The UK is one of the most densely-populated countries in the world and hence there is a high demand for housing both to buy and to rent. Over recent years, the government has attempted to help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder though a combination of providing direct assistance, in the form of help-to-buy schemes, and by making it more expensive to buy and run investment property (buy to let). With all the recent changes, now may be a very good time for landlords to reassess where they stand financially and to decide if buy-to-let still makes sense for them. Tax change 1 – Mortgage tax relief Those three simple words encompass a whole world of complexity and potential pain for buy-to-let landlords. Up until April 2017, landlords declared their rental income net of mortgage-interest payments. Starting April 2017, this system has been in the process of change to one in which landlords declared their gross profits and their mortgage interest separately and receive a certain level of tax relief on the latter. At current time, the plan is for the level of tax relief available to be reduced to a maximum of 20% by 2019. This means that landlords on the higher rate of tax will essentially find their tax relief cut in half. Tax change 2 – The wear and tear allowance While this tax change may be more of an inconvenience than a major source of financial upheaval, it’s still a change which few BTL landlords are likely to welcome. Instead of landlords being able to claim a straightforward 10% “wear and tear” allowance, but will have to itemise allowable expenses on which they can claim tax relief. Even if the financial impact is minor to nil, buy-to-let landlords may well feel that they could well live without the hassle of the extra paperwork. Tax change 3 – Stamp duty The 3% stamp duty surcharge was openly aimed at buy-to-let landlords as can be seen from the fact that people who temporarily end up with two properties, for example as part of a house move, can typically reclaim the 3% surcharge when they sell one of their properties. This change effectively places a 3% handicap on buy-to-let landlords when competing for properties against those looking to buy for their own use as residential property. More changes to mortgages – the question of affordability The Prudential Regulatory Authority of the Bank of England recently brought in new rules for lenders, which highlight their obligation to ensure that landlords really are capable of managing the mortgage for which they apply, even if interest rates rise. On the one hand, it could be argued that landlords should be making these sorts of checks themselves anyway. On the other hand, it may encourage lenders to be more nervous about the buy-to-let market and hence make it unreasonably difficult for landlords to get mortgages. Regulatory changes In addition to the tax and financial changes, buy-to-let landlords have also had further legal obligations placed on them, such as the controversial “right-to-rent” scheme, under which landlords could face time in prison if they fail to undertake checks to ensure that their prospective tenant has the right to be in the UK. Overall While the points previously raised can paint a somewhat bleak picture, the fact still remains that the UK still has a shortage of housing coupled with strong demand from people who actually want to rent (such as mobile young adults) as well as those who are currently priced out of buying their own home. Because of this, buy-to-let can still be an attractive investment prospect, just as long as prospective landlords do their sums very carefully. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. For Residential & Buy to Let Mortgages, our typically processing fee is £395 and we may receive commission from the lender.

