The June Review
Welcome to the MoneyPlus Newsletter.
Earlier in the year, we gave you the low-down on how upcoming changes may alter your financial goals for the year ahead. Well, this month we’re focusing on ways to see how those changes might have affected you by completing your own mid-year financial check-up in The June Review.
If you hadn’t done a financial check-up back in January (or, well, ever) don’t worry – the seven steps below can be used to get you started if it’s your first time, just make sure to revisit it regularly!
How to do a mid-year financial check-up in 8 steps.
A good financial situation will mean something different to everyone, but being in the know about your finances is really important. Generally, good financial health will mean that you have plans in place to pay off debt, put away savings for a rainy day, and longer-term plans for retirement.
A check-up can help you determine how well you’re doing or what you need to work on to reach your financial goals. If you’re not yet where you want to be financially, creating good money habits, having a solid plan, and regularly reviewing your finances can help you reach your money goals.
Here’s how to do it…
Identify your financial goals.
The first step in your financial checkup is evaluating your financial goals that you made at the start of the year. Have you made progress on them? If not, can you figure out why? Have your goals changed during the year? If so, revise them and write them down.
Crucially, you’re more likely to accomplish a goal if it’s realistic and achievable. For instance, if you are trying to pay off debts, getting specific with your financial goals is the first step.
If you didn’t make goals at the start of the year, there’s no better time than now to start!
Know where you stand by making a budget.
Understanding where you currently stand with your finances is essentially laying the path for where you are now and where you are trying to get to.
Determining your current debt, expenses, and income will help you understand what specific areas of your finances need the most attention and help you prioritise accordingly.
Whilst you’re figuring out where you stand now, you’ll also need to take into account any future changes that you anticipate. A job change, divorce, new baby, an upcoming retirement, buying a house, getting married etc. can alter your income and your lifestyle significantly, so you may need to adapt your budget, your spending, and your savings to fit with these changes.
In addition to lifestyle changes, also try and anticipate any large expenses coming up and factor them in, such as household appliances that may need replacing, or upcoming car repairs.
Once you have an idea of where your money is going, you can make adjustments to your spending to ensure you are keeping your expenses below your income and leaving enough room to do things, like pay down your debt or save for your goals.
Remember that budgeting takes practice, so don’t assume you’ll be perfect at it right away.
If you don’t have a budget, make one. You can use this free budget planner from the Money Advice Service to get started.
If you need your budget to factor in debt repayments, our online debt service, Advice Online, is ready to help you make sure that your budget is affordable, and identify any debt solutions that could support your debt repayment goals.
Get advice on what debt solutions could be available to you (and make sure any debt repayments are affordable) by trying Advice Online today.
If you’re a customer of MoneyPlus Advice, you’ll have made a budget with one of our Advisors when you first joined. Need to update it? Let us know!
Think long term.
It’s important to think about your long terms goals, too, including your retirement. This means contributing to any employer-sponsored retirement programs and checking that you’re comfortable with your monthly contributions.
The money you put into your pension pot is topped up by your employer and the government (it includes extra ‘free’ money and is a great way to add to your retirement savings!)
Get insured.
A crucial part of a financial check-up is reviewing your insurance policies to ensure you have enough coverage for the type of incidents that may incur. Not being properly insured can cause you expensive out-of-pocket costs that could have been prevented with the right insurance policy.
Also look to see if you might be over-insured in any area. A good example is life insurance; if you no longer have dependent children, you may not need as much coverage as you had before.
While reviewing your insurance, consider whether you can save money by switching to a different carrier or bundling your various insurance coverage together with the same provider.
Check your credit report.
Checking your credit report every now and then can give you a good indication of where you lay financially.
If you’re currently completing a Debt Management Plan, IVA, or something similar, this may have negatively affected your credit report – but this is only temporary; details of court action, defaults, partial payments and missed payments are usually only recorded for six years from the date your debt solution was approved.
There are multiple free websites and apps that you can use to check your credit score, such as Experian, ClearScore and CreditKarma, which all use different consumer credit reporting agencies to show you your score.
