Smith & Pinching experts share financial New Year's resolutions

Jeremy Woodruff: My resolution for readers is to be both informed and realistic. We are going through some pretty tough times from a financial perspective and it’s important to face up to that. While we believe that better times will come, we have to face the fact that there’s some way to go before things improve. Don’t bury your head in the sand: take control of your financial well-being, understand the impact global economic conditions are having on your current and future wealth and adjust your planning accordingly.

Getting independent advice from a chartered financial planner is a key way to ensure you have an understanding of how your wealth will be affected by the current economic climate. Advice can and will make a difference to the resilience of your finances.

Richard Barker, chartered financial planner with Smith & Pinching (Image: Smith & Pinching)

Richard Barker: I agree with Jeremy: we have to face the realities of what’s happening in the world around us. However, my resolution is to not panic and to use the opportunities available to you. Knee-jerk reactions in your investment strategy will only result in you locking in losses. There are opportunities to limit the threats to savings and investments through careful tax management, for example. Whether it’s tax relief on pension contributions, using ISAs for your savings, or mitigating a future Inheritance Tax liability, managing tax is a key tool to optimising your position.

Christmas and New Year are good times for families to talk together about their finances. Make the most of the opportunity to talk about how wealth can be built and passed through the generations.

Matthew Beck, chartered financial planner with Smith & Pinching (Image: Smith & Pinching)

Matthew Beck: For me, the key resolution is to plan, plan, plan – and don’t leave anything to chance. It’s important not to see financial planning as a shopping list of individual elements – pensions, investments, life insurance, and so on – but bring your focus out to the bigger picture. You need to understand every factor that affects your financial life and identify what you want to achieve and when. This will enable you to map a journey over many years of changing circumstances and to put together a balanced mix of measures to deliver to those objectives in the long term.

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “Change is the only constant in life.” Your circumstances will change over time so your financial plan needs to keep up. Once made, your plan needs to be reviewed and adjusted regularly so that it is always working for your long-term good.

Any opinions expressed in this article do not constitute advice. The value of an investment and the income from it could go down as well as up. The return at the end of the investment period is not guaranteed and you may get back less than you originally invested.

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