January is a time when many people reflect on the previous 12 months and look ahead to what the coming year will bring. You may set goals for the year, such as exercising or planning a dream holiday. When it comes to financial planning, however, focusing on just one year is not nearly enough, you need to plan ahead for the future.
Mrs May faces a tough few weeks at work as Brexit shows no signs of allowing her some well-deserved festive respite. Her cabinet colleagues lobbied her to delay Tuesday’s Commons vote, and the BBC reported this morning that the EU were unwilling to amend any part of the deal.
Blevins Franks was recognised a few months ago by International Adviser at their annual Best Practice Adviser awards ceremony as the “Best Adviser Firm – Europe”, but in recent weeks the global awards were held and Blevins Franks have also now won the “Best Overall Adviser Firm 2018”.
Now we have the first stage of the finalised agreement on the Brexit deal it is worth considering the likely outcomes, as in our view there are a few hurdles to still get through – some of them more likely than others.
The first point is that the deal has yet to be signed off by the 27 EU countries – we believe this is more likely to happen than not. It then needs to be approved by the UK parliament, which at the moment is an each way bet.
Staying on top of the latest currency news can help you time your transfers more effectively, so find out what you should be looking out for over the next couple of weeks…
In the last planned budget before the Brexit due date, Chancellor Phillip Hammond insisted that “austerity is coming to an end but discipline will remain”.
Choosing to spend rather than save last year’s unexpectedly high tax revenue, he pledged to increase public spending without the usual tax hikes, claiming that 32 million people would enjoy tax cuts.
So was there anything that will particularly affect expatriates?
No matter how you feel about Brexit, now that we are only months away from the due date, expatriates need to prepare in a practical sense. Although there are still many unanswered questions about what Brexit will actually mean, there are steps you can take to make your financial position in Portugal as secure as possible.
Pound Sterling exchange rates hit a 3-month high against the Euro last week following positive remarks from the UK & EU in regard to a potential Brexit deal and the Irish border. Jean-Claude Juncker also commented on Saturday by saying that it is very likely that a deal will be reached by the end of 2018 - which is positive for the Pound.
