Philip Dragoumis Independent Financial Adviser

The State Pension has an important role to play in everybody's financial planning. To match the equivalent income benefit for a couple by buying annuities would cost in excess of £500,000!

We have partnered with Award winning Financial education provider Money Alive to bring you a short impartial jargon-free video which in less than ten entertaining minutes will tell you lots of really important information about the State Pension including how and when you can claim it and how it is calculated..

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Understanding your State Pension We’ve partnered with Money Alive to bring you FREE access to their interactive, impartial, educational video journey covering State Pensions. Simply fill in the your details below to register and we'll send you a link to sign in.

Financial planning in your 40s!. Your top 5 priorities.

Financial Planning is important at any age but it's particularly important in your 40s. At this point, you are at a pivotal point in the financial life-cycle and may be extremely busy with work and family. Here are the top 5 things you should be focusing on-

1. Make sure your family is fully protected and all insurances are in place if something happens to you.

2. Build an emergency fund - At least 6 months of expenditure to cover the many surprises life throws at you

3 Pay off expensive debt -with credit card rates at 20% plus this is the highest guaranteed return on investment there is.

4. Save excess income and review your investments- You may well be earning more than you spend. Try and cut unnecessary expenditure. Review your pensions and investments . Maximize contributions, look at tax efficiency, and reducing investment and management costs.

5. Build your own bespoke financial plan with the help of a planner- to find out how much is enough, and when you are on track to have enough. Find out your Financial Independence day

Happy to discuss further without obligation and at my expense!

Introducing investing through the ages – in your forties - Continuum (Financial Services) LLP Your forties are when you are likely to hit your peak earning potential. But what does this mean about the kind of financial planning you need?

Even if we had a crystal ball and knew what was going to happen in politics or Covid 19 or anything else , we still would probably guess the markets reaction wrongly . Today for example , we still have no clear winner in the US election yet markets are rising strongly .

The best option remains as always stick to your long term plan and stop trying to trade because you will also ultimately lose money !

Even if We Knew - The Irrelevant Investor Even if you knew what would happen in the future, you still wouldn't know how the market will react.

Missed all the details in this weeks’ budget ?

Here’s what you need to know ...

Mini-Budget Breakdown - Continuum We should technically call it a statement rather than a minibudget – but the Chancellor’s announcement on Wednesday still contained plenty of dramatic measures designed to help the economy on the road to recovery.

Slow money

US financial planner - Blair de Quesnay summarises the long term wealth manager’s role perfectly.

It’s slow money - because the time horizon is your lifetime and maybe even beyond .

The Slow Money - The Belle Curve I have spent my entire career in wealth management. It happened by accident. I wanted to be an investment banker, but neither of the regional banks that recruited at my school were interested in me. After graduation, I interviewed for a position on an institutional fixed income desk. Afterwards, I r...

The 10 Financial Commandments !!

1. Having a financial plan is paramount. A portfolio is not a plan and outperformance is not a goal.

2. The Stock Market rewards the patient and punishes the rest.

3. Inflation can be your best friend or your worst enemy - learn how to benefit from it.

4. Long term growth will only come from investing in the great companies and businesses of the world.

5. Savings and investments need to be AUTOMATED or they just won't happen. Great wealth can be created like this over time.

6. The media do not have your financial futures in mind. Just because you read something in the Sunday papers does not mean it's right for you to do.

7. Disciplined behaviour will ensure your financial success- and knowledge of finance and markets will not necessarily lead to it

8. There will always be negative news to report - and the media prefer negative stories to positive ones. This has no bearing on your long term financial future. Companies will always make money, the world will continue to advance and progress,

9. Tax is likely to be your biggest expense in life- learn to control its impact. If you are not managing tax properly , your investment returns are irrelevant.

10. Never forget Commandment one.

Pearls of wisdom from best-selling author Kevin Kelly. My favourites -

• Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you

•Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ Points.

• Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat

• Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers.

• Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems

kk.org My title is Senior Maverick for Wired, a magazine I helped co-found 25 years ago. I do one article for Wired per year. My most recent article is a cover story about augmented reality called Mirrorworld. It describes what I believe will be what happens after the web and smart phones. My other publish...

It seems the housing market is starting slowly to stir as the lockdown eases. Socially distant viewings and valuations are commencing.

Transactions however will remain muted as sellers may take time to adjust prices lower and buyers are more cautious.

Can you pay less for your home now? - Continuum The coronavirus outbreak has shaken the property market - but has it also given you an opportunity What has happened to the housing market?

It's time for a change.

It could be time to change the way we work, change the way we spend and change the way we live.

So many people have told me that during lockdown and despite the many frustrations, how great it is to have more time, to reconnect with loved ones and family, to realise how much money they have been wasting, and to think about what's really important in life.

Do you want to go back exactly to the way things were before?

Time for a change? - Continuum As the coronavirus crisis has shown, none of us know what is around the corner, and with social distancing showing us alternative ways to live, work, spend, and communicate some of us are asking whether we really should go back to the ways things were.

Get ready for higher UK taxation or scrapping of pension tax relief to pay for the coronavirus deficit , according to this article ,

Watch this space .

Exclusive: Treasury blueprint to raise taxes and freeze wages to pay for £300bn coronavirus bill Confidential document outlines menu of measures, including breaking at least one of the Tories' key manifesto pledges