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Being financially free is the goal of any kind of financial planning and financial freedom refers to a financial state where you have enough money to survive without working or you have either accomplished your financial goals. Now to grow wealth or achieve your financial goals you need to make some investments which must give you expected results as per your goals. With right information and effective implementation anyone can get desired outputs from their investments.

Before going further into the various aspects of investing let us understand what basically is the meaning of investment. The word investment simply means act of putting time, money or any asset into use with an expected growth or advantage in future. Now if we apply logical thinking to the process of investment some fundamental questions must be asked to be sure that we are making the right call for investment. These questions are just simply common question that anyone would ask if we are investing their money for an example what is the risk involved, what is the expected return, how the funds would be diversified, for what time the amount should be invested in order to get the expected return.

Understanding the Basic aspects of Investing:

Risk and Return: Every investment is associated with some kind of risk associated with it if there is reward expected out of it. Let us take an example of a tech company which has recently launched its IPO and is looking very promising, there is definitely a huge reward expected out of it but if you look carefully there is a risk associated with this investment as the company or even the technology can completely go south in near future. So, the more promising an investment sound greater are the chances of losing money as well.

Diversification: In the investment domain going all in on one stock or on one investment in terms of funds is actually considered as risky and immature behaviour. The expression never put your eggs in one basket is taken really seriously in investing. Wise investors prefer to diversify their capital into different investments like real estate, stocks, bonds etc. in order to give themselves a cushion against the loss in any particular investment. In simple words diversifying your investment acts as a loss mitigating mechanism for your portfolio.

Time Horizon: It is simply the amount of time for which the investment is hold before the funds are accessed as per the desired output. No one can deny the role of timing in investment any individual interested in investment just want to know when to invest in a business and when to exit with the profit.

Key Investment Options for UK Investors:

Stocks and Shares: Someone has to be really living under a rock if they have not heard about the investment option of shares and shares. In context of United Kingdom London Stock Exchange is the place where the real magic happens in terms of trading of stocks and shares. Stocks in very layman terms represents the ownership in shares in Publicly traded company. Without any doubt you can say that there is a lot of potential of growth if investor is strategic and systematic. However, there is also a relatedly higher risk for this mode of investment.

Bonds: Corporations use bonds which are basically the debt securities issued by government to raise money for themselves. In United Kingdom these bonds are called gilts and these are available for the investors. Bonds are usually a safer investment option for people who do not have a greater risk capacity.

Property: If something is limited and is of prime utility for people its value is bound to increase in future and one such resource is land or property. We all know that population is increasing and with increase the demand of real estate in growing faster than ever. Real estate will always be a great area for investment whether it is commercial or residential. People make real estate investments mainly for two reasons first being to generate a passive income source by renting the property and secondly to get the gains in the future by selling of the property. In United Kingdom investors can invest in the residential or commercial property directly by purchasing the property or indirectly by getting real estate investment trust or property funds.

Cash and Cash Equivalents: These are simply the investments where you put your cash and get increment on the principal invested, these provide better safety and liquidity but the returns are typically low as compared to other investments like shares, stocks etc. Savings accounts, money market funds and government bonds for the short term are example of cash equivalents. These investments can be considered as slow and steady investment options best suited for people with low-risk appetite and larger time frames to let the investment grow.

Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): If you are someone who is not from the finance background and want to create an excellent portfolio which has various asset classes and is diverse as well to reduce the risk of market fluctuations mutual funds is the best choice for you. Many banks and financial institutions have teams of seasoned professionals dedicated to one goal make your investments grow with minimum risk. This is the best investment instrument for people who want experts to take care of their investments.

Essential Tips for UK Investors:

Set Clear Investment Goals: Your investment goals must be clearly defined in terms of objective, time horizon and risk level before you even decide to make any investment. You simply need to ask yourself how much you want out of the investment, in how much time and how much of your investment you are willing to risk for the goal. People have goals like retirement savings, creating a certain amount of money, education, marriage etc. Clarity is the first requirement that will enable you create an investment plan for you.

