9 Money Moves You Must Make Before April 6th

Do these nine things with your money before April the 6th.

So April the 6th is the new tax year.

Bit complicated, but that's how the financial system works in the UK.

So let's help you celebrate your new year, your financial new year,

and maximize your money.

So the first thing is you have not many days left to claim your ISO allowance.

So an ISO, an independent savings allowance,

is one of the main tax-efficient tax breaks, savings and investment, I guess,

vehicles that there is in the UK.

You currently get 20,000 a year that you can invest tax-free within your ISO wrapper.

You have a few days to do that before you lose this tax year's allowance.

Although, stay with me because you can claim them back, going back,

but you don't want to miss this deadline.

Now, if you don't have 20,000 put in as much as you can,

I think it's a great idea strategically to max your ISO every year.

ISOs have been going, I don't know, less than 20-ish years,

and there are now ISO millionaires.

People have invested in their ISO every year,

and now they've become a millionaire just from their ISO wrapper.

And it's tax-free until later in life when you start to draw it.

And of course, if you reinvest the money into your ISO and it compounds,

you could become an ISO millionaire, like some people have.

On April the 7th, you can do the next tax year.

And the earlier in the tax year you invest,

you have more time for compounding.

So if you have got the money on April the 6th,

you can put in your maximum ISO allowance,

which may change, by the way.

So just always check the numbers that I've just shared.

And then on April the 7th, you can do your next year ahead.

You can do maximum 20,000 a year per person.

So that means you could do you.

You could also do your husband or wife.

You can have a junior ISO for each one of your children.

I believe that's around 9,000 again,

check the numbers because they change.

The easiest way to do this is to have a Vanguard

or Hargreese lands down or Charles Stanley account

where you can self-invest into your ISO.

I personally prefer stocks and shares ISO

than I do a cash ISO,

even if we feel like we're in a correction part of the cycle.

Because over the long term,

the stock market always beats cash savings and interest.

And you never really quite get the interest from the banks

that the interest rate is supposed to be.

It always seems to be a bit less.

It's funny when the interest rates go up,

the bank's charge you immediately

for the extra interest on your debt.

But they're slow to put the interest rate up on your savings.

I've been investing in my own ISO for 15 years

and I've maxed it every year.

And I do the junior ISO for my children

and I do my wife's ISO as well.

And that for me is more like a save and never touch,

which I call a SAMT, a save and never touch account.

One day, you'll be able to turn on the income

and potentially live off the income just from your ISOs.

So do that before April the 6th and on April the 7th.

The next thing you want to do is maximize your pensions

and claim unused allowances.

You can claim 60,000 pounds a year

as a pension allowance tax-free per tax year.

And again, this April the 6th tax year,

it's weird because it doesn't work for income tax

on the same tax year.

And then you've got the calendar year.

But for ISOs and pensions is April the 6th.

So you've got a few days to claim your 60,000 pounds

pension allowance in a SIP or a SaaS.

So that's essentially a company

or personal self-invested, self-administered pension.

And you can actually go back for three unclaimed years

if you didn't do it last year or the year before.

And if you have, for example, an LLP, it's per partner

so it could be you and your partner or you and your wife

or your husband.

So you can go back and put a lot of money into your pension.

Now, I made a decision 20 years ago

to not rely on the state for my pension.

To not even have a private pension, I am my pension.

My property portfolio, which is many tens of millions of pounds,

is my private pension.

And I can kind of claim that whenever I want.

And I don't have to wait till I'm 55 or 60 or 65

or whatever age they push it up to.

However, I do like claiming the tax break pension

because it's a tax break.

And the great thing about tax breaks

is not just the tax break,

it's the compounded nature of the tax saving

just goes up and up and up and up and up.

It was Charlie Munger, Rest in Peace,

who said the one rule for compounding

is never interrupt it.

And if you had to keep paying your taxes,

that would essentially erode the amount of money that's compounding.

So claim your 60 grand for this year by April the 6th,

claim your 60 grand next year, April the 7th,

claim your 60 grand going back years

if you haven't already.

Her partner could be a big deal.

The next thing you want to do before April the 6th

because April the 6th is the tax end of year.

If you want to do a financial audit,

so do you have any money left before April the 6th

that you could invest?

Maybe you wanted to put it into gold or silver.

Again, I recommend direct bullion for that.

Or maybe you might want to invest in the stock market

or maybe you might want some liquid to wait to invest

if you think that the markets are going to correct in any way.

And then what you want to do after that is budget

for the next financial year.

So obviously you haven't got long left for this year.

Maybe you can improve on what you saved and never touched,

which I call SANT.

So for me, the ISA and a couple of other savings vehicles.

My goal is to save it and never touch it.

People say to me, well Rob what's the point to save

and never touch and then you die.

The point to save and never touch is you never touch the capital.

And then one day you can just live off the income

if the capital gets big enough.

So that's the goal.

Maybe you might need it for a regular shock

because we'll come to that in a moment.

So you should have a percentage of your earnings every year

that SANT save and never touch.

And then you should have a percentage every year that's investing.

So the richest man in Babylon might be the oldest book

that teaches you to pay yourself first.

And what most people do is they pay Netflix first

and they're gym membership first

and they're tax man first and they're boss first

and they're ex first and they're car first and them last.

You need to change that and you need to pay yourself first.

Now if you're not earning much money

start with 5% or 10%

and on the day you paid have a standing order

into Hargreaves Lansdown or Child Stanley

or at least into a savings account

that you don't immediately touch and spend.

And your goal over time is to increase that.

So over time you might want 5% to 10% save and never touch.

10% to 20% invest.

