I’m always meeting clients new and existing with a varied age range, usually between ages 20-80 and for me there is no preference to one over the other. My favourite bit is that, no matter where the client is, on their journey, I can adapt the advice that I give to their individual circumstances.
Recently I helped a young client to start saving for their future and saved them a chunky sum of income tax. At the other end of the scale, I recently helped a 70 year old client put a plan in place to reduce her potential inheritance tax bill by around £60,000. I know that the majority of us are in our investment growth stages, so at this time, inheritance tax planning isn’t so important. Although, I don’t know about you? But time is literally passing me by and sometimes I forget that each time another birthday comes and goes, that I actually do get older in age too. I still feel the same as I did 10 years ago! I’ve also helped some new homebuyers look at their protection options, to make sure they are able to provide for their families, should worst come to worst.
How do you guys feel about the work that you do? Are you in your forever career?
I think for me, feeling needed in my job role is important. I especially like the fact that my job can change somebody’s financial position to the point that they are able to achieve their personal and financial goals. Whether that be to retire at an earlier age or to diversify their investment portfolio to give them those additional income streams, no day is the same. Covid has actually really had an impact on me and my work life. Before now, the best part of it, was getting out and meeting the people, building relationships with new clients and business contacts, by way of networking, to generate new business and client referrals. All of that came to a halt in March and the way that I carry out business has had to be changed. I am fortunate to have been able to adapt my business but taking everything online has been a definite challenge, not what I signed up for to be honest. I know so many of you have been affected too and I think it’s important that we share our stories. In August, I actually had a mini meltdown and fell out of love with my job. The job I was doing, was no longer what I had signed up to and I was confined to the walls of my home and carrying out all of my meetings via Zoom. No face to face interaction for such a long period of time finally took its toll on me.
Since then, I have taken a couple of breaks from work and am gradually meeting more people face to face again. That’s the best bit for sure!
How do you feel about taking financial advice? Did you know that it’s relevant to everybody, no matter where they are in their life stages and no matter what their ‘wealth’ status is? We don’t know what we don’t know, so without advice, how can we become more efficient?
The foundation of a great financial and future plan, is to look at protecting you and your family. After this it’s often down to personal preference. Pensions, investments, tax efficient savings and sometimes looking at purchasing additional properties. Each client has a different objective and I am here to help them to achieve that...
I am looking to take on 6 new clients before the end of the year, who want to start looking at their financial planning goals and look to their financial future. If this is you and you have any questions, you know where I am.
Next week on the blog I am going to cover off Covid and the impact this has had on our investments. I will use some actual client data (minus names and specific identifiable information, of course) to highlight how different investments have been impacted over the period. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as to how the portfolios have performed and the majority of my clients are actually still within a positive growth period. *unfortunately I am unable to guarantee performance of funds moving forward but if you have read any of my other blogs, it’s more about the time horizon that you have to invest vs the risk that you take.
Anyway, thanks for checking in and as always please pop me a DM or email with any questions.
For me, September has completely ran away but I think it has been relatively productive and has involved lots of planning.
I have taken a good amount of time to plan in some personal and business goals, most of which are to be achieved by the end of the calendar year but some the financial year (5th April). I thinks it’s good to have goals and aspirations, otherwise do we really know what we are aiming for? I’ve been really detailed in my planning and have been as specific as I possibly can be.
This month, work wise has been super busy, this is why I thought I would ask what September has meant for you? It seems that the children have returned back to school and lots of you are getting in touch to start getting your financial ducks in a row, before the man in his big red suit comes down the chimney! Some of my posts over the recent weeks have been focused on retirement planning and pensions. In-case you haven’t seen those, did you know that there is an estimated over £2billion pounds of unclaimed pensions which have been effectively lost or forgotten about. Based on our average population that’s around £13,000 per person. I know I’d like to keep a handle on an additional lump sum and invest it for my future. Not only are people wanting to search out and amalgamate their pensions, they are looking at ways they can save on income tax before the end of the financial year. Pensions are an amazing way to do this!
