From Victoria’s Desk

Welcome to my newsletter, my aim with these is to give short updates on issues that impact money and financial planning that I think are worth bringing your attention to.

We have now had the first week of a Labour government here in the UK. While we won’t know exactly how this change will impact our personal finances until the Budget in the Autumn, it looks likely that income tax thresholds will remain frozen meaning more people paying more in income tax.

Key Articles I Have Read This Week:

• Bristol University research suggests having a regular savings plan can improve sleep: Read it here

• iNews had an interesting article about the balance that needs to be found between paying off debt vs saving/investing for future income. Deploying your money strategically to meet your long-term goals will look different for everyone: Read it here

Investment Markets This Week:

Best Cash Savings Rates This Week:

💷 Investing For The Long Term, Does It Pay Off??? 💸 

When it comes to cash vs investing, it’s often easy to get caught up in the short-term picture of gains and losses, ‘risk’ and ‘safety’. Investing should always be looked at as a strategy to meet your medium and long-term goals, so how does it stack up as a strategy:

The graph and table above show that over the last 5 years, global stocks (FTSE World) have returned 75%, UK stocks (FTSE 100) have returned 31.9%, UK inflation (CPI) has increased by 24.1% and a cash fund (Blackrock Cash) has returned 10.2%.

What this demonstrates is that when you are looking to build wealth over time, investments are a good place BUT this has to be done with knowledge and a clear strategy as investing always has a risk of losses of capital as well as gains.