Advantages: See text
Disadvantages: See text

...It was the Victorians who first thought up the idea of Investment Trusts – in 1868 to be precise. The Foreign and Colonial Government Trust was launched as a way of allowing people who didn’t have an awful lot of money to be able to invest relatively small sums and get all the benefits of having a large and diverse portfolio of shares. The Trust held 18 foreign government bonds. The word “government” was dropped from the title and the Trust began to invest in companies as well. Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust now manages assets of £2.8 billion. In total there are more than 300 Investment Trusts with combined assets of £60 billion. The name “Investment Trust”, though, is misleading, because an Investment Trust is not a Trust but a limited company, quoted on the Stock Market and shares can be bought and sold through... Read review

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Advantages: Efficient, reliable and reasonable value
Disadvantages: No obvious problems

...to be expected: they should not be anything surprising. Nonetheless, there are sectors of the market where the risk is not just of poor returns but of actual losses. Over the long term one can perhaps ride these out, but it's vital to remember that the risks are such that one can lose money on equities. Now, there are two things that one can do to limit these risks and their consequences. The first is to adopt the principle that one should never invest more in these investments than one is prepared to lose. So, something which is far from guaranteed may default and pay out nothing or very little: if you don't put in money which you can't afford to lose, you won't be finanicially crippled, whatever happens. Second, however, you can diversify, and that is where unit trusts come in. Instead of risking your capital on a small selection of equities... Read review

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Advantages: Easier to trade than unit trusts, lower charges than unit trusts, you can buy assets at a discount, performance tends to be better than unit trusts
Disadvantages: The share price of investment trusts can be more volatile because of discounts and gearing, generally higher risk than unit trusts

...After reading up on investments in Money Observer magazine around 7 years ago, I decided to buy some shares in an investment trust through a share plan. My previous investments before this had been into unit trusts, which at the time had high initial charges of around 5%. Part of the reason I decided to invest in an investment trust was because of the lower charges involved and because you can get assets at a discount (more on this later). After this first investment I became more and more interested in investment trusts, they might not be interesting to everyone, but they were interesting to me. I think I find them so interesting because of the diverse and varying investment styles used by the fund managers. Also many investment trusts have been around for over 100 years, surviving many testing economic periods. The first investment... Read review

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Advantages: Something for everyone no matter how small
Disadvantages: Perhaps not exciting these days

...dispensation will allow the estate to leave the Bonds in up to twelve further consecutive draws and any winnings are added to the estate. On the first anniversary of the death, the Bonds are repaid to the estate. HOW DO YOU BUY BONDS? Bonds are purchased in £1 units with a minimum single purchase of £100. Above that level, increments of £10 are allowed. When this lower purchase limit was introduced some years ago it was generally felt that the attraction of Premium Bonds was on the wane and this limit had been set too high. This has not proved to be the case. Units are purchased in consecutive numbers, represented by the certificate (for example a £100 bond certificate may represent bonds 77AX 120001 to 77AX 120100). Premium Bonds are bought by application to the National Savings and Investments Department (NS&I) - a government agency... Read review

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Advantages: The beginning of a legend, the birth of a star, the making of an icon
Disadvantages: No Q.

.... Every time Bond has sex with a beautiful woman, it is a victory for all men, which obviously appeals to the chauvinist in all males. The fact that most men never get to share even non-intimate moments with the world's most beautiful women mean that this recurring theme of all Bond movies appeals to the part of us that entertains fantasy, it tickles our imagination both literally and euphemistically. Bond's second female encounter comes in the form of Miss Taro (Zena Marshall), a duplicitous member of the British government in Jamaica. However, in this initial adventure Bond is credited with rather more brains than he would later on and he is well aware that she is not to be trusted. With awesome callousness, Bond will trap Miss Taro is giving herself sexually to him in order not to be discovered. Of course, Bond has already discovered her... Read review

