Hung out to dry? MRM’s weekend money sections round-up

The potential financial fallout of a hung parliament in Britain – along with further volcano disruption, the ongoing crisis in Greece and the costly BP oil slick – dominated this weekend’s money sections, with the bulk of our favourite pundits getting their tuppence worth in on to how to survive turbulent times ahead.   

 The Sunday Telegraph’s Rosie Murray-West takes the lead with a practical approach at becoming financially fit with an all-round health check-up on investments, pension plans, savings, mortgages and debts. Elsewhere in the section, Paul Farrow gets specific with a suggestion that blue-chip defensive stocks could be the best way to go in this period of uncertainty.

In the FT, Matthew Vincent explains how in these volatile times, ‘big and boring’ sectors may be the best bet for UK share investors, while Tanya Powley and Ellen Kelleher focused on how the situation is fuelling uncertainty for homeowners and savers with trouble in currencies, equities, gilts and pension annuities.

As all this doom and gloom may have you packing your bags and heading for the hills, The Telegraph’s Ian Cowie asks whether Brits would do better to move overseas to flee the inevitable post-election tax hikes.

The Mail on Sunday’s Richard Dyson led the paper’s section with the ominously-headlined ‘The Reckoning’, in which various experts gave their assessment of the financial fallout of a hung parliament. While responses are mixed,  the overall sentiment is one of cautious optimism, with contributor James Gledhill (Henderson) urging investors not to get too over-excited by current uncertainty.

Ian Lyall and Liz Phillips of the Daily Mail searched for safe havens for investors to shelter their savings in times of turmoil, with gold, absolute return and strategic bond funds touted as safer options for the savvy investor.

The Sunday Times’ Ali Hussain gets the last word in with ways to profit from a hung parliament. Suggestions include buying stocks with overseas earnings, selling domestic stocks, buying overseas government debt and (perhaps most imaginatively) buying ‘immune’ currencies such as the Swiss franc and Singapore dollar.  

All in all plenty of options for those investors looking to benefit from political uncertainty – so although we might stock up on our francs, we may not be leaving on a jetplane just yet.

Coverage scores on the doors this week are as follows:

Charity                2%

Credit cards      6%

Fraud/scams    0%

IFAs                     0%

Insurance          12%

Investment       33%

Mortgages         12%

Pensions             8%

Regulation        0%

Savings              24%

Tax                      0%

Utilities              4%