Stanley Gibbons has been selling rare and valuable postage stamps since 1856. In more recent years it's made them available as investments along with coins, books and other collectibles. Money Box Listener Russell has discovered that a stamp investment contract with the company, which his father failed to cash in after it expired two years ago, is now worth less that the £10,000 he put in. What should people who put their cash into alternative assets realistically expect from their unregulated investments? There was a time when the idea of transferring out of a final salary pension, with its guaranteed income, was considered strange. Steve Webb, Director of Policy at Royal London and Andrew Tully, Pensions Technical Director at Retirement Advantage discuss the market conditions that have changed that view as well as why people are cashing in and what they need to consider. The Bank of England once described the buy-to-let property sector as a threat to financial stability because it fed price rises which in turn could spark a housing market crash. As well as existing measures in place to curb growth, next year sees the introduction of changes to tax relief and the possibility of new limits on the amount that landlords can borrow. Carolyn Uphill Chair of the National Landlords Association and Dan Wilson Craw, Policy and Communications Manager, Generation Rent debate whether this is the beginning of the end for buy-to-let or will landlords still find ways to thrive.
