For those who do not know me, my name is Frankie and I am founder of Frankie’s, an exclusive membership community for women to connect, collaborate and engage with finance! Having been running the AllBright Investment Club for the past two and a half years, I have now started this monthly column in the Allbright Edit to answer all of your finance questions!

As we are aware, times are challenging for many people at present as we face the impacts of rising inflation, the subsequent rise in interest rates and the ever increasing cost of living. Now more than ever people are focused on their money and how you can make your money work for you.

With this in mind I have created ‘Seven Golden Rules’ to building wealth to which I describe as my ‘Staple(s)’. Staple can be defined as follows:

Self – Your financial planning is bespoke to you and your family. It is about your goals/ objectives.

Tax – How can you be more tax efficient with your money?

Accumulation – Make your money work has hard as you do to earn it.

Pensions – Take stock of what you have and ensure it is aligned to your longer term goals

Life Insurance/ Protection – Are you and your family protected?

Educate – Continuously educate yourself.

By using the above structure you can put yourself on the best footing for creating a better financial future for yourself. At Frankie’s we are dedicated to helping you take stock of the above and create your own financial plan to support you in accessing the tools to secure your financial future.

Thank you so much to those of you who submitted questions to us this month, I will be answering a couple of these below:

Hello, I am due to receive £10,000 in September - I wish to use this for house improvements next year; however, what is the best way to avoid taxation and should I invest/save some money? Thanks

First of all, thank you for your question. What I would say is, if you're looking to use this capital for house improvements and you know that you will require access to this in the next twelve months, then I would suggest that you don't invest the money into stocks and shares or any structures that might be illiquid because of the volatility we are currently experiencing and the short time frame that you have, instead, keeping the money where it is readily available to you. When investing we suggest that you take a rolling 3 to 5 year view.

With this in mind, I would suggest that you consider the various cash options available to you, one of the biggest advantages of rising interest rates is that we have seen the rate of interest increasing for saving deposit accounts. So I would have a shop around and look at the different cash options, you could also consider using NS&I premium bonds. They are government backed, the interest rate is currently at 4% and you are able to access the money within 30 days.

I'm currently paying more money every month into my pension than I'll get out when I retire (according to my latest pension statement) should I stop or carry on. I don't retire for another 10yrs. Thank you.

Firstly, I would say that pensions are a great tax-efficient way for you to save for your future. One of the most common misconceptions is that the state will provide for us when we are older. But at the moment, the state pension that is provided is circa £203.85 per week which, I don't know about you, but that's not going to keep me in the lifestyle that I wish to have! In addition, the state pension age has been pushed back to 68 years before you are able to access the income. With the above in mind, I would suggest that you do look to continue contributing to your pension.

Your pension assets are a fundamental staple for building of your overall wealth and financial security in the future. To optimise the pension savings that you have it is important to ensure that your pensions are invested in line with your goals, objectives and risk profile. I would suggest you take stock of where your various pensions are and look at how the underlying capital is invested making sure that everything is aligned to your longer term objectives and is working as hard as possible for you.

Pension Bee have a really good pension forecasting tool that can assist you in understanding what your retirement future looks like and what contributions you should be making today into a pension:

Pension Calculator | Pension Forecast | Retirement Planner (pensionbee.com)

How do I get in control of my pension? I don't know where any of my money from my different pensions is and I'm worried I will not be able to access it. What are the first steps to getting my pension(s) in order? Should I be upping my contribution?

Thank you for this question, this is something I get asked a lot! I often am speaking with people who have had lots of different jobs in various places over the course of their careers. It can be easy to forget about the pensions that you have accumulated. Firstly, I would strongly suggest that you take stock of the pensions that you have, to do this you can run searches on your National Insurance number to determine any pensions that they have associated with you. This enables you to gain an understanding of what you've got today. You might then consider using structures such as a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension), to consolidate your pensions, simplifying your arrangements and enabling you to have greater control over the underlying capital.

With regards to increasing your pension contribution, this is very much determined by your personal circumstances and ensuring that you have enough cash available before making additional contributions, remembering any money that you invest into a pension cannot be accessed until you reach age 57 under current legislation.

So it's about making sure that you have the right foundations in place that you can afford to put money into your pension.

Under current legislation you can now subscribe up to £60,000 per annum into a pension. This can be a really tax-efficient vehicle to save for your future.

-At present if you are not earning you can still make minimal pension contributions of up to £3,600 per annum gross into your pension.

-If you are a basic rate tax-payer, any contribution into your pension will be grossed up by 20% in the scheme.

-If you are a higher rate tax-payer, your contribution will be grossed up by 20% within the scheme and you will also receive higher rate tax -relief of 20% to offset against your income tax bill.

Once you know what you have, where it is invested and what is currently being contributed you can start to consider your other options with regards to optimising your pension assets.

Are you feeling like you want to take stock of your finances and create a plan? Have a goal but not sure how to achieve it? As part of the Frankie’s membership you receive an Annual Financial Health Check, helping our members take stock of their finances, create a plan and regularly review their strategies. For more information visit our website: Home Page - Frankie's (frankies.uk.net)

Frankie’s is a membership programme within Francesca Smith Associates, a consultancy business established for running educational financial events and workshop programmes by Frankie Smith. Company Registration Number: 14258001.

All regulated Financial Planning advice undertaken by Francesca Smith is completed through Jarrovian Wealth Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under FCA number is 770693. Jarrovian Wealth Ltd provide independent financial advice in respect of packaged products such as life contracts, pensions and regulated collective investment schemes.

Disclaimer

AllBright cannot guarantee that all of the information provided in this video or article is accurate. Use the information provided on our website at your own risk. If you wish to make an investment you should seek independent financial advice before doing so, and ensure that you have carried out your own research on the product or company that you are investing in. Any advice provided is not tailored to anyone’s individual situation, as each individual is in a different situation. AllBright does not accept any liability whatsoever for any action taken or losses incurred as a result of the information provided on our site.