Tag Archives: personal-finance

How Safe Is Your Cyber?

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The need for cyber security has become paramount in today’s modern age, particularly in the fintech and financial space. Being in this industry myself, I handle sensitive client data daily, and have access to their online wealth accounts; it is therefore vital that their information stays safe and inaccessible to fraudsters. Robust security measures must be in place, and I am constantly having to upgrade and refresh my skills to keep my clients safe.

Whilst fintech has allowed for financial services to become more streamlined, convenient, and efficient, it has somewhat opened the floodgates for cyber-attacks and threats. Harvard Business Review reported a 20% increase in data breaches from 2022 to 2023, and this is set to increase further as the years progress. Not only does this mean we have to constantly upgrade our software and infrastructure, but human area can become a massive opportunity for cyber criminals. I truly believe that a two-pronged approach of new regulatory processes, along with using AI in cybersecurity is a dynamic tactic to tackle this ever-evolving problem.

Cyber security is now seeing the same level of regulation as every other type of security, which means that fintech companies in particular must adhere to stringent rules and procedures. Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) must be followed. Whilst of course this is best practice to ensure that clients’ data is safe, it therefore adds an extra strain onto the company and its employees; this may lead to delayed admin processes, longer lead time for new business submission and therefore, a time delay in profit for the company. Time is money, and the longer it takes for profit to be made, it essentially means smaller margins for the company.

One way this can be tackled is with Artificial Intelligence. Whilst using manpower takes time and money (not to mention the risk of human error), AI systems can scan masses of data sets, analyse data, spot anomalies, and therefore detect possible cyber risks before they have even happened. This preventative method ensures that risks are managed efficiently, and before they become breaches, which means a safer system for the clients, and mitigates possible reputation risk for the company.

However, AI is not a final solution; with cybercriminals’ techniques ever evolving, it means that AI will have to do the same. Not only that, employees must keep re-training when new systems are introduced, to ensure that human error is kept to a minimum. Moreover, one must ensure that the third-party companies engaged to deliver this AI system, is also compliant, safe, and follows the stringent regulations set in place for fintech companies to adhere to.

But the buck doesn’t just stop with the company- clients and customers must also stay vigilant so that they don’t fall victim to cyber-crime. For example, being able to spot a phishing email, not clicking on unknown links, and not giving out all your banking details to someone over the phone. In order for an individual to be savvy, particularly when it comes to fintech and online financial transactions, they must be aware of risks and know when and where it is appropriate to give out their financial information. If you engage a professional for your financial planning, of course you will have to make them aware of your personal details and possibly even bank details. But do take note that they should be encrypting or password-protecting any sensitive documents that are being sent to you.

Even if you are planning your finances alone, and are using platforms for your investing, be sure to do your own due diligence; ensure that the apps you are using are regulated and have secure payment systems. Do take note that most will require you to upload some form of identification, as well as declaring your tax residency. Whilst to a layman, this may seem intrusive, this is actually a sign that the platform is doing its part to adhere to compliance and regulations. If they don’t ask of these from you, it could be a sign that the platform is not regulated.

For those that plan their investing and finances alone, cybersecurity becomes an even bigger risk, as this is normally something that a large corporation would have to ensure the safety of first, but now it is being left to the individual investor. If you are considering planning your finances yourself, having basic understanding and knowledge is incredibly important. Therefore, I often suggest that people understand four main areas before they start investing, which I will explore further in this article.

Finance 101

I have many clients and connections that I come across asking me for advice on how to get their finances in order. ‘How can we maximise what we have now, so that we can make the most of our money later?’. Of course, one of the best passive things we can do, is to invest.

  Investing is the concept of allocating assets, usually money, into different financial vehicles to create a profit. The bare minimum investment should be doing is beating inflation, because over time our hard-earned money is worth less, due to the rising cost of products. Before one starts investing, it is best to have a clear strategy, and get the basics covered first. Here are a few key financial areas you should have planned for:

  1. Build an Emergency Fund

At a glance investing may seem like an obvious choice when it comes to saving money. Why not just throw all your savings into investment if it means high returns? The answer is that investment returns are NOT guaranteed- even the safest investments come with some risk, and sometimes the lock in periods are high, or the penalty for withdrawing early is expensive. To ensure that you are not over-investing, make sure that you have an emergency savings fund that is easily accessible. That way should an emergency arise (like a large hospital bill or having to pay for car repairs), you can use your emergency money instead of jeopardising your investments.

