and i think it will only get worse

If you have I think over 100k  to invest using insurance bonds can be helpful

But you will need to seek advice from and IFA and they will charge a Fee to set this sort of strategy up

I think this is the first of a number of Videos this I FA is doing on the topic

The Rich have used bonds for years  and know and understand there value

ISA and  SIPP are very simple to set Up But this wrapper has to be done by an IFA they are not available direct to the public

Enloy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEwlSV2L...KSYahv0tFQ

It has done better than i thought it would. I am taking 7% from my pension fund.