The order things should go in
Before anyone talks to you about investing, three things should be in place. Any adviser who skips these is doing it wrong.
An emergency fund on deposit
Three to six months of outgoings, somewhere you can get at it immediately. This never gets invested.
Expensive debt cleared
Paying off a credit card at 20% is a guaranteed 20% return. No investment can promise that.
Pension relief used
If you have not used your age-related allowance, that is almost always the better home for the money, because relief is an immediate 40% or 20% before anything grows.
Risk, described honestly
Investments can fall as well as rise and you can get back less than you put in. That is not small print, it is the actual deal. The reason people accept it is that over long periods, money that is invested has historically kept ahead of inflation and money on deposit has not.
The right level of risk is not the one that produces the best return on paper. It is the one you can live with when values fall, because the worst outcome is selling at the bottom. Working that out honestly is most of the value of advice.
Money sitting on deposit, doing nothing?
We go through the order of things, work out what risk you can live with, and tell you plainly if a pension contribution would serve you better.
Book a first meetingWhat it gets taxed at
What to watch out for
Different structures are taxed differently, and the right one depends on your circumstances, your timeframe and what else you hold. It is one of the areas where a bit of advice at the start saves real money later.
Pick a date and time that suits you.
No sales pitch, just a conversation about what you already have, what it is heading for and whether we can improve it. You will get a written summary either way.
