Winter 2022Keeping financial control during the cost-of-living crisis

There’s a misconception that financial advice is only useful when you receive an inheritance, a windfall or have a lot of extra money.

Staying on track with your financial goals is more difficult with the high cost of living, but there are strategies to help.

This year has been a difficult one, financially speaking, for households in a range of income brackets and investment markets have been choppy, which has been an additional source of stress for those planning their financial future.

You may think that we can’t do anything to help, but it’s during the hard times that the value of financial advice really shines through.

Here, we explain the ways that seeking advice can help you not just to survive, but thrive during economic storms.

What does a financial adviser do?

The purpose of financial planning is to help you manage your income and assets in the best way, aiming to achieve your life goals.

You may think that it’s only worth talking to us if you have a specific goal in mind, such as early retirement, or after a big financial event such as divorce or receiving an inheritance, when you have a large sum of money to manage.

Although that’s part of our role – and these are all key moments when good advice is important – in reality, we can help you tackle a whole range of money-related issues. The ultimate goal is for you to reach a place of financial wellbeing, which can include:

• Making the most of your money on a day-to-day basis
• Being financially capable of dealing with the unexpected
• Feeling confident, empowered and knowledgeable
• Making smart use of debt, investments, insurance policies, tax reliefs and financial products to help you on your journey

Why financial planning is important

You’ve probably already put in place structures and routines to help you reach your goals. These may include budgeting, savings goals, monthly contributions to pensions or investments, and insurance or income-protection policies.

The challenge in the current environment is that some of these best-laid plans fall apart.

We spend every day creating specific, actionable plans to help people reach their aims, based on realistic calculations of how much they’ll need. We can tweak and fine-tune these so that people who may feel they cannot afford to save for retirement, for example, or keep up their financial commitments, are able to do so.

Whatever the situation, rest assured that there will be a financial solution – and a financial adviser can make sure you find it.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

About the writer
As director of Front Row Financial, Steven Worrall provides a truly holistic approach that demystifies financial advice and puts you in control, with tailored solutions and ongoing support to help you achieve your financial and lifestyle goals.