Why is everyone buying Bitcoin!?

On TalkTV with James Max this morning, discussing the upcoming budget, Thames Water and the new Bitcoin craze.

1. It’s Budget time

Well, everyone is holding their breath waiting to see what Jeremy Hunt will do next Wednesday, when he delivers his Spring Budget. Since it’s Leap Year today, we even have an extra day of anticipation and anxiety.

Will he cut income tax by one or two pence? Is he still going to go ahead and increase fuel duty, where the government tax take is already ridiculously high?

My prediction is that he is going to deliver some large tax tax cuts to try to gain votes and that will be it on this subject until the general election. The question is, will these be more smoke and mirror, phony tax cuts, where the net effect means the same or even more tax, as he has done so often before?

2. How wet can you get?

If you’ve ever dealt with Thames Water, you won’t be surprised at the current disastrous state of their finances, and that they could well go bankrupt.

They owe £18 billion in debt and currently cannot even repay a £190 million loan due in April. They leak and lose more water than any of the other disastrous water companies. In this country, their operations are a total shambles in my view and personal experience, and they look to me as being pretty close to being nationalised.

They actually wanted to help solve their problems by raising their prices to consumers by 40%, but it appeared yesterday that they are going to be turned down and sent to their shareholders for more money, thank goodness.

They don’t actually look much different than the current and most of the previous governments we have had, do they? They keep charging us more and more and the service we receive deteriorates more and more every day.

3. Here we go

I have been waiting for this. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, has hit $60,000. Last year it fell as low as $20,000. Now that various exchange traded funds are appearing from major wealth management firms making access to the cryptocurrency world much easier to the average Joe, and eliminating much of the gobbledygook, and some of the risk, I predict this market will really take off. So, I suggest that looking at exchange traded funds from major wealth management companies is now the thing to do. But don’t for goodness sake, put all of your money into this asset class. I would say 10%, and maybe even as much as 15 or 20% of your spare assets /cash could go into cryptocurrency, but don’t come and tell me off if I’m wrong, because my advice is worth exactly what you are paying for it – nothing.