Essentially Wealth – Quarter One 2020

Boosting financial wellbeing is a perpetual resolution for many of us.

Whatever your goals, the fresh beginning a new year brings is the perfect time to take stock of your finances and make resolutions to achieve them. A new study has concluded that the likelihood of successfully achieving your financial goals is heavily linked to receiving professional advice and the establishment of clear financial objectives.

Whilst awareness and popularity of alternative options for further education, such as apprenticeships and vocational courses, has increased in recent years, so too have the number of university applications.

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) revealed a new record for English UCAS applications last year, with 39.5% of 18-year-olds applying. Closely matched were Scotland with 32.7% (not including Scottish further education college undergraduate applications) and Wales with 32.9%. Northern Ireland’s rate was the highest at 46.9%.

At the end of last year, the global economy was precariously balanced as various geopolitical traumas weighed. Forecasts suggest 2020 will experience a recovery, albeit a weak one.

In its latest economic soothsaying, published in the autumn, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) outlined that the global economy is growing at its slowest pace since the financial crisis and downgraded its 2019 world growth forecast to 3.0%. The IMF also stressed risks remain skewed to the downside.

Anyone with children knows that childcare is a major expense that comes in many forms, from day nursery for small pre-school children and babies, after-school clubs and child minders, to school holiday cover for working parents. Care requirements span many years and often eat a good chunk out of a family’s income.

Traditional views of retirement continue to be called into question, as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports growing numbers of people aged 90 or over.

According to think-tank the Intergenerational Foundation, younger generations are becoming increasingly resentful of older people. They believe it’s unfair that older generations hold a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth while they battle with student debt, getting on the property ladder and insecure employment.

The benefits of taking financial advice have again been confirmed by research. The findings of a recent International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) study for insurer Royal London suggest that those who took advice around the turn of the century were on average over £47,000 better off a decade later, when compared with those who did not.