Happy New Year and welcome to the first video of the Baby Boomers series! In this series of video blogs we will be talking about some of the important issues that, as Baby Boomers, we need to be addressing – it’s going to be a kind of mental spring clean! Not able to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below? As baby boomers in our early sixties we’ve reached the point where we have accumulated some money and now, hopefully, have some time to do some of the things we want to do. This series of videos is about prompting you to attend to the 'housekeeping' issues that we'd all prefer to avoid. These are: The financial consequences of death The potential effects of dementi... read more

Welcome to the second video of the Baby Boomer Series - Today we are looking at the subject of dementia. Not able to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below instead: Although dementia is a topic we would all probably prefer not think about or address, unfortunately it is a huge reality of old age The purpose of this video is simply to give you some information about the financial consequences of dementia.  If someone close to you, your family, your spouse, is unable to look after their own financial affairs it can create chaos. It may not be possible to access a bank account or do something as simple as renewing a car insurance policy. You cannot make decisions on a person’s behalf unle... read more

Welcome to the third video in my series for Baby Boomers. Cant watch the video today - why not need the transcript below?   This time we are lightening the mood just a little bit and talk about talking!   Most couples find financial planning is helpful in getting them to talk to each other about their finances. People tend to need prompting to do this!   With most couples there is a tendency for one person to take responsibility for the money.  Although there is nothing the matter with this, what tends to happen is that the other person ends up not knowing anything.  Inevitably somebody, usually the person who is responsible for it all, dies, and the other individual is left just not knowing what on... read more

Welcome to the fourth video in the Baby Boomer Series – this week we’ll be looking at the issue of downsizing your home. Downsizing a large family home is becoming a very popular option for releasing capital and reducing living expenses. Many Baby Boomers find themselves owning a huge home thanks to the housing boom of the last thirty years. By huge I refer to the amount of space it takes up and the money it takes to run it. My suggestion is that you talk to your family about downsizing and whether it's right for you and your loved ones. Let’s think about this: suppose you have a house that’s worth £300,000. If you need some capital released from the  house, now is the time to do it, while y... read more

Can't watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below: Welcome to the penultimate video of The Baby Boomer Series; today we’re discussing debt. Let’s get straight down to the bottom line - debt does not die with you. Many of us have been through a tough period during the recession. Those of us in our late 50s are still working, and some of us following a redundancy because of the recession, have started our own small business. We may have re-mortgaged the house to put more money into the business. If so It is very important for you to understand that it is a debt, and if you were to die unexpectedly you would leave that debt to your dependents, principally your spouse or partner. I have heard peopl... read more

Unable to watch the video today? Why not read the transcript below instead: I just wanted to say thank you very much for watching my Baby Boomers series. I hope very much that you found it to be helpful in organising your thoughts about the sort of things you should be doing (or we should be doing!) now that we are in our sixties and seventies. If you recall, we covered the five main areas of this age: the financial consequences of death, the financial consequences of dementia, debt, the importance of having a discussion between yourselves so that you know what’s going on with your finances, and we talked about downsizing, which I think is a very important part of everybody’s financial planning if you happen to ow... read more