Cutting through the financial noise

Rosemary Gallagher, The Scotsman Head of Commercial Content and Scotsman Money Editor | Greg Macvean Photography

To help you make sense of all the noise, our experts have, on the following pages, given their thoughts on what the statement could mean for you. Stuart Lamont of Waverton Wealth explores whether pension tax relief could be cut and the targeting of “investment taxes”.

And “keep calm and carry on” is the overriding message from Tom Ham, group CEO at Calton, who tells people to stick to their plan.

Our next edition of the Scotsman Money supplement on 26 October will shine a spotlight on the implications of what might be announced in the Budget just a few days later.

After a cut in interest rates to 5 per cent from 5.25 per cent in August the Bank of England decided against any further cuts this month. Despite no movement in September, a downward trend is expected to be on the cards in the long term, so many lenders will continue to offer more attractive deals.

But this doesn’t mean you should sit and do nothing if your current fixed rate mortgage is coming to an end in the near future. My excellent mortgage broker found us a relatively attractive new fixed rate deal well in advance of our current one ending. And thanks to him keeping a track on things, we’ve been able to move a couple of times to an even lower fixed rate deal than he initially found with the same lender as it introduced further rate deals.

Money is undoubtedly tight for many of us, so some findings from Tesco Bank that many people have left over currency from the summer holidays which could be put to better use definitely caught my interest. Internal data from Tesco Travel Money revealed that Scots have an average of £51 sitting around the house in foreign currency. Rather than let that cash stay forgotten in a drawer, the tip from Tesco Bank is to round up any spare notes and exchange them back into sterling.

If you live to 100, would you have enough saved to have a financially comfortable retirement? Paul McCabe, Chartered Financial Planner with the new sponsor of our Q&A section, Acumen Financial Planning, explores how much money is enough for later years with more people living longer lives.

If you have a personal finance question you would like answered please email [email protected] and you can sign up for our Scotsman Money newsletter athttps://www.scotsman.com/newsletter