A round up of interesting or cool stuff I’ve read.
Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay
Cineworld closes its doors
And just like that, Cineworld announces that they are closing all their sites in the US and UK until further notice.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Despite the governments pleas last month to return to normal, including supporting the cinema, obviously most people realised that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere yet, and sitting in an enclosed room with 50+ people for 2-3 hours doesn’t sound like the best idea.
I can’t help but wonder if this is the beginning of the end for Cineworld? Yes, they’ve laid off pretty much their entire workforce, which will help reduce expenses, but with no income, how are they going to afford to pay the rent? Presumably they won’t be opening until at least spring next year, but even then, if people weren’t willing to go to the cinema during the summer, will they really have changed their minds in just six months?
Maybe Disney or some other huge media corporation will swoop in and buy all the best locations for rock bottom prices and cut out the middleman? The Vue cinema where I grew up used to be a Warner Village Cinema, so it’s not without precedent.
Pension age raised to 66
October marks the raise of the state pension age from 65 to 66. It is currently slated to rise to 67 in 2026-28, and then to 68 sometime afterwards. You can check your pension age online. My state pension age is currently in the 2050s. I imagine that number will increase by a few years more between now and then!
Other interesting links that caught my eye this week:
Jason Zweig on the importance of financial journalists.
The Irrelevant Investor on “When should I use a financial advisor?”
Ben Carlson on Some Money & Investing Stuff I’ve Changed My Mind About. I particularly liked his final point; “Saving money is important but I don’t believe you should save money on everything.”
Nat Eliason wrote some book notes on The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister. I thought that it gave a nice overview of what makes a good advisor.
Reset, by David Sawyer (not an affiliate link), is a mere £0.99 on Amazon. As ever, if you’re an avid reader of FI blogs, you probably won’t find much new… But it does make for a good summary of the basics, and is definitely worth picking up for that price.
Finally, somewhat off the beaten path, The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation. You could spend hours watching all of these clips and reading the attached descriptions (I would know). Very interesting, at times very nostalgic, and definitely worth a scroll through at least to see how many you recognise.
Thanks for reading, hope you’re all having a good week!
2 replies on “Wednesday Reads: The End of Cineworld?”
I’m saying by the time that I’m pension age material (essentially 40 years time), that the pension age will be over 70+ (I’m currently 30). I haven’t taken into account the state pension regarding my finances (whether or not they’ll be one, who knows!).
Such a shame about Cineworld / Cinema’s in general. Coronavirus is really causing untold damage to these types of industries. A few of our clients who operate independent spa’s have been royally turned upside down. Let’s hope something in the near future, be it a vaccine or a breakthrough can put us all back on the straight and narrow!
That sounds like a reasonable assumption! I agree; I think that the state pension age will be at least 70 by 2060, and may even be means tested. Like you, I’m currently not factoring in the state pension at all into my retirement finances. I’ll start to consider that I may be able to count on it when I’m within 10-15 years of state pension age, and have a much clearer idea of what to expect.
I agree, it is a huge shame. I had a realisation recently that we are probably not even half way through this yet! So who knows how those industries worst affected will cope with that timeframe. As you say, fingers crossed something is found sooner rather than later!