This week our editor Samantha Downes writes about just one of the reasons she set up Ella Mag.

Last month I was approached by one of the more established women’s magazines. They wanted me to come up with a test page for a potential finance/careers column. I was excited; the column would mean regular work, but more importantly it would also give me the chance to engage with young women and their financial aspirations.  Sadly my services were not needed, the magazine decided they did not want a finance column, they felt a lifestyle-led one was more appropriate…

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Hundreds of thousands of savers are abandoning pensions in favour of Individual Savings Accounts.

The problems is pensions are just too complicated, according to a report by The Institute of Directors (IoD)

It says the amounts paid into ISAs has increased  year on year, rising from £35.7bn in 2007, to £43.9bn in 2009/10.

At the same timer fewer of us paid into pensions, while employee and individual pension contributions peaked in 2007 at £25.6bn, and fell to £22.9bn by 2009.

The IoD says this means the population choose to pay almost twice as much into ISAs as into pensions, making clear which savings vehicle they prefer.

And it expects payments into ISAs to have increased to £53.8bn over the last year.

The report, “Roadmap for Retirement Reform”, was written by IoD pensions expert Malcolm Small, and recommends the government make pensions simpler and come up with a long-term plan to encourage us all to save.

But you don’t need to wait for the government to get its act together. Just read our article about pension-free retirement planning.

In case you not yet noticed – and we really wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t – but next week marks the end of the current tax year. On 6 April a brand new year starts. Ta dah!

This means you have just under a week to use up any tax allowances you have, as they run from 6 April 2011 to 5 April 2012. If you don’t use it by midnight on 5 April2012 you lose it, basically.

What does this mean for me?

If you have a personal pension, you can put up to £50,000 a year into that pension in any given tax year. That’s a lot, but this amount is going to change following last week’s budget. So if you’ve won the lottery or have a large inheritance kicking around then you may want to consider it.

For most of us the easiest and accessible way to invest tax free is via an individual savings account.

These comes in two versions – one that invests in cash and one that invests in the stockmarket.  With a cash ISAs basically you are lending your money to the bank, whereas with a stock market ISA the bank is investing it in companies (via shares) on your behalf.

You can invest up to £5,340 cash ISA or £10,680, in a stockmarket ISA.

How does the tax free bit work?

With an ISA you don’t pay tax on the interest you earn and you don’t pay capital gains tax on any money you take out from the ISA.

With a pension you get the income tax you pay on the money you contributed, but you do pay some tax on your investment and you will pay tax when your pension pays out – assuming you get paid enough from your pension to earn income tax.

So where do I get one?

Here’s where you need to do your research. If you are considering a stockmarket ISA you may be best off taking independent financial advice, especially if you’ve never bought shares before.

Cash ISAs pay a fixed rate of interest, you can compare the best rates on an independent comparison site like Moneyfacts. There are other comparison sites out there but financial journalists (such as our editor Samantha) tend to use this one as guide.

If you are really brave you can choose to invest your ISA directly into shares.

Investing directly, where you choose what shares to buy, allows you to choose individual companies you think will make a profit best of all because you are not paying a charge for someone else to do it, you have the potential to make more money.

You can invest directly in shares  through a stockbroker. The cheapest way to do this is online – you can find one via the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers website find a broker search facility.

What else can I do?

Tom McPhail, is head of pensions research at Bristol-based advisers Hargreaves Lansdown (you’ve probably seen him on TV).

He recommends having a stockmarket for longer-term savings (such as a pension) and keeping your cash ISA as a rain-day fund.

And if you don’t earn a salary but you have a partner who does, they can put £3,600 a year into a pension on your behalf. In fact you can even this allowance to start a pension for your child.

If you have children don’t forget your child’s junior ISA allowance So if you want to put money aside for your children or grandchildren, a Junior ISA is one of the simplest and most tax-efficient ways to do this – up to £3,600. If you have a child trust fund you can use this allowance to top up that

In fact Tom reckons a couple with 3 children could use a combination of Sipp and ISA allowances to save up to £6,480 a year for each child and between them the household could save at least £46,560 a year tax free – more if their earnings justify higher pension contributions

Liked this? Read this.

Tell us mums something we don’t know: more needs to be done to prevent the damange taking a maternity breaks inflicts on our savings and pensions.

Research by Friends Life – Visions of Britain Pensions: The Solutions 2020 – has shown that despite an increase in female representation on the board of the UK’s largest companies (my blog about this here) little was being done to minimise the damage of women taking a career break to start a family

Of course if you are a (paid) working woman with a family you’ll know that the Friends Life exposed “a worrying number of women who were less clued up about pensions than their male counterparts”.

Amost half of women do not save into an employer-sponsored pension scheme while a further one in ten are unsure if they save at all.

