I think we all agree that time flies. It’s our decisions in life that will shape our future, not our knowledge or our conditions. I always want to know two things from people before we start talking money.

It seems crazy to me that at 18 years old you can be expected to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. Deciding your career for maybe the next 50 years is somewhat unrealistic. If the choice you made didn’t work out and now you find yourself out of work or without the money to learn the skills you need to forge a new career – you can be trapped in a vicious circle. Luckily help is now at hand with the new government loan scheme called an "Advanced Learner Loan". Listen to this podcast to discover all you need to know about this new loan scheme

It’s the one debt most of us are happy to take out and it seems almost second nature to do so; for the majority, it takes nearly our whole working lifetime to repay it. So how can you join the 60% or so of householders who own their homes outright?

Watch this video to discover how making additional mortgage repayments doing them fortnightly instead can save you thousands of pounds and years off your mortgage.

Also discover why buying your lunch could be costing you over £26k on your mortgage.

https://warrenshute.com/debt-repayment/how-to-repay-your-mortgage-fast/

If your debts have become overwhelming and you don’t know where to turn, help is at hand. This month the government launched a new initiative called “Breathing Space”. The scheme has been designed to allow people struggling with debt to take 60 days as a breather.

What does this mean in reality? Well once a Breathing Space application has been successfully made, your creditors are unable to add any interest, penalties or charges to your account, or file any court orders or instruct any bailiffs, for a 60-day period.

Listen to this podcast to discover more.

To speak to someone to help with your debts visit: https://www.stepchange.org/

For more useful articles and help with financial planning visit:

https://warrenshute.com/

Many people often think that if they had more money, all their worries would go away. But (and while I am sure you’d prefer to find this out for yourself), I can tell you that for most people, more money just means different types of worries.

Most people live to their means, and some for various reasons live beyond their means. When your budget begins to stretch and you start borrowing for day-to-day spending, your money worries can quickly grow.

Worries are one thing, but for some people, small worries can easily escalate rapidly into bigger problems and cause mental health issues that can paralyse our decision-making process.

As a certified financial planner, a vital part of what I do is ensuring catastrophes like premature death are considered now, so there is a plan in place before an eventuality may occur. Managing risk is an important part of that. A way of transferring the risk away from your family unit to an insurance company is by buying life assurance. It doesn’t always have the best reputation, but ask a widow or widower who benefited from it and they’ll tell you a different story. We insure our cars and our home; it’s a natural step to insure our lives. read this article to find out why it's worth considering.

For the accompanying article click the link below

https://warrenshute.com/financial-planning/insure-your-car-insure-your-life/

I’ve been fortunate in my life to have met some great minds, people far smarter than I am, who showed me how to get ahead financially. I’m very grateful for this and I think that’s why I wrote The Money Plan, to share some of the secrets they taught me in order to help as many people as possible.

This week I read a great blog by one of the people that helped me as he celebrated 40 years in business. David Booth is the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisers and a genius in the investment world, so I wanted to share his thoughts and mine so you too can benefit from his wisdom.

Thousands of married women who reached state pension age before 6 April 2016 have been underpaid their state pension for more than two decades.

Documents revealed in the budget last month highlighted that approximately 200,000 pensioners have potentially been underpaid up to £3bn between them in state pension entitlement, with individuals entitled to an average pay out of £13,500 to make up the shortfall.

The blunder is thanks to the extreme complexity of the state pension system, which has been tweaked and reworked by many governments over time, making it nigh-on impossible to know how the details work for everyone.

Why our tax year starts on 6 April is a tale for another time, but what’s important is that you make the most of your money and tax breaks and to get off to a good start this new tax year.

If you are one of the people investing into an ISA and pensions at the last minute, then you could be leaving thousands of pounds on the table.

Listen to this podcast to discover more or head over to my website to read the article:

https://warrenshute.com/financial-planning/investing-earlier-in-the-tax-year-pays-off-later/

If you had a goose that laid you a golden egg each month as long as you took care of it every day, fed it and watered it, you’d probably look after it really well. Would you insure it? So that if it got sick and stopped laying the golden eggs, rather than go hungry you would have the insurance payments to live off?

When we’re not well, we need security, peace of mind and time to allow ourselves to recover. The last thing we need is the stress and pressure of rushing back to work, to pay the bills, if we’re not 100%.

And the way we do that is with income protection insurance, which is vital for so many people who have little employer support and have financial commitments to make.

Watch this video to find out why you need to insure the goose laying the golden eggs!