Call it spam, call it junk mail, whatever you call it, it’s one of the banes of the digital world and these days many of us get so much email, we just delete the contents of our spam folders without even looking (or leave it to our providers to empty it automatically). Actually, we probably should make a point of checking our spam folders we hit that delete button. Spam folders can contain hidden surprises Most of what gets put into spam is exactly that, but sometimes legitimate messages get put there too since the sheer quantity of email sent around the world is making it harder and harder for email companies to work out what is unwanted spam and what are popular newsletters and other genuine forms of mass mail. What’s more, even genuine spam can have some value, either for amusement or education. For example, the many emails washing around offering to deal with various threats to your business can actually make valid points, although getting in touch with a spammer is unlikely to be the best way to take action on the matter. Brands, domains and international business A widespread piece of scam goes along the following lines. “We’ve noticed that someone is trying to register a local variation of your domain name. Have you authorised this? If not, please contact us, so we can help you to stop someone else stealing your name.”. We’ve never taken anybody up on this offer, so we don’t actually know what happens next, but we suspect it would involve a lot more money and hassle than just claiming the domain directly – if that’s even necessary. Brands beat domains Here’s a point it’s important for you to understand. A brand is so important that it takes priority and precedence over just about everything else. If customers recognise your brand, they will come and find you on the net or in the real world, even if you’ve been unable to get the internet (or real world) address you wanted. Putting the situation another way, a brand can manage without a perfectly-matching domain. A domain without an associated brand is going to have its work cut out to get traffic and visibility, in fact building up domains is basically all about building a brand. Hence, while it’s generally preferable to own the domains related to your brand (and ideally relevant handles on the key social media sites as well), it’s far more important to build and protect your brand by means of trademarking and such like than it is to buy every domain you could possibly own. The internet is global, but domains are increasingly local If you follow the development of the internet, you will already be aware that ICANN, the authority behind internet domains, recently introduced a number of new top-level domains, to allow for greater niching of internet addresses, particularly by locality, such as .London. These have been eagerly snapped up, showing just how keen businesses are to establish an online foothold and how they are starting to move away from the strategy of going “.com” first and looking at other domains (such as .co.uk) as an afterthought, if at all. While the internet does facilitate global trade, the fact of the matter is that practicalities mean that relatively few companies do actually work on a truly global basis. In fact, many profitable companies only work in a specific geographic area in their own country. That being so, while they may benefit from an online presence, it’s unlikely that they would get any advantage from buying up international domains. Even if a company does plan to expand internationally, it’s perfectly feasible to use a .co.uk address which is then used to create a sub-site tailored to the needs of the target country. As previously mentioned, the key point is to ensure that visitors to the site recognise the brand, rather than the domain.

Just as young adults may yearn for their independence, outside the parental home, so parents can be just as eager to speed them on their way, so that they can get on with their own plans for the future. The challenge for both sides is that houses are far from cheap. Assuming buying a property outright for your offspring is too much of a financial demand, there are basically three ways, you can help your offspring move out of the family home. Guaranteeing rent While this doesn’t directly help them onto the property ladder, it does get them out of the family home and it may improve their overall prospects, e.g. by helping them progress in their career, thereby improving their ability to buy in the future. The key point to remember when acting as a guarantor is to ensure that, if at all possible, your liability is restricted to your own child rather than potentially including other people’s children as well. In other words, you want each person to have their own rental contract with their own areas of responsibility, rather than being jointly and severally (i.e. collectively) liable for the property. Helping children to get a mortgage The classic “bank of mum and dad” scenario used to involve parents helping their children put together a deposit and this is still one approach today, but there are other options such as offering some element of mortgage guarantee, for example Barclays’ “Family Springboard” mortgage allows purchasers to borrow up to 100% of the value of the property, provided that someone opens a “Helpful Start Account” and deposits at least 10% of the purchase price. This is returned to them, with interest, after 3 years, provided that all goes well with the mortgage. There are other companies with comparable offerings although it has to be said that this is very much a niche market and that as such the lack of competition may mean that the product offers worse value overall than a standard mortgage with a deposit. If parents do opt to help with a deposit, it needs to made clear whether the money is a loan or a gift and, if the former, what arrangements are to be made for paying it back. If the latter, it may be useful to look as to whether the gift can be incorporated into inheritance planning. Becoming your Child’s Landlord When considering whether or not this is an appropriate route for you, it’s important to remember that the purchase of second or subsequent residential properties carries a 3% Stamp Duty surcharge (LBBT surcharge in Scotland), assuming the property is valued at £40K or over. This applies even to parents buying properties for their children to live in (although not to parents helping their children to buy property themselves). The next key point to understand is that parents will have all the legal responsibilities of landlords (even though the tenants are their children), including making sure that whoever lives in the property has the right to be in the UK. In other words, if your child wants to share the property with someone else, e.g. a partner, their parents, as landlords, have to check their documentation to ensure all is in order. At the moment, this only applies in England although the official plan is to roll out this scheme to the other parts of the UK in future. Finally, parents need to understand that in the eyes of the law (and the eyes of HMRC) rental income from your children is still income and will be taxed as such. Prospective parent landlords also need to be clear about the fact that changes to the way profit on rental properties is calculated could see a small number of people pushed into a higher tax band for part (or all) of their income from the property.