Diversify Your Portfolio: Never put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to investment which means that you must spread your investment in various assets, industries and geographic areas to minimize the risk and maximize returns. Diversification minimizes the risk of market volatility and specific investment loss risk.

Start Investing Early and Regularly: Ever heard the expression early bird catches the worm it applies perfectly in investing. If you start investing early in your life you will be able to take the maximum advantage of compounding to maximize your returns as you are investing for a longer time as compared to others. So, the mantra here is start early and be consistent in your investments.

Educate Yourself: Everyone must have a basic level of financial knowledge in order to live their well financially. We all are working for money and it would be extremely beneficial if we understand money. In case of investing everyone should be updated with the latest developments and current market dynamics around them. An intelligent investor is more likely to make money as compared to someone who doesn’t have a clue what he is doing. Investing time in learning about investment options, strategies and market dynamics really pays off. Resources like books, online courses, websites, blogs can help you in transforming yourself in to an informed investor.

Seek Professional Advice When Needed: Taking professional help for the financial decisions really pays a lot consider a scenario that there is new organization which is working on an emerging technology and you do not know about it. Just thing of the potential loss if you invest without asking a professional in some company or shares which will rise slowly other than this new firm working on new tech. Taking advice from people in finance domain really pays in making investing decisions.

Investing is long term endeavour which requires patience, discipline and a mindset to learn forever. By knowing the ways to invest, where to invest and when to exit your investments anyone can make their financial dreams come true. All it takes is a learning attitude, perseverance and dedication towards your goals to make it big.

The sole purpose of personal finance management is to improve your financial status and managing debt is a fundamental aspect of your personal finance. Strategic management can help in efficient management of any kind of debt may it be credit card debt, student loans, auto loans or mortgages. Efficient debt management skills can not only reduce burden of financial stress but can also lead to better credit score which will enable consumers to have better control over finances in future. All it takes is careful observation and a little strategic planning to manage your debt.

Assess Your Debt Situation:

Careful assessment of the present debt is the first thing that anyone in debt must do. As only after completely describing the debt including all aspects of it like balances, interest rates and minimum payments prioritization can be done on the basis of balance, rate of interest and minimum balance required each month. Once the prioritization is done it becomes clear what debt should be paid first.

Create a Budget:

Creating a budget can really speed up the process of debt repayment. Now you must be wondering how budgeting is linked to debt repayment. Budgeting can point out the areas where you are actually spending extra each month so that you can cut those expenses and allocate some extra funds towards the det repayment. This will speed up the payoff process as you would be making payments greater than the minimum value each month. Not just in debt repayment budgeting will provide clarity about savings and investments. It will provide you the exact idea of how much you should be saving each month and how much you should be investing for your future goals.

Utilize the Debt Snowball or Debt Avalanche Method:

Debt repayment can trouble anyone especially when you have one two dets to pay, but strategic repayment can help substantially in managing repayments of multiple debts. There are two methods that can be used in repayment of the debt first is debt snowball and the second most commonly used method is debt avalanche method.

In the first method which is the snowball method for the repayment of the debts the debt with the minimum amount is paid off first along with the minimum payments of other debts. This simply means that you are making minimum payments for all the debts and allocating extra payment to the debt with the lowest balance amount. When this debt is paid off you have to allocate the extra payment to the next lowest amount hence creating a snowball effect.

The second method of repayment which is the debt avalanche method you focus on debts with the higher rate of interest. In this method you make minimum payments for all the debts and make some extra payments towards the debts with the higher interest. By following this method, you will end up saving a substantial amount of money on interest over time as you are reducing some amount of principal each time for the next month.

Consider Debt Consolidation:

If you have more than loan than it is quite obvious that these loans are at different interest rates and have different due dates every month. There is a high chance that you will miss payments as it is tough to keep track of payments for multiple debts and you will be paying different interest rates for each debt. A wise thing to do here would be to consolidate your debt into one loan with a relatively lower interest rate so that you will pay less interest and have just payment every month which means very less chances to make the payment late. Just by consolidating your debt you will be making payments on time and will save a lot of money in terms of the interest rate.

