House Prices Falling again

House prices have now fallen for 4 out of the last 5 months according to the Halifax's monthly survey.

The reasons?  The obvious general ones are:

• Continuing economic worries
• Lack of mortgage finance

Also, First time buyers cannot afford to buy property..why?

• They need to put up a bigger deposit, compared to 4 years ago
• Houses are still expensive in reflation to their earnings

Is all this likely to change?

It is unlikely in the short term. People are worried about their jobs and facing pay freezes and so are putting off decisions like buying  a house.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Expensive bank accounts..££££s

Do you pay a fee a monthly fee on your bank account? Yes? You probably do not need to.

Banks like to offer "premium" bank accounts to their customers which have a monthly fee ranging form £5 to £40 per month. You are paying for travel insurance and mobile phone insurance, which you can get elsewhere more cheaply if you want or need them.

15% of the population have accounts like these. If you have one of these accounts, seriously consider moving it to a fee free account.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Transferring your Cash ISA

Each year Banks and Building Societies spend millions advertising trying to get you to put your ISA allowance with them.

What about your old ISA money?

They rarely mention your ISAs from previous years and mysteriously fail to mention you can transfer your ISA from your current bankto a new one.

It is worth reviewing rates on your old ISA and comparing them with the current best buys.  A final note: check that the new ISA can receive old ISA money.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Post Budget Thoughts

Every budget is many ways more political than financial.  Each government has to decide how much it will raise from taxes & what to spend the money on.

To tackle the UK's budget deficit, Chancellor George Osborne decided he would raise 80% from spending cuts and 20% from tax increases.

The spending cuts will largely be announced in the October review and the tax has been mostly raised by increasing VAT to 20%.

Further information is available in the article I did for the Swindon Advertiser.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Buy to Let Property...big tax hike?

One of the dilemmas facing the new government is how to raise money by increasing taxes. Politicians do no like increasing income tax because it is unpopular.

One area which is being considered is Capital gains Tax which affects Buy to Let Property amongst other things. It is being suggested that the tax on the profits of selling such a property could be raised from 18% to 40 or even 50%.

It is one area where it could be vital to talk to a financial planner.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

How do the markets affect us?...pensions

Over the past week, we have had journalists, politicians & academics talking about...the markets.

So, how do the markets affect us?

The most direct way is a fair portion of people's pension money will be invested in UK shares. So if shares rise, your pension can go up, if they go down your pension value goes down.

If your pension has been invested in UK shares, your pension has probably  gone nowhere in the last 10 years.If that is the case, it is worth taking advice from a professional adviser about how to spread the risk and diversify.


Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.

Your ISA Allowances

From 6th April 2010, everybody's ISA allowances rose to £10 200 a year.

That's £5100 in a Cash ISA....plus £5100 in a Stocks & Shares ISA.

Posted by Sean Wilson, APFS, Independent Financial Advisors (IFA), Swindon, Wiltshire.