As the old saying goes “money doesn’t grow on trees” and sadly pension pots aren’t found at the ends of rainbows either. Building a meaningful pension pot takes time and, frankly, some degree of effort and sacrifice. Essentially, you’re giving up part of your income today, in order to provide an income for yourself at some point in the future. Here are three top tips to help make this happen. 1 – The earlier you start the more time you have on your side Even though young adults are typically without financial dependents, making ends meet can still be a challenge, particularly for people who are living away from the parental home. Zero-hours contracts, short-term and fixed-term contracts, temping and spells out of work are all par for the course for many of today’s young adults. That being so, the order of priorities for most young adults should be: building up a cash cushion of emergency savings; paying off high-interest debt (or at least getting it to the point where it can be moved to a lower-interest credit vehicle) and then looking at pension savings. 2 – Decide if a workplace pension is the right choice for you If you are working, you may well find that you are automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme unless you actively opt out and that even if you do opt out, you are enrolled into the scheme after three years unless you choose to opt out again. The advantage of workplace pension schemes is that the government requires the employer to make some level of contribution. The disadvantage of them is that the employer is only required to contribute part of the mandatory minimum level of contribution, so unless they choose to pay more, as an employee benefit, the employee will be required to make up the difference. Private pensions are much less likely to benefit from employer contributions (in principle employers can choose to contribute but since they are mandated to run workplace pension schemes they may be unwilling to provide pension contributions through another channel as well), but they offer much more flexibility. In short, if you can commit to regular saving each month, employer contributions can boost your pension pot nicely, however, if this is too much of a challenge, it’s better to save what you can afford into a private pension than to go without any pension provision at all. Remember pensions are only part of financial planning For people who earn an income, by any means, pensions are a very tax-efficient way of saving for retirement and adults in employment can also benefit from pension contributions. At the end of the day, however, pensions are just one way of saving for the future, there are other possibilities. For example, those aged between 18 and 40 will soon be able to open a Lifetime ISA, which will offer an alternative and more flexible means of saving for retirement. Ultimately any savings or investments you can grow over your working years will form a contribution to your lifestyle in retirement. With this in mind, one positive step all adults can take, regardless of their age or financial situation, is to make an active commitment to managing their finances to the best of their ability, starting with basic budgeting skills. The simple act of keeping track of your money and understanding where it is going and why will help you to make the most of what you have and to make intelligent decisions about where it is appropriate to spend money in the present (accepting the fact that it’s important to enjoy life in the here and now as much as you can) and where it is appropriate to save and invest for the future.

