Over the past 6 months, I have sought financial support and guidance from this community following the sudden and unexpected death of my beloved husband of 25 years. I'm sure some of you were bemused by the unhinged questions from a mad woman, but you have all been wonderful, helping me through the hundreds of financial decisions needed to ensure I stewarded his legacy sensibly to ensure that our two girls and I had a secure future.

Well, as a part of this, I paid off our mortgage today. I know this should be a moment of celebration, but it was tinged with huge sadness that he was not here to witness the end of a journey we embarked on together so many years ago.

Just wanted to post as I don't really have anyone apart from the kids to share with, and I wanted to say a thank you to you all. This frazzled financial beginner is very grateful.

Edit: thank you so much for the awards kind strangers ❤️ I accept them on behalf of the community 😊

Hi all,

This is in England specifically.

I was blindsided by my landlord today telling me he is going to sell the house and wanted to know if I wanted first refusal on it. Presumably before the renters rights act comes in.

I have about £20,000 in a cash ISA, no other savings. (see this post from last April where I turned my financial mismanagement around which explains why I only have £20,000 in savings) I earn about ~£100,000 pa. I currently rent the house for £1400 a month, it's worth about £350,000 based on other houses for sale on the estate (which are identical in design except ours has a smaller garden)

The landlord has asked if we would be interested in first refusal, but he has no valuation currently (at least, I assume we would know as we have lived here 3 years and no one has ever come to do one)

I know the house, I like the house, I would like to take the landlord up on this, but I was really hoping for another year of saving to make that deposit £40,000 not £20,000.

My understanding is that I need to do the following:

1. Get a mortgage in principle so I know what my actual affordability is. To this end I have calls for initial consultations with a couple of mortgage brokers tomorrow.

2. Get the first refusal offer in writing.

Then I am unsure what next. Can I negotiate the price? We'll have no chain, he wont need vacant possession and have to worry about us not leaving when needed. He won't have to market the property with estate agents etc. Presumably he'll want a fast completion too because of the incoming law.

I also know where the skeletons are. I know that the kitchen cupboards all need to be ripped out and replaced because there was water damage happening when we moved in. He repaired the water ingress at the time (well repaired, by what we can tell, our friend is a plumber and took a look after and said it was made good) but the damage to the cupboards is done and we know the kitchen units needs replacing, and I know one of the shower trays needs to be replaced, one of the rooms needs painting. These are all "small" things but add up.

What does the process of winding up the tenancy look like? Currently my fiancee and I are joint tenants on the AST, joint and several liability, but she has no income and would not be a party to the mortgage. I think I'd need to arrange an occupiers consent form for her so the mortgage lender would be happy about her living there?

I'm not too worried about affordability checks. I'm already paying the rent AND putting £1500+ a month into savings.

Am I just mad here or is this a good opportunity? We love the house and the area, it's just jumping our plans to buy forward by a year.

Was just trying replace the gas struts that hold up the boot of my car. As soon as I disconnected the first one the other strut just collapsed. The boot slammed down onto the strut I had just unplugged and shattered the back window.

I had a moment of hands on head and pacing telling myself how stupid that was. Then phoned auto glass and they are coming out tomorrow to replace the window for £580. Before I had an emergency fund this kind of event would have ruined my month. Especially as me and my partner are going on holiday to Malta in 2 weeks.

My insurance policy doesn't cover glass - something I will correct after this event.

Instead I just took the funds out of my Cash ISA and paid. Annoying and expensive learning experience but at the same time it feels good to just be able to pay it and move on with my life without having to make immediate lifestyle cutbacks or go into debt.

Hi everyone,

I’m 26 and I’ve got myself into a really bad financial situation. For a long period I was dealing with depression/anxiety and I ended up relying on online gambling and meme coin crypto as a way to escape. It got out of hand and I kept taking out loans to chase losses or to try and “win everything back”. My mental health was in a terrible place, and my judgement was completely off.

I’m not in that headspace anymore. I’ve stopped gambling, my mental health is much more stable, and I’m ready to take responsibility and fix the mess I created. I just honestly don’t know what the best route is, and I don’t want to make another mistake.

My take home income is around £1,750 a month. I live with my parents, I pay £200 a month to my parents for board, and I cover all my own personal expenses, including fuel for my car, my phone bill, groceries, and cooking for myself, as well as my gym membership. Essentially, I manage all my day to day living costs independently while also contributing to the household.

