As the end of 2023 draws ever closer, we begin to look ahead to 2024, with the rituals of reflection of the year passed and setting goals for the year ahead. There has never been a better time to take stock of your finances and start to create your own financial plan.

With this in mind, I have created ‘Seven Golden Rules’ to building wealth to which I describe as via the acronym, ‘Staple’. The dictionary definition of a ‘Staple’ is defined as something that you attach to secure, the very essence of which can be applied to your personal finances with the ‘Staple’ approach establishing the solid foundations required for you to start building your wealth. Staple in this context, can be defined as follows:

 Self – Your financial planning is bespoke to you and your family. It is about your goals/ objectives.

 Tax – How can you be more tax efficient with your money?

 Accumulation – Make your money work has hard as you do to earn it.

 Pensions – Take stock of what you have, and ensure it is aligned to your longer term goals

 Life Insurance/ Protection – Are you and your family protected?

 Educate – Continuously educate yourself.

By using the above structure you can put yourself on the best footing for creating a better financial future. At Frankie’s we are dedicated to helping you take stock of the above and create your own financial plan to support you in accessing the tools to secure your financial future.

Thank you so much to those of you who submitted questions to us this month, I will be answering a couple of these below:

With the new year around the corner, I know I should start thinking about budgeting for 2024 but I’m not sure where to begin. What are your top tips for start-of-the-year budgeting?

I would say the best starting point is really getting to grips with your income vs expenditure and taking a look through all of your monthly outgoings. This might be a daunting task, but I would encourage you to take some time to do this as having a full understanding of your spending will really help you with your planning and goal setting in 2024. There are some fantastic budgeting apps and tools available, which can really help you with this! My personal favourites are Emma, Financielle and Plum. All of these apps are great tools for helping you to take stock of your spending and stay on top of your budget.

Secondly, I would be make sure your realistic with the goals that you are setting. I am a firm believer that life is for living, so make sure you give yourself some ‘treats’ or ‘rewards’ along the way, as you reach certain milestones. This keeps me motivated and on track with my own goals and planning!

You’ve said previously that financial literacy is an essential skill, but how can I start improving? What resources or books do you recommend for those looking to learn more about personal finance?

There is so much information around us, sometimes it can be overwhelming, leading to us not knowing where to turn, and becoming disengaged. I feel very fortunate as an independent financial adviser, who works with a number of different financial institutions, to have the ability to access a wide range of information and opinions in the financial world.

One of my key drivers for setting Frankie’s up this year was to create a community where I could share this information. Over the summer we have been busy creating our digital platform to a host an abundance of financial literature and useful resources, whilst also creating our own webinar series to provide our members with the tools to build their financial knowledge on a range of different topics such as pensions, tax planning and investing.

Along with us in the financial education space, there are so many people doing amazing work, here is a list of a few of my personal favourites:

 • Elent Created by a good friend of mine Abi Foster. Abi launched her own financial education platform and posts informative insights on her social channels which is a great way to educate yourself in bite size, understandable chunks! She also hosts a Sunday Quiz which is a great way to test your knowledge!

• Female Invest's ‘Girls just want to have funds’ book is a great insight into getting started on your investment journey.

• Vestpod ‘You’re not Broke your Pre-Rich’ book and ‘The Wallet Podcast’. Founder Emilie Bellet is an inspirational founder on a mission to close the women and wealth gap.

• BBC -Your Money 

• Money Matters 

But most importantly keeping up to date with what is going on in the world, my go to news outlets are the FT, Sunday Times and I would be lying if I didn’t admit my naughty pleasure is the Daily Mail! Now before you turn up your nose…financial markets are driven by sentiment and therefore having an understanding of how the people are reacting to matters in the world is really important! Some of the biggest private banks in the world reluctantly admit that they do check what is being said in news outlets like these too!

By keeping up to date with what’s going on you start to build an understanding of how interlinked our everyday lives and world news are with finance, and the impact that this has from a financial perspective. Understanding this interlink is a crucial part of being on top of your personal finances and planning for the future. An example of this, is during the period when Donald Trump was president in the US, he only had to tweet a post suggesting an escalation in tensions between nations such as North Korea and the stock market and various indices around the world would react to this. In this 24/7 new cycle world we live in, media has the power to create movements in markets, in reaction to world events.

I’m just about to start my maternity leave, and I’m worried about having such a huge interruption to my career. What advice would you offer to help me to navigate my career break without sacrificing my financial well-being?

Firstly, big congratulations! Maternity leave is a really daunting time, particularly with such big change coming into your life both personally and for your career. There are two key areas that I would focus upon: firstly your pension contributions! It is vital to know your rights. If you are pregnant in the UK you are entitled to take up to 1 year off of work. The amount of income that you receive depends on how much time you take off and whether you have used up all 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP). The SMP is currently £172.48 of income per week 2023/24. Your employer may offer you better maternity leave benefits, including higher or longer maternity pay; as well as an opportunity to take more time off. However, it is important to note that legally your employer only has to make standard pension contributions limited to the period of the statutory maternity period. Make sure you check where you stand with your employer and if you are taking additional time off, consider topping up your pension. The compounded impact of maintaining your pension contributions over the longer term will likely be significant when you reach retirement.

In addition to the above, you are entitled to continue making pension contributions even if you are not earning, with your allowance dropping to a net contribution of £2,880 which will be grossed up to £3,600 in the pension scheme. This means if you do go through a period of not earning, you can still continue to make some level of pension contribution.

Thirdly, I would keep an eye on your outgoings and new expenditure. With your new arrival on the way, your income and expenditure is likely to change. Keep an eye on this over the next few months as you start to build a better picture of the financial impact.

A young family comes with additional cost, so I would suggest that you review any savings that might you have, or money that you can save over the next few months. Take advantage of the increased interest rate environment we find ourselves in today, this is particularly good for cash savers. Not only does this ensure you get your cash working hard for you, but by keeping it in cash you are able to readily access money if you require which will be ever more important as you navigate the initial stages of motherhood.

Looking ahead to 2024, are you feeling like you want to take stock of your finances and create a plan? Have a goal but not sure how to achieve it? As part of the Frankie’s membership you receive an Annual Financial Health Check, helping our members take stock of their finances, create a plan and regularly review their strategies. For more information visit our website: https://frankiesnetwork.com/ 

Please do keep an eye out for our monthly investment club events as we have some great topics coming up 2024!

Frankie’s is a membership programme within Francesca Smith Associates, a consultancy business established for running educational financial events and workshop programmes by Frankie Smith. Company Registration Number: 14258001. All regulated Financial Planning advice undertaken by Francesca Smith is completed through Jarrovian Wealth Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under FCA number is 770693. Jarrovian Wealth Ltd provide independent financial advice in respect of packaged products such as life contracts, pensions and regulated collective investment schemes.