Savings & Investments
Whether its because you've won money on the lottery or built up a tidy nest egg by saving on a regular basis, your money should be wisely invested so that its spending power is protected for the future. Leaving large amounts of money on deposit in banks or building societies may not be the long-term answer.
Although this might be seen as the traditional safe haven, recent years have seen interest rates being reduced sharply and deposit accounts may not now even be keeping the value of your money in line with changes in retail price inflation.
Many people recognise that to achieve better long-term protection for their money against the effects of inflation, it is often worth considering 'equity' related investments. These are ones that are linked to changes in the value of company shares. You could gain access to the 'equity' markets either directly through buying shares or indirectly by investing in investment products like Unit Trusts, Investment Trusts or maybe even a Life Assurance policy.
All governments recognise how important it is to encourage people to save and they normally achieve this by offering tax incentives on a whole host of savings products. These incentives range from reduced levels of Income Tax on Deposit Accounts for most taxpayers through to tax efficient investment growth on products like ISAs.