Seven rules that can permanently fix your personal finances

Step 1

Make a will: see above.

Step 2

Pay off your credit cards and loans. Then close the accounts: this is the most expensive debt for most of us.

Step 3

Set term life insurance if you have a family to support: use an online calculator and buy it through a discount broker, such as Cavendish Online, rather than a traditional broker. The savings are immense.

Step 4

Fund your company pension to the maximum: your employer probably makes contributions that match yours. This is free money.

Step 5

Put six months’ worth of outgoings in a cashIsa savings account. You can save up to £15,240 a year: this is the buffer that will protect you from sudden loss of income.

Step 6

Put any leftover money in Isa funds – 80pc in a global stock market index tracker and 20pc in a global bond fund, and don’t touch it until retirement. Do this via the cheapest Isa fund shop.

Step 7

If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, university fees planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial adviser or planner, rather than one who charges a costly percentage fee.

This grossly simplifies personal finances but that’s the point here. Most of us don’t pay attention to this stuff when we know we should.

Regular readers of these pages, on the other hand, will be well versed in the intricacies of investment or tax planning, I salute your dedication to improving your knowledge and would invite you to share your own rules for perfect personal finances below.

Complexity within financial planning is undesirable but thankfully, it keeps my colleagues and me in employment.

My holiday money gamble

Sterling may be enjoying its last hurrah, at least until the election turmoil passes. It has steadily gained against the dollar, buying $1.51 on Friday compared to $1.46 two weeks ago.

The election, however, is likely to end this renaissance. An outright Conservative win is looking unlikely, and would in any case revive the prospect of a vote on EU membership. Likewise traders would not warm to a Labour win or virtually any combination of coalitions. It’s a lose-lose situation.

I see sterling’s recovery as a brief opportunity and so therefore this week bought half my holiday dollars three months early for a whisker under $1.50. But I only bought half of what I need. The only thing that is certain about currencies is that you can’t safely predict them.

– andrew.oxlade@telegraph.co.uk

Knect Business Club Networking

http://knect-business-club.eventbrite.co.uk?s=36736475

Venue

Millers Lounge, Best Western Plus Windmill Village, Birmingham Road, Coventry CV5 9AL

Parking

Free parking available

Teas and Coffee

For purchase at the restaurant

Event

Knect business club is a place to meet, mingle and mix for individuals in various businesses who would like to engage with and build relationships with people, so they can grow and develop.

Meet:          a place to come together to connect

Mingle:       get to know people

Mix:            share ideas, interests and opportunities

Move:         develop and grow

We make networking simple, open, inclusive and informal.

No pitch, no speech, come and go and at any time between 7.30am and 9.30am.

If you have some time to spare on Saturday morning, Knect is the place to be – at a relaxing venue and atmosphere.

Membership

No membership or membership fees. £5 donation welcome at the door.

Taxation – Use of mobile phones

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There is no charge to tax on:

• one mobile phone provided to an employee, or
• any line rental or the cost of any private calls for that phone paid for by the employer unless they can be converted into money by the employee.

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One mobile phone may consist of 2 connections (for example, 2 SIM cards) to the same number, 1 in a handset and another in a hands-free phone in a car. However, 2 connections to 2 different numbers represents 2 mobile phones.

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A mobile phone provided to a member of an employee’s family or household is taxable in all circumstances, unless the family or household member is provided with the phone as an employee in their own right. Money an employer pays to an employee to use their own mobile phone is taxable.

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If an employer provides a mobile phone to an employee solely for business use, and private use is not significant, there is no charge to tax. Consequently, it is possible for an employer to provide 2, or more, mobile phones to an employee, without creating a tax charge, if 1(or more) is provided solely for business use (and private use is not significant) and only 1 is provided for private use. But if 2 mobile phones are provided for private use, or for mixed private and business use, only 1 is exempt. It is up to the employee and the employer to decide which 1 is exempt and which 1 is chargeable as a benefit.

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Where apparatus is clearly designed or adapted for the primary purpose of transmitting and receiving spoken messages and is used in connection with a public communications service, the fact that it can also be used for other functions will not prevent it from falling within the meaning of mobile phone.

This means that smartphones will fall within the meaning of mobile phone. Certain devices that were primarily designed and adapted as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the past have evolved over time so that many modern consumer PDAs are likely to be smartphones. This is an area of rapidly changing technology and it is not possible to be certain about the application of the definition of mobile phone to future or new forms of smartphone.

It is important to note that there are many types of devices that have phone functionality which do not qualify as mobile phones. The definition does not cover apparatus that is designed or adapted for a primary purpose other than transmitting or receiving spoken messages, even if that apparatus is also capable of being used in this way.

Examples of apparatus that does not fall within the definition of a mobile phone include satellite navigation devices, devices that are solely PDAs and tablet and laptop computers.

In general, devices that use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) systems to make and receive phone calls will not satisfy the primary purpose test.

Changes to national insurance categories for 16-20 year olds from 6 April 2015

From 6 April 2015, you no longer have to pay employer national insurance (NI) contributions for workers who are under 21 years old. To help with this, in the 2015/2016 tax year there are new NI categories.

The new categories result in the employer secondary NI contributions reducing to 0% for these employees. These replace the current categories A, J, D and L for employees under 21. Categories A, J, D and L are still valid for employees who are 21 and over.