Updating your spending plan

Trimming the fat

We won’t highlight the scary numbers around the cost of living crisis we now find ourselves in, but we will do our best to ensure that you feel prepared.

In many ways our clients are not as impacted by this as many folk in our wider communities – we don’t have any clients earning minimum wage for example. But we do have clients who are in their retirement and for whom small changes can have repercussions over the longer term. We also have a number of clients who fall into the ‘middle-earners’ bracket (recently identified in the press as a group who will feel the pinch).

This particular group of people are generally logical who therefore know that the answer probably lies in being sensible about budgeting; and cutting costs where it is possible to do so.

There is a lot of ’bumpf’ in social media currently about millennials who are tired of the advice from older generations to cancel their Spotify account and stop buying their skinny lattes at Starbucks in order to save money. This advice given in the context of trying to save up for a deposit on a house is frankly inadequate and I do understand the millennials’ argument about that.

However if we apply the same sort of methodology to the current crisis of ‘my living costs are increasing by £150pm’ – then there is actually some common sense to this approach – take a look …

Spotify £9.99pm

Netflix £10.99pm

Starbucks £40pm (assumes halving a one-coffee-per-workday habit)

Wine £20 (buy two bottles less per month)

Takeaway or meal out £40 (reduce by one per month – amount depends on size of household)

Amazon Prime £7.99

These alone total £128.97

We’re not talking about huge lifestyle-changing cuts here – we’re talking about small changes that soon add up. Shopping around for cheaper options on your existing expenditure is another way to cut costs (sometimes significantly) – mortgage, insurances, TV & broadband package, mobile phone contract.

UPDATING YOUR SPENDING PLAN

Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert) comes up with new suggestions all the time – frankly I find the layout of his website ‘messy’ but I do rather like his weekly newsletter which is always full of good ideas.

It probably goes without saying but ‘now’ would be a very good time to review and update your spending plan – you can only consider how to cut costs if you know where the biggest savings are to be had – we know this can be a painful exercise so we offer a few ways for you to do this – you can click here for our video and for a pdf or an excel version of our income and expenditure form; OR you can send us (securely via the portal please) the last three months of your bank statements and we’ll do the legwork for you; OR we can work from your own ‘budget’ document – whatever form that takes.

However anxious you may be about impending price rises, there are options; there are changes you can make. If you are ever feeling overwhelmed about all this though, please do get in touch. We will support you however we can.

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

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The Annual Spending Plan

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

The Annual Spending Plan

As we prepare for the end of the tax year in a few weeks’ time, we are also preparing your annual spending plans. On Wednesday clients should have received a new copy for you to update us with your plans for the year ahead.

If you would like to simply update your details from last year, we can provide a copy, which we will send to you securely. We are now using the Citrix ShareFile system which is encrypted and doesn’t require you to use a password. You can also return documents to us that way too (which makes life a little easier if you can save pdfs or create them). Alternatively we could send you an excel version of the same information. Just let us know.

A plan is not an account

We are all aware that despite the official figures showing inflation of roughly “nada”. Most of us need to keep an eye on where our money is going. Your financial plan is based upon your lifestyle. There are a couple of obvious sources of information about your lifestyle, things that tend to be more accurate than our own memory – your bank account and your diary. These tell us how we spend our time and money.

So whatever life stage you are at, it’s time to review your spending plan. Note that this is a plan, not an account.

The big-ticket item… in your plan?

I don’t follow American football, but I did see an “interview” with a Bronco’s fan at the Superbowl last weekend. He was asked how much he spent… he replied “Twenty-one”… then when asked how much on the whole trip, he said,

“thirty thousand – I spent twenty-one thousand on four tickets, but with the tailgate package it was thirty thousand…. Don’t tell my wife”.

I’m guessing that by now she has seen the video on NBC…. Well at least the Broncos won…. I’m not entirely sure that the interviewee knows the difference between hundreds and thousands though (a problem in financial planning and life generally!). When I looked up the price of a ticket the tailgate package is considerably less, so either he paid a fortune to a ticket tout or missed the day they did hundred, tens and units…

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA