I am guessing most of us are back in the old routine after summer (sorry to tell you that the summer is now over, even if you don’t want to hear it!) – How quickly do the hours/days/weeks/months/years/life go by….it only seems like yesterday I was starting out in my career, now I am the wrong side of ………something!
Top Financial Tips in Spain
By Chris Burke
This article is published on: 16th October 2024
I myself don’t have that long to go until I retire. It never is too late to start your financial planning but the sooner you do it the easier and more fruitful your finances should be. Do I ‘practice what I preach’ and take the advice I pass on to others? Absolutely! That’s another reason why I am best placed to give the advice……..
This month we are focusing on the following investment planning tips to inspire you to get organised financially and feel good about it:
- Making sure you have a ‘Plan’ for your savings and investments
- Use the ability to offset, defer and mitigate tax for your investments/savings
- Using your investments to pay for future children’s expenses without paying any savings/gains tax yourself
- Investment quiz – what’s most important to you with your money?
Making sure you have a ‘Plan’ for your savings and investments
Managing your personal finances should be just as, if not more, important than managing your work or business role – You should make sure you are achieving your set objectives, regularly reviewing along the way to make sure you are hitting your targets, goals and aspirations for life. Apart from your health and family, what could be more important than that?
Imagine if you received one EXTRA annual bonus each year, for the whole of your working life, how much difference would that make to you? Then, investing that prudently over your working life to provide for your family and retirement? With some knowledge, know-how and someone to guide you along the way and making sure you regularly review, in the good and bad times, that this can be achieved.
Use the ability to offset, defer and mitigate tax for your investments/savings
Alongside making your monies work and grow for you, being smart with your tax situation will make sure that those ‘hard earned gains’ you have achieved over the years, when you need them most in retirement, are subject to the least amount of tax, legally.
For decades those ‘in the know’ have used tax experts and legal teams to makes sure they pay the minimum amount of tax possible, which can make an incredible difference to your wealth – This is a major area we focus on with our clients’ investments/portfolios. Investments set without professional advice, for example via on-line platforms or banks, are normally nowhere near as tax efficient as those established with the help of an experienced financial planner.
Using your investments to pay for children’s future expenses without paying any taxes yourself
“At what age are children financially independent?” I hear some parents say. In my experience it can be never…….however, many of my clients plan to support them financially for their education and university fees, if possible. Parents are then very surprised to hear that rather than pay the tax themselves on their investment gains for these future expenses, they can arrange (with proper financial planning) that their children can, if they wish, receive income from these investments directly. This means any tax due would come under the children’s tax bracket, instead of the parents’ – which can make a significant difference to the tax payable in total, but particularly for the parents.
Investment quiz – what’s most important to you?
Many people get in touch with me when they feel they need help with investment planning and advice, however that is not always the case. Sometimes, after reaching out for a different reason and talking their situation/aspirations through, they then decide they want to set up an investment strategy.
But how do you decide whether investing is right for you? I have compiled below the following questions in two columns – If you agree more with those in column A than B, then you should strongly consider getting in touch to discuss investment plans and strategies:
| A | B |
| You want your money to grow and give you greater wealth in the future | Keep your money accessible in case it’s needed, knowing it will not grow and keep up with inflation, but you have instant access |
| You would like to have a financial plan/strategy keeping some money accessible, but also make sure your other monies are ‘working’ for you, increasing your wealth and finances over the years | Employ all of your spare money into paying off your mortgage early, then look at your retirement investment strategy (click here to read whether it is best to do this or not). |
| Retire early using FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) - early being well before the typical retirement age of 66. | Not retire early, enjoy life fully now and see what happens when you get to retirement |
If you would like to discuss any of the topics above in more detail or you would like to have an initial consultation with Chris to explore your personal situation, you can do so here.
Click here to read independent reviews on Chris and his advice.
If you would like any more information regarding any of the above, or to talk through your situation initially and receive expert, factual based advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.