Now even on a relatively modest salary

if you can save up to 10 and invest up to 20%

in decades you're going to be a millionaire

or you're going to be financially secure or even free

because it works because it's a system

and because compounding is the eighth wonder of the world.

I'll by the way you can also increase your earnings.

So maybe a second side hustle or over time

or get some commissions.

What most people do is when they earn more they spend more.

What about if you kept your overheads the same

and as you earn more you reinvest that into yourself

you pay yourself first.

So that could be a quicker way to accelerate

to get up to 30% that you pay yourself first.

Next thing you want to do before April the 6th is

you want to look at what your debt is

and see how quickly you can pay it now.

Now for me there's two types of debt.

There's good debt and there's bad debt.

So good debt is for a mortgage that buys a property asset

that grows in value, that pays income,

the inflation pays the debt down,

that the tenant is paying the debt for me.

That's good debt.

And I'm not always looking to pay that down.

Sometimes I want it on purpose,

especially if interest rates are quite low.

So there's low cost to the debt.

If inflation is quite high and it's paying off the debt

and it's pushing the value up.

But bad debt, consumables, electronics, cars, conservatories

you do not want this growing,

especially with high rates of interest.

Now I disagree with Dave Ramsey

who says that you pay your lowest amount credit card off first

because he thinks that creates some dopamine

and a virtuous cycle you feel like you've

and paid off more than you actually have.

I don't agree with that.

I think you should pay off the card first

with the highest interest payments.

Why?

Because debt compounds just in the same way

that money compounds.

So if you're not paying the highest interest debt off,

it's going to take a lot longer to pay it off

or the interest is going to get more

and the amount that you, oh, is going to get even more.

And I think that is way more demotivating.

Oh, then, oh, look at me.

I paid off one little credit card at 0%.

What's the point in paying a credit card off at 0%

if you've got one at 30%?

Doesn't make any sense to me.

So my rule is you attack the card

with the highest rate of interest

and you put most of what you're going to pay your debt down

on the highest card first

and the minimum amounts on the rest

that have a lower interest rate.

Even if you're juggling more cards.

The next thing you want to do before April the 6th

is you want to make sure you've got a solid emergency fund

or a regular shock fund.

Now, this could be anywhere between one

and three months of your total living expenses.

Most people, they don't even have a week.

So if you can go from a week to a month,

if you're living expense of three grand

and you've got three grand,

you've got a month that you can live with no earnings.

Six grand, nine grand,

then as you earn five grand and 10 grand

and 20 grand a month,

you times that by one or three.

Now years ago, I liked having one year or two years in cash

but now cash is becoming worth less.

You've got security issues, high inflation, low interest,

net to you.

So I don't mind having say up to three months cash

but the rest I want in liquid assets

that aren't necessarily cash.

But you need to be able to get that money quick.

So for me, a week is probably quick

out of the bank it's immediate

but out of the stock market,

it could be just three days.

So it's pretty liquid.

Even out of gold or silver,

if you know where to sell it,

like if you go to my partner's direct bullion,

you could get that sold pretty quick.

My gold mentor deals with my gold and silver,

he says, look Rob,

if you ever want to sell any gold,

just sell it to me or buy it straight away.

Now let's move on to some specific actions

that you can do before and after April the 6th.

So it's really good every year

when you redo your budget,

are you doing your budget?

Most people don't do a budget,

make sure you do a budget.

It's really good to have a cleanse of all your overhead costs.

Now, my business partner told me this,

he has a recurring entry in his diary every year.

And all of his bank accounts,

he checks if he couldn't get a higher interest rate

in a new savings account.

You know, anything that he has on this subscription,

he'll go to sky and he'll say,

look I'm thinking about leaving

and he'll get a better deal

or he'll cancel the direct debits

that he initially wanted and doesn't want anymore.

So if you have a full review of all your subscriptions,

your direct debits

and the things that you pay on a recurring basis,

we do it with our stationary in our company here,

then you can save hundreds or thousands of pounds a month

and there's probably a load of stuff you don't even use.

Have a full review direct debits,

standing orders and get rid of anything you don't use.

The second is you want a full review

of your main spending areas.

So rent, do you need where you're living

or your car finance?

Do you really need to spend 500, 600, 800, 1200 on a car?

Holidays?

So car finance, going out,

going out is one of people's highest expenses

because it's kind of creep

because a bit here and a bit there,

it can be hundreds a week.

Now the average person spends about 15,700 pounds a year

on many of these things that they don't necessarily need

or they could have a lot cheaper

or they could be more efficient.

And over 10 years compounded,

that could be 426,000 pounds.

Okay, the next three things you want to do,

you're going to need to get some advice from an accountant on

because they are quite specific,

depending on your company structure employed,

self-employed, LLP, limited company,

what you do, how you earn your money.

So I don't like to make a disclaimer

because I like to give you all the information

but when you need to speak to an accountant,

I'm going to tell you when this is these three you do need to.

So you have allowances you could potentially use

from your spouse.

So you can claim reliefs up to thresholds

from you and your partner.

And if you're not using their allowances,

there may be assets or income,

you can transfer to your spouse

and utilize to get some tax reliefs.

The next thing you want to do is check out your mix

between salary and dividend if you are a director

because it could be more tax-efficient

to have less salary and more dividend

depending on the tax brackets you're in

and then reviewing all your general business expenses.

Now this is where you can make the biggest difference

because maybe having holidays but they could be work trips

or maybe having meals out but they could be subsistence.

Maybe you've got hardware that you've bought personally

but maybe they're for use for business.

There's many things that could be a business expense

if you actually just claim them and knew the rules

or if you just changed your lifestyle slightly

and this is where you can save many thousands

or tens of thousands of pounds

and this is where people have a lack of knowledge

and this is where they get this really wrong.

And this is why I actually did something

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