  The recommended amount you should have in your emergency fund is 3-6 months of your monthly salary. This should be a healthy buffer should the worst happen. If you already have more than that, then that’s a great time to consider investing.

2. Know How to Budget

Of course, setting aside for investment would be impossible if you didn’t know how much to set aside. That’s why organising your budget is a crucial step in your financial planning. There are many ways and methods for planning, but a good starting point would be the 50/20/30 rule:

  • 50% of your monthly salary maximum should go on things you need to pay for: housing, bills, groceries & insurance.
  • 30% can go on doing the things you enjoy: hobbies, drinks and travel.
  • 20% should go into your savings: think about your long term savings and investment goals.

If you have surplus each month, you can even consider increasing this 20% to a higher proportion, and allocate more into your investment goals.

3. Be Debt-Free

Before you do any investing, you should really consider paying off your debt. Having a credit card bill is fine, but having any large or bad debt will hinder you in your long-term goals. It seems counter-productive attempting to make lots of money with investments, whilst paying off lots of debt. It may be difficult paying off student debt or large loans, but you will reap the benefits in the long run when your debt isn’t eating into your assets.

4. Set Your Investment Goals

This is arguably the most important step, defining your goals. What is the reason for investing? If you are doing it out of pure greed, then your judgment will become clouded when it comes to riskier investments and you risk losing it all. So have a long and hard think about why you want to invest. You are putting your money, that you worked hard for, somewhere that could give you high returns, or give you nothing. Therefore, it’s best to have a long think and define some clear goals for your future. Do you want to plan for your retirement? Save for a house? Pass something on to your children? Whatever it is, decide how much you would need and by when. Most investments give better returns if you have a longer-term commitment, so it’s OK to think big. If you have no clue and are just investing for the sake of it, you will quickly lose your drive and passion for making money.

These steps may seem simple, but they really are the key to an effective investment strategy. I work with clients every day to ensure that they have budgeted correctly, serviced their debt and built an emergency fund, and together we work together to work towards their financial goals. Many find that this is more complex than they first thought and will include tax planning and ensuring that their assets are protected. This is of course one of the added benefits of hiring a professional. If you feel that these services are something you would require, feel free to reach out at via my contact page!

Updates On The UK Spring Budget 2024

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For Brits, the most recent Spring Budget announcement was incredibly important, as it gave us some very key and drastic updates for tax and spending. Essentially, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt aimed to deliver lower taxes, encourage investment and improve public services. Although the elections may affect this announcement, it’s still very important for Brits, particularly those abroad, to be aware of. Martin at Spice Taxation (Company Registration No. 202133724G), has written a very in depth piece on the Spring Budget. It’s incredibly useful to hear the views of a professional tax expert, and Martin has been kind enough for me to share his thoughts here. Of course, I myself am not a UK Tax expert, so I often seek the help of professionals, such as Martin, to help me and my clients with their tax planning when necessary.

Below is Spice Taxation’s write up on the matter.

Our Thoughts on the Spring Budget – 6th March 2024
The Most Important Budget for Expatriates since 2010


“Over the years I have discovered that I am just not very good at predicting Budgets. Speculation is always rife about what a Chancellor might do in face of this and that economic and political situation, but mostly the actual announcements just tend to underwhelm and disappoint. Maybe I just crave excitement!


However, all that changed with Jeremy Hunt’s Budget on 6th March. It is likely to be the last Conservative Party Budget before the next General Election – an election which the Labour Party is widely expected to win. So, it remains to be seen how many of the announcements will find their way onto the Statute books if Labour does win. That aside, it really was an exciting Budget which promises a lot of change, much of it positive.


For much of the speech, it felt like a ‘normal budget’ with a plethora of announcements about regional incentives, funding initiatives, levelling up grants, subsidies and tax breaks for the arts etc. However, there was also a number of genuinely eye-catching and important announcements which are also relevant to expatriates.