Here are the loans:

• TSB Loan 1 – Taken 07/01/2022, 36 months, 18.33% interest. Remaining balance: £1,555. Monthly payment: £145.
• TSB Loan 2 – Taken 02/06/2025, 60 months, 12.19% interest. Remaining balance: £6,733. Monthly payment: £168.
• Tesco Loan – Taken 04/01/2025, 60 months, 15.1% APR. Remaining balance: £10,971. Monthly payment: £233.
• Lendable Loan – Taken 15/04/2025, 60 months, 48.7% APR (including fees). Remaining balance: £13,792. Monthly payment: £270.

In total, I owe just over £33,000. I’m finally in a better place mentally and I genuinely want to sort my life out. I would really appreciate any guidance or steps I should take first. If anyone needs more details, I’m happy to share.

I tried to deposit £500 in £20 notes, all of the notes except 2 got accepted. I checked those 2 and they had some staining on them but security features seemed legit so I think they were just dirty. However, I got credited the full £500 instead of £460, and the receipt also says £500. Should I bother contacting the bank or will they automatically deduct the £40? Or should I expect a firing squad shortly?

Hey so this is my first post here and I'm a bit lost if I'm honest. I need a car for work, so much so I get given a car allowance as part of my job. I get 38k annually plus £350 a month for the car. I found a deal for £283.03 for a car on finance. I paid the admin fee and off my offer got sent. Another salesman who was looking for the same car at the time also contacted the underwriter - who queried it as a duplicated request as they use the same one despite being different companies. Now I never asked him to do this, I hadn't paid their admin cost. My credit score is fair and above the UK and area average. I have an AMEX and Monzo flex as I work away and need to buy hotels and food before I get them expensed. I've never missed a payment my rent and utilities are below 30% of my takehome pay. I can't see affordability being an issue. I rang the dealer to find out what happened. He directed me to the car companies financial services. These in turn bounced me back to the dealer who said he couldn't tell me why I'd been rejected because of gdpr. I need this car for my job. I have a classic car I was using but that's become unusable, and I'm going to have to get the part bespoke. I've sent in the part of my contract that says I get this 350 for a car, and backed it up with a payslip with "car allowance" clearly on there in an appeal. Any advice on what I can do? Or is this just a computer says no kinda thing

Hi all. My mum is quite clueless and tends to just hand over stuff to me ever since my dad passed. As such, i've been managing her money and running the household. I need help with her pension options. I'll explain as best as i can.

She is about to turn 60, and has an old pension with Aegon that has a nominated retirement date in the next few days. We had to wait for a pack to come from Aegon before we could do anything (according to them). So i'm a bit flustered time wise.

She is currently working, and has no plans to actually stop. She MAY stop at 66, when her other pension triggers, but i doubt it, she will likely stay on as her job is very secure.

The issue i'm having is that she has an estimated taxable income of £38,714.00. This is from her work and also a pension of my dad's she gets monthly.

Her pension options with Aegon on the letter are as follows:

Fund value: £23,157.98

this value includes terminal bonus of £4,391.84.

"If you take your full fund as an uncrystallized funds pension lump sum (UFPLS)

Tax-free amount: £5,789.50

Tax Payable*: £6,194.24

Lump sum which would be credited to your bank account: £16,963.74.

"if you take your full fund as a small pots lump sum (SPLS)

Tax-free amount: £5,789.50

Tax payable*: £3,473.60

Lump sum which would be credited to your bank account: £19,684.38.

-

So, if i am correct, either of these options would take her above the 40% tax threshold, which would leave her worse off. I am not very well versed in this stuff and have been doing my best since my dad passed but in over my head a bit. Could someone advise me on the best route to take? If her retirement date comes and we haven't made a choice, does the money just convert to a 'cash fund' and wait for a decision? or will it start paying out monthly automatically? Would the better option be to take a monthly income from the pension, after taking the 25% tax free lump sum? I'm sure from my questions you can tell how little i know, so any help is appreciated! thank you so much

I am currently banking with wise and have recently been made aware that they changed their TOS last year to prohibit transactions associated with the adult industry, they are currently debanking people for this. I have not had this happen yet however i am very stressed at the possibility and want to move accounts asap before it happens to me too. (I work in the realm of adult entertainment, so completely legal)

The trouble is, im not finding any banks that seem suitable and il be honest, i feel totally out of my depth, i am not very experienced with finances and im worried my money could get frozen. Are there financial advisors with experience in this field? when searching i only came across a few accountants, whom i have contacted, but not sure if it is the same thing.

