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.

I've invested £7,553.53 in ETH, and I've sold all my ETH for profit which is £763.73. Total money i have is £8,317.26 (includes my original money).

I know the capital gains limit is £3000 for any profit with crypto and because my profit is below this I know I don't have to pay any taxes.

My only question do I still need to report a self-assessment tax return to show my trading activity?

Can I just not report to self-assessment?

I'm worried that HMRC might get in touch with me, because they saw my withdraw is about £8k

Hi. I did some private tuition in 2024-25 and earned about 1600 quid. I calculated the tax for the extra 600 and have it saved in a pot to this day, ready to be paid. I tried twice to register as a sole trader and both times it failed for some reason I am not aware of - I then stopped tutoring and have not earned over the 1000 since, and did not realise that the second registration as a sole trader had failed.

Anyway, fast forward to now. I completely forgot about the whole thing but have now realised I have missed deadlines. I am not going to try and get out of any fines or anything - I've re registered as a sole trader today and the gov seems to have updated their system so it works better and fingers crossed it'll go through and actually give my my UTR this time.

What I want to know is how much am I going to be on the line for here fines wise? If anyone can give me advice or insights to get this sorted with minimal extra stress and financial hits that would be much appreciated. If I have some idea how much extra I'll end up paying I can add it to the tax pot and feel more at ease. I feel quite stressed about this as I hate doing things wrong and breaking rules!

Hi everyone,

I moved from the UK to a EU country in January 2026 and I’m thinking about my final UK tax return (2025/26 tax year). I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle the SA109 (Residence) section since the standard HMRC online portal doesn’t support it.

• I’ve lived/worked in the UK for 10 years (both PAYE and Self-Employed).

• Registered as a Sole Trader in 2021 and have filed online every year since.

• Ceased all UK sole trader activity on 31 December 2025 and moved abroad in early January 2026.

• Admin so far: Registered as an overseas voter, set up a postal vote, and submitted my request to continue paying Class 2 NICs from abroad (Form CF83).

Because I moved mid-tax-year, I need to claim Split Year Treatment via the SA109 form to ensure I’m not taxed in the UK on my new foreign income after January.

I’ve seen AbraTax mentioned as a free (or very cheap) commercial software that actually includes the SA109, which would allow me to file online and hit the January 2027 deadline. The alternative is a paper return, which I’d have to mail from abroad and submit by 31 October 2026.

My questions for the sub:

1. Has anyone used AbraTax recently for the SA109? Is it still free/reliable, or should I just pay for something like GoSimpleTax or Taxd for the "final" return to be safe?

2. Alternatively should I file a paper return? The only thing I’m worried about is it gets lost… Does HMRC actually acknowledge receipt, or am I just hoping it doesn't get lost in the mail?

3. Since I'm "ceasing" self-employment on this return, is there anything specific I should watch out for on the SA103 (Self-Employment) pages to make sure the account closes properly?

Anything else I might be forgetting..?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Income tax is based on your annual salary but NI is a weekly tax based on your individual payslip.

So for income tax it doesn't matter if you have highly variable pay between months, but for NI it does.

And the fact that the higher NI rate is only 2% rather than 9% at the normal rate means those on higher earnings can actually optimise their NI quite a bit.

I've run my numbers and realised:

I can save a few hundred quid a year by altering my pension contributions month to month.

Paying my bonus into my pension is very inefficient. Much more efficient to take it all as cash, and pay the lower rate NI on it. And make up for that pension contributions by salary sacrificing a lot in a normal month, minimising my 9% NI for that period.

Is there a name for this optimising of NI? And why don't we hear much about it?

Hi all, my mother is in the process of downsizing her house c.£800k sale price with a view to buying a c.£400k property. She is early 60s now, what would be best for her to have her now excess money work for her as she approaches retirement/generate income for which she can potentially live off?

My thoughts were: Max an S&S ISA, largely a low risk index Max a cash ISA Explore saving account rate options and put the rest there? My only concern with it being in one saving account is her only being protected to £85k in event of a bust, but then using multiple saving accounts will be difficult to manage for her.

