The Budget makes headlines but families have other financial priorities, says expert

A Sutton Coldfield financial expert who appeared on TV to assess the Chancellor’s Autumn budget says people are more focused on their personal finances than headline news.

Mike Jordan (pictured), whose firm Jordan Financial Management has been helping clients in the West Midlands for more than 25 years, appeared on BBC Midlands Today ahead of the Budget to discuss what might be in the Chancellor’s statement.

He said: “The Budget dominates the news cycle for a few days. But what struck me afterwards was how different the conversation is when I sit down with clients.”

Alongside questions about retirement and helping their children, Mike says clients often want to know how their families would cope financially if they were no longer around. Those conversations, he says, have stayed remarkably consistent through decades of economic and political change.

“Over the years I've met people through recessions, booms, referendums, elections, financial crises, pandemics and more Budgets than I care to count. Every one of those events generated predictions about what would happen next. Some turned out to be correct. Many did not.”

Mike says the clients who seem most at ease tend to understand where they stand, know what they want to achieve and have enough flexibility in their plans to adapt when circumstances change.

He says changes to tax, pensions and inheritance tax rules are worth reviewing for their impact on individual plans. For most families, he adds, the priorities remain familiar. Spend within your means, invest with your goals in mind, make provision for your family and review your plans regularly.

Mike said: “It was great to be able to assess the potential impact of the budget on TV, and talk about the broader implications of the Chancellor’s statement.

“But none of those fundamental personal finance principles changed on Budget Day, and I suspect they'll still be true long after the next Budget has been forgotten.”