2017, Business Insider produced this great article about financial advice for 20 year olds. There are 2 simple elements to a great foundation for young people – save and don’t spend. Continue reading “What’s the best financial advice for a young person?”
Just when you thought you had it all sorted, one of the few people to still be in a final salary pension scheme, a good salary, and making additional pension contributions, suddenly, it all goes wrong.
Redundancy sends you on a very different journey indeed.
However, being the diligent person, paying additional amounts into your pension, perhaps maximising your annual allowance of £40,000, the future looks ok, especially with the large redundancy lump sum you are going to be paid in the present tax year.
Then the tax regime comes tripping merrily in your direction : Continue reading “How could redundancy affect your pension?”
Many people find that their view and experience of their retirement may be very different from what they expect. Reality can be a pretty harsh awakener (especially if it’s your own retirement).
In the financial part of the equation, you can of course model, plan and adjust assumptions and figures as you head towards the big day and the rest of your life. Of course it takes a high degree of knowledge and skill to get the figures absolutely correct, and with the aid of technology, it is easier to get pretty close, even building in re-runs of the 2008 credit crunch (remember that?).
Even if you have the financial plan in place, it may be that the other side of retirement – LIFE – can all of a sudden, not unfold quite as you had imagined.
Will your retirement be all holidays and lunches at garden centres? Will it be just looking forward to watching your favourite TV show with an eccles cake and a cup of tea at 3.30pm ? Or, could it be full of purpose, full of fun, a brand new start?
Frequently people who had such high expectations for their retirement, find that a year or two in, they have managed to find themselves in a rut of mundaneness (they may even be fulfilling their spouses retirement and not even thinking about their own). They may even look back and wish that they had stayed working and be paid to be bored, rather than sacrifice an income and lack little social interaction.
People just like you are quickly realising that they need to plan their retirement just as they plan their future. That planning is not just about scheduling in a month-long break to Malta each October, but figuring out how each day and week may look for you. What will you do to happily fill the time, and regain your purpose and passions which may well have been put on hold for 50 years (whilst ‘grown up life’ for in the way).
Finding your happy retirement is not just going to be attached to a number – a certain amount of income, especially if all those years lack fun, freedom and a real purpose. You will probably find that the things which bring you the most joy, may not even cost much at all, you just need to find them and not be trapped in a retirement bucket.
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
There is some logic as underlined in this article, that the more fun we are having, the quicker things go, which may be why the 6 week school summer holidays seemed to fly by far quicker than the 6 week half term times. Continue reading “Why does time go quicker the older you are”
Many of us acknowledge that the journey to work is a real drag, that arduous commute, changing from 1st gear to 2nd, or jammed into a stuffy bus or tube train. That is no way to make you feel uplifted and positive about the day to come – far from it!
According to research by the University of West of England (analysing 26,000 people over 5 years), not only has the commute time increased by 25%, but 1 in 7 spend more than 2 hours commuting every day – that is 10 hours a week!
An increase in stress and worsening of mental health for workers (not to mention the impact that then has on their families). There are of course only 24 hours in each day – so choosing how to spend them is a very important task indeed. Continue reading “How bad is commuting for your mental health?”
Even those of us in the profession get phone calls offering a free pension review (I have also been told that my investments have underperformed and I am entitled to compensation, my life cover was not advised properly, and my mortgage was not set up on the right rate) recently, I had this call which went like …
“Hello, I am from the pension review service, and we are phoning to give you a free review of your pension as it is probably underperforming”. Continue reading “Pension reviews – the new timeshare scandal”
Pure goals and objective based planning is far better than the greedy pursuit of ‘more’ which has been the bedrock of financial advice for many a year. Look at it, once we have more, we want some more of that more – it is a never satisfying cycle. Continue reading “Why just goals or objective based planning is selling the client short”
The answer to that is ‘yes’ if you are the client who I was recently working with!
I’ll explain how… Continue reading “Is there a £500k hole in your pocket”
A bit of tax fun (not words which usually go that well together)
I came across this tax analogy from Toby Morris.
It takes the example of a group of people going out for a beer, and distributing the bill according to their means in life – so far so good, some obviously pay more than others, and some pay nothing at all as they are unable to. Continue reading “How the Tax System Works – in Beer”
Can you remember the last time you went on holiday and arrived at the airport ?
In some places, the concierge meet you at the airport working on your behalf, making you feel important, at ease, as if they care – OK, you may well have paid a little more for this service, but you feel comfortable that all of your luggage is being taken care of. Those precious items, expensive perfume, gifts, expensive cases, what-ever, are being treated with care. You will get to your destination, with the minimum of discomfort because everything is in line with your expectations and aims. Admittedly, not many of us plan to have items smashed or broken in our luggage, but often it is not unexpected. When you arrive at the hotel, the bags are taken our room, so that you can focus on enjoying a much looked forward to spell of relaxation and enjoyment, without the worry, or labour, of dealing with the luggage. Magically, it all arrives in perfect working order, and you go about the business of the holiday – the whole thing we have been focussing on.
OR ….
You do it on a budget, saving yourself a few quid to DIY, or see what happens when you get there. Continue reading “Making sure your financial planner is not just a bag handler …”
Escaping The Bucket 