An annual report produced by one of the world’s largest and most respected fund management companies has used real-world data to try and quantify the benefits of using a financial adviser or planner – the returns on top of your returns, if you will. It makes for interesting reading.
Category: Financial Planning, Saving & Investing
With the cost of education and housing rising, it’s become more commonplace for parents and grandparents to save for their children and grandchildren. By planning ahead, they can maximise the impact those savings will have.
Category: Financial Planning, Saving & Investing
Suppose you’ve got a lump sum of £25,000 saved, and you’re a homeowner. Assuming you’ve got an emergency reserve of cash put aside and no unsecured debts, there are a few different options for you to make the most of your money.
Category: Financial Planning, Saving & Investing
An interest-only or endowment mortgage is one where you pay only the interest and not the mortgage balance itself. There are over 1.6m interest-only or part-interest mortgages in the marketplace. If you’ve got one, your biggest concern is: how are you going to pay it back? Don’t panic, just make sure you have a strategy in place.
Category: Financial Planning
This week I’m answering a reader’s question, and it’s one that many of us ask ourselves as we get older: can I afford to retire, and if so what do I do next?
Category: Financial Planning, Retirement & Pensions
As a nation, we love property, I try to expand my clients views, but often decisions made decades before meeting me means that the largest asset some of my clients own is their home and often they are pension and cash poor, so how do you release the value of your home?
Category: Financial Planning
There’s less than a month to go until the end of the tax year. However, there’s still time to consider some last-minute tax planning to maximise the use of an individual’s allowances, reliefs and exemptions for the current tax year. Some of these will be lost if not used before the tax year end. This year end tax planning checklist covers the main planning opportunities available to UK resident individuals and will hopefully help to inspire action to reduce tax.
Category: Financial Planning
Preparation and planning is key to good money management. Knowing what’s coming up means you can prepare and adjust before things happen, rather than rushing to get things arranged at the last minute. On 6 April the new tax year begins, so ahead of the inevitable flurry of advice in late March, here’s a look at the income-related changes that are on the way so that you can plan ahead.
Category: Financial News & Events, Financial Planning
Anybody from a new-born baby until they are in their 60s can have a pension – you can even set one up in your baby’s name and pay into it from the day of their birth! The beneficiary can’t access their pension until retirement age, so your children can’t use it to buy a car or a house or to pay for university. So why would you consider starting one for your child?
Category: Financial Planning, Goal Setting, Saving & Investing
Money, like a relationship, is a very emotional thing. Put the two together and you’ve either got sweet sailing or stormy waters ahead. Based on over 20 years of working with couples and their finances, here are my tips on navigating the journey together.
Category: Financial Planning, Money Management
The 31 January deadline for submitting online self-assessment tax returns is suddenly looming large. If you’re not one of the 10,000 or so people who submitted their returns on Christmas Day or Boxing Day – no, me neither – and you still haven’t done it yet, then it’s time to get moving on your return.
Category: Financial Planning
Many of us will gift to charitable causes regularly throughout the year, using Gift Aid or Payroll Giving, but fewer of use appreciate how this works, we purely give from the goodness of our hearts to help others less fortunate. Find out how it works and how it can save you money on your tax.
Category: Financial Planning, Money Management
Getting financially organised is important, because clarity is power. When you know your numbers, your finances are not as complicated as you might think. Clarity gives you the enthusiasm to make better decisions and live the life you want to live.
Category: Financial Planning, Goal Setting
The government have just launched a new savings scheme called “Help to Save”. It allows you to save upto £50 a month over four years (up to a maximum of £2,400) and receive a 50p bonus for every £1 you save. Find out more about the benefits on this scheme along with how you open an account.
Category: Financial Planning, Saving & Investing
Parents helping out their children (and grandchildren) financially is a tricky topic because it’s so caught up in emotion and love that it’s not always easy to make sensible decisions. I have two kids and I love them dearly – but there’s a reason it tells you on the airplane safety briefing to put your own mask on first before you help your children. In the same way, financial support for your family is a case of secure yourself first.
Category: Financial Planning
More people are selling second properties. This could give rise to substantial Capital Gains Tax liabilities. How are those CGT liabilities calculated? Advance planning can reduce those CGT liabilities.
Category: Financial Planning
The proportion of those aged over 65 that are working beyond retirement is close to 11%. Find how what this means.
Category: Financial Planning, Retirement & Pensions
When you think of financial planning, what comes to mind? Boring discussions on pensions, wealthy individuals hiding their money off-shore to save tax? Neither could be further from the truth. Financial planning is used by millions of people worldwide; people just like you.
Category: Financial Planning
The Government introduced the Help to Buy ISA in the 2015 Budget. It’s available to UK residents over the age of 16 for a temporary period of four years. With 1.2 million investors, the Help to Buy ISA seems to be faring somewhat better than the Lifetime ISA, find out how.
Category: Financial Planning, Saving & Investing
In the recent case of McHugh v HMRC, the First Tier Tax (FTT) Tribunal were asked to consider the question of whether private residence relief from capital gains tax (CGT) should be given in respect of any part of a three-year period of ownership that preceded the taxpayer’s occupation of the property.
Category: Financial News & Events, Financial Planning
Effective budgeting should be transformative, not draining
November 10, 2023
Step by step is the way to get on top of your money matters
January 15, 2023
Change up your money habits in 2022
January 6, 2023
Looking back on 2022 to move forward in 2023
December 27, 2022
A gift your grandchildren won’t forget
December 18, 2022
