Investing Insiders Weekly #6

Top Story

FLAT RATE: Inflation falls slightly to 3.4%…

Inflation was pretty dire in April, reaching 3.5% – well above the government’s target of 2%. This was mostly caused by all those pesky price rises that kick in in April every year, like your phone and broadband bills. The big news this week? In May, it slowed a tiny bit…to 3.4%.

✔️The good news: Look, it’s better than inflation going up. If the monthly rate of inflation falls, it means prices aren’t rising as fast as they were in the previous month. Small wins.

❌The bad news: What the government/press usually don’t explain is that inflation measures the rate at which prices are rising. So, if the inflation rate is anywhere above 0%, that means prices are still rising – a lower rate just means they aren’t rising as quickly. 

3.4% is still a pretty high rate, and that means savings interest rates need to match this rate, or you are effectively losing money. You may have noticed many savings accounts are not currently paying 3.4% interest.

💡The takeaway: Make sure your money is beating inflation by investing it. Many savings accounts have rates below 3.4% now, while the returns on the FTSE have historically sat around 8%.
Check out our Best Cash ISAs page for all the best inflation-beating rates available now.

One Minute Market Fix

The FTSE 100 and US markets fell at the start of this week as Trump called for Iran’s surrender in its conflict with Israel, sparking more fears over rising oil prices. 

Since then, markets have been holding their breath for an interest rate announcement from the Fed, while UK markets were subdued following unexpectedly bleak inflation data for May.

Regulator Latest 

NOT GOOD ENOUGH: The FCA has scolded pension providers over their retirement advice

🤓In a nutshell: The UK regulator has contacted 28 pension firms about issues with their retirement income advice, and in some cases it has asked them to compensate their customers.

Retirement income advice is where firms recommend how you should spend or save your money during your retirement.

The regulator sampled 28 firms’ files showing the advice they had given to customers, and found that some firms hadn’t adequately recorded their customers’ data or properly justified some of their decisions.

The Takeaway: It has now contacted all of those firms with feedback and has explained how they can put it right. Keep an eye out to see if you or someone you know is owed compensation for poor advice.

Chart That Made Us Look Twice

Everyone is talking about the price of gold – but its slightly-less-precious counterpart silver has also seen its prices rise to the highest level in 13 years this month.

Silver prices hit $36 an ounce last week, up 23% so far this year. Why? It’s been driven by a supply-demand deficit for silver, with demand outpacing supply for the fifth year running in 2025.

Silver is cheaper to buy and prices could be set to keep rising this year. It’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

Platform Watch 👀

Thinking of transferring your pensions to a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)? Good idea! 

Unfortunately, some pension providers are making this process very difficult for customers by asking for written, signed and posted letters and documents before they will give them access to their money.

For a seamless transfer, you will usually need a rough estimate of how much is in the pension you are looking to transfer. Dig out any old paperwork and work out how much your investments might have risen since to get an approximate figure.
Remember, if your provider is deliberately making it difficult for you to transfer your money, you may be able to make a complaint. Try going to the firm first, and if you aren’t happy, escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Insider Edge: What Smart Money Is Watching

You could save for your first home in just four years by putting just £5.50 per day into a Lifetime ISA.

With a Lifetime ISA, the government will add a 25% bonus to anything you put in, up to a maximum of £1,000 per year. 

If you put in £166.67p per month, you would have saved £2,000 in a year – which the government would top up to £2,500.

If you are intending to buy a house with a partner, you can both save into a Lifetime ISA separately, meaning you both get the government bonus.

That would give you a total of £5,000 in savings per year with the government bonus.

But even better – if you put it into a Lifetime Stocks and Shares ISA, you can invest that money in a low-cost tracker fund, meaning it will grow even more.

Doing this could land you with a deposit of around £29,000 after four years – more than 10% of the average house price right now.

Tip Of The Week…

Don’t forget to extend your child benefit claim if your child over 16 is staying in full-time education or placements. 

You need to claim by 31 August to keep getting your payments from September.

Child benefit automatically stops in the August after your child turns 16. But, if your child is staying in full-time education or approved training, you can extend your claim and keep getting the payments, worth £1,354 a year for the first child. Watch our video on this here.

Rate Of The Week 💵

Savings rates are continuing to be slashed left right and centre this week. BUT…

You can still bag a 4.84% interest rate on a cash ISA with Moneyfarm for one year, falling to 4.14% after the first year.

The catches: You need to put £500 into the account to qualify for the headline rate.