Looking for an Oasis in ‘painful’ future
If you were already feeling down about summer coming to an end, Sir Keir Starmer’s recent words on the forthcoming Autumn budget won’t have done much to cheer you up.
The Prime Minister has been spending a lot of time warning us all that the budget scheduled for 30 October will be “painful”, and that things are going to get worse before they get better. He has said we need to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.
It’s safe to say that many people are feeling spooked by the messages emanating from the UK Government. Westminster has told us that it will have to make “big asks” of the public, without setting out detail on what that will entail.
Starmer has said that Labour has inherited “an economic black hole” and – unsurprisingly – speculation is that we’re in for various tax hikes.
D:ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better”, an anthem you may remember from when Tony Blair swept to power in 1997, certainly doesn’t appear to be a favourite of the current Labour leadership.
We won’t spend time here trying to predict what the details of the budget will be, but you can be sure that our Scotsman Money experts will be analysing the situation in the weeks to come. You can expect insight and explanations in future issues of this supplement, online, and in our fortnightly e-newsletter.
In the following pages, we’ll be exploring a range of
If you have a personal finance question you would like answered, please email scotsmanmoney@ scotsman.com and you can sign up for our Scotsman Money newsletter online at www.scotsman.com/ newsletter burning issues, including the increasing burden of energy bills. It’s therefore timely that we have tips from Tim Jarvis, director at Ofgem, for students – and parents – on how to save on energy bills ahead of the new term. While energy costs remain high, he explains that there are simple steps students can take to make savings, such as shopping around to find the best supplier. So, while it can be tempting to bury your head in the sand, or spend more time at the student union than putting the heating on in your flat, making the effort to explore your energy options is likely to pay dividends.
Elsewhere, we hear from Calton on the similarities between good sports coaches and the best financial planners, and from Waverton Wealth on the benefits of cash flow modelling.
Meanwhile, Ross Leckridge of Aberdein Considine Wealth looks at making the most of redundancy pay, and how to prepare for VAT being put on private school fees.
Have a good weekend readers – by the time you read this I may have found out whether I’ve been successful in my efforts to get tickets for Oasis, or if that money is still tucked away in my bank account.