Money in the bank: An Isa is easy to set up and even easier to use It’s difficult to think of investing when the world we know and love teeters on the edge of seismic geopolitical change
Written by on May 23, 2023
Money in the bank: An Isa is easy to set up and even easier to use
It’s difficult to think of investing when the world we know and love teeters on the edge of seismic geopolitical change.
It’s also hard to get your head around putting your money into the stock market when share prices are sliding – and household bills are beginning to pile sky high.Scary times.
My mum, who’s 80…ish, rang me last week with a stark question: ‘Jeffrey, how am I going to pay my energy bill?’
At the moment, I’m not sure I know the answer, although my colleague Rachel Rickard Straus has given me food for thought (I’m seeing Mum today).
Saving isn’t on Mum’s agenda other than the fact that her existing savings are a reservoir from which she can draw when outgoings exceed income (a regular occurrence these days).
The bottom of the reservoir can’t be seen yet, but it won’t take too many more withdrawals before it shows.
Yet, in among all the indiscriminate bombs falling on Ukraine and the squeeze being put on our household finances, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that most of us need to put a little aside for the future – for a time when maybe we no longer want to work fulltime or work at all.
To put our feet up occasionally and enjoy our gentle drift into retirement.
Yes, some of you will have got there already.Like my mum, it’s then a question of managing your savings and investments in a way that will ensure they last your lifetime.
There is no one winning way to save for the long term. Most of us rely upon a company pension – or increasingly these days a number of them – to see us through retirement.
It’s a tax-efficient way to save and employers will top up contributions, some more generously than others.
Others choose to use their home, releasing equity from it as the family moves out and retirement beckons.By downsizing, they are able to use the equity released as part of a retirement pot.
Buy-to-let is also employed by many to provide an income into retirement and beyond – as well as an investment to encash at an opportune time.
But at the heart of every finely-tuned savings plan should be the Individual Savings Account, a tax wrapper that allows people of all ages to save or invest for the future without fear of their pot being denuded by HM Revenue & Customs .
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox money" data-version="2" id="mol-5add44f0-a21b-11ec-9a36-a3990bcec3bc" website in Isa should be at heart of everyone's plans to grow wealth