Look after your pennies and your pounds will take care of themselves. It’s an old piece of wisdom and it still has a lot of value in a modern world. Even though it may seem pointless just to save a few pennies here and there, those pennies do add up and will make pounds. With that in mind and given that so many of us are keeping a close eye on our wallets these days, here are three tips for taking care of those precious pennies. Pay yourself first If you know you should have at least a little money left over to save each month and yet you never seem to, then put this money aside first in a place where you can access it if you need it (like an instant-access savings account) and then do your level best to work off what’s left. Track, budget and track again Get a year’s worth of bank statements and as a minimum look at what you spent in the upcoming month at the same time last year and what you spent over the last 3 months. Use these as a prompt to budget for any payments you know you are going to need to make in the forthcoming month, even if you decide to cancel them (many contracts require a notice period). While you are doing this, look at each payment and ask if it relates to a need and/or if relates to something you really love and which you can comfortably afford. Unless a payment can score at least one yes here, then it should be a priority to get rid of it. Even where a payment does score a yes, you can still look at ways to satisfy your need or want at a more affordable cost. Once you’ve budgeted for anticipated payments, you can then budget for anticipated living costs, such as groceries. Supermarkets and other large shops can be danger spots for budgeters because they often make it very easy to slip in discretionary purchases with the necessary ones, even when you have a shopping list and while this is a bit harder for them to do when you shop online, they will still try to upsell you items based on your shopping history. Start to keep your receipts so you can have full visibility of where your money actually goes and hold yourself accountable for discretionary purchases. If you hate paper, then use your mobile camera to take a picture of them. Minimise your tax liability When cash ISAs first began, you were able to withdraw money from them but it was counted against your ISA allowance for that year. Now, however, you are able to replace any funds withdrawn as long as you do so within the same tax year, which essentially turns cash ISAs into super-efficient, instant-access savings accounts. They are therefore obvious places to put the money you need to keep available “just in case”. Once you have built up some savings, you may then want to think about taking out some investments. You can also keep investments in an ISA wrapper, this time a stocks and shares ISA. Alternatively, you may wish to look at one of the more specialised forms of ISA such as the innovative finance ISA or the Lifetime ISA (assuming you qualify). Choosing the right approach for your situation can be a bit of a challenge, so it can be worthwhile to get professional advice to ensure that you’re making the most of the money you save each month and building it into a fund which will really help you to achieve your life goals and make the most of your future.

Inheritance tax has always been one of the most controversial taxes around. Depending on your point of view it can be: an essential means of making sure that a private individual’s wealth is shared with society as a whole a pragmatic approach to filling government coffers a ghoulish tax applied at a difficult time. Whatever your point of view on inheritance tax, there are two indisputable facts. One is that it is a reality and none of the main parties has recently shown any inclination to abolish it completely. The other is that house prices and house-price inflation in the UK means that anyone who owns a home needs to take inheritance planning very seriously if they want to leave as much as possible to the people they love, rather than to HMRC. A brief guide to IHT and the new “Resident’s Nil Rate Band” Each individual in the UK gets an IHT nil-rate band of £325K. Starting April 2017, home owners can receive an additional “Resident’s Nil Rate Band”, which is currently set at £100K and is planned to increase to £175K between now and April 2020. In simple terms, this allows them to pass on equity in their home to their lineal descendants (or the legally-recognised partners thereof) without paying IHT on it. As with the standard nil-rate band, this can be transferred to a spouse or civil partner upon the death of the first person in a legally-recognised relationship. While this does give home owners some degree of respite for the foreseeable future and the fact that the current government has pledged to increase the RNRB in line with the consumer price index does at least show recognition of the fact that house prices do increase over time, in a densely-populated country such as the UK, it is entirely possible that house-price inflation will regularly outstrip the CPI. It’s also worth noting that this RNRB only applies when leaving property or the proceeds thereof to close relatives, those wishing to leave their estate to unrelated parties will be left with the standard IHT nil-rate band. Likewise, those who have significant estates