Ipswich Financial Adviser

Posts Tagged ‘money’

Interest rates were today held at 0.5% by the bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. This marks one year since they hit the record low of 0.5%.

An easy way to preserve your money is to ensure you get your self assessment tax return done on time.

If you miss the deadline of the end of January 2010 to submit your return to the HRMC then you will incur a penalty.

Don’t let the HRMC have more of your money, so bite the bullet and get your tax return done before the cut off date.

The second thing to do is to check that your tax code is correct. Don’t assume that this has been correctly applied by an employer. If it is wrong you could be missing out on  tax free income. Check with your employer or HRMC to ensure you get what you are entitled to.

If you have any tax issues then please contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we can put you in touch with accountants that come highly recommended.

We all start to think about New Years resolutions when we start to get to the end of the year.

Why not have a different type of New Year resolution and decided to take a look at your money and old financial policies.

There couldn’t be a better time to find your old policies and pension documents that sit at the back of the cupboard or in the loft and get a professional financial adviser to review them. This will ensure your money is working as hard as possible for you in the New Year.

Thompson Financial Consulting is happy to help and advise you to plan your financial life. Please contact us for your review.

When I am reviewing clients existing investment and pension holdings the one mistake I see time and again is the narrow way in which the investment content of the policy has been set up.

You will typically set the policy up within one or two funds and you have confidence that this will provide you with a return over a period of time. Unfortunately, the economy and markets  are always changing, so you need to ensure you have money invested in different types of funds so that you spread (diversify) your money. For example, if equities (shares) are not doing well, it could be that fixed interest holdings or property might be doing the opposite and are providing good returns. If you hold all your money in equities then you are MISSING OUT on potential returns from other areas that you do not have any money invested in.

This is why it is SO IMPORTANT  to spread your money between different funds and investment areas, so that you get access to a diversified portfolio and hence GREATER long term returns.

Don’t get caught out and believe that one type of fund can provide you with a consistently good return. You need to ensure you spread your money and with it, spread your risk for GREATER long term returns.

Please feel free to contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be very happy to help in advising you the best way to set up your pensions and investments to get the best potential returns.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

When considering investing money, either a lump sum or a regular contribution, an important question you need to ask yourself is over how long do you want to invest your money for.

The reason for this is that the longer you want to invest for, the more potential you have to make your money grow. It’s similar to the acorn and the oak tree; from small beginnings you can create something large, if you have time on your side.

In the same way with investing; even if it is a relatively modest amount of money, the longer you can invest for the better. By spending sometime considering this before you invest you are more aware of what you want your money to do for you. This will lead to the right investment product and investment options being chosen.

If you require any help with investment plans or regular investment savings then please contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be happy to help.

It struck me the other day, after seeing some potential new clients to help them with a house purchase, that many people may not even calculate what an affordable mortgage will be on their new home.

Would you find the house you wanted and then see if a mortgage is affordable to you long term on that property? Well it surprised me that there are people that will do things this way round. The problem is that once your heart is set on the home you want, people will quite happily ignore the cost of the mortgage and consider it affordable, even though it may not, and all sense goes out of the window. With the clients I saw, this leads to a difficult conversation with them to help them appreciate what they are entering into and that the mortgage may not be affordable to them.

In this current climate, you want to know exactly what size mortgage is affordable to you and do a realistic budget planner to ensure all your costs have been taken into account.  In that way you can be as certain as possible that you have the right level of borrow and so the right monthly costs.

If you require any help with organising or budgeting for a mortgage then please contact us at Thompson Financial Consulting.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

This could be a change of job, getting married, having children, moving home, getting divorced, retiring etc; there are many life changing events that happen to us throughout our lives.

At these various stages are you reviewing your protection policies? Often when the above events occur your protection needs change, how do you know you have the right cover for the money you are spending?

It is a very good idea to review you life cover, critical illness and income protection needs to ensure you still have the right level of cover. You may need more or less cover, but you want to ensure the money you spend is on the right level of protection for you. You do not want to waste money on policies that no longer do what you originally took them out for.

For a free review of your protection policies please contact Thompson Financial Consulting. We will be happy to help.

At present, if you reach your 50th birthday then you can potentially take up to 25% of your personal pension fund as a tax free lump sum. Unfortunately, from the 6th April 2010, the age to be able to do this changes to 55. There is NO transitional period, the change just comes in.

If you have always considered taking your tax free cash and you are not 55 on the 6th April 2010 then you will have to wait until you are. This could potentailly mean a wait of up to 5 years; as if you reach your 50th birthday just before the 6th April 2010 and don’t action a request for a tax free cash withdrawal then you will have to wait 5 years until your reach 55. This could affect your retirement plans.

If you feel this issue will affect you then you need to start planning now. Contact Thompson Financial Consulting Ltd and we will be happy to help.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Are you on the edge of a cliff!

I come across many clients that invest in a manor that can only be described as ”at the edge of a cliff ” a very precarious place to be. This is down to a lack of knowledge as to how to invest money. These people choose to invest in one particular investment area, great if things are going well but NOT good when the investment sentiment turns against them. Their hard earned pension or investment money heads downwards at an alarming rate, just like falling off a cliff.

Make sure you diversify your investments, ISA’s  or pensions into different areas like Equities, Property, Gilts, Bonds, Cash and Commodities.  If investment sentiment turns against you, you are then a long way back from the “edge of the cliff.”

If you want more information or help in setting up portfolios for investing go to Thompson Financial Consulting Ltd

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.