2012/2013 ISA Investing….
…the new tax year

The last few days of March and the first few days of April were absolutely chaos. It is amazing how many people wait until the very last minute to maximise any unused ISA allowances.
I am going to be a bit controversial, and suggest that we try to buck the trend this year by utilising these valuable tax efficient allowances earlier in the year!

Joking aside, I know the end of the tax year will be the same as it always is, because it is just human nature. In the same way as most tax returns are filed in January, but if I mention this now then hopefully it might just make a difference.

Obviously ISA’s only form part of the investment strategy for many investors, and if you feel you would like to review your overall investment portfolio or discuss any new investments, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

The End of the Current Tax Year, Part 2, ISAs….
ISA Allowances, use them or lose them….

The end of the tax year also means it is your last chance to utilise any unused ISA allowances for the current tax year. Whether this is Cash ISAs, Equity ISAs, or both.

Should you not have already utilised this years allowances then it is worth noting that over the next 5 weeks you could potentially invest nearly £22,000.00 each into ISAs, £10,680.00 for this tax year and £11,280.00 for next.

This means for example that couple, married or otherwise, could collectively invest just under £44k into tax efficient ISAs within the next 5 weeks.

You might remember from a previous newsletters that there are actually several ISA millionaires in this country. People that have saved into ISAs, and previously PEPs over the years. It can soon add up!

If you want to utilise your tax efficient ISA allowances, then time is running out and I urge you to contact me soon to ensure there is enough time to process it before the year end.

Saving up for that special event….
Private Education, University, Wedding(s) or the Deposit for a house…

Over the last few months I have seen an increase in the number of people wanting to talk to me about saving for future events, such as University, Private Education, Weddings, and Deposits for houses etc.
Everyone knows that events like this cost more now that ever, but what has become apparent is that many people are not usually expecting only one of these events, in some cases they can expect two or even three of these events to occur, and when we started to dig deeper the costs just spiral.

Let’s take private education and university for example, if we assume a young family with two children are looking to send their children to private school and then on to University; they could require literally hundreds of thousands of pounds over what in reality is a relatively short period of time.

That may sound crazy, but one such example involved a family wanting to send two children to Private School from the age of 8 and then onto University, and the fees alone, not including accommodation, food, or inflation amounted to over £200,000.00, and that was a conservative estimate.

Obviously not everyone wants to send their kids to private school, and I know that in some cases people hope to be able to fund school fees from earned income, but not everyone can afford to do that, and therefore planning ahead is essential.

The question now is what you can do about it, there is absolutely no doubt that the sooner you prepare for it the better, and we can advise on a number of solutions to prepare for these events. It is most likely that more than one solution will be required depending on how soon the first instalment will be required for example, or your attitude to investment risk.

Also don’t forget, in a lot of cases it isn’t just Mum and Dad that have to save for this, very often grand parents are keen to help out! If you would like to discuss this in more depth, then please do not hesitate to contact us and we can talk through you individual circumstances