Welcome To Our Blog
For the latest in finance news
Cutting The Cost Of Childcare
Childcare is notoriously expensive. In fact, many parents find that childcare is more expensive than either rent or a mortgage. The good news is that there is government help available. Here is what you need to know about it. The main childcare schemes The main...
Bringing Up The F Word
Having difficult conversations is a part of life. This means that everybody needs to develop a strategy for dealing with them. If you’re struggling to discuss the F word - Finance, then here are some tips to help. Start with why Start by verbalising why you feel...
What You Need To Know About The National Insurance Rise
Despite a manifesto promise and massive controversy, the government is going ahead and raising National Insurance in April. The increase itself is only for a year. After that National Insurance will return to normal and a new Health and Social Care Levy will be...
Key Dates
Key Dates For Your Finances 2022 Now’s a good time to make sure your fully prepared for the financial year ahead. To make it easy we’ve summarised the key dates and facts and figures below. 1 April National Living Wage (for age 23+) rises from £8.91 to £9.50 National...
Talking Points
Understanding Inheritance Tax
The basic idea behind Inheritance Tax (IHT) is simple. When you die, the value of your estate will be assessed and if it falls over a certain threshold, HMRC will claim a share of it. In practice, however, your tax liability can depend largely on your ability to plan...
Love, Remarriage and Inheritances
As the law currently stands, if a person is married or in a civil partnership, their spouse/civil partner has first claim on their estate if they die. Provision may be made for minor children but not for adult ones (barring special circumstances). This fact has...
How To Plan For Inheritance Tax
Following the news that thousands more people are expected to pay the standard 40% inheritance tax this year because of the effects of the pandemic, we explore some of the ways to navigate the complexities of inheritance tax. The complex laws around inheritance tax...
What You Need To Know About The National Insurance Rise
Despite a manifesto promise and massive controversy, the government is going ahead and raising National Insurance in April. The increase itself is only for a year. After that National Insurance will return to normal and a new Health and Social Care Levy will be...
Why You Should Care About Staff Satisfaction
Sometimes job markets favour employers. Sometimes they favour employees. Right now, in many cases, it’s very much the latter. Even when it’s the former, however, employers tend to be in competition for the very best talent. They also tend to be under scrutiny for...
Are You Paying Too Much For Protection?
It is very possible to be too careful. At the same time, the cost of not being careful enough can, literally, be ruinous. You, therefore, need to use protection mindfully. In particular, you need to review it regularly so that your cover is always meeting your...
Top Decorating Trends for 2022
A new year means a new set of decorating trends. Like all trends, they’re best treated as a source of inspiration rather than as rules you need to follow. With that said, here’s a quick guide to what industry insiders expect to be popular in 2022....
What is an SVR mortgage?
What is an SVR mortgage and why might you end up with one?
Getting Ready to (Re)Mortgage
Taking out a (new) mortgage is often a major decision. That means it’s worth taking the time to prepare and do thorough research. Ideally, you should start laying the ground for your mortgage application about 6 months before you apply. This should give you enough...
Are You A New First-Time Buyer?
Last year, saw 408,379 people collect the keys to their first home. It was the first year the number of first-time buyers had exceeded 400K since 2006. If you were one of those first-time buyers, you might be feeling somewhat nervous about the future. Here are some...
The pros and cons of 40-year mortgages
The UK mortgage market has a wide selection of both variable-rate and fixed-rate mortgages. It also has other niche mortgage products such as offset mortgages. One of the more recent entrants to the market is the 40-year mortgage on a fixed rate. In principle, this...
How Your Gender Could Impact Your Retirement
In the UK, for most people, the ability to save for retirement is strongly linked to the ability to earn an income through work. At present, gender can play a large role in a person’s long-term employment prospects and hence their retirement prospect. This raises...
How To Keep Your Pension Pot Safe
If you’re in employment, saving into a pension can be a lot like paying tax. The money comes out of your paycheque before it reaches you. You don’t have to do anything. In principle, you don’t even have to think about it. In practice, however, you should think...
Can your pension pot sustain your retirement?
Working out how long your pension pot will need to last – as life expectancy rises – is worth thinking about sooner than later. The lockdown caused many people to reassess their lifestyles, which for some meant choosing early retirement. But what retirees have found...
Should You Consolidate Your Pensions?
The modern pensions landscape is something of a contradiction. On the one hand, pensions are often linked to employment. On the other hand, people will often have several employers over their working life. This can lead to them having multiple pensions. It,...
How To Keep Your Pension Pot Safe
If you’re in employment, saving into a pension can be a lot like paying tax. The money comes out of your paycheque before it reaches you. You don’t have to do anything. In principle, you don’t even have to think about it. In practice, however, you should think...
Can your pension pot sustain your retirement?
Working out how long your pension pot will need to last – as life expectancy rises – is worth thinking about sooner than later. The lockdown caused many people to reassess their lifestyles, which for some meant choosing early retirement. But what retirees have found...
What You Need To Know About Protecting Your Pension
With great freedom comes great responsibility. With pensions freedoms comes the responsibility to protect your pension from scammers, (as well as the effects of inflation and potentially ending up in the wrong hands after your death). Here is a quick guide to what...
Talking Points
How to make ISAs work for you
How can you make the most of your tax allowances by using the different types of ISAs that are available? Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) were first introduced in 1999 and are a tax-free way to save into a cash savings or investment account. There lots of different...
Making the Most of Your ISA Allowance
The COVID19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having both cash savings and insurance (for all the complaints about the latter). At the same time, it’s still important to prepare for the future, especially your retirement. Your ISA allowance could be used...
The Bank of…Granny and Grandad?
For many younger people struggling to get a foot on the property ladder, the Bank of Mum and Dad is the only option. With rent taking a huge chunk out of their income and the requirement for increasingly onerous deposits, two in five renters do not believe they will...
Why are equities volatile?
The more experienced investors among us will know that investing in equities involves a more volatile journey than some other asset classes, such as fixed income. What causes this volatility? When you invest in a bond, you are effectively lending money to the issuer,...
Insurance For The Self-employed
When you’re self-employed you don’t have employer benefits to fall back on. In fact, you might even be the employer needing to organise (and pay for) employee benefits. You’ll definitely be responsible for protecting any assets related to your business. With that...
Pension Calculator
You have javascript turned off. Please turn javascript on to see the tools in action. Pension calculator
Bridging Finance
If you’re an existing homeowner and you want or need to move, there’s a lot to be said for moving into your new property before you sell your old one. The main advantage is that you know you have somewhere to go. This saves you either having to rush to find a...
What’s the point of a property survey?
You're not bound by law to have a survey done on a property you're buying, but while it may feel like an unnecessary expense given all the other costs involved in homebuying, it could actually save money and stress in the longer-term. A survey is basically a health...
