14
Mar
2024

Why longevity is the underappreciated retirement risk

To my mind, there are two distinct stages in your financial planning lifetime. The first requires you to squirrel away money for your future, hoping to benefit from the magic of compounding returns. I often call this the “savings stage”. At retirement, you then transition to the “spending stage” of your life. From this point, you will likely withdraw from, rather than continue to add to, your investment portfolio. While any habit of frugality you developed during your life will continue to be beneficial, this major change in direction can be a difficult adjustment for you. In this phase of life, I always flag two risks you’ll face. One is a risk I often think my clients fear a little...
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6
Mar
2024

Your Spring Budget update – the key news from the chancellor’s statement

The 2024/25 tax year is just a month away, and chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delivered his 2024 Spring Budget, outlining the government’s plans for the next fiscal year and beyond. With a general election looming – prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he will call it before the end of the year – the chancellor claimed that the government had met the prime minister’s three economic priorities laid out at the start of 2023, having: Halved inflation, down from highs of 11% last year to 4% in January 2024 Kept debt falling in line with fiscal rules Grown the economy, fully 1.5 percentage points higher than expected. Amid this backdrop, the chancellor called this a “Budget for long-term growth”, with...
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6
Mar
2024

All the winners and losers from the 2024 Spring Budget

With one eye on a forthcoming general election, the chancellor has announced a Budget aimed at generating long-term growth, with “more investment, more jobs, better public services and lower taxes”. While the headlines will inevitably focus on Jeremy Hunt’s cut in National Insurance contributions (NICs), many less headline-grabbing messages will affect millions of families and businesses. Read on to find out who were the winners and losers from the 2024 Spring Budget. Winners Working people The chancellor said that his Budget gave “much-needed help in challenging times”, adding “if we want to encourage hard work, we should let people keep as much of their own money as possible”. Calling NICs a “penalty on work”, Hunt announced a cut in Class...
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21
Feb
2024

6 simple activities that you don’t need to be a multi-millionaire to enjoy

Financial planning is very much about growing your wealth and ensuring you have a plan in place to secure your financial future. Of course, there will always be an element of your lifestyle of choice being dictated by your wealth. For example, extensive overseas travel, a large house, and an expensive car are not luxuries that everyone can afford. That’s why a key part of your financial plan will be your attitude to money in terms of how you think about it and how much you spend. I’ve written previously about why evaluating your wealth is more than just about money and how appreciating this can be a big contributory factor to your future wellbeing and happiness. But there are...
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21
Feb
2024

Why the idea of a secret investment door can be an expensive myth

There are many areas in life where a high level of wealth gets you through a secret door. Here, a new realm of possibility opens up to you with better options than you faced before. Think luxury travel packages, chartered planes, private security, home chefs, and private schools. If you’ve grown used to your path being eased in these ways, it’s perfectly understandable for you to then think that your high net worth should enable you to access a similar door, providing you with an expansion of options in investment products. After all, with the basics in place and more money to invest, doesn’t investing in something complex that can provide you with more diversification make sense? Read on to...
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25
Jan
2024

Why it’s so important for you to solve the right financial problems

The start of a new calendar year is often a prompt for you to look ahead to the coming 12 months, maybe with some resolutions thrown in for good measure. Resolutions are often made to address a specific problem. But when it comes to financial issues or factors that affect your wealth, it’s important to understand whether or not you are solving the right problem. That’s because solving the problem you first perceive could well actually be more harmful to your finances than doing nothing at all. It’s important to have an effective problem-solving methodology One important ability you should look to acquire, as it can really help you manage your finances, is to have a robust problem-solving process. This...
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