Around a month ago I had posted my financial state and asked your opinion on me getting a new car with a personal loan. As you can guess nearly all the comments told me that was a bad idea.

I am back today to tell you that I listened and to thank you for that advice. Just bought a 17 year old Mini for £2000 without any loan. I love the car and I feel relieved that I did not got for a brand new £12000 car, for which I would have been paying £400+ per month in loans.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Becuase of you lot and this sub I am still financially healthy and debt free. 🥰

P.S. I have allocated a sum from my monthly budget for maintenance of the oldie but goldie.

So in 2018 I got into around 16k of debt due to a drug addiction.

I got professional help, got clean and stayed clean, turned my life around.

It also forced me to finally get good with my money which it has and I'm in a much better position now.

I also finally pay it off next month. - I've got used to not seeing 80 quid a month for 6 years... So i guess my question is, what can I do with it so it can make it beneficial for me?

I've looked at saving accounts but they all require a minmum of a grand lump sum for a fixed rate..I can of course put it in an insatant access savings account but that doesn't really seem sutible for me... I was also thinking of paying it into my pension but my mum said it's not worth it as I'd get a government pension when I retire, I have 2 pensions, both from former workplaces that I never pay anything into now I don't work for these companies anymore. The first one is with legald and general has just under 3k in it and the second one is with nest and that has 117 quid in it - I was thinking about consolidating them both into one pot and then drip the 80 quid a month into it.

I want to do something with it. - but because it's such a small amount, will it be worth it? or should I just enjoy this "Payrise" even though I don't really need it and all my bills and expenses have been sorted every month.

Other things I thought of..

Premium bonds?
Invest it?

I know it's pennies compared to other people who ask for advice on this sub though but any advice would be great!, Thanks.

A couple of years ago I spent my entire life savings (£13k) on a small flat, aged 35. That included the deposit, plus the lawyer fees etc. Getting a place of my own was an absolute priority. Since then, I have never been able to rebuild my savings, because owning a flat is costly and I've needed lots of bits and pieces done to it (a few hundred here, a few hundred there).

My current salary is £43k, and I take home about £2660 after student loan and the usual deductions. I have no savings. I have a credit card debt of £5000 which has been stable for around 5 years and I got it onto a zero interest card last year. I also have a significant overdraft in two separate accounts (something I've had for over 10 years) totalling £2500.

I have made some bad financial choices in the past. Nothing terrible, but definitely unwise. I've often struggled with money and I think it's a combination of ADHD and a lack of financial education when younger. Other people around me seem to be able to save and I just can't - I definitely waste money, but I don't feel like I have a flashy life either. I admit I have a luxury in the form of a finances car which costs £210 a month and the contract lasts another 3 years.

My rough outgoings monthly are

Mortgage - £560

Car finance - £210

Council tax - £100

Credit card DD (more than minimum) - £275

Electricity bill - £210

Groceries - £175

Phone contract - £40

broadband - £40

Home insurance - £30

Car insurance - £50

Pet insurance - £25

Pet food - £30

Petrol - £120

Trains to work - £80

Streaming services - £30

Eating out - £100

Overdraft servicing - £50

Add all that together and it comes to about £2,225. Which in theory leaves £435 a month.

Unexpected costs some months are things like new car tyres (£250) repairing a bash in my car (£450), roof leaking and needing repair (my share £500), new carpet needed after a friend spilled wine (£400), friends wedding hotel night and gift (£200). So the missing money is often spent on one off costs. So we're not talking much wiggle room every month.

It kind of pisses me off that at my age, I'm kind of stuck. I also sometimes feel bitter than I'm single and have to meet so many costs alone (as part of a couple splitting costs in my flat i would be saving hundreds each month).

I really want advice and to be reassured I'm not a loser or an idiot. I'm really struggling to get a handle on this. It's not good, but it's not catastrophic either... Right? Advice or help welcome. Do I need a second job? Do I need to do something drastic? Help!

Recently divorced and trying to rebuild/map out my future financial roadmap.

All,

I know I probably need professional financial advice on the pension/PSO front, but I would like any opinions/views on my debt repayment and subsequent investment plan. My goal is to draw down 4-5% from my pension pot post-retirement. Following the divorce, I no longer own any property.

Age: 48 Location: UK (accommodation, rent deducted at source). Income: £5K/month. Expected Pay Rise: September 2025, from £91k to £98K. I expect my salary to top out in the next 5 years at 115-120K.

Savings: £6K (divorce took all my previous savings).

Debts: • £2K on 0% credit card (0% until June 2025, then 20%). Ex-wife’s that I agreed to take responsibility for.

