What does wealth look like to you?
Whether it’s stopping smoking, losing weight, eating more healthily or getting fitter, most of us have probably made at least one New Year’s resolution, but how many of us will actually go on to achieve it?
Pension freedoms
Retirees now have a whole host of new options
The pension freedoms, introduced on 6 April 2015, have given retirees a whole host of new options. There is no longer a compulsory requirement to purchase an annuity (a guaranteed income for life for a fixed number of years) when you retire. The introduction of pension freedoms brought about fundamental changes to the way we can access our pension savings.
Every journey starts with a destination
Looking at the bigger picture for your wealth and security
Every plan starts with a goal, just like every journey starts with a destination. Planning your financial future is not only important for your security, but it also provides peace of mind. Financial planning should be viewed as a long-term approach to managing your finances.
Tax-efficient shelters
Use your ISA allowance or lose it forever
Even though the Individual Savings Account (ISA) deadline may be a number of months away, and despite the tax year date remaining the same year in year out, somehow it always creeps up on us. A tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.
Money lessons
5 tips that add up to teaching your child about money matters
Understanding how money works is an essential life skill. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, these lessons come later than they should, and often as the result of something going terribly wrong.
Women’s State Pension age changes
Government’s bid to ensure ‘pension age equalisation’
On 3 October, campaigners lost a significant legal battle against the Government’s handling of the rise in women’s State Pension age. Up until 2010, women received their State Pensions at the age of 60, but that has been increasing since then.
For richer, for poorer
Pension and asset advice should be part of the divorce process
Divorce – it’s one of the most difficult subjects to talk about. The emotional upheaval of divorce can be difficult to deal with, but so too can the financial implications. When relationships come to an end, there are so many things to consider. Children, home and support are naturally the first things you focus on.
‘Sleepwalking’ into retirement
How much will you need to save to afford a comfortable retirement?
There is a widespread and common-sense-based perception, backed to some extent by evidence, that planning and preparing for later life is associated with increased well-being in older age. Despite this, it’s concerning that some people at mid-life have not thought much about their later life nor taken fundamental future-oriented actions, such as engaging in financial planning or writing a Will.
Cultivate the art of patience
Avoid knee-jerk reactions by focusing on long-term investment objectives
Creating and maintaining the right investment strategy plays a vital role in securing your financial future. But we live in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. Human tendency is to prioritise negative over positive news content, and no one is immune from bad news. So as an investor, when you do get it, how do you process the information, deal with it and move on unscathed?
Tax-wise
Make the most of your valuable allowances, reliefs and exemptions
Once we enter January, the end of the 2019/20 tax year will be just over three months away on 5 April. As this date approaches, the window of opportunity reduces if you want to make the most of valuable allowances, reliefs and exemptions that could help reduce your tax bill and make sure your finances stay tax-efficient.