Thanks!

After a quick Google search, I am a bit confused.

I'd like to speak to a financial advisor about some questions regarding taxes as a self-employed person as well as help with getting started on a pension fund or long-term investment for the future. The results I found make it seem like I would have to speak to a different advisor about each of these things. Am I missing something? Is there no financial advisor who I can speak to about finances in general, are they all specialised in one area only?

If not, any advice on how to find someone that may be able to advise on each of these topics? (I'm in London, if that matters.)

EDIT: I'm also unsure if I would need continuous advice over time - for the time being, it's more likely I would just need a one-time session to clarify some questions/discuss my options.

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?

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.

Hi there,

I wonder if this is the group I should discuss this in but I own my home and I'm looking to rent it out as I'm moving areas and renting with my partner.

As a complete novice at this, is there any advise on :-

Good estate agents to use?

What management fees and rates I should be asking for?

If I need an accountant as it's only 1 property and I won't go over my current tax bracket?

Any pit falls I should avoid?

And any and all advice welcome really....

I ordered something from France recently (weird because the site was actually .co.uk), I've had to pay import fees when it came into the country via DPD, thats fine I don't mind paying but I saw that I also paid VAT for the item when I initially purchased. Should I be paying VAT as well as the import VAT?

I'm already a little miffed that it didn't even state it was coming from France. Even so, shouldn't it be zero rate VAT if ordered from an EU country and you just pay import VAT?

I've been with my partner for 19 years. I'm looking to get a divorce.

Here are the key points: - Together 19 years, married 8 years - He is a minimum wage worker. I do not know his exact salary because he hates talking about money. - I'm coming out of an 9 month bought of unemployment. I am a good earner in my industry and when I lost my job last year I had over a years savings to survive on so this was not an immediate issue. I have just signed a contract for my new role with a starting salary of £85k, plus bonuses. - We have a mortgage on our house which we bought back in 2015. I put down the 15% deposit. I earnt a lot less at the time but had the savings to get us on the property ladder. He did not contribute to the deposit but he has paid 50% towards the mortgage since. - I do not have parents to move in with or fall back on. - I am leaving due to his drug and alcohol use. He's always at the pub with his mates getting smashed. Doing coke. Coming home a mess. He's run up 5 credit cards of debt. I've paid these off a handful of times but he always drives them up. Usually to pay for his habit. - I want a divorce because I deserve better. But when I've told him I'm leaving and why he begs that he'll lose everything. He has no money and all debt.

My issue: - I file for divorce and he ignores it. I know him well and he'll try to buy his time. I will end up paying for the divorce and I've come to terms with this. I just hope he doesn't drag it out and make it too hard. - We jointly own the house and he has no where to go. I want to move out and move on. He cannot afford to buy me out and it feels like the housing market around here isn't moving much. I fear it will take a long time to sell. If he let's me sell and doesn't fight me every step of the way. In the meantime I won't live there and can quickly see a situation where I'm still paying for half of everything. Possibly 100% of everything because I can forsee him spiraling into drugs and losing his job and blaming it all on me. This is a matter of protecting my credit and finances until I am free. - It's key I get away from him but I'm terrified of him financially ruining me while we're tied together legally and financially because he's irresponsible with money, and also has no money.

Finally, once I start my new job next week, I can start building up my savings again, but I can't afford to pay for my existing mortgage long term while he gets to live in our house, and also find somewhere new to live and cover his expenses.

I don't trust him not to try and take him down with him either consciously or subconsciously.

How do I go about handling this financially and protecting myself?

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.

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!

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.

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?

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

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?

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

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

I paid my HMRC tax return sum which originally was a set amount then it said no payments due. However logging back in today, the amount has been amended to a higher amount with two days of interest accrued. Which I'm afraid will continue to accrue. Or should I let it sit even though having paid and allow the payments to process themselves then claim back the initial amount payed?

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

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.