Coronavirus one year on: Get ready to hear ‘one year on’ a lot more

One year on from the worst of the first wave of the coronavirus crisis, get ready to hear that phrase. A lot. Says Edmund Greaves.

Boris putting us all into lockdown, remember that? That was exactly a year ago. One year into banana bread baking, leisure gear wearing and Zoom quizzing, for those of us fortunate enough to work from home. For many though it’s obviously been a pretty tough 12 months.

With such a monumental anniversary on our doorstep, there’s no doubt you’ll see a lot of ‘one year on’ talk from politicians and in the media.

So, what more can we expect to be ‘one year on’? Well, 5 April is one year on from Sir Keir Starmer winning the Labour leadership. 8 April was the worst day for deaths in the first wave (later surpassed in January this year). 11 April is one year on from HM Queen delivering her coronavirus national broadcast.

We’ve already passed the anniversary of the nadir for markets. The FTSE 100 hit its covid low on 20 March. It has grown nearly 30% since then.

They say markets predict the future by pricing it in. If that’s the case, they started predicting our bounce back surprisingly early on. But a year in, they seem roughly to be judging it quite well (by UK standards).

There a good chance we might leave the ‘one year ons’ behind as things look up for the future though. We’re coming out of lockdown, as non-essential shops, hospitality and hairdressers are allowed to reopen on 12 April in England.

We’re also entering a new tax year (exciting, I know) which falls on Easter Monday, 5 April. The quirk of this is many of us will have to get our affairs done early as things like BACs doesn’t seem to have figured out how to work on a public holiday yet.

I’ve shoved my extra bit of LISA contribution in early as a result, and you should do anything lingering straight away too.

On 11 April is National Pet Day. For better or worse, many more of us this year than last year may have reason to celebrate. The lockdown dogs’ boom was a real thing last year – I should know because I was shopping for them last April (my landlord later squashed that idea [hence the LISA]).

April is also a bumper month for awards as it appears many media firms get back into gear after lockdown. This includes events and deadlines – most notably: the Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts Awards voting deadline on 16 April, and Investment Week’s Sustainable & ESG Investment Awards and Financial Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards entry deadlines both fall on 30 April.

All the best from MRM and CCM, wishing you all a fresh and vibrant Spring.