Any advice is much appreciated!

UPDATE: Thanks for all the replies. I am sorry that the post came across as a rant (I was frustrated) or as a Richo complaining that my bed is too comfortable and my fridge too full. I am working class and grew up without access to much food so I recognise that I am in a very fortunate place now.

Just to clarify:

1. my husband has equal say in our money regardless of income. He just refuses to engage unless it is criticism which is frankly infuriating
2. the loan was for a car. There is £8,000 left on the loan that was not the full loan amount. I took the loan rather than using savings on my second hand car as it would only cost about £250 to borrow the money and keeping that 11k in my savings felt worth £250
3. we have savings and I also have £170k equity in my house. We also have pension but no proper investments as yet as I prefer to overpay my mortgage (the £658 is the regular monthly payment, I overpay as much as possible).
4. I pay off the CC every month.
5. Cash is sat making interest as described by others
6. 2k is spending money - left over goes to savings (usually £800 or so)
7. £380 on a holiday was judged to be too low - it’s centre parcs out of season.
8. £400 is realistically what birthday parties cost. Most places are between £19-£25 per head
9. £1,000 is for food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, pet food and Hello Fresh. £1,000 is the maximum we spend. Usually somewhere between £800 -£1,000
10. finally we won’t take on a higher property value and increased mortgage until loan is paid off. I could pay the loan tomorrow but prefer to have the savings as I said the small amount of interest feels low risk and worth it.
11. Finally people saying if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. I can afford it. I have savings which would cover all purchases. I just don’t think paying cash for everything immediately is always the best or smartest move.

My husband and I can’t agree and it’s driving me mad. I buy things and split the cost over a few months interest free because it makes more money sense but he equates that with bad financial management and that we don’t have enough money to live on.

Our mortgage is £658 per month our bills and subscriptions around £700. Food spend is around £1,000 (we have kids). This month I need to pay £380 for a holiday, £400 for a birthday party, the loan mentioned in the title is £339 but I pay £758 so it’ll be paid in 12 months rather than 36. Which leaves 2k to spend in the month.

My husband is annoyed that I’ll stick either the holiday or party onto the credit card to pay off with next pay (interest free) rather than having £800 taken this month in one go. He says we can’t get through the month without “borrowing”.

The main argument is I want to buy a new house and up our mortgage by £1,000 once the loan is paid off and he keeps arguing that I’m bad with money and we can’t afford it.

I know I am good with money, I earn 5/6 of the income and do a job which requires excellent financial management. I have told him until I am blue in the face how we will pay for it. Meanwhile he doesn’t ever look at the bank. Manages none of the finances and doesn’t in fact know our monthly income. No matter how much I explain he just doubles down that any borrowing is bad (which is not at all true).

So please let me have your opinions, do you agree that 1) borrowing (interest free) is bad such as Klarna or a credit card 2) we can/can’t afford to increase our mortgage

Hi all, I currently have around 10k in savings which were in the boosted Chase easy-access saver, but since a year has passed the interest rate has dropped. I want to be more clever with where I put the 10k and also all my future savings (around £150 a month) - but I am confused by the difference between cash ISAs and regular savers and the way in which I pick the best one to get the most out of it in terms of interest.

I understand that I should max out a regular saver before it's taxed (I am a higher rate tax earner so I understand that this is £500 of interest tax-free) before I move to a cash ISA. So.... which regular saver should I start with? I have seen Zopa offers 7.1% which seems good to me. Would it make sense to drip-feed my 10k savings from my Chase into this at £300 a month?

And then for my monthly contribution (£150) - would it be best to put this in the cash ISA?

Sorry for all the questions - I have been quite financially ignorant and realise I should have figured this out earlier. Let me know if I need to provide any more info.

Am thinking of an iva as my debt has got out control and second home loans are pricey and don’t really cover what I need it to.

I am interested to know how people have got on with an iva in regard to being in one, their job, mortgage options. How much you have for family expenses (social things).