composed of assets other than property will gain nothing from this change. So what does this all mean in practice? Boiled down to basics, all this change means is that the government has given some individuals an increased nil-rate IHT allowance, applied in certain circumstances. While it will doubtless be a welcome change to many people, it is hardly a ground-breaking one, nor is it likely to negate the need for an overall IHT strategy. Estate planning, like most aspects of financial management, generally comes down to balancing current and foreseeable needs with future goals. For those in the later period of their lives, current and foreseeable needs is increasingly likely to include making provision for assistance or even care, either in our own homes or in a residential facility. Future goals may include items on an individual’s “bucket list” or may simply be the desire to leave a legacy to people and/or causes the individual holds dear, rather than simply handing over funds to HMRC. Striking this balance may involve blending a number of approaches rather than just relying on the new RNRB or gifting as much as possible during a person’s lifetime. For example, those who are currently approaching retirement may wish to look at their pension arrangements in the light of the fact that pensions pots used for income drawdown can now be passed to any chosen nominee without IHT being charged. Those who are investing outside of pension may wish to pay particular attention to investments which qualify for business property relief as these can be very advantageous from the point of view of estate planning. We act as introducers for Inheritance Tax planning.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England is tasked with keeping inflation at exactly 2%. If inflation moves more than 1% away from this target (up or down), then the governor of the Bank of England has to write an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, explaining why this has happened and what the MPC intends to do about it. Inflation – theory and practice There are various ways to measure inflation and the one used by the MPC is known as the Consumer Price Index. Basically this approach creates a theoretical “shopping basket” of goods a hypothetical “average consumer” would be likely to buy. It then measures the movement in prices of these goods. As can be clearly seen therefore, whether or not any given private individual agrees with the MPC’s views on inflation will depend very much on the extent to which their shopping patterns match the MPC’s imaginary shopping basket. The importance of understanding “personal inflation” Averages have their uses, but the reality is that we are all individuals in widely different circumstances and hence it is pretty much inevitable that there is going to be some degree of discrepancy between the MPC’s “theoretical” inflation rate and the rate of inflation felt by any given person. Some people may be lucky enough to find themselves “winners”, for example if they are able to grow their own food at a time when food products are experiencing high inflation, then their personal rate of inflation will be lower than the MPC’s rate. Some people, however, may be “losers” and find that the rate of inflation they experience is higher than the MPC’s rate. One situation where this may happen is when a person has a low disposable income and hence makes fewer discretionary purchases. If low inflation on discretionary items is counterbalancing high inflation on necessary purchases then people who are only buying necessary items are going to find that their personal experience of inflation is much higher than the MPC thinks it should be. Managing high personal inflation If you are already in a situation where your personal inflation level is higher than the MPC says it should be, then there are basically two approaches you can take. One is to try to increase your effective income and the other is to try to save money. Of course, you can try to put both approaches together for maximum impact. While increasing your income may seem unrealistic, the digital “gig” economy has opened up a wide variety of ways for people to earn a little extra money, which may go a long way to helping you feel more comfortable. Likewise, saving money can be about more than cutting back on what you buy (although that can be a part of it), it can be about being more astute about what you buy, when and how. For example, could you team up with other people you know to shop in real bulk for the best deals? This may take a little organisation, but could lead to real savings. Inflation and retirement Inflation will be a fact of life in your retirement, which means it really pays to plan ahead so that you can have a reasonable degree of assurance that your retirement income will at least keep pace with it, particularly since the “Triple Lock” guarantee (that pensions would rise by the lowest of average earnings, inflation or 2.5% was a 2015 pledge for the duration of that parliament. There has been a conspicuous absence of a pledge to keep this guarantee for the duration of the next parliament, let alone beyond. Hence, private individuals would be well advised to do everything they can to ensure that their retirement funds can stand the test of time, which means standing the test of inflation.

