When she was little, I read my daughter fairy tales with dragons in them. Not because I wanted her to believe they existed, but to believe they could be defeated
Being a parent working in financial services, I strive to make sure my daughter embraces financial wellbeing, because the foundation of her future relies on the consistency and integrity of her ability to make financial decisions, whatever the external pressures she faces
Harnessing the power of financial education and experience
Consistency of income
When income is secure and consistent, it is easier to make critical decisions to save, invest, insure and look long-term
Insure your income and insure your partners income
Life assurance only pays out if one of you dies
Income protection & serious illness insurance will keep you solvent when you or your partner are too ill to work
Maintaining savings, debts & day to day bills at all times is a fundamental of long-term financial wellbeing
When a partner is too ill to work for an extended period, the pressures on reduced income have a detrimental effect on the whole family
Savings are halted, pension payments stopped, mortgage payments squeezed. Maybe high interest cards used, credit score damaged
Create a foundation so that life can continue even when your income cannot
Insure your children’s future
We cannot guarantee we will live to see our children become adults
That doesn’t mean that our expectations for their financial security, housing and education cannot continue
Protecting their future with simple life assurances, to gve them security of housing and income, built into Wills and Trusts gives them a foundation on which they build their future and that of your grandchildren
Perks of being a wall flower?
Some insurance providers actively help you engage with fitness goals, providing discounted access to health trackers and Apps
Discounted gym memberships, health check-ups, 24 hr GP access
Lifestyle discounts, including Amazon, Starbucks, Cinema’s and much more
Careful engagement and getting the correct cover and monthly premiums, means we can help you use perks to subsidise costs
Invest in your future
Do you save what’s left after spending, or spend what’s left after saving?
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Saving needs to become a habit and then a lifestyle
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Whether you are saving for yourself or your children, it is important to build rainy day money
Younger generations are finding it more difficult to buy property following the rapid rise in prices between 1996 and 2006
Almost 60% of baby boomers owned their own homes by the time they were 30, whereas just 30% of Millennials meet that statistic
The transfer of wealth through inheritance is unlikely to help, on average, millennials will have to wait until they’re 61 to inherit the family silver
A consequence of high property prices is that millennials are spending more of their incomes on accommodation than previous generations. By the age of 30, almost a quarter of their after-tax income pays the rent or mortgage, compared with 15% for baby boomers
Keep it in the family
Across the UK, every five-year cohort since those born in the mid-1950s has accumulated less wealth than the preceding group had done at the same age
Student debts put additional financial pressures on the ability to save for retirement
Since the government removed the cap in 2010, most English universities now charge annual tuition fees of more than £9,000. Add in maintenance loans and interest payments, and a student who started a three-year course in 2017 is likely to graduate with £51,700 debt.
Meanwhile, we’re all living longer, which means our pension pots will need to support everyday spending for many years, together with care costs in later life for ourselves and our families.
You would think that based on the above, we would share family resources and parents & grandparents would set up savings plans, to teach children the value of savings
I still see many families paying large sums of Inheritance Tax, rather than making lifetime gifts or using equity in their homes to spread wealth more evenly
Something as simple as a Will or Trust can help reduce the 40% Inheritance Tax charge, but 80% of the UK don’t use them.
Often children only find out what savings their parents had when they calculate how much inheritance tax is due on it
Tackling the advice gap
There is a clear gap between those who take advice and those who don’t. The emergence of App based investment and savings portals has helped those start to save, that otherwise would not.
An adviser is more likely to create a more educated and targetted approach, helping you to understand the risks inherent in the decisions you make. Product knowledge is really important when choosing any insurance product, especially where a mix of styles is important and keeping within budgets is key
Our journey to date
Lucy was born in 2004, has experienced a Financial Crisis and the effects it had on her family and friends, worry, job loss, divorces, financial hardships
She is now experiencing a global pandemic and recession, working to understand the daily news that again, has the same concerns as 2008. Except, this time, she is getting her own mind steady for College and her next steps in her future
As parents, we have to set the example, talk about the future, what is in place to make sure they have security of mind and self
If we build their confidence in planning for the future and whatever it brings, they will take it more seriously and work towards strengthening their own financial foundations