• £5K personal loan [car] (£232/month, 2.5 years left). Car is worth £8.5K according to WBAC.

• £7K family loan (£26/month, no interest). 

Monthly Outgoings: • £800child maintenance • £200 subscriptions • £450 food • £100 utilities • £50 insurance • £150 incidentals • £232 loan repayment • £26 family repayment • Total outgoings (excl. savings/fees): ~£2K/month

School Fees: £4K every four months (paid from savings). I add £1200 to savings every month.

Investments: None yet — planning to invest monthly (£1,500–£1,750) into a global ETF portfolio.

Goal: Build a second pension pot of £1 million + by age 66

Retirement Plans: • £50k tax-free lump sum at 60 • £28K/year pension (defined benefit) from 60 (this reflects reduction following divorce and PSO). • Full UK state pension from age 67

⸻

Plan:

Pay off credit card in the next two months. Then, I plan to settle my car loan (APR 6.9%). Finally, I will pay back the family loan by December 2025 so any real investment plan will begin in January 2026 when I will be 49.

I would like to buy a hot hatch (new Golf R Black Edition or a used 718 Cayman Porsche) but suspect this will not be possible (it has been a very rough 3.5 years with the divorce).

I plan to use £1K per month to help fund our child through University (pay all accommodation-food and give them a monthly stipend so that they do not need to take out a maintenance loan). They are currently taking A-Levels [first year].

This should not impact on my investment disposable amount below.

• Invest £1,500–£1,750/month into an aggressive accumulating ETF portfolio (EIMI/WSML/IWDA/LGTG/INRG). 

I may be able to invest more but, as a minimum, I plan to increase annual deposit amounts by 2-3% annually to allow for inflation.

• Use ISA/SIPP wrappers for tax efficiency.

• Rebalance yearly, aim for ~8.5% return over 18-20 years?

Questions:

• Am I on track for £1M +by 68?

• Any advice on balancing ISA vs SIPP contributions?

• Would you tweak my ETF allocations for higher return or lower risk?

Is renting post-retirement a bad idea?

Would I be better off buying an investment property with a 15-20 year mortgage in the next 5 years?

I hope my outline is clear enough but please ask any questions if it is not.

Thank you in advance.

MoH

Hello,

I currently have a stocks and shares lifetime ISA with OneFamily, which is doing poorly in the current market. I'd like to put my money somewhere safer going forward as I'm hoping to buy in about two years. I believe I can open a Cash LISA in addition to my existing stocks and shares one, but when the time comes to buy can I access both in parallel to buy my first house?

Thanks very much!

For context, I am a 24M. I live at home in London (Zone 2).

My job is an Office Admin for a Finance firm and I am on 26k per annum.

I live at home in London (Zone 2), and have no Massive expenditures (I contribute £200 a month to bills.

I have about 7.5k savings.

However, as I don’t meet the threshold to pay student finance (£27,500), I haven’t started to pay it off yet.

I have been working for my company for two years, and they can’t offer me any progression or a pay rise.

I really want to go travelling for 6 months in South America in October.

Do you think It would be financially stupid for me to quit my job in the current financial state that I am in to go travelling?

My partner and I are first time buyers who’ve just had an offer accepted on a house, and our deposit is currently split between a savings account and a LISA.

As it’s the new tax year now, I’m wondering if it’s a good idea to max out my LISA?

The process with solicitors etc seems to be moving quite quickly. If I put in £4k and they need our house deposit before we get the 25% bonus at the end of May, can we still use the full amount in the LISA for our deposit?

Don’t know if that’s a stupid question but our mortgage advisor didn’t know the answer either so I’m hoping someone here can help! Thanks

This morning as I was making a coffee I realised it was the new tax year. I had 14k in a Monzo savings account waiting for today so I moved it all to my Monzo flexible cash ISA (without thinking) with the aim of putting 6.4k into my Vanguard S&S ISA in the next few weeks (probably 1-2k a week given the market at the moment, just to DCA a little bit). I also invest 300 a month from my salary so 3600 will be going into Vanguard this year.

I should have waited until I was more awake after my coffee, as I realised that if I’ve already deposited 14k to Monzo, and will be depositing 3.6k to Vanguard over the year, I can’t get 6.4k out of the Monzo flexible ISA and into Vanguard as this would make my total ISA deposits 24k as any money taken out of Monzo would need to be put back into the same ISA.

My aim is to have:

• 3.6k going into Vanguard over the course of the year.
• 6.4k into Vanguard over the next month.
• 7.6k left in Monzo cash ISA as we are renovating the house and need this liquid.