Even those who’ve never had a pet and never wanted a pet could probably explain the arguments for having pet insurance, courtesy of the many adverts for the product. Now imagine what would happen if your pet could talk. What would it say about insuring you? If you die, who would look after me? Would you really be happy with the thought of your pet ending up in a shelter if you died? What about your children landing up in a children’s home? Admittedly if you have a partner or family this latter option is less likely (in both cases), but it does happen. Even if you do have someone in mind to take care of the ones you love in the event of your death, how will they manage without the support you are currently able to offer? Pets and children can both be expensive, in the latter case, there may be some state support for those in real need, but even if there is, would it really provide for them the way you would have if you had lived? In very simple terms, if you have a pet or a person who depends on you in any way, then life insurance should be thought of as a must-have rather than a nice-to-have. If you have an accident, who would walk me? Let’s say you find yourself temporarily incapacitated. You know you’re going to recover, hopefully sooner rather than later, but who walks your dog in the meantime (or opens doors for your cat)? Again, you might well turn to a partner, family or even friends, but that places extra responsibility on them and you may have to accept your pet getting walks when other people can manage it, if they can manage it, rather than getting the amount of exercise they usually have at the times they usually have it. If you had the money, of course, you could actually pay for a dog-walker to come round and take your pet out when you want and for however long you want. For dog walks, read school runs, play-dates and any other children’s activity. If you don’t have children, then think about everyday life, shopping, washing, cooking, cleaning, think about making any regular payments, such as mortgages or rent. If your plan is to rely on state benefits, you may get a nasty shock if you are ever unfortunate enough to find yourself in that situation. Even if you are in employment and have some degree of cover from your employer, you may find that you actually need more. Insurance policies such as income-protection insurance and payment protection insurance can help if you find yourself discovering the truth of the saying that accidents can happen to anyone. If you get ill, who will buy my food? Good health is something it’s only too easy to take for granted – until it’s taken away. Being laid up with a cold for a few days can be bad enough for your income if you’re self-employed, succumbing to a critical illness can be devastating, even if you’re in employment. As we mentioned above, neither state benefits nor standard employment cover may provide anything like the level of protection you need in your particular situation. If that is the case, you want to arrange cover beforehand, so that it’s there if you ever need it, rather than discovering the reality of the situation when you go to claim on the cover you thought you had. In addition to income-protection insurance and payment protection insurance, you may also want to look at critical-illness cover. We hope it will be money spent on something you will never need, but if you ever do, you could find it makes all the difference to your financial health during your recovery.

With the notable exception of children, smaller is generally cheaper. This is usually very true when it comes to housing (on a like-for-like basis of course, a studio flat in London might well cost more than a house in rural Wales). Because of this, there’s an obvious financial attraction in downsizing property once children have flown the nest. As is so often the case in life, planning ahead can help to keep costs down and maximise the money you can call your own after the move is complete. Prepare your own house for sale Even though the UK has a shortage of housing, meaning supply is generally tight, it still makes sense to present your house as attractively as possible to get the best possible price for it. There are plenty of articles online, which give guidance as to what to do in preparation for a sale (and what to avoid doing). A good estate agent will also be able to give some tips. Remember to budget for all the moving fees If you’re downsizing you may be able to make your next house purchase outright but you’ll still need to pay many of the fees associated with buying and selling houses, such as estate agent commission, conveyancing fees and surveys. There’s also stamp duty to consider and depending on the logistics of your move, you may find yourself paying the 3% surcharge up front and having to recoup it later. There will also be the costs of actually moving from A to B, although these can be minimised through a combination of shopping around for the best deal and advanced planning. Downsizing your possessions can pay in all kinds of ways If you’ve been in your present home for a while, there’s a good chance you’ll have accumulated a lot of “stuff” some of which will be very precious to you and some of which may be very useful, but much of which you could probably move on in one way or another. First of all, the less stuff you have to move, the lower your moving costs are probably going to be. Secondly, if you are able to sell at least some of your unwanted possessions, then you can use the money to offset the costs of moving. Digitising lets you keep memories without the memorabilia Digital cameras are relatively recent inventions, so many of us have collections of old photographs, which can be scanned and kept in digital form. This also protects against the photographs being damaged for example if liquid is spilled on them or if there is a fire, plus it allows them to be shared. Paperwork of all kinds is also a good target for digitisation. The idea of digitisation, however, can go beyond just scanning photos and papers. Now that we have digital cameras, it effectively costs nothing to photograph items which have special significance for us, so we can remember them and the memories they trigger once we have moved the item on to pastures new. Whether it’s a ticket stub from a concert or a special item of clothing, you can create a digital memory of it and pass on the original. There are all kinds of options for donating and selling physical items Even donating items to charity can help reduce your moving costs by reducing the amount of possessions you need to move, but if you’re looking to make a little money out of your unwanted items then there are plenty of real-world options (car-boots, Gumtree…) and a whole host of online ones. While eBay may be the best-known place for selling on your old possessions, there’s also Amazon and numerous niche sites for certain items from books and CDs to designer clothes and accessories.