Negotiate with Creditors:

Lower interest rates can be offered by creditors like your bank primarily for marketing and promotional purposes all you need to do be on the watch regularly for such offers. If you are facing any kind of financial hardship like loss of income, medical emergency, or personal emergency you just need to contact your creditor and ask for financial assistance, most creditors have financial assistance where there will lower your interest rate and will create a payment plan for you in order to help you with the payments. This is actually beneficial for both creditor and customer as the creditor will recover the money and customer will be saved from a dent in his creditor score.

Monitor Your Credit Score Regularly:

Sole purpose of debt management is to create an amazing credit worthiness so that you would be in control of your finances and can tackle any urgent situation with the help of credit. Monitoring your credit report regularly will keep you updated with your credit score progress and will help you in pointing out the areas of improvement. By regularly checking your credit report regularly you will be able to point out the disputes and discrepancies in your credit report so that your credit history Is accurately described in your credit score.

Practice Responsible Credit Management:

An important key aspect of debt management is responsible repayment, which not only avoids any bad remark on your credit report but also improves chances for credit line increase and new loan offers from the creditors. More responsible a customer is in repaying the debt more offers for credit he will get from the creditor.

Responsible credit management is also reflected by a metric called credit utilization ratio. If you are keeping the utilization of your credit below 30 per cent you will have excellent chances to get a good credit score and also to get exciting offers from creditors. One should have unnecessary credit accounts as opening a new credit account requires a credit inquiry and each credit inquiry known as a hard pull will lower your credit score.

Debt is a form of money as money is something used for transactions and majority of people are using this form of money incorrectly. People usually buy liabilities using debt and assets using their income and get stuck in an endless loop where sometimes it can cost badly. The use of debt should be exactly in the opposite way it should be used to build assets and income should be used to pay for liabilities and your liabilities should be less than your income. This is the simplest way to create wealth. So, if you know how to manage debt you know how to manage wealth.

People usually link the word retirement with age and that is where most people suffer, retirement is actually the stage when you have enough capital to do whatever you want for the remaining part of your life. The word retirement should be understood as a desired state of your life where you have actually achieved financial freedom which means you are secured financially for the remaining part of your life. It should be understood as the point where you have enough recurring returns from your savings and investments that you do not have worry about money for the remaining part of life. Retirement age can be different for different people depending on how much they are willing to save for it and how early in life they make this decision.

A basic know how about various pensions schemes like state pensions, workplace pension, personal pension and self-invested pension helps in deciding where you should put your money to plan your retirement.

State Pension:

State pension as the name implies is a pension plan given by government. People require at least contribution of 10 years towards National Insurance to be eligible to get a pension while the contribution time of 35 years is the requirement to get a full state pension. Present age for pension is 66 years, however there are talks to increase it to 67 in future. Online facility is also available for the people to check and estimate the amount they are entitled to along with the plan in which they are enrolled.

Workplace Pensions:

As the name suggests these are the pension plans where you are automatically enrolled in a pension plan by your employer and you start contributing towards your pension with each pay check. These pension plans do help employees as the employer also contributes towards the amount of your pension. Tax benefits are an add on along with the employer contribution. People enrolled in the workplace pension plans have an advantage of investment funds where your contributions are invested so that employees’ contributions can grow till retirement.

Personal Pensions:

In simple words these are basically the pension schemes in which people enrol themselves as per their needs like contribution per month, investment choices and age at which you want to retire. These are usually provided by the financial institutions and can be tailored according to requirement of the customer. Along with the ability to be customized these plans do provide tax relief as well up to a certain level of contribution. People who want an early retirement prefer as they can increase the contribution level and also opt for the investment choices given by the provider to maximize the returns on their contributions at the age of retirement.

Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs):

These are just a type of personal pension that provides customers with a wider range of options for investing the contribution in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate etc. in order to maximize the growth potential of the contribution made by the customers. These are again best suited for the people looking to take more control of their contributions and want to increase the growth of their contributions. However, there is a risk associated with these pension plans as the contributions are invested in various investment products, hence a proper monitoring and management is required for these funds.