As both ISAs are flexible, the best solution I can see to achieve this is withdraw 4k from Monzo (as they don’t allow partial transfers), then do an ISA transfer to Vanguard for the remaining 10k. Then withdraw 3.6k from Vanguard and replace this from my salary @ 300 a month. I would then have the 7.6k outside an ISA that I would want back in a cash ISA.

My questions for this sub are, how much of my allowance would I have left if I did this? As I withdrew 4k from my Monzo before the transfer does that mean I have 10k deposited so 10k left? Or (as I suspect) do I have 6k (net) left after I replace the 3.6 over the year because I deposited 14k before the transfer from Monzo? Can I open another Monzo cash ISA this year and deposit the 7.6k?

Is there anything I have missed? Or can I do it another way?

Hey guys,

Not too sure if this is the right sub for this or not but I'm not too sure where else to go.

Anyway, I work in security and on the 2nd of April we were informed that the depot was being closed down and my position is at risk of redundancy. I am currently on garden leave till the 30th of April, after which I will be unemployed. Since this has happened there has been an internal email that has gone out with internal vacancies but sadly there are very few positions that I am able to apply for due to the distance of the jobs, and obviously I will be up against everyone else who has been made redundant who are also applying for the roles. The issue I have is it's a job I sort of got into by pure dumb luck and I'm hugely unqualified for anything else which pays anything near to the same wage (roughly £36k).

Due to a time where my mental health was really bad I managed to rack up a huge amount of debt which I now have in a debt management plan which is £320 a month, this only started this month gone so this is the first time in a long time I've actually had any money as opposed to living off of credit cards. My monthly outgoings on pure basics are roughly £1200 so if I'm careful I should be able to go a couple months without a job, but I'd really rather not. Due to the fact that I've only been in the company since September 2023 I'm not eligible for any redundancy payment so after my final payment in April, if I can't get another position within the company, I'm out of luck.

Now the obvious answer is just take literally any job I can find until something comes along which I would enjoy or would pay something similar to my current wage. That being said, it doesn't give me any hope or stop the feeling of overwhelming hopelessness. I am seriously concerned that this whole process is going to take a serious hit to my mental health and I'm going to get seriously unwell again. I am already having serious issues with my sleep and I'm spending a lot of time awake and worrying.

Partly I am writing this to sort of get this whole thing off of my chest, but honestly any and all advice would be seriously appreciated. I know I'm probably missing out loads of details and things like that so for any more information please drop a comment and I'll try and expand on anything I possibly can.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to give this a read, I appreciate it

I have a pension pot from years ago that's not worth much. I can cash out for £5300-ish or I can leave it and get an extra £1700 per annum when I retire (according to their calculator). After 3 years of retirement it will have paid out more than the lump sum, but I could invest the lump sum and potentially make more on it over the years. With the market drop currently it seems maybe a smart time to buy some stocks/shares - I have about £1000 in a Hargreaves Lansdowne high risk fund currently which I add to monthly (only started a few months ago), I thought I could put it there, or in a stocks and shares ISA.

Basically going round in circles, it feels like an opportunity to have a small lump sum to use now that I wouldnt typically have without lots of saving - money is tight at the moment.

I could potentially combine it with my current civil service pension also, but honestly it's all so complicated I dont know where to begin with that... any advice welcome!

Hello,

I received a bonus this year that roughly equals the amount I need to repay on my type 2 student load (£20k). If I pay off my student loan now I would pay around £3k less over the next 3 years before it would have been paid off anyway. If I paid off I may struggle to max my ISA allowance next tax year .

From reading the advice in this group and from the flow chart I think the typical answer would be go for maxing the ISA allowance, but I’m just checking whether that makes sense in this scenario where paying off the loan is feasible.

Thanks!

hey all, I'm a student and not currently working. I have secured a bunch of summer jobs as a worker for events - festivals, uni society balls, etc. they are all one-off jobs (aka I will be employed as a worker for the duration of the event, usually one night - it is not semi-permanent or permanent employment). I don't pay tax at the moment and the income from these jobs will not bring me over the tax threshold (not by a long shot - I'm earning less than £500 from these gigs combined).

I've just been sent through the HMRC checklist for my first event, in which I have been asked to confirm whether I "have another job" (employee statement, question 8). I'm not sure how to answer this. I don't know if the legal definition of "job" covers my employment. If I answer yes, my employer has said that I might have money deducted from my allowance for tax which I'd have to reclaim. Not the end of the world but would be a hassle which I'd like to avoid.

