A 7.5% Savings Account, FCA Says "Get Invested" & An Intro To Preferred Shares!

What will the stock market do in 2023? Is the Legal & General dividend safe? Where’s Paul? Find out the answer to none of these questions on this week’s PlayingFTSE show!

Kicking us off, Steve D has some fun facts about the show. As a podcast, we get a Spotify wrapped just like (or nothing like) everybody else. At one point, we made it into the top 5% of most followed podcasts on Spotify! Thank you to everyone who put us there, everyone who keeps listening and watching, and everyone who has sat through the tirade of adverts that Steve accidentally lined up on last week’s show. He also has some notes on his big Larry…

Steve also has some exciting news about a new savings account. It’s from First Direct and pays 7% interest on an amount between £75 and £300. Who needs investing? What is our show even *for*? And do the Steves have this account? Find out…

In other news, the FCA thinks that people shouldn’t be stashing their money in savings accounts yielding 0.25%. We tend to think the same thing with our money, but Steve W is wondering why the authorities have finally got around to this idea. Their plan is to lower the qualification requirement for financial advisors dealing with people who have basic needs. Never mind what we think — what does actual financial advisor Tom Morgan think? Find out at the end of the show…

One of the things you might like to invest in is the Meet Kevin Pricing Power ETF. That’s a thing and we’re here to discuss it. Steve D thinks it looks strange, Steve W thinks it looks expensive. There’s clearly some merit to the idea that pricing power is important and Meet Kevin has a huge following, of the kind we’ll likely never have, and he’s a very very good salesperson. But what kind of ETF would we be if we were going to start a fund of our own?

Steve W has found something he prefers. Preferred stocks. Our resident value investor has a hunch that stocks that pay fixed dividends might be about to become a sought-after asset as a recession cuts into corporate profits. And there’s one in particular that’s on his agenda. Steve D reads Steve W’s written work, so he knows what it is. And attentive viewers will recognise it from a previous episode.

All on this week’s PlayingFTSE podcast!