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Advantages: A relatively low risk fund, high income yield of almost 6%, below average initial charge, one of the top funds in its sector, low interest rates make bonds attractive
Disadvantages: Bonds underperform when equities outperform, long term performance is modest compared to equity funds

...at a discount from a website like iii or Fidelity Funds network, or you could go through a discount broker that is not online such as Allenbridge group plc. The average charge you pay on a unit trust or OEIC is around 5%. The unit price of the fund has fluctuated in the range of 57p to 63p in the 3 years since its purchase. Rather than opting to take the 6% income paid out by the fund as cash we decided to re-invest the income and buy more units. The idea behind this tactic was to achieve a compounding effect. Because this is a bond fund the income paid out is not classed as a dividend but interest, the drawback of this is that 20% tax is paid rather than the 10% tax you would pay on an equity fund. During the first two years of holding this fund I received complaints about how this fund was going nowhere and not generating any profit... Read review

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Advantages: In my opinion THE best Bond game released so far!!!
Disadvantages: Truly Pierce Brosnan's last outing as James Bond...

...model, Heidi Klum is Dr. Katya Nadanova - a briliant scientist. The question is as always: Who can be trusted? The singer/actress, Mya appears in this story as an undercover NSA (National Security Agency) agent, Mya Starling as well as providing the title song of the game. Yes... the game has a brief but authentic opening credits sequence which is much like those in the Bond movies and is certainly over and above what you would expect for a video game. Another plus here is that the title song is actually very good - unlike the Madonna song for 'Die Another Day' - which was okay... just. Mya's rendition of 'Everything Or Nothing' is just right for a Bond theme and the opening credits it compliments follow a pre-credits sequence which further adds to the feel of the Bond movies for this game. Anyway... getting back to the plot - before... Read review

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Advantages: Action, gadgets, car chases, fight scenes, tonnes of subtle humour
Disadvantages: This particular DVD has limited special features

...acne" - Jinx "You know I've missed your sparkling personality", "How's that for a punch line" - Bond, then Zao "Oh look, parachutes for the both of us! [Throws one out] Whoops! Not any more!" - Gustav Graves *** Thanks for reading, everyone - this is my 2nd day on Ciao and I hope you liked the review! P.S. I only have 2 people who trust me at the moment, so if you liked this feel free to go ahead and add me!... Read review

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Advantages: low management fees and "zeros" give an absolute return
Disadvantages: not completely risk free

..., was established in 1868 and is still going strong. By the time I had some money to invest I knew a lot about this kind of investment. Investment trusts were the first collective investment, like a unit trust or OEIC, (Open Ended Investment Company) and were invented so that the ordinary person in the street could invest in shares, but without putting all of his money in one company, or wasting money on excessive charges. Unit trusts came along much later, and are now much more popular. The difference between them is that an investment trust is a share in an investment company and a unit trust is a defined portion of an investment portfolio. If you buy a unit for, say £1.00, the manager will need to create a new unit and invest that money for you, after first taking £0.05 fee, and if you sell it he will need to sell the investments again (even if it... Read review

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Advantages: £1 million jackpot, over 500,000 prizes per month, chance to win every month, prizes tax free
Disadvantages: Must buy a minimum of £100 each time,each bond must be held for a month before it is entered continually

...because they are backed by the HM Treasury. A premium bond is a unit of £1, however, you must buy a minimum of a £100 at anyone time. Each unit is entered into a prize draw monthly, with each unit now holding a 1 in 30,000 chance of winning. PRIZE ALLOCATION: Each month the draw is divided amongst the winning bonds as follows by the random number generator ERNIE, who is checked independently checked by the Government actuary to ensure no cheating. Higher Value – £1.8 million £1 million 1 prize £100,000 2 prizes £50,000 3 prizes £25,000 6 prizes £10,000 16 prizes £5,000 33 prizes Medium Value - £1.8 million £1000 730 £500 2190 Lower Value – £32.9 million £100 11,129 £50 635,071 GENERAL ODDS: As I have said before the expected odds are 30,000 to one... Read review

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