Keeping financial control during volatile market conditions

This year has been a difficult one, financially speaking, for households in a range of income brackets. The cost of living has risen substantially as inflation has soared ,¹ household energy bills have skyrocketed,² and interest rates are rising³. Meanwhile, investment markets have been choppy, which has been an additional source of stress for those planning their financial future.

You may think that we can’t do anything to help, but it’s during the hard times that the value of financial advice really shines through.

Here, we explain the ways that seeking advice can help you not just to survive, but thrive during economic storms.

What does a financial adviser do?

The purpose of financial planning is to help you manage your income and assets in the best way, so you can achieve your life goals.

You may think that it’s only worth talking to us if you have a specific goal in mind, such as early retirement, or after a big financial event such as divorce or receiving an inheritance, when you have a large sum of money to manage.

Although that’s part of our role – and these are all key moments when good advice is important – in reality, we can help you tackle a whole range of money-related issues. The ultimate goal is for you to reach a place of financial wellbeing, which can include:

• Making the most of your money on a day-to-day basis
• Being financially capable of dealing with the unexpected
• Feeling confident, empowered and knowledgeable
• Making smart use of debt, investments, insurance policies, tax reliefs and financial products to help you on your journey

We’re here to help you with the most mundane aspects of money management – and the most complex areas, too. Talking about how difficult things are, or how worried you are, is the first step to feeling better about it.

Why financial planning is important

You’ve probably already put in place structures and routines to help you reach your goals. These may include budgeting, savings goals, monthly contributions to retirement savings or investments, and insurance or income-protection policies.

The challenge in the current environment is that some of these best-laid plans fall apart. This can be either because people’s incomes are so stretched they cannot keep up with commitments such as retirement contributions or other savings, or because people actively stop working towards their goals out of fear of what’s ahead - it’s a mindset of battening down the hatches.

We spend every day creating specific, actionable plans to help people reach their aims, based on realistic calculations of how much they’ll need. We can tweak and fine-tune these so that people who may feel they cannot afford to save for retirement, for example, or keep up their financial commitments, are able to do so.
 

Managing financial worries

As well as being a sounding board for your financial concerns and creating action plans for getting ahead, we can accurately assess how you as an individual may be affected by the current environment. Whether it’s the impact of inflation on your cash savings, or how rising interest rates could influence your retirement plans, we can provide a range of forecasts tailored to your circumstances.

These should offer reassurance, because your worst-case scenario may not have the terrible effect you fear. Whatever the situation, rest assured that there will be a financial solution – and we’ll make sure you find it.

We can support you during the cost-of-living crisis – contact us now for advice.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time.  The value of any tax relief is dependent on individual circumstances.

Sources:

¹Consumer Price Inflation, UK: August 2022, Office for National Statistics, September 2022

²Ofgem Updates Price Cap Level and Tightens Up Rules on Suppliers, Ofgem press release, August 2022

³Official Bank Rate History, Bank of England database, accessed September 2022