Being prepared for upcoming tax rises and price increases
Energy prices look set to rise again, and there may be tax rises on the horizon too. If the going gets tough this Autumn, the smart move is to seek financial advice.
Key Takeaways
You may think that you’ll only need financial advice if you’re fortunate enough to come into a lot of money, or if you’re a higher rate taxpayer.
Staying on track with your long-term financial goals is even more challenging if prices rise too and you need to dig deeper to pay the bills.
Financial advice helps you control your spending in a short-term squeeze and make sure you’re set for a more comfortable financial future in the longer term.
Financially, it’s been a difficult few years for households, across all income brackets. As a result, many families focused down on day to day costs, at the expense of longer term investing and pension saving.
The role financial advice can and should, play, in these situations
You might think that financial advisers can’t do much to help. But it’s during the hard times that expert advice can really come into its own. Both for your peace of mind and your family’s financial wellbeing.
Here, we explain how financial planning and expert advice can help you protect your short- and long-term financial security.
the real purpose of financial planning
In a nutshell, financial planning helps you manage your income and assets in the best way, aiming for you to achieve your life goals and see your family thrive.
You may think that it’s only worth talking to us if you have a specific goal in mind, such as early retirement or to manage the impact of a big financial event such as a divorce or deciding what to do with a large lump sum.
Although that’s an important part of the role of a financial adviser, the ‘job description’ is much broader and can involve several generations of your family. Afinancial advisor can help you plan the best way to manage all aspects of your financial life. This can include:
Managing your money on a day-to-day basis.
Making smart use of credit, investments, insurance policies, tax reliefs and financial products to help you ride out rising prices tax efficiently.
Being financially resilient enough to deal with the unexpected.
Planning how to leave more of your legacy to your family and pay less Inheritance Tax.
Protecting your assets for future generations of your family.
Having someone knowledgeable and non-judgmental to talk to about all aspects of your financial life in both the good and the bad times.
That final point is, for many, one of the key benefits of having a financial adviser. Taking expert advice from someone you trust can be invaluable, especially in challenging times.
Talking money when times are tough
Talking about money, especially with other family members can be a challenge in itself. Those conversations can escalate to emotional exchanges and arguments. No wonder many of us would rather not bring up the subject of money until we absolutely have to.
We’re known for expert financial advice. But we’re also known for helping people to have better conversations about money. This is especially true when ‘things are tight’. Involving an adviser who’s one step removed and can explain all the options to all parties can help resolve conflict.
Starting a conversation about how you’re going to manage or how worried you are, is the first step towards feeling better about it. It’s also the first crucial step to getting your finances back on track.
Making a financial plan for good and bad times
You may already have a ‘financial plan’, even if you call it a ‘budget ‘rather than a plan that helps you reach your goals. This could include careful household budgeting, monthly contributions to pensions or investments or insurance policies. All tried-and-tested, prudent strategies.
But, if prices rise along with inflation, as we saw in the previous years, some of these best-laid plans can fall apart. You might start to feel like you can’t keep up with regular pension contributions or savings, when you’ve got to reach deeper into your pocket to meet day to day outgoings. It’s tempting to put those longer-term objectives on hold while you deal with the short term.
Tax regulations around pensions, inheritances or capital gains can change too and your plan needs to adapt to keep you on track.
We spend every day creating specific, actionable plans to help people achieve this, based on realistic calculations of how much they’ll need. We can tweak and fine-tune these so that people who may feel they cannot afford to save for retirement, for example, can continue to do so.
working through financial worries
As well as being a sounding board for your financial concerns, we can accurately assess what impact any changes to tax regulations might have on your longer term plans.
Whether it’s the best way to protect an important asset that you want to pass on or whether to sell some shares or property to help fund your retirement or long term care, we can provide an accurate forecast and then work out a specific action plan.
Once you’ve got an accurate picture of your personal situation in context, the picture might not be as bleak as you think.
That’s when financial advice can become invaluable advice.
Start a conversation with us today.
The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time and are generally dependent on individual circumstances.