35 is the age when the pension gap widens
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What to read right now…
Klarna will start charging a late payment fee* from 16 March to get more people to pay on time.
Things are not going well in the property market – though to be fair it’s perhaps been on the horizon for a while.
Thirty five is apparently the age when the pension gap begins to widen between men and women.
Bit of a long report but apparently an increasing number of people are retiring early, which is one of the reasons why there’s such a big labour shortage.
Retiring early is definitely increasingly on my mind right now – it wasn’t so much last year – but I think that’s more to do with addressing work/life balance, or current imbalance in my case.
The deal that’s a steal…
Need to buy some beauty products?
Cult Beauty* are currently giving away a £10 gift card when you spend £60. You just have to enter the code AFFNEW at checkout, and be a new customer.
It does mean you have to go back to them to spend it, but if you need to stock up anyway…
The offer ends at the end of March.
And an actual freebie…
If you’re over 55, it might be worth knowing that March is Free Wills Month.
You can get a new will written, or an existing one updated, all for free by a qualified solicitor.
There are solicitors in England, Wales and Scotland who can help you draw up a simple will, but you’ll need to register your details to get the list.
The initiative is led by a group of charities including Age UK and British Heart Foundation.
While you can leave a gift to the charities in your will, you’re under no obligation to do so.
If you only do one thing…
Use up your ISA allowance. You get £20,000 a year for an ISA, or you can split it across an ISA (£16,000) and a LISA (£4,000).
The end of the tax year is coming up on 5 April and lots of companies are already offering cash incentives for you to either open an account with them or move your portfolio over.
Hargreaves Lansdown* for example has an annual offer that’s back again, but it’s one for investors.
I’ve written about my experience with them in the past. The one thing that’s changed is that they’ve lowered the fee for me to hold my portfolio with them, which now makes them the most competitive investing platform for me.
But cash ISA are equally worthwhile now that the interest rate has gone up so much.
Don’t forget to check Topcashback* and Quidco* for additional cashback.
