Managing your money and seeking advice on planning for the future

At Anchor we know that concerns about money can be a particular issue for older people who are managing on a low fixed income.

Traditional ways of managing your money and services, such as post offices and high street banks are fast changing. As the use of the internet grows, many post offices and local bank branches are closing, reducing the availability of face to face counter services. And for many, retirement and older age are presenting new financial pressures.

Even if you have a healthy income coming in from pensions or investments, it’s always useful to review your finances and outgoings to see if you can make your money go even further.

Anchor sees money management as an aspect of wellbeing for older people and aims to assist the people living with us to manage their financial affairs more effectively.

How Anchor can help you manage your money

Our Be Wise team offer a range of services to help you live independently and assist you to claim your full benefit entitlement. We offer advice to all Anchor residents, applicants and colleagues for themselves and their close family members.

Our friendly team of experienced advisors can discuss:

• Your benefit entitlement and how to claim
• How to save money on your utilities
• Reducing your energy usage
• Budgeting tools
• Money saving hints and tips
  • Referring to other sources of assistance such as debt advice
  • Help with private pensions
  • External grants or funds that may be available

Contact details for Be Wise

0800 023 4477 
(Mon- Fri 8-6 & Saturday 8-4)
[email protected] 

Find out more about Be Wise here.

Our financial planning tools

Anchor also offer a budgeting tool and benefits calculator to help you make the most of and manage your money effectively. 

You can also find related advice pages in our website Guides and Support section here.

Making the most of your money

Money Helper (previously known as The Money Advice Service) is a website that also offers a range of tools to help you find better savings rates, plan for your financial future and obtain credit. In addition to managing your money they provide some helpful tools if you want to keep a check on your financial position. 

There are a number of free credit check sites where you can view your credit report and find our ways to manage and boost your credit score. Money Heper have their own free credit report service as well as this being available through well-known sites such as Experian and ClearScore.

Should you want to access money saving tips then you can subscribe to Martin Lewis, money saving expert’s alerts, you can sign up here and the website contains many great money saving tips and discounts. 

Making and managing a budget

Natwest emphasises that budgeting ensures you can organise money for both your needs and wants, while still setting aside savings for the future.

To get started, follow these simple steps:

• Calculate your monthly incomings: Include all sources such as pensions, investments, and any other income.
• Add up your monthly expenses: Cover key categories like housing, food, utilities, and other necessary payments.
• Subtract expenses from income: This will give you an idea of how much is left for savings or paying debts.

Ideally, your budget should be flexible to allow for any potential changes in circumstances. One popular approach is the 50/30/20 rule: allocate 50% of your income for essentials (housing, food, etc.), 30% for discretionary spending, and 20% for savings.

Keeping track of spending

Tracking your spending is an effective way to avoid overspending and stay on budget. Tracking doesn’t need to be complicated. You can use a variety of free apps to log your expenses, or simply jot them down in a notebook if you prefer a non-digital approach.

To make things easier, divide your spending into categories like groceries, utilities, or entertainment. This way, you can see where your money is going and identify areas where you might be overspending.

Building an emergency fund

Having an emergency fund can help ease anxiety if unexpected expenses arise. Here are a few tips to start saving:

• Find a savings account with a good interest rate: Shopping around for the best rates can help you grow your savings over time, especially with high-yield savings accounts.
• Deposit extra income: If you receive bonuses, money from investments, or windfalls, consider adding them to your emergency fund to give it a boost.
• Set up automatic savings: You may be able to arrange for automatic transfers from any income into a savings account. This keeps the money accessible while reducing the temptation to spend it on non-emergencies.

Dealing with debt

Anchor wishes to support our residents and applicants with managing their money and dealing with debt. 

If you are having difficulty with paying your rent, please speak to your local manager or our customer enquiries team on 0800 731 2020. We will work with you to help you resolve your arrears, set up a payment plan or refer you to Be Wise if your arrears are caused by benefit delays or underpayments. 

To help you deal with debts there are free to access debt advisors who can be found online, on the phone or in person here.

This will help you find which of the channels is the best for you to use, you can also find more information on the websites of Citizens Advice, Stepchange and Payplan who are well known free debt advice brands. You should never have to pay for debt advice. 

If you would like to deal with contacting your creditors yourself, Citizens Advice provide self help material on contacting your creditors and how to deal with debt, you can find links from their debt advice pages.

If you are getting all the help available through the benefits system then you maybe able to get assistance from various charitable bodies who grant to former trades, localities, age and gender, you can search the grant guide here. This is particular useful for veterans who may also have regimental charities as well as branch or more general charities which may assist such as SSAFA or the Royal British Legion.