The plight of JAMs (those who are just about managing) has been hitting the headlines on a regular basis over recent times. Essentially JAMs are people who are living from one pay-day to the next, perhaps managing to avoid racking up any (more) debts, but unable to make meaningful inroads into existing debts or to build up savings. Political parties say they want to help – but can they? Theresa May herself has acknowledged the plight of the JAMs and politicians of all persuasions have been busily setting out ideas to improve their situation, but realistically it’s an open question as to how much any government can actually do, particularly with all the uncertainties about Brexit on the horizon. Can the JAMs help themselves? While it may be disheartening to see how little money, if any, you have left over at the end of the month and to feel that there is no point in even trying, nothing could be further from the truth. The less money you have, the more important it is to make every penny work for you. That’s what will put you on the path to being able to cope, even if the unexpected happens such as you losing your job or becoming ill. Start by (re)assessing your outgoings in terms of your needs A need is anything necessary to keep you housed, clothed and fed or anything which is a legal obligation, such as a contract until it expires. Making savings here is likely to involve a combination of education, adaptation and creativity. For example, even if you and your family enjoy meat, the fact is that it is the most expensive form of food around. Cutting it out, if only temporarily, can go a long way towards reducing food bills. If you’ve never tried vegetarian cooking then help is at hand on the net, where there are plenty of budget-friendly recipes to be found for free. Likewise, if you’re put off the idea of using “own brand” products and such like because you worry about what other people will think of you (or your children), then decant them into other containers and only you will know. Make use of every money-saving option you can find, including old-fashioned money-off coupons and online codes and signing up for loyalty cards where you shop frequently. Look at the activities you carry out every day and see if there is a more economical way of doing them. For example, if you get the bus to work, could you walk one or two stops further to get a lower fare? If you take the car to a park and ride, could you cycle instead? As soon as you can free up a little money each month, start putting it to work Your first task is to build up some emergency savings, ideally at least two or three months’ salary. Once this has been achieved, start tackling any debts. With debts, the standard advice is to “snowball” or pick the highest-interest debt first and start paying it off. While this can be good advice, if you have lots of “little” debts, e.g. small balances on credit cards, it could be worth paying these off first and closing the cards as this may help to make a quick improvement to your credit rating and help you to transfer your debts to a lender who charges lower interest. If you’ve managed to avoid debts, you’re obviously in a better situation. In this case, you may want to look at getting professional advice as to how you can use this extra income to generate a return for you and improve your overall situation as quickly as possible.

Even though children will typically have a lot of influences in their lives as they grow up, their inner circle of family and friend and, in particular, their parents, will usually have the biggest influence of all. Part of a parent’s job is to ensure that their children learn the practical skills they will need to see them through adult life and these days that means having a solid grasp of financial skills. The (very) early years The best time to start teaching your child the basics of money is when they start to display an awareness of it and an interest in it. This may be when they start learning to count or it might be earlier depending on the child. The key point at this stage in particular is to ensure that any lessons are put into a context which can be grasped by a young child. For example, an older child might grasp the significance of being told that it would take X hours of work to pay for a given item, but a younger one is likely to have much less of an awareness of time or a clear understanding of what working for a living means. Hence, the answer to a question such as “Is X expensive” is best phrased as a comparison to something a child can grasp e.g. “Yes, we could buy X pairs of shoes for you for the same amount of money.”. The older childhood years Once children have begun to grasp the passing of time in a meaningful way, then it becomes possible to teach them the connection between time and money and hence to help them develop an appreciation of the value of the latter. This is also the time when you can start helping them to learn the basics of earning a wage and managing their money by giving pocket money in return for helping with housework and then guiding them through the basics of budgeting with it. The Santa Clause Dealing with Christmas can be challenging for parents whose children are still young enough to believe in Santa Claus. One way to address this is to tell them that although Santa does indeed organise and deliver the presents, the parents of children who have been good are expected to make a contribution to help cover his time and costs and hence what children receive depends in part on what their parents can afford. To this might be added the fact that Santa is very careful about leaving live animals as presents as he needs to be absolutely sure that people have the time and money to look after them all year round. The teenage years This is the time when children begin to develop the maturity to understand adult concepts such as saving and investing and the difference between “good” debt (low-interest debt used to buy assets, e.g. mortgages) and “dangerous” debt (high-interest consumer debt). In addition to the connection between work (time) and income, they also need to learn to grasp the concepts of need versus want, cost versus benefit and risk versus reward. Teenagers are notoriously influenced by peer pressure, but it’s worth noting that the more financially aware a child is and the more they understand the reasons for their parents’ financial decisions, the easier it is for them to accept them, particularly if they’re given some input into the decision-making process. One way to deal with requests (or pleas) for “big-ticket” items (such as fancy phones) is to respond by asking the person making the request to come up with a concrete plan as to how to pay for it. If they do, then it may be reasonable for them to get the item. If they don’t then the ball stays in their court. Instead of refusing and trying to get them to understand your reasons, you’re challenging them to come up with a plan themselves.