Considerations for Pension Planning:

Contribution Levels: It is simple you will get the amount of money accumulated according to what you have contributed towards your pension plan. Hence it is very important to contribute a decent amount in order to increase your retirement savings. An employer’s pension plan is recommended in order to get the benefit of employer’s contribution and tax savings.

Investment Strategy: If you are opting for personal and self-invested plans for pension needs you need to have a strategy about investing your contribution as it is your hard-earned money and you will be depending on the returns after your retirement. Therefore, a proper analysis is required to mitigate the risk, to diversify your investments and to decide and change the contribution as per your retirement goals.

Retirement Age and Options: The effectiveness of pension plan depends on how much clear you are about your retirement age and how want to receive the pension payouts like annuities, drawdown or total withdrawals. If you are unsure these facts taking professional help will surely help you a lot in making this decision based on your current situation.

Review and Adjustment: Your pension planning must be agile which means it should be able to accommodate changes in the market and economic conditions, it must also take inflation factor in to consideration as well. Reviewing your retirement strategy and adjusting it as per changing financial conditions is the key to achieve your goals early. Let us take an example here if you think that your income is going to increase substantially you must increase in few years contribution towards your retirement fund and if one of your investments are not working as expected you must consider diversifying by putting the fund somewhere else. This habit of monitoring and making adjustments can prove really effective in achieving your retirement goals much earlier than planned.

No one wants to work in their late fifties or in sixties, but the cold hard fact is a very small percentage of working people is able to achieve the financial freedom early to gift themselves an early retirement. Every working professional must have a strategy to work efficiently and invest effectively so that they can achieve a state early in their life where they are working for their passion and not to just survive and pay the bills. Trust the fact that harder you work in your twenties and thirties; more are the chances you would not have to work after your late forties so that you can enjoy the financial freedom that you deserve and explore more about this beautiful gift which we all call life. Planning and perseverance can make dreams come true.

It is tough these days for an average working person to maintain a decent standard of living and pursue financial freedom unless you are working for a big organisation or you have a business which is generating as stable and increasing income. And if your present income is falling short in achieving the savings and investments you want to make side income can be the best solution to achieve the level of savings you want to make. Everyone starts somewhere and picking up a side hustle does not mean that it’s hard for you to make ends meet. It simply means that you are willing to put an extra effort to get you the leverage financially. Picking up a right-side hustle can open doors for entrepreneurship and personal growth.

So, in these dynamic times an individual must acquire a skill or must be willing to put extra hours in a part time job to earn money which can be further used to learn a skill or make investments. It is a simple cycle if you just think which is if you have a skill earn money and invest, if you don’t then put extra hours to learn skill then earn money and then invest to generate wealth. People have done it and made a name for themselves in the society. These days anyone can work a bit extra and learn a skill and leverage it for financial gains and get closer to their financial goals. Let’s try to explore some areas where an individual can put effort and upskill or use a skill to get paid.

Freelancing opportunities in United Kingdom:

Globalization and outburst of information technology has actually made it easier for people to use their skill set in problem solving in various domains like web development, graphic designing, writing and content creation, digital marketing, analytics, consulting and coaching, service management etc. United Kingdom’s economy provides ample opportunities to work in these domains as a freelancer on a project-based role:

Writing and Content Creation: As the name suggests it requires a decent working knowledge of a language and cleverness to use writing tools available. You can easily become a freelance writer and create content for websites, blogs and publications to get paid decently.

Graphic Design: In any business creativity is the key to establish the brand image of the organization among the customers. And that is where these professionals are required by startups, organizations and sometimes even governments for branding by using creative and meaningful logos and graphics to convey the vision of organization. These professionals have huge demand globally and the only prerequisite is a creative mind and working knowledge of tools Canva, illustrator etc.

Web Development and Design: Today online presence is a mandatory for any business to grow and develop in to a brand irrespective of its size and domain. Hence there is a constant demand of people who are skilled in the discipline of web development and designing. With hard work and perseverance this amazing skill can be learned for free from various websites and YouTube channels and this is among top skills to have in this decade as it is a crucial requirement for any business in any domain.

