Victoria Whittington Financial Planning

Victoria Whittington Financial Planning Helping individuals, families and businesses plan, protect and grow their finances. Hi! My name is Victoria, thank you for making your way onto my page. The 'St.

Providing peace of mind today, by putting in place the building blocks required to achieve your future financial goals. I wholeheartedly believe that everyone has the right to, and could benefit from, personalised, holistic financial advice. No two people are the same. Your dreams for the future, those you hold dear, and your circumstances are all unique. So too should your financial plan be. By g

etting to know my clients I help them create the financial future they want and deserve. After over a decade working at various Investment Banks based in London, in 2023 my family and I took a long overdue leap of faith and embarked on a lifelong dream of living in the Cotswolds. In 2024, I took my first steps towards building my own Financial Advisory business, combining my passion for finance and drive to help people. For individuals and families, I can advise on:
🥰 how to protect you and your loved ones
🏡 help you save for a future goal or dream
🏖️ turn your retirement aspirations into reality. I can also assist with inheritance planning 👵, making sure that everything you’ve worked so hard for can be passed onto future generations the way you want and, in a tax efficient manner. For businesses, I can assist with:
💼 protecting you, your business and your shareholders
💷 tax efficient distribution of profits
🧓 pension auto-enrolment and contributions
📈 investment considerations
👬 employee benefits. Outside of the day job I enjoy being with my family ❤️, playing netball ⛹️‍♀️ and spending as much time outside 🌳 as I can - rain or shine! If you'd like to find out more, get in touch. You can
📞 01285 402309
📧 [email protected]
🛜 www.victoriawhittington.co.uk
🗓️ book a Zoom meeting: https://calendly.com/victoria-whittington

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested. Pension auto-enrolment schemes are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Victoria Whittington Financial Planning is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James's Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group's wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group's website www.sjp.co.uk/products. James's Place Partnership' and the titles 'Partner' and 'Partner Practice' are marketing terms used to describe St. James's Place representatives. SJP Approved 5/11/2024

Once you’ve worked out the annual amount you think you’ll need in retirement, comment POT and I’ll send you the link to ...
01/09/2026

Once you’ve worked out the annual amount you think you’ll need in retirement, comment POT and I’ll send you the link to the SJP Pension Calculator so you can check, based on your current pension pots and contributions, whether you’re on track.

Most retirement planning starts with a vague number pulled from nowhere. A better starting point is your bank statements, which reflect your actual life. Add up what you’re currently spending each month right now.

Then adjust for what’s different by the time you might want to retire. If the mortgage will be paid off, take it out. Still renting? That cost is a big consideration, particularly as rents rarely go down.

And here’s the part we often underestimate: all the hours you currently give to work, what do you actually want to fill them with? Travel, grandchildren, a hobby that you can finally do properly, a business you’ve been putting off? Whatever it is, it usually costs something, so give it a realistic monthly figure and add it to your baseline.

Another consideration: would you rather stop working in one go, or ease into it, through fewer hours, part-time work, or a change of career? That changes both how much you need and when you need it by.

Add it all together and you’ve got your net number, the take-home amount you actually want each month. But don’t forget that HMRC will still want their cut. Income tax apply to pension income just as they do to a salary. Working backwards from your net target to a gross target is what actually tells you if your pension is on track. Tax rules can change over time, and how they apply to you will depend on your individual circumstances.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

21/08/2026

Your salary is more than a survival tool… it’s your ticket to financial freedom.
 
Yes, your salary pays the bills. But as and when a pay rise comes through, don’t just absorb it into your lifestyle.
 
Invest in yourself. Build skills that raise your earnings potential, or fund the business idea that excites you and could become financially rewarding in itself.
 
Buy assets. Investments that for the most part require very little input and earn while you sleep. Values can go down as well as up, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get back more than you put in, but historically, assets held over the long term have played a pivotal role in building wealth that income alone can’t.
 
It’s not possible to build financial freedom on income alone. Your salary needs to be doing more than keeping you afloat.
 
Nobody’s goal is to work forever. The goal is a life where your money works as hard as you do, so eventually you don’t have to.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

Stop waiting for ready…
21/08/2026

Stop waiting for ready…

21/08/2026

Your investment strategy & financial plan should be based on the life you want. Is yours?
 
Annabelle’s target is to stop full time work at 50, seven years before she can touch her pension without penalty.

The normal minimum pension age is currently 55 and is set to rise to 57 from 6 April 2028, so she won’t be able to access her pension without penalty before she turns 57.

Rather than treating this as a reason to delay, she splits her monthly saving. She continues to contribute ÂŁ900 a month into her pension and starts investing ÂŁ400 a month into a stocks and shares ISA. Her aim is for the ISA to provide an income for those seven years while the pension carries on growing untouched.