First of all, Jeremy Hunt announced a further reduction in National Insurance paid by employees and the self-employed of 2%, from 6th April 2024. For employees, this will reduce from 10% to 8% and for the Self-Employed from 8% to 6%. For those returning to the UK, this will be welcome news.


Secondly, he announced the intention to introduce a new Individual Savings Account – the UK ISA, with an annual subscription allowance of GBP 5,000, in addition to the existing threshold of GBP 20,000. This new ISA would hold British-only assets – equities listed on the four recognised UK stock exchanges, UK corporate bonds and gilts and collectives. This will be good for UK resident savers.


Third, there were a few property tax announcements which came as a surprise:


o The marginal rate of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of residential property will reduce from 28% to 24% from 6th April 2024. This is intended to help stimulate the property market. The basic rate will remain at 18%. This is good for anyone selling, gifting or assigning an interest in UK residential property from that date.


o Multiple Dwellings Relief for Stamp Duty Land Tax is being abolished from 1st June 2024 – this was a relief that allowed you to take the average purchase price for SDLT purposes where at least two properties were being purchased in a single transaction.

o Furnished Holiday Letting status is to be abolished from 6th April 2025, with some anti-forestalling provisions which came into effect on 6th March 2024.


o The geographical scope of Agricultural Property Relief and Woodlands Relief (two Inheritance Tax incentives) will be limited to assets situated in the UK only from 6th April 2024 – those situated in the Crown Dependencies and the EEA will lose their IHT protected status.


Fourth, the VAT registration threshold will rise to GBP 90,000 from 6th April 2024, an increase of GBP 5,000, which will be welcome news for small businesses.


However, perhaps the biggest and most barnstorming announcement was the abolition of ‘non-dom’ status from 6th April 2025. The Conservative Party has been a staunch defender of the ‘non-domiciled regime’ over many years, so it was something of a surprise to see them adopt an avowed Labour Party policy. Stealing their thunder no doubt. It is a very major announcement that will impact many people.

In a nutshell, the Government plans to delink a person’s ‘domicile status’ from their UK tax outcomes, and move to a residence-based set of incentives. Consultation documents are yet to be published, but the main features of the new system will be to:

– Abolish the ‘remittance basis of taxation’ for UK resident ‘non-doms’.

– Replace it with an opt-in system that will allow, seemingly anyone – including, presumably, British nationals – to exempt their non-UK incomes and gains from UK tax for the first four years of UK residence, provided that they have been continuously non-resident for at least the 10 previous years.

– Exempt from tax the remittance of these non-UK income and gains to the UK, which will be hugely simplifying in the long run.

– Retain Overseas Workday Relief for qualifying individuals for the first 3 tax years of residence.

– Apply world-wide taxation for all individuals from the 5th year of residence in the UK.

– Introduce a thoughtful set of transitional reliefs for certain ‘non-doms’ who are already resident in the UK

– Switch away from a ‘domicile based’ system of Inheritance Tax to a residence-based system, whereby qualifying individuals switch to IHT on world-wide assets only after 10 years of residence.

Keep anyone who leaves the UK within IHT for 10 further years, which presumably also will apply to British Expatriates too. UK assets remain within Inheritance Tax at all times, regardless of residence.

We are missing a lot of technical detail here which should be answered by the Consultation Documents that the Government will be publishing shortly. So watch this space! However, whilst I have many more questions than answers at the moment, at first sight the main impacts appear to be the following:


a) Tax planning for relocation to the UK is likely to change quite a bit and these proposals could amount to a generous tax break for returning British expatriates.


b) They will also make Inheritance Tax planning potentially a lot simpler and not so reliant on subjective judgments about where a person is domiciled.


c) It might possibly result in an exemption from Inheritance Tax for a swathe of non-resident British expatriates who have already been non-resident for at least 10 years, which would be quite a result!