Digital Marketing: Every organization in every domain may it be product oriented or service oriented requires marketing because a business generates money by selling its products and services and to sell these services or products and marketing finds the potential customers for a business. Digital marketing helps the businesses to reach a wider audience online. Skills like search engine optimization, email marketing, social media marketing helps businesses to gain wider range of audience and customers for their products and services. And hence the demand for digital marketing professionals is here to stay so this skill set can be an amazing side hustle.

Consulting and Coaching: Consulting has always been a high in demand service that businesses require in various aspects like finance, marketing, new product development, quality management, process excellence and human resources. People with excellent problem-solving skills and domain knowledge can make impressive income by providing consulting services as a side hustle. Coaching services can also be an impressive side hustle in the areas of business development, career guidance, finance, information technology etc.

E-Commerce and Online Selling:

In today’s technology driven market almost every business in the world want to sell their products online and it creates the opportunity and demand of online marketplaces. Creating an e-commerce platform can be an amazing source of income forget about it being a side hustle it can become a flourishing business that can serve customers’ needs in any domain like groceries, clothing, medicine and even getting a pet adopted online in United Kingdom.

Drop shipping:

You might have seen a lot of ads these days about drop shipping on the internet, in simple words it is just facilitating the connection between products and the customers online. It requires only the skill to create an online store so that you can sell the products of suppliers online. The process of selling products online eliminates the need of inventory management and saves a lot of money. Technically skilled people use drop shipping as a source of passive income.

Handmade Goods:

Creativity pays and if you are creative enough to make hand crafted products like artwork, jewellery, accessories, portable furniture and market these products in a right way you can create an entire segment of market for yourself. You can have a website to sell your products or use platforms like Etsy.

Print-on-Demand:

Customization is a luxury that everyone wants. People to wear their thoughts literally on their sleeves. So, if you are creative enough and have a good network to promote customized products you can definitely sell custom merchandise like t- shirts, coffee mugs, phone cases and create a passive income

Gig Economy Jobs:

Gig economy jobs means jobs that you can do as side gig to support yourself financially. These jobs can help a lot if you are planning to accumulate funds to learn something, get a course, certification or even a degree, students do these when they usually migrate to a different country to support their expenses during their course duration. Popular gig jobs in the United Kingdom can include driving for platforms like Uber, Lyft etc, food delivery for platforms like Deliveroo, Uber eats or just Eat. Running basic errands for clients through portals like Task Rabbit, Gig walk etc. Even dog walking or pet sitting is becoming a popular choice for side hustle these days, in fact there are some dedicated portals for it like Rover or Paw shake.

Online Courses and Coaching:

Teaching is one of the most prestigious jobs and what if you can make a decent amount of money doing it online the rising demand for knowledge in present age has transformed the education system around the world. Learning day is easy and if you have skill of teaching with expertise in domains like language, coding, marketing, fitness, finance, mathematics, statistics, analytics you have the potential monetize your knowledge and that too at a global level. Platforms like Udemy and various new ed tech start up can provide a decent income for online teaching. So, this side hustle can become your thing to do in no time.

It is simply a matter of willingness to put efforts with dedication towards your goals. Dreaming alone about success will not get you success it is conviction towards goals, dedication to put in effort consistently and not quitting even in hardest times. If you can’t run jog, you cannot jog walk, if you cannot even walk crawl but no matter what keep moving everything else will fall into place. Remember hard work combined with perseverance will make you unstoppable.

Industrial benchmarks and standards in a very basic sense lay down the structure for operations, practices and limitations that an organisation must follow to ensure fair treatment with the customers. Regulatory compliance ensures that the organisations working in any domain are conducting business fairly and ethically. Same goes with the banking domain in United Kingdom where regulatory bodies and compliance structure ensures that the financial institutions are operating in compliance with the standards and norms. This helps the customers in getting fair and transparent services.

It is extremely important for not just customers but the society that the organizations managing funds in any form are regulated. There has to be a framework which these organisations must comply to in order to maintain trust and security among the customers. Every country has regulatory bodies to ensure that the regulations are followed.