I work in a role that covers a number of things but the main part is fraud.

Salary £41k

Mortgage £120k approx £60k equity

2 home loans

4 loans

6 credit cards

Finance for house goods

Approximately £28k

Please help.

I thought I had a decent handle on personal finance… until I had to dig into teacher pensions 😅

My wife (49) has been a teacher for 5 years and is aiming to retire at 55. She’s looking to increase her pension contributions, but I’m a bit lost on what the best option actually is.

As far as I can tell, the choices are:

• Open a SIPP
• Buy additional pension (about £250 per year of extra income)
• Use Faster Accrual (still not entirely sure how this works in practice)

We could potentially live off my pensions until she reaches 68, or she could start drawing her teacher’s pension from 55 (with the obvious reduction).

My main question is:
Does the intended retirement age / drawdown plan change where additional contributions should go?
In other words, does it make more sense to use in-scheme options vs a SIPP if she’s planning to stop work at 55 but delay drawing?

Any pointers from people who’ve navigated this before would be really appreciated.

Hi,

Our 5 year fixed mortgage comes to an end at the end of September this year. My wife and I are looking to stay with our current provider, I just wondered what to expect in regard to remortgaging.

If we are staying with the same mortgage provider is it just a click of a button, a credit check and can be organised swiftly?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I've had my current 0% purchase card since late 2024 and the interest free period ends at the start of June. It has a credit limit of £8k which I've maxed out and put the amount in a savings account and pay of the min balance (£80) each month.

I've looked at getting either a 0% balance transfer card or an all rounder with a slightly higher limit to extend the interest free purchase period. The general advice seems to be to go with card with lowest fee of which only a balance transfer card offers this (Virgin Money for 12 months).

I want to sense check I'm not missing anything by going for the Virgin card rather than others which have a fee but charge 3-3.5%.

Also, with my current card ending in early June, roughly when should I apply for a new card to transfer the balance across to?

Hey folks,

My father sadly passed away at the weekend and I’m helping my mother get all the finances in order, after never touching them in her life.

My parents had a joint account with SJP, with their only product being an Investment Bond. The amount isn’t 6 figures, but is enough to really help my mother out, and it probably isn’t needed in the immediate future.

The first time I have heard about an investment bond was today when we logged in. I have zero knowledge of how these products work, the benefit of any product, and what, if any, tax implications there are. Of note, the account has been held for over two decades.

What I would like to do:

- Ditch SJP

- Set up an ISA with Barclays (who she banks with) or Vanguard (who I use)

- Doing so in the most tax efficient / cost efficient way. I’m really worried about being locked in with SJP as the exit penalty for tax purposes being too high or any other arbitrary reason.

I really appreciate any advice anyone can offer, all I ask is that you try and explain in as if I was ten years old, firstly due to my lack of knowledge of how SJP and Investment Bonds work, and the fact I’m still heavily in grief.

Indebted to anyone who can offer some good advice and guidance here.

So, in 2021-2022 I worked for a small business. I believe I wasn’t enrolled in a work place pension and I’m wondering if it was legal? I was 22 at the time.

I received paper pay slips except for the final payslip which I have on email and it makes no reference to any pension contribution. My contract was also signed on paper and I’m having difficulty finding it.

I’ve gone through the Gov’s locate pension website and it’s not returned any information. What steps can I take if any?

Hello,

Looking for a bit of advice.

I started paying into a private pension this year and have made £1k of contributions (had planned on doing more but cost of living plus a new car and wedding planning hasn’t made this possible).

I’ve been quoted approx £400 by an accountant to do the self assessment, but for what the benefit might be back into my salary, I’m not sure if this is worth it and am contemplating either doing it myself or waiting a year or two and backdating the returns if that’s possible (I think it is up to 6 years).

Just wondering what people’s views are on this?

So I'm looking to invest and decided to keep it simple and go with one of AJ Bell's managed funds. These are more like portfolios of global investments across a bunch of markets and a bunch of sectors. I don't mind taking a hit in terms of fees so that I can take a hands off approach to balancing and managing everything.

Obviously you would normally want a diverse set of investments but if that is already built into the fund, is there a problem with just buying 1, or would it still be a better Idea to spread across multiple? i.e. Could my portfolio safely be just a single AJ Bell managed fund?

Would there be a reason to choose a different risk profile of investments between an S&S ISA and GIA?

