Budgeting

When the temperature starts to rise and the days lengthen, spring is clearly upon us. For many people, the changes of the season, from Winter to Spring, inspires them to declutter and spring clean their homes in preparation for the warm, sunny months ahead. This year why not also take the opportunity to give your finances a thorough dusting down, to ensure they are also in good shape for Summer and beyond? Here are a few tips to help you do it:

4. Choose the right time

As with many things in life, timing can be everything when it comes to asking for a pay rise. Don’t try to have a conversation with your manager in the middle of a busy office, at the end of another meeting or just because you are both in the kitchen making a coffee!

In an ideal world, our employers will always value the work we do and pay us what we are worth. That doesn’t always happen though. For many people, the pandemic has increased the likelihood of them feeling undervalued and underpaid, as working from home has made them less visible to their line managers, roles have changed, and greater demand is put on us in order to help our employers navigate what has been an economically challenging period.

A group of people who are frequently overlooked when it comes to financial tips and guidance are those who fall into the “middle earner” bracket. Middle earners are neither the highest paid, lowest paid, or the poor and, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) around 60% of workers across Europe fall into this category.

Why is it that some people find money easy to deal with, regardless of how much they have, whereas for others it is a cause of stress and anxiety? Your relationship with money will be determined by the feelings and thoughts you have from your life experiences. It’s not simply about whether there was enough money in your household as you grew up though. If that were the case, people from poor backgrounds would always be bad with money, and the wealthy would always be good, which simply isn’t true.

At the beginning of the year many people take the opportunity to make changes. Some decide to adopt a healthier lifestyle; losing weight, stopping smoking, or reducing the amount of meat they eat. Others see the start of a new year as the motivation they need to look for a new job, start a new hobby or even move house.

A sad side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic is that the number of couples divorcing has steadily increased over the past 18 months. In the UK alone, one law firm recently reported that it has seen divorce instructions increase by around 30% since the pandemic began, and the UK’s Citizens Advice charity, which provides advice and guidance on a range of personal issues, has also seen a dramatic rise in visits to the divorce section of its website.

As is often the case when it comes to finance, the world of loans seems to have its own language and can get complicated, very quickly.

Here we aim to explain some of the language and answer some of the common questions about loans, to help you if the need to borrow money ever arises.

What is a loan?

Loans come in all shapes and sizes; from a friend lending you £5, to a mortgage to buy a home. However, the principle of all loans is the same. A loan is an agreement between you and a lender where they give you money, and you agree to pay it back.

When something you rely on breaks, such as your central heating or car, having money put aside to pay for it to be repaired or replaced, makes life a little less stressful. Similarly, if you fall ill, or you lose your job, having enough money put aside to pay your essential bills will give you breathing space to recover or find a new job. That is why building an “emergency fund”, savings which are there to help you deal with the unexpected things life sometimes throws at you, is something everyone should do.