The global COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to us all that we cannot take anything for granted. The income we perhaps previously thought was secure might not be, the plans we had maybe taken for granted can be soon cancelled and of course that our health is of the utmost importance.
When it comes to financial planning for your future, it's important that you receive expert professional and personalised advice about all the options and income sources available. When we do return to something approaching “normality” and as your life progresses, there will be key life stages where you’ll be thinking about making changes that relate to your finances, for example, getting a new job or approaching retirement. Your own personal circumstances will play a significant part in helping you achieve your goals and planning your future financially.
Helping you define and quantify your goals
Your financial goals should be something that have a time frame and that can be quantified. An aspiration such as achieving a comfortable retirement is difficult to plan for, but putting in place a well-defined financial planning strategy will help you define and quantify your aspirations.
Cash flow modelling helps you to visualise your current financial position and demonstrate how your future financial goals and objectives can be achieved or what changes you can introduce to help you achieve them. Life events, investment performance and taxation all need to be taken into consideration to give a clearer way forward.
Tax planning, prudent spending and careful budgeting
The objective here is to help improve your cash flows by carefully monitoring your spending patterns and expenses. Together with tax planning, prudent spending and careful budgeting, we can help you keep more of your hard-earned cash and also to put it to work for your future. An increase in cash flow will lead to an increase in capital and the option to consider further investments to improve your overall financial wellbeing.
Tax considerations are also important. The assessment rates for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax are also key factors in determining how much you could save to meet your future goals. We can help support and advise you around how to utilise tax allowances and reliefs as an effective way of reducing your tax liabilities and making further savings over your lifetime.
This helps to provide a whole new approach to your budget and thereby improving control over your current and future financial lifestyle.
A valuable safety net to protect you and your family
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it must be that our health, and that of our loved ones, is of paramount importance. Anyone can fall ill, and the financial hardship this can cause may often far outweigh the negative implications of the illness itself.
Protection insurance can help to provide a valuable safety net for you or your family should you become ill or die. In some cases, you might find you are already covered in some way either as part of your work benefits or through the state. Do you have sufficient life insurance? If so, do you have the right kind of policies for your situation? Do you have disability and long-term care insurance? Taking advice can help you discuss and consider all these issues.
Mitigate the risk of running out of money in the future
When you do retire having a clear plan and approach on how you will draw your income is key. You might need one off lump sums for example, when planning to buy a car or go on a luxury holiday or you might have a hobby which requires regular income. By creating a financial plan based on these wants and needs, we can help you work out how much is needed, and the most appropriate places to draw it from, to help mitigate the risk of running out of money – and to enjoy the later years of life.
Better financial understanding can be achieved when financial goals are clear, the effects of decisions understood and the progress towards them are regularly reviewed.
Everyone has goals in life, whether large or small. Professional and personalised financial advice and guidance can help you to achieve them. As we move towards regaining a sense of normality in our lives, it’s important you ask yourselves some serious questions about your financial affairs.
At Armstrong Watson our quest is to help our clients achieve prosperity, a secure future and peace of mind. We can provide a full review of your financial affairs and discuss the opportunities available to you with our compliments in the first instance. You can also now do this remotely by video, telephone as well as face to face.
If you or a family member would like to request a review, please get in touch with Marcus Dodds