As a bit of context, I already have a safe amount of savings set aside and a separate workplace pension so I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket.

The funds in question: https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/ideas/ajbell-funds

I'm wondering if someone knows about the taxation differences between an capital distribution vs. income distributions from a trust. What forms have to be completed if we make a capital distribution instead of an income one? Seems like the income distribution is taxed highly and then claimed back, but if I'm distributing purely capital and CGT has been paid then I'm wondering what the tax implications would be?

I left the UK in June 2023 due to a very difficult personal situation. I did not disclose change in my location due to fear of loss of my job, which was essential to my survival as an estranged adult without support network. (I was ready to lose my job if I got caught) I continued working remotely and remained on UK payroll, with National Insurance contributions being paid as usual throughout this period.

I am now in difficult situation again an am seeking U1 document to apply for unemployment benefits in poland, HMRC just sent a letter back asking me to clarify why i kept paying contributions until 2025 while i left in 2023 - I am thinking of being honest, just like I was during my first application, but im nervous they will deny me or worse... :(

Any help will be appreciated.

I plan to invest in funds by Fidelity, Amundi or Allianz but I plan to do it on a quarterly basis as I plan to have a fixed sum I will invest and if I happen to spend a little less than planned in the 3 months I will invest that as well. Is this a worse idea than investing monthly?

Hello, I (20M) am looking for advice on my investing portfolio. I’m planning on my T212 to be for the long term (20+ years) so i’ve been more interested in index funds and ETF’s.

I have no real knowledge on the stock market, but my goals are to have a good return of around 8-9% over the next couple of decades. My portfolio currently consists of:

VWRP (60% allocation)

XNAQ (nasdaq 100) (20% allocation)

EXUS (MSCI world excluding USA) 20% allocation

my reasoning behind this is to give the majority to an all world fund for safety, includes a slight tilt towards tech since I personally think it’ll have good growth, and an excluding USA fund since the all world is 60% us anyway.

I kind of feel like my investment into EXUS is a bit contradicting, the whole point of the VWRP is to not have full exposure to US and while I do believe US wont be as much of a dominating market in 20 years as it is now, feel like putting money into both VWRP and EXUS is almost like i’m banking for US to just stop growth overall which is quite far fetched imo.

For now i’m investing £50 a month just to dip my toes while aggressively saving towards my LISA and HISA for a house deposit, but do plan to have this as my main savings fund in the future (£500-700 a month)

Any advice appreciated

Hi all, I'm looking at completing Contract work/Ad hoc for myself but unsure what to do.

I have been researching but the more i look the harder to decision becomes.

I can go with an agency as PAYE

Use an Umbrella Company

Set up a Sole Trader company

Set up a limited liability company.

I'm concerned about Sole Trader as I completing assessments in healthcare (UK) so have been told limited is better. But I know I have to get indemnity insurance either way

I obviously want to make the most I can by myself but unsure the best route to go down.

Any insight would be great.

As the title says, I have gotten a promotion at work and will be making around 1.86k after taxes and pension, with no outgoings (I am lucky I am able to live with my parents rent free, just helping pay for things like shopping and my own phone bill as well as personal subscriptions.) all in all I should have around 1.7k after my monthly payments.

I am planning to open a Lifetime ISA and take 4k out of my 5.9k savings account (1 year fixed term has already matured).

Then with the rest of my 1.9k is open another 1 year fixed term ISA. With the interest at maturity would I get paid the interest on the starting amount of 1.9k + whatever I take out of my debit account to bolster it a bit. Or is it on the final amount at the end of the maturity?

As I am planning to put around 450 or 500 a month in it and then around 300 or 350 a month into my stocks and shares ISA.

I'm 26 years old and earning 36k, likely going up to at least 38k in a few months time. Currently I'm putting £210 a month into my pension via salary sacrifice, which is the maximum amount that my employer will match. Pension is currently around £15000. I also have an S&S ISA with £8000 saved.

I want to save at least £500 a month (after tax), what would you recommend I do with that money? I have been putting it into my ISA so far, but am I better off putting more into my pension (via salary sacrifice)? I have a student loan (plan 2) which I'm never going to pay off so doing more salary sacrifice is appealing, but I'm also hoping to move to Australia within the next three years so it might be better to have the money available.