Can I answer no, given I know I won't have to pay tax and that my work is one-off, or is this the kind of situation where I just have to deal with it and claim back my money later?

thank you for helping a confused and not very employment/tax-savvy student out!

Hi, I'm am anticipating entering a higher tax rate this year as my pay rate is going up so that will tip my salary over later the 50k tax rate.

I am currently salary sacrificing into my workplace pension and contributing 5% and my employer only does the bare minimum at 3%.

So how much more will have to continually contribute in my WP in order to remain below the 50k tak threshold? How do I work this out?

Thank you! 😊

We live in the North East and recently had our property valued and put on the market which we are hoping to sell leaving us with 120K in equity. We've seen an edwardian 6-bed property nearby which is in a desirable location for our area and listed for 400K (anywhere further south and I suspect it would be 600K+)

I (30) take home 4.3K each month on salary which is to increase to 5K a month in about 18 months time when I should have a time-in-service uplift. My job is niche but secure. My partner is on minimum wage part-time (1K a month) and most of her wages go on groceries and small bills, so I would be paying for the mortgage on this new property and all the house bills. We have 1 child. I budget us having around £1100 a month left over if we did make the move, but each month this is reducing with growing prices rises. We do not have any credit card debt or car finance.

We would be looking to put down 80-100K deposit and retain 20K for fees and some home improvements. We would mortgage the remaining 300K on current rates over 30 years at approx £1,600/m.

Finances wise we have approx. 23k savings in cash ISA (emergency fund) and 5K S+S. I have a good company pension.

We've grown up in a reasonably poor area of the country with parents that were never well off, so to us this is a big decision and given current economic activity we are both a little nervous about proceeding.

Does this seem like a sensible / manageable move and are other people nervous about moving house in the current climate?

I am self-employed and want to contribute my entire year's relevant earnings to SIPP. I have other income that puts me the 40% tax bracket already without relevant earnings.

Let's say my total relevant earnings for the year are £10,000 before tax.

Do I contribute £10,000, which is grossed up to £12k in the SIPP?

Or do I contribute £8,000. which is grossed up to £10k in the SIPP?

And in either scenario can I still claim another £2k tax rebate via self-assessment - so £10k gross earnings become £12k or £14k of pension contribution due to my 40% marginal rate?

And am I correct in thinking I still pay NICs on the £10k earnings?

Hi everyone. I had some questions about the income that I have been making online. I'm currently 19 years old and in my first year of uni. I quit my job in November 2024 and before that was only making around £1500 a year since 2022. To help me get some income during university, I started selling the flashcards I made during my a levels, I promoted this on my tiktok account and have earned £1617.05 from 24th August 2024 till now. Would this count as trading income? If so, I'm aware that the allowance is £1000 so would I need to make a business tax account and register a self assessment through that? Also, how much tax would I be expecting to pay on this income? It's the only income I currently have as I don't have a job so I'm curious as to how much tax I'll need to pay on this.

Thanks for the help in advance!

The company I work for has been underpaying me due to being on an incorrect pay increment for the last 18-months and it is likely that I will get the payment for the underpayment in the next few weeks. I manage my salary to keep it just under the limit for free childcare by making extra pension contributions and last tax year that has just ended, I was about £1k under the income limit.

If I subsequently get paid for an underpayment of salary for the previous tax year will HMRC add that income to the last tax year and revoke my free childcare status as it will push me over the threshold? Or, does any income that I receive this tax year only count towards this tax years salary, even if it is a correction to an underpayment?

HMRC have been particularly useless at being able to help. After an hour on the phone, the question thoroughly confused the person and I could tell they were just fobbing me off.

Hope this doesn't get deleted because I haven't been able to find answers elsewhere.

I took out stocks and shares ISAs with Virgin a couple of years ago and split the funds between different risk levels. I checked just once and saw some growth so invested a little more when a Virgin points promotion was on (this was also the case when I first opened it), and so £15K total invested. I don't know what is being invested in, just trusting the portfolio.

Checked back a couple of days ago to see almost all my earnings of 1K+ wiped off and as an inexperienced investor started panicking. I know general advice here is to stick it out if your goals are long-term, and this is the case with me. But also managed ISAs don't seem to be getting advocated at all and with the fees as well I'm very unsure what to do. I don't want to pull money out of the ISA pool of course, but would transferring to a low-fee S&S ISA option be better, even in this dip continuing for the foreseeable? Or should I just keep the money in the Virgin ISA?