For all you self-employed people, have you completed your tax return yet ahead of the 31st January deadline? If yes, great news. If not, you might want to think about doing this sooner rather than later so that you can make sure you have enough set aside to pay the bill...Do you have a separate account where you save for your tax bill? I have to do this otherwise I end up spending the pennies that I shouldn’t really be spending! My point here is that if you have some spare money and are considering investing for your future, now is a great time to do so. You are buying in, at a time where the stock market is relatively volatile, therefore your return on investment has better potential. If the contribution is made before the end of your tax/company year end, all money paid in is free from income and corporation tax, just this alone means at least a 19/20% relief. There is NOWHERE else that can give you this return, plus some potential investment growth.
CW’s weekend tip:
DON’T leave finding your Tax-Bill money until the LAST MINUTE...
This itself can create angst and worry that can knock your overall goals off course. I’ve been speaking with a few of my accountant friends recently and it seems that people generally scrap around to find their tax bill money rather than plan for it. I on the other hand, LOVE a plan, if you hadn’t gathered already. So I plan mine on a monthly basis and set aside as if I was employed. One of my first jobs for May, following the end of the financial year, is to get my accountant to submit my tax return so I have the next nine months to plan for any deficit and of course spend any surplus saved! Next year I’m hoping for a shiny new, bigger and better handbag. I only allow myself to buy one a year (or so)!
This month I am continuing to plan and would love to hear from you about financial planning topics, that you would specifically like to hear about from me, over the next few months. Lots of you kindly let me know, that you would like to read about the impact that Covid has had on our pensions and investments, this is in pipeline. It is also important to note here that, the longer you have to retirement, the less important this blip in the stock market is. There will always be a Brexit or a Covid or a something that is effecting your investments. Providing you have a good financial planner and time on your side, what goes down, generally comes back up and often better.
I’ve also had a little bit of a restructure of my week and decided to free up Friday’s for a bit of ‘me’ time. I think sometimes because I love my job so much, I get totally consumed and forget that I have to love me too. This actually started from this week...it feels great and I think I have been so much more productive Monday to Thursday because I knew there was a reward. Working for rewards, is a much better approach for me, otherwise I’ll always leave a tasks until tomorrow, tomorrow takes a while to come around and I end up with bits hanging over my head. I’ve also decided to turn off my social media notifications. I’ve found that since lockdown it consumes a lot more of my time and that I’m very reactive. Moving forward I will check my apps a couple of times a day but look forward to enjoying a clearer headspace and achieving my goals!
As always, I am here and happy to help with any questions that you might need answering. I hope to hear from you soon.
Much love,
I remember when I was trying to buy my first house, people were so inquisitive about whether I was sure I wanted to, and most of all if I knew how difficult it would be. At the time I was actually a mortgage adviser so I had quite a good idea of the process and the options that would be available to me. I was lucky to be in that position at such a young age. One Friday afternoon I decided to run a decision in principle (credit and affordability check) to see what I could borrow, which in turn, would enable me to set a goal to save and reserve a new shiny house. I used the help to buy scheme, which I still think is a great option now. It has helped so many people get onto the property ladder for so much less, in terms of upfront cash and interest rates.
As a general rule of thumb, a mortgage lender will let you borrow 4.5 times your annual earnings. This is of course subject to affordability, credit scoring and underwriting assessments, but this gives you an outlined generalised idea...depending on your circumstances there are sometimes lenders that would even be able to look at your earnings more favourably. You should always take full advice here because sometimes borrowing so much, isn’t appropriate for everybody. There are so many online calculators around, why not have a play around and see what they say for you?
So, how can we be more effective to efficiently save more pounds to help ourselves get onto the property ladder?
I know when I was saving for my first house it was so easy to dip in and out of the ‘pot’ but once I finally got there it was the best feeling in the world. Independence and somewhere, where I made all of the decisions and everything I had was mine.
No way am I saying it’s an easy road, but it’s a well worth it journey and hopefully I can offer you some great tips here...
I actually found that when the pounds started to build up that it was so much easier to save and stop spending on unnecessary things. I guess it became a bit of a game and the bigger the number got, and the closer I could see myself to reaching that goal it didn’t feel like a sacrifice anymore but rather, an achievement.
Just remember that everybody does everything at their own pace and to not believe everything that we see in this such social media based world. Set your goal within your own achievable limits because let’s be honest, becoming a home owner at any age is a massive achievement. I used to get sucked into other people’s idyllic worlds, but just remember that we all have different paths and I’m a true believer that, as cheesy as it sounds, we end up where we desire to be.
I would love to hear how you get on and I’m also happy to answer any questions should you need any further clarification on the points above...
Thanks for checking in, bye for now.