Ten Quick Wins

1. Get a will sorted.

   
   

   Just over half of the adults in the country don’t have one.  That number is, too high.

   
   

   Even if you don’t have a big complicated estate, dying without a will is a massive administrative headache for the people you love, at the very time they least need it. Taking the time to get a will sorted is an incredibly caring and selfless act and it doesn’t need to take long.

   
   

   When clients I work with need a will, I send them to David or Andrew. They’ll look after you.

   
   

2. Don’t have too much in your current account.

   
   

   Current accounts pay little to no interest. Having way more than you need in there to cover monthly bills is an unforced error.

   
   

   Park any excess savings you need for your “financial bulletproof vest” in a savings account, with a sensible bank paying a decent interest rate. Doesn’t need to be the best rate in the market, the money just needs to be safe and available at the drop of a hat.

   
   

   You can find the current best buy cash accounts here.

   
   

3. Use your ISA.

   
   

   If you are a Basic Rate taxpayer, you can earn £1,000 a year in interest from your cash savings before paying tax. Higher Rate taxpayers the number is £500, and for Additional Rate taxpayers it is zero. These are not big numbers.

   
   

   If your cash savings are getting large enough to give you a tax bill, you should consider parking money in a ash ISA where interest is generated tax free.

   
   

   If you have any investments sitting in a taxable account and have any ISA allowance available for the year, likewise get them into an ISA. Any returns generated within the account will be free of Income, Dividend and Capital Gains Tax.

   
   

   We always want to maximise the return we can get in tax advantaged accounts, and so getting investments (which should generate a higher return over time than cash) into a Stocks & Shares ISA takes priority over putting money into a Cash ISA.

   
   

4. Track your monthly bills.

   
   

   Budgeting’s a funny one. I do think it is important that we are all relatively aware of where our hard earned is going each month - because there is no such thing as good or bad spending to my mind, just conscious and unconscious.

   
   

   But I don’t think it’s particularly important to reconcile every line item and work out how much you spend on coffee. It isn’t all that important, it doesn’t make a massive difference and I like coffee.

   
   

   I just track my recurring bills each month using MoneyGuided. I use this to look for duplication (am I paying for the same, or similar service twice) and to periodically check whether I feel I am still getting value for money.

   
   

   It is also important to track when any fixed contracts or promotional periods for insurance/TV/mobile phone/credit cards etc. expire so you know when to renegotiate these. These companies rely on inertia to juice their margins, don’t get caught. Again I use MoneyGuided for this.

Image credit: Shutterstock

5. Start using a credit card (but make sure you pay it off monthly!)

   
   

   Might seem an unusual one this, but having a credit card improves your credit rating which can make other sources of debt, like mortgages, cheaper when you need them. Depending on the card you choose, your everyday expenditure can earn you points to exchange for lovely prizes.

   
   

   I have an Amex card I use for everything, then I pay it off religiously at end of the month in full. This is the really important bit, you need to set a diary reminder to pay it off each month because the interest rate on credit cards is eye watering if you miss the payment.

   
   

   If you have any outstanding credit card debt, for goodness sake pay it off or make a plan to pay it off asap. The “return” you’ll get by doing this through saved interest will be enormous.

6. Nominate beneficiaries to receive your pension on death.

   
   

   When we die, the assets within our pension(s) pass separately to our other assets under the terms of our will.

   
   

   It is therefore important to complete a “nomination of beneficiaries form” for each pension we have. Without making these nominations, the scheme administrators will decide who to pay your pension funds to on your passing, and this may not reflect your actual wishes.

   
   

7. Write your life insurance policy into trust.

   
   

   When any of us first take out a life insurance policy, there is a small easily missed box that asks whether we would like to write the policy into trust or not. This is an important box.

   
   

   I reckon 90% of the life insurance policies I review are not written into trust. If you have a policy which isn’t written into trust and you die, this could be a fairly big problem as the pay-out will a) be subject to probate, delaying distribution on your death and b) perhaps even worse, the pay-out will be subject to Inheritance Tax. And this can end up being quite expensive.

   
   

   If you want mor information on how to do this, I wrote a post in April on just this very topic.

   
   

8. Make sure you are maxing out employer pension contributions.

   
   

   Some benevolent employers will offer to match any contributions you make into your workplace pension. If you are not putting enough into your pension to fully avail of this opportunity, you are turning down free money.

   
   

   Log into your workplace pension online portal to check this out, or speak with your HR department. Lots of people miss this, and it is such a shame.

   
   

9. Can your premium bonds.

   
   

   Seriously, unless your cash allocation stretches to the hundreds of thousands - get rid.

   
   

   Taking a cold eyed statistical look at the chances of winning a big prize, you are better off sat in a regular savings account instead.

Probably not going to be you. Sorry. Image credit: Shutterstock.

10. Look down the back of the sofa for old forgotten pensions.

    
    

    When we leave a job, keeping the details for the old workplace pension scheme probably won’t be top of mind.

    
    

    If you have had a few jobs and want to reconcile your old pensions to get the lay of the land, Gretel offer a great service. They say you can get set up and run an initial check in three minutes. I’ve just tried this and they aren’t lying.

    
    

Past performance is not indicative of future returns. None of the above is intended to represent advice to any individual, if you require advice specific to your individual situation then please consult with a regulated financial adviser.