Kim Clarke, head of human resources at at Friends Life, said employers were good at considering the short-term financial impact of female employees starting a family by providing flexible working practices but she warned they also needed to consider the long-term implications

She explaines:  “When women return to work they often go back part time in the first instance, meaning that the percentage of their salary that they can save is much smaller, while at the same time their outgoings have increased. Unless drastic changes are made, many women may find that starting a family could negatively affect their retirement pot.”

Clarke is pointing out that its the missed National Insurance payments and pension contributions that can really impact on us.

Friends Life says fresh thinking is still needed, but it appears some companies in the financial services industry are already doing just that. Although at the moment it’s only at the top end. F

For example Duncan Lawrie Private Bank has created a repayment holiday facility for itss female entrepreneurs.

It has agreed to give special terms on existing loan facilities to help female entrepreneurs keep their businesses running during maternity leave

Female clients of Duncan Lawrie Private Bank will be “offered the opportunity to suspend making interest payments on loans during their pregnancy and after the birth of a child, to help ease financial pressure on their business until they resume full earning capacity.”

However that’s entrepreneurs, what can the rest of us do? I asked two inspirational mummy contacts of mine who have both recently set up their own businesses and both have two children (each) what women should do.

Philippa Gee of Shropshire-based Philippa Gee Wealth Management says those who have not yet started a family need to think about the costs and prepare for them, they should also brace themselves for the emotional costs. Getting your head around the money situation can help you focus on what plans you need to make.

Childcare: The incredible cost of childcare, the fact that children often catch bugs and therefore you may have to take extra time off work to take care of them and the ongoing additional costs.

Career moves: Consider particularly what happens when you move away from family to pursue your career; while this can function well when work is your focus, when you need support in caring for your child/children you are then so exposed to needing extra time off work, yet to move back to where your family are located may well mean a subsequent drop in salary – it’s about weighing about up all aspects, but really think carefully about what support you might need in the future, as moving house is an expensive business and one to factor in

Plan ahead: The solution is to plan as far in advance as possible, the more you can do to push yourself up the career ladder (if career is a focus for you) before you plan to start a family, the better.

The ideal is to find a role that is as flexible as possible. The more you can do to create a role that suits you ideally, the better prepared you will be, and for many this means starting their own business, working on a self employed basis and/or launching a consultancy.

However, all this takes time to set up, which is why you need to plan as early as possible to begin this venture, rather than having to face such a mammoth task when you just returning from maternity

It may be boring, but also you need to save as much as you possibly can, as children can often cost far more than you can ever imagine and keep that money available.

Pensions are obviously of critical importance in terms of attaining your retirement goals, however putting all your financial resources into a pension is the wrong approach, as you need funds that are as accessible as possible. Using Cash ISAs can be one good approach for many as it means that the money should be available, unless you tie it up in a fixed rate, and you don’t have to pay tax on the interest

“Above all,” she says, “while you can plan as much as possible, keep your options open and enjoy the life changing experiences that lie ahead. ”

Melanie Bien, mortgage and property specialist, says: “With so many pressing financial concerns when you have a young family, pension planning is often shelved as a luxury you simply can’t afford. Yet planning for your retirement – and putting money aside for that – is crucial.

“Most new mums have to cope with a reduced income – both on maternity leave and afterwards, even if they go back to work – so making ends meet is a struggle. But in the scheme of things, this is only for a few years while you could be spending many years in retirement on a reduced income.”

When the Bank of England announced it was  going to be extending its quantitative easing programme by £50bn, what was your first thought?

We know some of you will know exactly what quantitative easing – or QE is.  Some of you have a vague idea what it means (but don’t) and some of you probably don’t care.

Should you?

Well quantitative easing isn’t just a euphemism for printing more money – as some newpapers or even TV news programmes might say. There’s a bit more to it than that.

Basically when an economy is having problems central banks – ours is the Bank of England – will prefer to keep interest rates low. Higher borrowing – which mostly comes in the form of mortgages in our island nations – means that people have less money to spend on other things, and less money to spend means less things bought and that means less need for people to make and deliver those things.

It’s a bit of a vicious cycle. But keeping interest rates low may have eased the impact of the credit crunch. Which in turn meant banks  lent again.

But despite years of low interest rates the UK economy is still shaking. So in early 2009 the Bank of England said it was going to put £75bn into the economy via what was called quantitative easing. Later that year is announced a further £200bn and in October £75bn followed by £50bn, The grand total was £325bn.

This money which is simply printed is then used to buy government bonds and the bonds of institutions of companies.

This means that the companies issuing the bonds get the money and this money is circulated into our economy via banks being able to lend more and companies creating jobs.

Thing is it’s debatable whether this is actually happening and that those issuing the bonds, are hanging on to the money rather than doing anything with it. Time will tell.

Have you got a question that’s bugging you, or something you want to impress your friends friends with – whether it’s about finance or fashion let us know?