Most official guidance on starting to invest begins before the investing. It asks three things: whether you have cash set aside for emergencies, whether you have expensive debt, and whether you will need the money within five years. Each answer comes from a different part of your finances, and they are easiest to judge when they sit side by side.
What the guidance says
- A cash buffer first. The Financial Conduct Authority notes that many experts recommend an emergency fund covering three to six months of your outgoings. MoneyHelper suggests considering investing once your cash savings would cover you for at least three to six months.
- Expensive debt before investing. The FCA says to prioritise paying off debts such as credit cards and payday loans before making investments.
- Money you will not need for a while. MoneyHelper describes investing as an option when a savings goal is more than five years away.
The reasoning behind the order
Each step deals with a way investing can go wrong that has nothing to do with picking investments.
A cash buffer means a broken boiler or a gap between jobs is paid for from savings, not by selling investments. Without one, you may have to sell after a fall, which turns a temporary drop into a permanent loss.
Expensive debt is a comparison of two rates. Interest on a credit card or an overdraft is usually charged at many times the rate a portfolio might be expected to grow at, and the interest is certain while the growth is not. Every pound that repays the debt saves its rate in full.
The five-year horizon is about time to recover. Share prices can fall by a third or more and take years to come back. Money needed sooner has less time to wait for that.
Putting it on one page
A household with £2,000 a month of essential spending, an example:
Cash in an easy-access account. £7,000, three and a half months of essential spending.
Credit card balance. £2,500.
Stocks and shares ISA. £18,000.
Workplace pension. £40,000, not reachable until the minimum pension age.
Seen separately, each figure looks fine. Seen together, they show that paying off the card would leave cash for a little over two months, that most of what is owned cannot be reached for years, and that the card's interest is certain while the ISA's growth is not. None of that is a recommendation. It is what the guidance asks you to look at, in one place.
How Fairworth does it
In Fairworth, cash and savings accounts, investments, pensions and property sit next to the loans and mortgages against them. The Overview shows gross assets, money owed and net assets for all of it. A loan carries its interest rate, fixed or floating, and its interest builds up automatically each month, so the balance owed stays current.
The Holdings page sorts what you own by when you could reach it: available now, restricted (pensions, Junior ISAs and Lifetime ISAs), or illiquid (property and private investments). Fairworth shows these figures; it does not tell you how much cash to hold or what to do with it. Your net worth covers what goes into each figure.
Further reading
- Should you invest? (FCA InvestSmart)
- A beginner's guide to investing (MoneyHelper)
- Pensions and investing guides (MoneySavingExpert)
Guidance was checked against the FCA and MoneyHelper in October 2026. This page describes that guidance; it is information, not financial or investment advice.
More on Net worth
- Net worth: should the house and pension count? ExplainerThe home, the mortgage, a defined benefit pension, and three figures that are more useful than one.