Hello, my name is Adam Harvey.
It’s my pleasure to introduce myself as Tonic’s Financial Wellbeing Consultant. My aim is to help improve your Financial Wellbeing in 2 ways. By helping you to:
1. Make good financial decisions
2. Use your money to increase your happiness.
Why is Tonic including Financial Wellbeing?
Over the last few years, an increasing light has been shone on Financial Wellbeing as an important aspect of our overall wellbeing. It can affect our happiness, ability to make good financial decisions, achieve our financial goals, and feel secure and financially stable.
Financial Wellbeing is about more than just having enough money to meet our basic needs. It is about having control over our financial lives and confidence in our ability to make good financial decisions. It is also about clearly understanding our financial goals and working towards achieving them.
Financial Wellbeing is about connecting your money to what makes you happy.
Many factors can impact our Financial Wellbeing, including our income, expenses, debts, financial goals and what advice we choose to accept. It is important to regularly review and assess these factors to ensure that we are on track and stable financially.
Here are 6 steps you can take to improve your Financial Wellbeing and feel more in control of your future:
- Create a spending plan: record and track your income and expenses to understand your spending habits and identify areas where you can cut costs or save more.
- Save for emergencies: set aside money in a savings account to cover unexpected expenses, such as car repairs. It is widely thought that this should be a minimum of 3 months’ income or expenditure and deposited in easy access accounts such as a Cash ISA or Premium Bonds.
- Pay off debt: pay off high-interest debt, such as credit card debt, as soon as possible to reduce the amount of interest you pay.
- Save for the future: most of us aim to enter a phase during our lives when work becomes optional and eventually stops completely. Modern “retirement” may not look like it used to but the need to save towards it has never been more important. I find that most people vastly underestimate how much they should be saving NOW to maintain their CURRENT lifestyle in retirement, let alone towards any more expensive plans.
- Set financial goals: Identify your short-term and long-term financial goals and create a plan to achieve them. A professional can help with this.
- Seek professional advice: Consider working with a financial adviser to help you understand your financial situation, set financial goals and create a plan to achieve them. The right professional adds the most value by helping you monitor the plan throughout your life and navigating around, through and over the obstacles life puts in your way.
That’s it for this time. There are many things I could write about, but I would love to know what’s on your mind. What’s worrying you? What part of your finances are you unhappy with?
Please reach out to me by email: ah@ironbridgefs.co.uk I will look to answer any questions either directly or in my next post.
Regards
Adam Harvey
I am a Financial Advice, Planning and Wellbeing Consultant and the sole owner of Ironbridge Financial Services. I’m qualified, independent, and a member of the London Institute of Banking & Finance and the Institute of Financial Wellbeing.
And a final note from Becca…
If you are struggling with money right now, then MIND – the mental health charity have support & practical tips for managing your money and improving your mental health: HERE
Regulatory Statements
Our services relate to certain investments whose prices are dependent on fluctuations in the financial markets beyond our control. Investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested. Past performance cannot be used as a reliable prediction of future performance.
Ironbridge Financial Services is a trading name of Consulted Financial Services Ltd who are an Appointed Representative of New Leaf Distribution Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority: FCA Number 460421. New Leaf Distribution: 165-167 High Street, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 7QA.
