In this update: The importance of Budgeting - Mapping your financial future. Budgeting is like the GPS for your finances, ensuring that you know where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there. Without a budget, you’re essentially navigating your financial life...
In one of the longest ‘Budget’ speeches in memory, Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the first Labour Budget speech for nearly 15 years on 30 October 2024. This was clearly going to be a challenging Budget, with the Chancellor seeking to address the nation’s funding gap, while...
In this update: Voluntary National Insurance Contributions National Insurance Contributions National Insurance can be a confusing subject, and we can be forgiven for wishing to overlook the nuance and complexity of it. Some time spent reviewing our own situation now, in good time for the future, may leave...
In this update: The Big Picture The importance of portfolio rebalancing Withdrawal discipline The Big Picture It can be difficult to see the big picture when all that we are exposed to, driven by the media machine, appears only to be chaos and disorder. The good news is...
We have summarised the main points of yesterday's Spring Budget below, along with a reminder of various changes from April 2024 that we were already aware of. PENSIONS State Pension The triple lock means that the new state pension and basic state pension will increase by 8.5% in...
In this update: Latest Retirement Living Standards Latest Retirement Living Standards The latest update to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) Retirement Living Standards (RLS) reveal a shift in the cost of retirement living driven by changes in the UK public's expectations and increases to the...
In this update: Investing persists through all cycles Your retirement spend and your retirement duration Investing persists through all cycles Interest rates are at levels we haven’t seen since before the Financial Crisis, tempting some people into cash, and away from investing. So does investing still make...
In this update: Where would you like to start? Your negative bias Where would you like to start? 'Where would you like to start?' is an interesting question. It’s as important a question too for investors. Because when talking to people about investments, the point at which...
In this update: The cycle of investor emotions The cycle of investor emotions As regular subscribers will know on reading these posts, I have discussed the timing and nature of markets on a regular basis. Markets typically fall into either bull and bear phases. For a definition...
In this update: Market Seasons Financial Behaviour Your Financial Plan Market Seasons As regular subscribers will know from previous posts, the markets go through their seasons. The business cycle goes from expansion, slowdown, recession and recovery. Stock markets move between bear and bull markets. However, we...