The value of both the pension and the ISA can go down as well as up, and Annabelle could get back less than was paid in, so the size of the bridge she needs depends on investment performance as well as her own spending. Pension access rules and tax treatment can also change before she reaches either age, which means by saving into a Stocks & Shares ISA she adds yet more flexibility to her financial plan should tax or regulatory changes occur.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

Sources: GOV.UK, Increasing the normal minimum pension age. St. James’s Place, ISA allowance 2026/27.

Childcare funding is far more complicated than it should be.There isn’t just one scheme. Depending on your circumstances...
03/08/2026

Childcare funding is far more complicated than it should be.

There isn’t just one scheme. Depending on your circumstances, you could be entitled to funded childcare, Tax-Free Childcare or other government support. Knowing what’s available could save your family thousands of pounds each year.

I’ve put together a simple guide that explains:

• The childcare funding available at each age
• Who qualifies for each scheme
• The £100,000 income limit
• How funded hours actually work
• When your entitlement starts
• The rules that often catch parents by surprise

Whether you’re expecting your first child, planning your return to work or already paying nursery fees, understanding what’s available can make a real difference.

Comment CHILDCARE and I’ll send you my free guide covering funded childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and the other support available.

Save this post so you’ve got it when you need it, and follow Victoria Whittington for more practical tips to help your family make the most of the financial support available.

Childcare funding is far more complicated than it should be.There isn’t just one scheme. Depending on your circumstances...
03/08/2026

Childcare funding is far more complicated than it should be.

There isn’t just one scheme. Depending on your circumstances, you could be entitled to funded childcare, Tax-Free Childcare or other government support. Knowing what’s available could save your family thousands of pounds each year.

I’ve put together a simple guide that explains:

• The childcare funding available at each age
• Who qualifies for each scheme
• The £100,000 income limit
• How funded hours actually work
• When your entitlement starts
• The rules that often catch parents by surprise

Whether you’re expecting your first child, planning your return to work or already paying nursery fees, understanding what’s available can make a real difference.

Comment CHILDCARE and I’ll send you my free guide covering funded childcare hours, Tax-Free Childcare and other support available.

Save this post so you’ve got it when you need it, and follow Victoria Whittington for more practical tips to help your family make the most of the financial support available.

30/07/2026

Funded childcare in England is an incredibly helpful financial scheme, but it’s also one of the more fiddly systems a working parent has to navigate.

Eligibility for the 30 hours is based on each parent’s adjusted net income, not gross salary, and both parents need to earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Living Wage while staying under £100,000 individually.

The extended entitlement for younger children starts from ‘the term after’ a child turns 9 months, which rarely lines up neatly with an actual birthday. Providers can also stretch the 30 hours across all 51 weeks of the year rather than just the 38 weeks of term time, which means the weekly hours on offer can look lower than 30 in practice.

None of this makes the scheme less valuable. It just rewards planning ahead rather than sorting things out the week before nursery starts.

Families also need to reconfirm their eligibility with HMRC every three months through their childcare account, and missing that step can mean funding stops with little warning.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

29/07/2026

Each spring, HMRC writes to the parents of 16 to 19 year olds, with most letters arriving in late April or early May. Each one includes a QR code that leads straight to the online service. The letter asks parents to confirm whether their teenager is continuing in full-time, non-advanced education or approved training after finishing their GCSEs.

If HMRC doesn’t hear back, whether because the letter was missed, misplaced, or simply not acted on amid a busy summer, Child Benefit for that child stops automatically on 31 August after your child’s 16th birthday, regardless of whether they are genuinely still eligible.

For a family with one child on the eldest child rate, that gap comes to ÂŁ1,406.60 a year based on the 2026/27 rate of ÂŁ27.05 a week.

But why wait for the letter to prompt action? If you already know your teenager’s plans for September, you can confirm them online or through the HMRC app as soon as GCSE results are out, rather than relying on a piece of post arriving at the right moment and being opened in time.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

All information in this post can be found on the HMRC website.

29/07/2026

The normal expenditure out of income exemption is one of the more underused tools in inheritance tax planning, mainly because it takes ongoing evidence to use properly rather than a single decision.

Unlike the £3,000 annual gift exemption or gifts that rely on the seven-year rule, money given away under this exemption falls outside your estate immediately, provided it comes from income rather than capital, forms part of a regular pattern of gifting, and doesn’t reduce your usual standard of living.

Take Emily, 68, who receives a teacher’s pension alongside her State Pension, bringing in roughly £30,500 (after tax) a year based on 2026/27 State Pension rates. She spends around £20,500 a year, leaving genuine surplus income. She sets up a standing order to gift £10,000 a year, split between her two children, and because the gifts come from that surplus, they sit outside her estate straight away rather than waiting seven years to taper off.

Over ten years, that’s £100,000 gifted, and at the standard 40% Inheritance Tax rate, roughly £40,000 kept out of her estate that would otherwise have been taxed.

Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change over time, so the benefit will vary from person to person. Keeping clear records of income, expenditure, and the pattern of gifting matters too, since executors need that evidence if HMRC ever queries the exemption after death.

This post is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Each person’s individual circumstances are unique, do your own research.

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