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👋 Welcome back

In today’s Financial Stuff:

• 🕰️ Keep calm and carry on?

• ❓ Should I take money out bof my business?

• 🔦 Try this simple exercise…

Let’s get started 👇

Feeling exposed?

Probably like most people, but especially business owners, I can’t help but feel a mix of frustration and unease about the upcoming Budget on 26th November.

The rumours this time seem louder than usual.

And because it’s happening later in the year, everything feels like it’s hanging in the air.

Clients, friends, colleagues, everyone seems to be waiting for the Chancellor to just rip the plaster off and get on with it.

It’s that sense of limbo that’s exhausting. You can’t plan properly, but you also can’t switch off.

It struck me that this isn’t just about the Budget.

It’s what uncertainty feels like when so much of your security depends on a single thing you can’t control.

For most people, that “one thing” might be a salary or the housing market. For business owners, it’s usually the business itself.

I’ve lost count of how many times someone has told me that everything is tied up in their business. The classic “my company is my pension”.

And I understand it completely. When you’ve spent years building something, taking the risks, making the decisions, it feels more familiar and safe. It’s the thing you know best.

But familiarity isn’t the same as safety.

And when you zoom out, it’s easy to see how exposed that can make you when 70, 80, sometimes 90 per cent of everything is tied up in one business, one sector, one person’s energy.

The business feels tangible; investment markets feel abstract. So we keep reinvesting, telling ourselves we’ll diversify “one day”.

But one day never quite arrives, because there’s always another project, another idea, another tax change to wait for.

Maybe this Budget limbo is a useful reminder. Real independence isn’t about what the Chancellor does next, or what the markets do, or how your business performs this quarter.

It’s about not needing any single outcome to go your way.

So while we all wait for the 26th to roll around, it might be worth asking: if the rules changed overnight, how much of your security would still stand?

❓Question: Should I take money out of my business before the Budget?

This has come up lately and it’s a fair question. With rumours swirling about changes to dividend tax and pension relief, the instinct to “get ahead of it” is understandable.

The short answer is: it depends on your existing plan.

If you were already due to take a dividend or make a pension contribution before your company or the tax year end, there’s no harm in reviewing the timing with your accountant or adviser.

Especially if you’ve got the cash sitting in the company.

But the calm approach is to make sure you’re balanced. Some liquidity personally (so you’re not entirely dependent on the business), and the rest still working efficiently inside it.

That way, whatever the Chancellor announces, you’ll have options.

🤸‍♂️ A simple exercise while we wait…

Wondering how dependent you are on your business?

Try this quick check...

1. Add up everything you own outside the company; home, savings, pensions, ISAs, investments, then

2. compare it with what’s still tied up inside; cash, retained profits, goodwill, property.

If most of your financial comfort depends on keeping that business running smoothly, you’re not alone.

But it’s a useful prompt to start shifting the balance while you still can, without waiting for “one day”.

Because the real goal isn’t to outsmart the Chancellor. It’s to build a life where your security doesn’t depend on what anyone announces on the 26th of November.

😎 THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK

If you have any questions at all, do ping me a reply or get in touch 👇

Hilary 😉

P.S. WHAT ELSE? 👉 Book a call with me here (or if you prefer, call one of my team on 0117 9629696) and I’ll help you make sense of what you’ve got and what it could be doing for you.

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