March is sometimes referred to as "ISA season" by financial advisers, as people rush to use their ISA allowance for the year at the last minute. However, it's a perverse way of saving and investing. As we've noted, before, it would be absurd if we tried to scrape together the money for a whole year's mortgage payments at the last minute, so why do we do the same with something equally important, saving for our futures? There's no "mortgage season", and an "ISA season" is scarcely more logical.
If your income is moderately steady, and you're aspiring to save into an ISA, why not think about setting up a fixed monthly standing order to it (or your pension, or savings account, or all of them) for the new tax year? If you're aiming to max out an ISA this year, the annual allowance is £15,240, which equates to a monthly payment of £1,270. If £1,270 seems like a daunting amount to find each month, it's going to be no easier to find the whole lump in one go next March! Of course, most people aren't going to be able to save the maximum amount - but that doesn't mean you can't save something. And saving something at the outset of each month makes it harder to spend the money by mistake. "Save, then spend what's left", as opposed to "spend, then save what's left".
If your income isn't moderately steady, then you might want to think about ways in which you could make it steadier. But that's something to talk about on another occasion!
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