The value of your investments, particularly your pension fund, is crucial to the success of your financial planning. A key factor when it comes to growth on your investments is the amount of risk you’re prepared to accept to meet your financial goals. Here are eight key facts about investment risk that you should consider when you’re investing your money. 1. It’s important you understand what “risk” is From crossing the road to buying a new car, there is an element of risk involved in almost everything you do. Each time you do something that could be risky, you’ll take steps to reduce that risk. So, when you’re crossing the road, you’ll check for oncoming traffic. If you’re buying a... Read More

How you invest your financial assets is key to your financial future. So, it should be at the heart of your financial planning process. Effective and successful investing doesn’t happen by accident. As with most things, you should always have a plan in place, and follow that when you’re building – and managing – your portfolio. I strongly believe that you should have some guiding principles that create a framework within which you can make decisions about your investment strategy. Here are 10 investment “commandments” for you to adopt. These very much reflect my investment ethos and the way I look to advise all my clients when it comes to investing your money. 1. You must have a plan, and... Read More

When it comes to defining “wealth” and, by extension, “wealthy”, the obvious place to start is through measuring the value of assets. These will include your money, savings, property, and pension fund. On the face of it, these will give a decent approximation of your overall monetary wealth, and therefore define if you are “wealthy”. But, from a financial planning point of view, wealth is far less straightforward than that. I often think it’s more about your state of mind than your tangible assets. So, how do you define wealth, and how it can impact on your financial planning? Wealth can be more about your lifestyle than your assets If you want to boil it down to a simple statement:... Read More

“Employment is up, investment is growing, public services are improving, the public finances are stabilising, and wages are rising.” This is the backdrop against which Rishi Sunak presented the 2021 Autumn Budget. Promising “a stronger economy for the British people”, the chancellor outlined his taxation and spending proposals. Here’s a summary of the key points and what they mean for you. Firstly, though, a reminder of two important tax changes that have already been unveiled. 2 important announcements already made Back in September, the prime minister made two headline-grabbing tax announcements. From April 2022, National Insurance rates for both employees and the self-employed will rise by 1.25 percentage points across earnings bands. Millions of employees and many employers will see... Read More

I’ve just read a book called The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. It explains how increased longevity is changing our lives – and will continue to change them in the future. It then considers how we will have to adapt different aspects of our lives to cope with this in order to be able to embrace a long life as a gift, rather than as a curse. It set me thinking about how increased longevity can impact on financial planning, particularly when it comes to retirement. We’re living longer than our parents Life expectancy is rising. People retiring now are likely to be spending far longer in retirement than their parents and grandparents. According to the Office for... Read More