Managing high hopes is essential

Budget expectations

Just like people shifting in squeaky chairs in a solicitor’s office, trying to avoid eye contact with others in the room while a bachelor uncle’s will — a man imagined far richer than he was — is read out, we seem to be on the verge of hoping for something that may not materialise.

This situation might be made even more stressful if some of the people in the room were utterly reliant on a legacy or, worse again, had borrowed more than they should have in the hope that a bequest might help cover repayments.