Taxes and pensions

Did you know the cost of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 is now £231,843, that’s more than the £219,255 price tag of the average semi-detached house?

If children aren’t on the cards yet but marriage is, we take a look at some of the tax advantages of walking down the aisle. And some ways to minimise the inheritance tax bill you leave your loved ones.

In pension news, we were told that pensions remain the most tax-efficient form of saving despite a raft of upcoming changes. One of the expected changes is a flat rate of pension tax relief. If the government goes ahead this move, we should expect a pension exodus,

With the stark auto-enrolment warning that contributing the minimum towards your workplace pension won’t be enough, it’s no wonder money worries lead to a quarter of people putting off their retirement.

To help you invest in retirement, we asked experts for their fund ideas for income drawdown and if you’ve got a number of pensions from different firms, our four-minute video will help you find and consolidate your lost pensions.

As we head towards the end of the tax year, here’s how to make the most of your pension before then. You may even want to consider robo-advice to help you plan your retirement. We’ve put together a quick ‘what you need to know’ guide.

The market

As investment firm Chelsea Financial Services published its list of worst performing funds, we were reminded this week of the benefits of regularly reviewing our investment portfolio.

With a shaky start to 2016, we discovered that investor confidence plummeted to a two and a half year low this month and also that risk appetite fell over the past year. So the big question is, what’s next for the FTSE 100? For global fund managers, it seems they’re making a dash for cash while AXA has proof that staying invested over the long-term pays off.

In shares news, pub retailer and brewer Marston’s was named stock of the week, while Legal & General was suggested as a stock to top up and Vodafone as one to reduce.

ISAs

As ISA season continues, we list ideas for your ISA, including tracker fund picks, as well as reveal the investor secrets on the top ISA sectors. We also question whether the Cash ISA’s dead due to the dawn of the new Personal Savings Allowance.

The only way is up

In household bills news, we learnt that UK inflation rose for a third month in a row in January, while after years of falling premiums, the cost of home insurance started to increase. The RAC also this week said the pound would lose its strength against the dollar which would push petrol prices up by 4p/litre if the UK voted for ‘Brexit’.

Property

If you’re on the search for a new home, you might want to check out this list of the most common mortgage misconceptions. We also sum-up the upcoming buy to let tax changes.