I am going out on a limb a little by saying that it appears the proposals will also apply to those we currently regard as ‘domiciled’ in the UK. However, surely that is the point – it is switch away from a tax system where a person’s domicile was the deciding factor, to a tax system where the deciding factor is driven by residence. This potentially bodes extremely well for British expatriates.
If this Budget does turn out to be the Conservative Party’s fiscal swansong, it is perhaps fitting that its period of Government will be bookended by a commitment to enshrine in law a statutory test for residence in 2010 at the start, and a set of announcements that displace domicile with a new regime based on that very residence test at the end. Mastering the Statutory Residence Test is clearly going to be more and more important.
Beyond this, all tax rates, thresholds and allowances for Personal Tax remain frozen, as do the rates for Corporation Tax. The dividend allowance will fall to GBP 500 from 6th April 2024 and the Capital Gains Tax Annual Exemption will fall to GBP 3,000 from the same date. Class 2 and Class 3 voluntary National Insurance Contribution rates will remain unchanged at GBP 3.45 per week and GBP 17.45 per week respectively, and the New State Pension will rise to GBP 221.20 per week (of GBP 11,502.40 per year) from 6th April 2024.”


If you would like to discuss your own circumstances in confidence or would like to be on the subscriber list for Spice Taxation’s new dedicated coverage of these breaking developments, please contact Martin at martin@spicetaxation.com or by sending a Whatsapp to +65 96650019.

I’d like to thank Martin at Spice Taxation for allowing me to share this information with my readers. I am sure that this will help many of you plan your finances in relation to UK tax.

Why Cash Is Not ACTUALLY King!

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Over the past year or so, we have seen a rise in interest rates and fixed deposits have offered quite attractive returns. Some may be inclined to put all their savings into these guaranteed bank deposits, but is this a smart decision?

I have spoken to many in the past year that are putting off investing because they find fixed deposits more favourable. They believe (which is true) that investments, such as equity and property, is uncertain. So they would rather pick the safer option of fixed deposits. Whilst I do agree it is always a good idea to have liquid cash and sufficient savings, I do believe that your excess money is better off growing elsewhere.

Cash Cannot Beat Inflation

When you put your money in a fixed deposit, you will only gain the guaranteed amount, never any more. Whilst some see this as a good thing, in periods of high inflation (like over the past couple of years), your cash is losing spending power. And inflation is a problem that will always be there; it is not something we can ignore, and historically bank deposits have not battled inflation in comparison to equities.

Lock Ups & Opportunity Costs

In order to receive the guaranteed rate of return of a fixed deposit, you quite often will have to fulfil a tenure. I will admit that these days you can find fixed deposits with quite short tenures, but this often means that inflation may have eroded your guaranteed returns, leaving you with net zero or even negative gains! This also means that you are exposed to reinvestment risks; you as an investor may not be able to reinvest the cash you receive from a matured fixed deposit at the same or better rate again. This shows that bank deposits are good for short-term situations, but have more cons over the long-term. In contrast, historically, investing in equities or bonds have proven to grow capital and protect yourself from inflation.

‘Safe’ May Not Really Be Safe

It has become more apparent recently that the chance of a bank defaulting may not be is minute as we once thought- just look at Credit Suisse, Signature Bank and SVB to name a few. This means that your ‘guaranteed return’ may not actually be guaranteed. Banks are covered by the Deposit Protection Scheme, but take note that generally these limits are not very high. This means that if you have anything more in a fixed deposit, or indeed in a bank account, and the bank folds, they are only obligated to pay you up to that limit, nothing more. To avoid this, it may be a sensible idea to spread your cash across different institutions, not leaving all your assets with one bank. Investing in portfolios can also help you diversify risk, whilst having access to possible high returns, and holding up against inflation long-term.

If anything, market volatility has proven to us that a few key financial principles, such as planning long-term and diversifying to mitigate risk, are very important guidelines to follow. Whilst fixed deposits seem attractive short-term, they expose you to reinvestment risk, and are therefore only beneficial for short-term savings. Focusing all your financial planning on one bank or indeed one savings account, means that you are not diversifying, and not only are you at risk if the bank defaults, but you are also missing out on possible higher returns you could be getting from investment. Cash may be key for every-day living, but it is definitely not king when it comes to successful, long-term planning.