I just opened an InvestEngine S&S ISA for minimal distractions and fees, and after reading up on here have £1000 going into (self-managed) Vanguard FTSE All-World. I hope to add to it gradually, though unsure how much. Currently there is a cashback promotion with InvestEngine for top-ups/transfers by the end of May, but the bonus only starts at £50 for investments over £12,000 so unless I transfer in my Natwest cash ISA of 15K when it matures or the aforementioned Virgin S&S ISA I'm not benefitting from this.

I get overwhelmed quite easily but feel I've been naive and regret blindly going with my current S&S ISA as had I thought to look here originally I don't think I would have found many recommending Virgin or indeed any managed ISA. Does transferring the S&S just equate to a loss?

In short, I am in this for the long-haul, but to minimise my losses do I transfer my managed ISA to an unmanaged one with a single global index, or stay paying the fees for my managed one?　Am I completely missing the point?

When choosing what to invest in, I’ve seen vanguard has the stocks where it takes the top 500 companies and there is also the global one for the top 3600 companies. Is there blanket stock that covers emerging markets instead of picking singular companies? .. fyi I’m very new to starting investments so unsure if this is a stupid question or not. Any help appreciated

I am from Ireland and am moving to the UK (Cambridge) in the next 4-8 weeks for work.

I don't have my national insurance number yet and I also don't have my accommodation sorted yet so I don't have a UK address at the moment - which UK bank can I open an account with without this information? My brother lives in London, I was wondering if I could use his address temporarily until I get my own place.

Also I already have a Wise and Revolut account. If I don't have my bank account sorted by the time my new employer requests my bank details, can I use Wise or Revolut for receiving salary or is there any caveats I should be aware of?

Might be posting in the wrong place but here we go.

22/23 I made a loss of 5k in my self employment 23/24 I made a loss of 39k in my self employment

24/25 I made a profit of 3k in my self employment + PAYE 22k.

Am I right in thinking I can carry my loss (44k) forward and offset it against my 22k PAYE and 3k profit for 24/25?

I paid nearly £2000 in tax over 24/25. Would I be able to claim that back? If so, how do I do it?

Combi Gas boiler in new place is 17 years old but really don’t want to drop almost 3k on a new one…

Hey, so I stopped working in April 2024 and on my last paycheck I paid £950 of tax. As this was a new tax year and my tax code is 1257L, I should be due a refund. I logged into my personal tax account but I don’t have the option to claim this money! I’m now coming back to work soon after taking a one year career break so can I expect this refund to be added to my pay check? If not, how can I claim it?

Thanks in advance!

My workplace pension is 100% equities at the moment, and all under one global index fund. I was figuring to leave it like that until closer to retirement. However I’m maybe 6 years out and want to consider adjusting the balance of equities:bonds. Is that possible to do with only updating future contributions, or will it affect my current investments (eg sell them down to fund a set % of bonds). With recnet drops I’d prefer to not do that and just leave them alone.

I’m recently increasing contributions to around £2500 a month (sacrifice so thats gross and no tax relief). If I set up a bonds fund in my pension (Royal London) how do I set a ratio between that and the equities? or do I have to do it manually? eg buy 100% bonds until the total balance of funds hits the desired ratio (eg 60/40) and then reduce the contributions to 60% into equities and 40% into bonds to maintain that ratio each month (checking in maybe yearly to adjust if needed)

Thinking that while I might be ok with a high % equities for later in retirement, a big chunk of contributions will be going in over the next 5 years - probably more than my current pension balance. so it won’t have a huge amount of time to be affected by compound growth etc - most of the growth will be from the contributions, so I figure a relatively conservative return with a 60/40 split but less volatility may not make much difference to the end fund value?

This past tax year 24-25 I over paid tax by £300 at my most recent job, this was because my job before that didn’t give me my p45. I then left my most recent job on 1st feb 2025 and was underpaid. HMRC had me working at these 2 jobs until I started claiming uc.

Through Acas, I managed to get the rest of my pay, however this was paid 31st March 2025. I still haven’t received anything from HMRC in the post about over paying tax, despite earning less than the £12570.

I checked the HMRC website today and it’s got my old employer down as my current employer, and says I’ve started on 1 April 2025. It also says I’ve warnt £2000 this tax year (I wish I was on £2000 a day lol). But that’s the total that I earnt at my time at my previous workplace, he also went out of business so I can’t be employed by him. it doesn’t give me the option to remove my old employer.

For reference I earnt around £6000 last tax year from part time work, and paid £300 odd because one of my previous employers didn’t give my p45. To add, my latest place of employment hasn’t given me my p45 either?

What’s up with this error, and how do I fix it? Cause I most definitely have not earnt £2000 today. I just would like my money paid back to me.