A Lifetime of Personal Financial Planning

Throughout life, from childhood to retirement, circumstances and priorities change. At every stage it is important to make well-informed decisions to ensure that you and your family are following the best strategies for achieving your goals.

Childhood

It is never too early to begin planning for a child's financial future. Parents, grandparents, and other relatives can assist in the early years by providing funds for the child's education and future. This may be through direct gifts, or by making additional payments into a Child's Trust Fund account.

The teenage years

The teenage years are an important time to learn the ins and outs of budgeting, and financial planning as children begin to earn money for the first time, save to buy things such as sports or hi-fi equipment, learn the disciplines of managing student loan funds and so on.

Young adulthood

This is usually the time to make provision for the purchase of a car, and to plan for the purchase of a home. It is also the time to start planning for retirement, even if the initial investment is modest. A small sum put away now for retirement has much longer to grow.

Q: How much should be invested?

A: It is important to seek advice, but 5% of gross income is normally considered a minimum.

Settling down

You will be buying your first home. You need to save for the deposit and furnishings, and you will need to budget for the mortgage repayments and other household expenses (e.g. insurance, council tax, repairs and utility bills,that are an inevitable part of home ownership.

New parents

The imminent arrival of your first child, with the extra responsibilities and perhaps the need for more space, should trigger a re-evaluation of your personal financial strategies.

Middle age

As the children approach higher education you will need to ensure you can meet your share of the costs. Although the maturation of savings plans which were begun when the children were born can help at this time, you might also need to consider making extra provision as many students now leave higher education with debts in excess of £25,000, and within a few years this sum may be in excess of £30,000. Do you wish to assist your children in this area? Are you able to?

By now you may well have reached your earnings peak, and as the children leave home and begin work you should review your strategies to ensure a comfortable retirement. What are your realistic objectives? You might, for example, want to consider moving to a smaller house, acquiring a second home, or increasing your retirement funding.

Nearing retirement

Your retirement plans should now be nearing fruition. As you approach retirement, you need to check at least once a year to satisfy yourself that your accumulated capital is at less risk and to ensure that your income in retirement will meet your needs - and provide a little extra for the realisation of some of those long planned dreams.

In retirement

After forty or more years at work it is time to take a well-earned rest, but you still need to keep one eye on financial planning if you want to enjoy a long and comfortable retirement. This may also be the time to begin putting some money aside for your children or grandchildren.

However, balanced against these desires may be the need to finance long term care for one or both spouses, and the potential impact of this on your financial security.

Charitable donations

Throughout your life you may wish to give money to charity. There are a number of ways in which it is possible to gift cash or assets to charity tax-efficiently. For example, under Gift Aid you can give a charity £100 at a net cost to yourself of as little as £60. Charitable donations can also be included in your Will, and again they will attract tax relief.

Please speak to us for more information on making tax-efficient gifts to charity.

Tax and financial planning resolutions

What decisions do you need to consider? Visit our Tax and Financial Planning Resolutions checklist.