Advice on how to do a holistic MSE healthcheck

claralou

Hi all

Looking for advice on how to do a holistic (i.e. throrough/overall, not crystal-gazing :rotfl:) MSE health check on our household finances.

We are a family of 4 with various bank accounts, income from jobs and also a rental property, all the usual household outgoings...

I know we could probably improve our finances e.g. we could for sure get better deals on household bills, we're probably not in the best bank accounts, we should probably be doing extra payments from time to time on our mortgages, we should probably look at how we're saving, maybe change some ISAs into stocks/shares ISAs...

I don't know where to start with working through it all.

Do I just take one thing at a time and work through the advice on here?
Is there such a thing as a financial adviser who will look at it all with me and advise me on what switches to make to achieve savings?
Is there someone on here who offers this kind of service remotely i.e. via email for a fee?

Thanks!

Saver-upper

I wonder if this would help:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help


A financial planner is good for "bigger picture" finances,eg mortgages,pensions etc.Often (usually?),they advise for free,and only take commission if you invest through them.

I know about 2years ago there was a promotion on here where you could contact a local to you financial planner.One came to us and gave advice on our pension position,and our mortgage (eg,he asked for the details of our mortgage),typed a few figures into the laptop,and suggested we phone our mortgage provider the next day,ask to change something-I-can't-remember with them,and it would save us £50/month.

You can search for independent financial advisors on this site:

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

DrSyn

Someone has already suggestted
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help

You might find something of interest on
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

There is lots of info on the citizens advice website. Maybe you might like to have a look to see if there might be something you could use.
Some examples:-

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/other-resources-and-tools-related-to-debt-and-money/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-we-provide-advice/advice/search-for-your-local-citizens-advice/

robatwork

I can see the problem.
You have been on MSE forums for over 10 years and never posted in the banking forum. So my advice is to read every thread over the next few month, maybe participate in a few and you will pick up loads of good advice.

Nobody other than a good friend who is money "savvy" will be able to give you the advice you want. I wouldn't trust any professional to give yourself as good guidance as you will to yourself armed with some basic knowledge. Nobody is as bothered about your wealth as you are!