Image source: Getty Images Back at the start of the year, the Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) share price was in pennies. Lloyds shares still sell for pennies each – but they have got a lot closer to the pound mark since January! In fact, the share price has moved up by 73% so far this year. So, somebody who spent £55 back in January would now be sitting on a paper gain of around £40. In absolute terms that might not sound huge. However, as a percentage gain from a blue-chip share in a mature industry in less than one year,…
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Image source: Getty Images A lot of people associate Greggs (LSE: GRG) with tasty treats. But there is nothing tasty about how Greggs shares have performed this year. Specifically, since the start of 2025, the share price has gone down by 42%. So someone who invested £1,000 in January would have seen the value of their shareholding decline to around £580 at this point. Greggs does pay dividends. Its yield of 4.2% is actually attractive, in my view. But it pales into insignificance when put in the context of the share price fall this year. Here’s why the Greggs share…
Image source: Getty Images Coming into 2025, there were good reasons to be nervous about what might happen in the stock market. We have certainly seen some bumps along the way this year, including a stock market correction in April following unexpected shifts in US tariff policy. But so far, 2025 has seen the stock market perform strongly. The FTSE 100 has repeatedly hit new all-times highs. It is up 17% so far this year. Stateside, the S&P 500 is up by the same amount – and last week broke its all-time record level. Can that momentum carry on into…
Image source: Getty Images A lot of people want to start investing in the stock market, yet somehow never do. What seems like a good resolution at the time can fall prey to the demands of everyday life. But it need not take a lot of money to get going in the stock market – and possibly begin a lifelong journey of building wealth. Here are three things someone could do now that I think would help them start investing in the New Year. 1. Learn about how the stock market works There is more to investing than buying shares…
This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Benjamin Schneider to talk about his book, The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution. Schneider, a rising star in the urbanism movement, chats about the “unfinishedness” of cities, the larger origins of NIMBYism, and how much our economy and built environment cater to cars.Also worth noting: We ran an excerpt from Schneider’s book on Streetsblog NYC last month. Check it out here.As you know, Talking Headways gives you three — count ’em, three — ways to enjoy the content. First, you could read our full unedited transcript, generated by AI and likely filled with…
Image source: Getty Images Fancy earning a four figure passive income from your Stocks and Shares ISA next year? Such an idea certainly grabs my attention. I also think it can be a realistic goal even for a Stocks and Shares ISA that has only one year’s contribution allowance (£20k) in it. In fact, a four figure income could be possible on such an amount with a 5% dividend yield — 5% of £20k is already £1,000, after all. But I think an investor could realistically target a higher yield, of 7%. That should produce £1,400 per year of passive…
Image source: Getty Images The FTSE 100 index has had a lot of big winners in 2025. Barclays (+68%), International Consolidated Airlines or ‘IAG’ (+33%), and Games Workshop (+48%) are some examples. There’s a cheap Footsie stock that has outperformed all of these names, however. And surprisingly, no one’s really talking about it in the same way as the aforementioned trio, meaning that it could have further to run. From zero to hero The stock I want to highlight today is Prudential (LSE: PRU). It’s a longstanding British insurance company that’s focused on the Asian and African markets today. This…
Image source: Getty Images It’s not been an amazing year for the FTSE 250. Including dividends, the index is up just over 9% since the start of the year – well below the 21% the FTSE 100 has managed. In the context of a £5,000 investment, that’s the difference between £5,479 and £6,054. But while the index as a whole hasn’t been the most impressive, there are some individual names worth paying attention to. Index investing ny company or index can have a bad year. But the FTSE 250 has fallen well short of its larger UK counterpart over the…
Image source: Getty Images A Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is one of the most powerful retirement wealth-building tools in a UK investor’s arsenal. And its importance has only increased following the investment tax hikes in the latest Autumn Budget. Don’t forget that any capital gains or dividends earned inside a SIPP are entirely tax-free. And whenever money’s deposited, there’s also tax relief from the government, transforming a £500 lump sum into £625 automatically for those in the Basic income tax bracket. But how much wealth can this tool really generate? Let’s find out. Please note that tax treatment depends on…
Image source: Getty Images Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR) shares have had yet another barnstorming year, nearly doubling in value. However, the year-to-date return was in triple figures until a recent wobble in European aerospace and defence shares clipped 5% off the share price. Still, I mustn’t grumble. I first bought Rolls-Royce shares in May 2023 at 149p, then again more aggressively in August 2024 at 475p. Finally, I bought a few more at 630p earlier this year. With the share price now at 1,100p, all these positions are well up and beating the wider FTSE 100. So, should I make it a…