Update your will.
It’s not uncommon for people to create a will, then forget about it for the next 20 years, but your circumstances will change as the years go by.
Have any changes taken place that requires updating? If so, update that will!
If you haven’t yet got a will in place, you may want to consider having one written up. Here’s some more information about why wills are important to have, no matter what stage you’re at in life.
Shop around.
Prices of essentials can change over time, so it’s always good to shop around for the best deals.
Take your energy supply… currently, UK energy prices have increased everywhere by £96 a year, which means the average customer on a standard variable tariff from British Gas will now pay £1,138 for their yearly energy supply!
Finding an energy supplier that’s able to give you a stable, long-term price will mean you’re able to plan your finances in a more reliable way.
Keep it regular.
If you were on a long road trip, you’d stop occasionally and look at the map to see if you were headed in the right direction. A mid-year financial check-up serves the same purpose. It’s an opportunity to review how you’ve done financially over the past six months and make sure you’re still headed in the right direction.
Set a reminder on your calendar to review your finances on specific dates. If something changes, such as your salary, a personal situation, or your debt increases, you will want to be sure to do a financial check-up.
If you’ve been neglecting them for the first half of the year, create a plan for working toward them for the second half.
Now that you’ve given yourself a thorough financial checkup, you can kick back and enjoy the sweetness and the sunshine of the season, guilt-free. Happy summer!
Meet the team.
Martin Richardson – Director of Legal Services
Martin says: “I’ve been working in the legal industry for 30 years, and I first joined MoneyPlus in 2020 as Director of Legal Services.
It’s been incredibly refreshing to join such a varied group of companies that all work collaboratively to make sure our customers, across every proposition, are getting the most out of their money and living better.
In particular, our Legal team has grown substantially since its inception, and we’re currently helping tens of thousands of customers with their PPI 2 claims, which is just fantastic.
I’m really proud to be with a company that provides support to both colleagues and customers, as well as putting excellent customer service right at the heart of all its operations – it’s great to see, and even better to be a part of.”
Review of the month.
We love reading our customer reviews – and showing them off to the world!
This month’s review comes from a very valuable MoneyPlus Legal customer.
Take a look…
In case you didn’t know, every Friday is #FeedbackFriday on our social media, so if you’d like to see more great reviews, head over to our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!
If you’d like to leave a review for us, head over to our MoneyPlus Advice or MoneyPlus Legal review pages – we can’t wait to read it!
Social scene.
We like to keep our followers up-to-date with the latest industry news, advice, and offers, so we highly recommend following our social media channels so you can stay in the know…
WIN a beautiful bouquet from Bloom & Wild!
Every month, HUNDREDS of our followers enter into our #12MonthsOfBloom competition to win a stunning bouquet courtesy of MoneyPlus, and we announce the month’s five lucky winners on our social channels!
Do you want to be in with a chance to win? Just follow these steps:
1. Like our Facebook page
2. Then share our latest Bloom & Wild post with the hashtag #12MonthsOfBloom.
Simple! (Don’t forget to set your shared post to ‘public’, otherwise we won’t be able to see who shares it!)
Winners will be announced at the beginning of next month, so stay tuned to our social to see if you’ve won.
T&C’s apply
Here for you, in more ways than one.
At MoneyPlus, we offer a range of services that help you to make the most of your finances and live better. Take a look below to see if you could benefit from one (or more) of our other offerings…
Debt solutions that suit your lifestyle.
If your personal circumstances have changed and you find yourself struggling to manage your finances, give MoneyPlus Advice a call on 0161 837 4000, or email us at info@moneyplus.com, and we’ll help you find the best solution to get your finances back on the right track.
Helping you claim back what’s yours.
Many think PPI is a thing of the past, but it isn’t too late to claim. Even if you’ve already been paid out compensation for mis-sold PPI, or were rejected, we could help you.
We’re a fully regulated law firm acting for tens of thousands of people who are rightfully claiming back the money they’re owed from their PPI. Click here to start your PPI check today.
