New Tax Year - New Financial Goals?

How long did your New Year's resolutions last - what were they stop drinking, get fit, go to the gym 3 times a week. I bet that they lasted about 2 weeks before you gave up!!

Well the new tax year in the UK is a great opportunity to re-look at your financial goals for the year. What's more exciting is that the rules have changed for Individual Saving Accounts (ISA).

Where possible you should take full advantage of the tax benefits of ISAs, the one I use most is the Stocks and Shares ISA, but you may also wish to benefit from a Self Invested Personal Pension or a Lifetime ISA.

The headline change this year that has got everyone excited is, this year you can invest into multiple S&S ISAs up to the combined value of £20,000. There is lots of choice out there now for platforms to use.

2024-25 Tax Year Allowances

Always make sure you know the allowances limits, they do change from year to year. For the up to date rules please see here but here's an overview

• £20,000 ISA Allowance - maximum total contributions across all types of Individual Savings ACcounts (cash, S&S, Lifetime, etc.).

• £4,000 Lifetime ISA Allowance - check the rules on who can use this - sadly I'm too old.

• £60,000 or 100% of your income (whichever is lower) Pension Annual Allowance - this is made up of your own contributions, tax relief, any employer contributions, but you are allowed to allocate across as many accounts as you like. High earners allowances may be different so please check.

• £3,000 Capital Gains Allowance - this has been reducing over the past few years. If you use your ISA or a SIPP, you don't need to worry about this as any capital gains as they are covered under the tax-free wrapper.

• £500 Dividends Allowance - Once again this has been halved each year for last couple of years. If you have maxed out your ISA allowance (lucky you) and hold dividend stocks in a general investment account you will need to keep an eye on this.

My Plan for this Year

This year I plan to use both Trading 212 (for individual stocks) and InvestEngine (for Exchange Traded Funds) as my investment platforms of choice for my on S&S ISAs because of their low costs. I'll also continue to use Hargreaves Lansdown for the kids Junior S&S ISA.

Here are some of my goals for the financial year:

• ISA Allowance - Goal £10,000 (£833 / month)

• Continue to add to my kids Junior S&S ISAs.

• Continue to build out my Emergency Fund (from 4 to 6 months) - as I have just had to dip into it to do some repairs to my house.

• Start to build up my watchlist of stocks. To help me do this I'm going to use Stockopedia as a key research tool. Check it out and if you want to sign up use the link here and my code FI25 at check out to get 25% off your plan.