Britons urged to look at their paycheck as millions of people could ‘accelerate finances’

HMRC discuss rules on hourly pay and back pay

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A paycheck can come as a paper document, or be issued electronically, but it will contain the amount a person is being paid for a certain period of time, as well as an outline of taxes. But despite Britons counting down the days until it arrives, many will not actually look properly at this document, and could be missing out on an opportunity for financial progress as a result. To change this is about taking action, which individuals are being encouraged to do, starting with their next paycheck. 

Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to Rob Gardner, Director of Investments at St. James Place Wealth Management about the matter. 

He offered further insight into how a paycheck can serve as a person’s “Financial Fitbit” to help understand their finances. 

Firstly, Mr Gardner stressed the idea of managing one’s “mental wealth” – financial resilience and financial wellbeing.

Financial resilience is the idea of being able to deal with setbacks, for example, emergency costs being met without spiralling into debt.

This is a particularly important point, especially given the events of COVID-19, which many people found themselves financially unprepared for.

Financial wellbeing, however, is about making decisions and taking action to create wealth for oneself over a longer period of time.

It is at this point where an understanding of a person’s pay check can come in handy – most notably, gross pay.

Mr Gardner explained: “Your gross pay is the amount you are paid before any deductions, so your first step should be to check you are being paid the agreed amount. Gross pay includes overtime and bonuses, and these will usually be shown separately.

“An awareness of your finances enables you to make assessments and take actions such as getting out of debt, saving for emergencies or big-ticket items, and investing for your retirement; all of which helps you to accelerate your financial goals and build financial wellbeing over the decades.”

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For those who are unsure about calculating their gross pay, this can be done by checking a monthly payslip – and, assuming there are no extras, individuals will need to multiply the figure by 12 to check it matches their contracted annual salary.

A next important point of consideration is the idea of avoiding a tax hike – and when someone is not paying the right tax contributions, other problems can be exacerbated.

With a tax code assigned by HMRC, often this can come across as a bunch of letters and numbers which may not make sense – however, understanding one’s code can be a particularly important action.

As a general guide, Mr Gardner said, individuals will need to multiply the number in their tax code by 10 in order to get the total amount of income which can be earned each year before being taxed.

He continued: “If you’ve overpaid your tax, HMRC will generally pay you back through a tax code adjustment – meaning you’ll pay less tax and therefore receive more of your wages.

“In the situation where you’ve underpaid tax, you’ll have to pay it back. This could either be done by putting you on an emergency tax code, or by issuing you with a tax bill.”

Having an awareness of one’s financial situation should prevent the latter from happening, but it could also mean an emergency pot of money being set aside to rely upon if the unexpected happens. 

Those who believe their tax code is wrong are encouraged to reach out to HMRC about the matter.

When looking at a paycheck, it is often difficult for people to see deductions such as National Insurance or pension contributions coming out of their pay.

However, these salary “deficits” do not mean going without, and they can seriously add up for the better in the long run.

Mr Gardner explained: “You pay NI contributions when you earn over a minimum of £184 a week (2021 to 2022) and your unique NI number is an accurate record of how much you’ve paid towards the State Pension and the NHS.

“If you don’t pay enough NI, you may jeopardise your rights to sick pay, jobseeker’s allowance and a state pension, so it’s worth making sure the payments are correct.”

Although these deductions can often feel frustrating, when thinking about the end goal and the security one will receive in later life, individuals can take heart. 

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Finally, in a similar sense, Mr Gardner has advised Britons to set personal goals for future financial gains.

Once someone has an awareness of their pay check, as well as their financial situation, they can make tweaks to suit their circumstances.

One of these could be making an additional contribution to one’s pension – which may pay off in the long-run.

This does not have to be a major change, and Mr Gardner has highlighted how simple the process can be.

He continued: “All you need to do is let your HR department know that you would like to contribute £100 per month to your pension – which, when you factor in tax and NI is actually only costing you around £68 per month (roughly the same as your daily coffee habit over a month) – and in reality, amounts to £110 per month being paid into your pension.

“Already a 60 percent return on investment, if you kept up this good habit for a year, that £110 equates to an annual personal pension contribution of £1,320 – or, £13,200 over a decade.

“When investing it pays to think in decades not years, and if your retirement isn’t imminent you might choose to have your pension invested in a more adventurous fund, potentially offering a seven percent rate of return, growing the investment by 1.5 times over that time period, which becomes almost £20,000.

“Keep this habit up for your entire career and that £20,000 becomes a huge £300,000!”

It is clear there are a number of important points worth considering when it comes to finances, and Britons are urged to think about this carefully.

Nonetheless, a person’s paycheck could end up holding the key to an understanding of how to implement financial success. 

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