Regulatory Bodies

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA): As the name implies it oversees and regulates the financial firms conduct of operations to ensure customer protection in the United Kingdom. Retail banking activities like lending, payment services, management of savings bank accounts and insurance services etc. are covered under the spectrum of this regulatory body.

Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA): Organisations which are responsible for handling money must be regulated by a centralized authority and that is where Prudential Regulation Authority comes into the picture. It is responsible to ensure safety and sustainability of financial institutions by setting a framework for capital requirements, doing stress test and supervising risk management practices. It sets regulations for supervision of banks, insurance providers, credit unions and major investment firms.

Bank of England: Being the central bank of the nation Bank of England ensures financial stability by planning monetary policies, calculating base rates for various lending products and mitigating risks within the banking system by controlling various parameters that effect financial landscape in United Kingdom. To effectively apply these policies and strategies it works closely with FCA and PRA explained above to maintain financial stability for the nation.

The regulations set by the regulatory authorities provides a structured framework in which the financial organisations work. Let us get our basic understanding of some crucially important regulations.

Key Regulations:

Consumer Credit Act 1974: If we observe the process of lending, we can easily find out that most people while taking credit do not read the terms and conditions of the agreement carefully. There should be a regulation to protect people from the unjust lending practices which provides the customers to cancel the agreement if they feel it is not something they are comfortable with. Customers must have the right to know the entire details of their lending agreement as only then it would be fair for the customer to decide whether to take credit or not. And that is exactly what consumer credit act regulates by providing a transparent framework for lending activities.

Payment Services Regulations 2017: The Payment Services Regulations paved the way for new players in the payment service market which has provided more choices for the customers to select better and innovative payment services. It has led to better data protection for customers along with the enforcing regulatory obligations enhancing transparency and accountability promoting consumer protection.

Open Banking Regulations: Open banking regulations have enabled banks with a secured way of sharing consumer data with authorized third-party fin-tech service providers. This reform has led the innovative collaboration between banks and fin- tech firms resulting in better services for the customers like account aggregation, advanced budgeting applications, and artificial intelligence enabled personal recommendations for the best suited financial product for the customers.

Impact on Banks and Consumers:

Compliance Costs:

Making sure that an organization is compliant with the regulations in the working domain requires a significant amount of money. Financial institutions do bear many kinds of costs in meeting the compliance requirements such as cost of setting up systems to monitor compliance of various business processes, cost of human resources involved in compliance operations, cost of tools used for analysis and reporting. If these organisations fail to manage these compliances, then they have to pay huge penalties and fines which is much greater than these costs.

Consumer Protection:

When regulations are enforced properly in any domain the end user in that domain is actually the one that benefits the most out of these regulations. It is simply because regulations safeguard the customers from unjust practices, deceptive terms etc. In banking domain as public money is on the line and banks or other financial institutions are lending money to the customers at interest it becomes really important to regulate the practices of these firms or banks so that the customer is getting fair and transparent service. In addition to the fairness of the services these regulations do ensure that the customers are getting crystal clear and accurate information about the financial service they are getting.

Market Competition:

Making standard and common regulations in the banking domain provides an operating framework which promotes competition by providing the common ground to operate for banks and other financial institutions. And in a competitive environment the businesses do evolve and everyone benefits especially the customer as the customer is getting more choices for the financial services, variety of services as the competitors do try to give the best services possible to increase their market share and in addition to these benefits the customers do get the innovative products as each competitor will come up with new innovations to try to disrupt the market.

Regulatory Data:

Number of Regulatory Actions: Data regarding the regulatory actions against the financial organisations is released periodically and publicly by FCA. A total fine of £ 785.6 million has been charged fines for misconduct, non-compliance and consumer harm in the year 2021.

Consumer Complaints: The job of receiving and resolving complaints against the financial organisations is done by Financial Ombudsman Services also known as FOS. A staggering number of 28,033 complaints were registered related to banking services and credit and 29 percent of those went in favour of the customers in the year 2021.