Andrew is Editor of thisismoney.co.uk, one of Britain's biggest financial news and advice websites and part of Associated Newspapers. He's married with two young children and having lived in Crawley and London, now lives in Surrey. He likes jazz music, water polo, tennis and er, maps (but keep that quiet).

You can read his Thisismoney blog and follow him on Twitter.

We asked Andrew:  

Are you a saver or a spender? Definitely a saver. My rule number one: Balance the books. I've always worked, including during university, to make sure I've got enough money to cover everything and to save a little on the side.

Have you ever dabbled in the world of stocks and shares? If so, what has been your best/worst experience? I dabbled in individual shares in the Nineties before becoming a financial journalist with some reasonable success - that's what got me interested. Then I lost a chunk of money on dotcom shares (and my job: I was working at FTyourmoney.com which was closed down). Since then, I've focused on funds rather than shares and have had some reasonable winners. Stock markets should outperform other assets other the long-term. Western economies are now long-term sick so I'm instead heavily backing emerging markets such as Latin America.

Are you a fan of price comparison sites? Love 'em. But I must declare an interest - Thisismoney offers comparison services. In all seriousness, financial comparison services have done an awful lot to give consumers a better deal. Some have their flaws (which are all exposed on Thisismoney), but overall they're most certainly a force for good.

What's the best piece of financial advice you have been given? I rarely get personal advice. The thing I've learned myself is not to get carried away with investment successes - big returns mean you've taken a big risk to get it. But the best advice I've ever heard is from the world's greatest (and most modest) investor, billionaire Warren Buffett: 'Be greedy when others are fearful; be fearful when others are greedy.'

If you were Chancellor for a day what tax would you change? Chancellor sounds like too small a role. If I was in the specially-created role of "Head of Global Finance", I'd get rid of all regressive taxes and raise inheritance tax to 95% on estates of more than £1m. It would raise a fortune in tax, it would boost economic growth and would make the world more equal (and happier): receiving wealth as a birthright discourages people from working quite so hard (or at all). That's why Warren Buffett will give nearly all of his fortune to charity rather than his kids.

Leave a comment

Comments:

There are no comments on this article as yet, why not add one above!

Leave a comment:

Forename:
Surname:
Email address:
Your comments:

Choose an icon below:

I would like to receive updates by email when new comments are posted to this blog