These days, there is a lot of advice available about how to keep safe online and data-security breaches at major organisations make new headlines. As Kim Kardashian recently demonstrated, however, breaches of physical security can be both frightening and costly (even with insurance). With that in mind, here are three pointers to keeping yourself and your valuables safe in the real world. Be careful with the internet Using cloud storage services to keep copies of valuable memories can be a great way to protect against the theft of the devices on which they are stored, but beware of posting pictures of your valuables on social media. Even if you know your way around your privacy settings, all it takes is for one person to share an image innocently and you literally never know where it is going to end up. Likewise be careful about sharing information about holidays you are on for the same reason. In very simple terms, assume anything which goes online is in the public domain and therefore keep social media for content you’re happy to share with the world. In the real world, make yourself more hassle than you’re worth The essence of protecting yourself from crime essentially involves making it more effort than it’s worth to target you. In terms of protecting your home, some simple and straightforward precautions can really go a long way to making this a reality. Make sure the entrance to your house has plenty of lighting, with a motion-sensitive trigger. This will both help you to see your way to your own front door, but make it obvious if anyone else is heading towards your property. On the subject of lights, internal lights can be fitted with a timer to go on and off when you’re out. Real CCTV has to be positioned with care (although any company involved in the industry can advise on this) but realistic fake cameras can act as a deterrent. Burglar alarms are cost-effective and free of the legalities of CCTV. Secure locks on both doors and windows will go a long way to preventing unauthorised entry and adding peep-holes and/or chains will make it easier for you to see who is at the door before you decide whether or not you want to answer it. On that note, remember to ensure that you know the identity of anyone who calls at your house not only before you let them in but before you divulge any details of your property and/or your habits. Most people will probably be who they say they are but one of them might be a burglar checking out a potential target. If you don’t have it already, double glazing is a whole lot harder to break than single glazing. Finally, if you do have any irreplaceable possessions, consider investing in a safe, ideally a hidden wall safe. If this is not practical, e.g. you’re renting, then think about imaginative hiding places, for example, you can get containers which look like tins of beans and which can be put in your cupboards (along with their real life counterparts). Take stock of what you have so you can get the right cover for it Much of what you have in your home is probably replaceable albeit at a cost. Items such as TVs and electronics are unlikely to have a huge amount of sentimental value, but have great attraction to thieves. Take the time to make an inventory of your possessions and their value. If possible gather up any documents showing proof of ownership and, ideally, take scans of them to store in the cloud. This will give you a reasonable figure for home contents insurance. When you choose your policy, check if there are any exclusions, limitations or stipulations for cover. For example some policies may require individual items over a certain value to be itemised. For possessions which really matter to you, e.g. jewellery, take clear pictures and note all relevant details. In a worst-case scenario, this may help you to recover a beloved item.