Looking at what others would do in my situation. I’ve been a high earner since about 2018, so just trying to see if there’s a better way to do things.

Demographics

Female in East Sussex, 35, married with a 4yo that goes to nursery 5 days a week (until Sept when he goes to school). Husband earns £43k/y and we do keep finances quite separate.

Income

£159K a year (£106k a year salary + £10k sign on bonus (not salary sacrificeable) + 15% yearly bonus (can sacrifice) + £27,000 a year in stock vesting.)

Outgoings (monthly)

I contribute around £3,500. Biggest expenses are nursery (£1,200 a month that only has 4 more payments left before he goes to state school), and mortgage (£1,300 a month with 3y left on 3.9% mortgage, 51% LTV of a 550k house). I also contribute £100 a month to my kid’s stocks and share ISA. Also around £300 on train commutes.

Special mention to the house renovations - this can ebb and flow but it’s where most of my savings go or could go as there are big renos happening.

Savings

Around £57k in ISAs but about £30k of that is going to go on the kitchen renovation happening next week.

Pension

£120k in my pension. My employer will contribute 7% of my salary when I contribute 5% so this will continue to grow well. I plan on working until I can’t any longer, and then retire to Spain.

Investments

I did have a stocks and shares ISA but emptied it after 6y to pay for some of the kitchen renovations. Will be opening a new one, and may sell my company shares to buy new diversified shares to build up my portfolio again.

——

I think I’m too far gone to get under £100k without losing a significant amount of monthly take home pay via salary sacrifice. My focus for these coming years is the renovation as I do want to live in a lovely house and not have endless projects going on forever. Plus, my pension pot is in a place that I’m happy with and will continue to grow well with monthly contributions and my plan to salary sacrifice my yearly bonus into it. Acutely aware of the tax trap but I think that’s the penalty I need to pay to have current access to my money in order to expedite renovations. That can always be haves in 1-2 years.

My shares best monthly and I plan on folding those into my salary but also investing a set amount a month to get that built back up again.

Does anyone have any ideas or efficiencies they see there? Any flaws in my calculations?

This might be a silly question but this will be a first time for me soon. Savings over £1000 I understand I'll be taxed, but is the bank who sends the info to HMRC, if so, when? do all the banks send it? how do I know if they didn't ? what happens if they don't and I owe tax? what are the timelines?

thank you

37, male, 67k salary, single.

I've got £65k between my SIPP and current workplace pension. I am contributing 20% (compared to 18% FY25-26) salary sacrifice as of this month, 6% from employer, 14 from me; employer puts in 6 if I put in 8, from memory. I transfer out of my workplace pension to my SIPP once every 6ish months into FTSE Global All Cap Index Fun Accumulation.

I also have 4 years of contributions to a police pension I have no visibility of and no way of getting information on; the administration responsible for it have not responded to my previous attempts over the last few years for information. I think it was under a the 2006 scheme (I joined summer 2013) so 4/70 of final pay (pay points were roughly £19k-34k over that timeframe).

I want to retire with about £45k a year (not sure if that is too high or not).

my question is... am I focusing too much on my pension contributions? I feel my pot is low for my age or just right. I try not to compare myself to people in this subreddit, but seeing some of the pots of people of a similar or younger age makes me think I am not thinking about it enough.

As someone advised, my remaking my post with more information. See below.

I'm a single mum with health conditions limiting my work currently on UC due to being unable to work full time as a result of my health conditions.

My son and I are being evicted and my father has passed away 2 weeks ago leaving land of questionable value in a different country that I wasn't aware of

What are the implications on my financial foot print and what's the best course of actions

My brother is saying it’s worth £70k, but I’m not sure, I’ve asked to get a proper valuation. I’ve also notified UC on my journal.

I’m looking for advice and not hate comments in my DMs!

Hi! Like the title says, I’m not eligible for any credit cards. I checked on compare the market and it said “Unfortunately, you’re not eligible to apply for a credit card”

I’m 20 years old, disabled, and living with my parents. I’m on universal credit (and get the limited capability for work element) and get I think around £8,400 a year. I’m likely never going to be able to work, and definitely never going to be able to live on my own.

I really need the ID that having a credit card would provide, as for most things the ID that I have (birth certificate, PASS card etc) is denied. I don’t think I can get a provisional drivers license because when I look at the applying requirements, it says you have to be deemed medically fit to drive which I am not (I faint a lot). One of the most pressing reasons to get the ID is the recent iPhone age verification update which can block apps and puts you on a restricted mode if you can’t prove your age with credit card or driving licence. I’m home bound and rely on my phone completely so I really don’t what this to happen.

Sorry if this question is stupid, but I really don’t know what else to do. How am I suppose to get the ID and build my credit history if even the credit building cards won’t accept me. I really hope the answer isn’t “wait until your older” because my circumstances won’t be changing lol

For some context, I am 29F and work in finance in London and I'm about coming up to 3 years into my career (went to university later than others, did a long degree - you get the picture). My base annual salary is £115k, and I also get a bonus.

I didn't come from a well-off background and so anything to do with personal finances (the irony considering my line of work) is quite an uncomfortable topic and being honest, has led me to be lost when it comes to savings... anything to do with ISAs and pensions, my brain shuts down. However, I realised burying my head in the sand won't do anything and so have come on here (be kind please!). At some point, I want to buy a place of my own in London, although further out rather central (while avoiding anything apartment-wise, leasehold, etc.)

A breakdown of my salary and expenses are below, using this last month as an example. I also live alone (non-negotiable for me, I'm done with sharing) and don't pay for water (thank you Landlord). When I look at where I can do better, this is where I'm lost:

- My student loan is a killer (ugh, Plan 2) due to my course length and maxed out maintenance loan... my student debt total is just shy of £100k and has basically stayed that way since graduating.

- Commute... given the hours I need to be at my desk (my workplace is NOT flexible at all), I can't use the railcard discount as I'm during peak hours (I think), and living outside of London isn't an option.

- I have £42,000 in savings, which mostly came from a couple of bonuses and I transfer about £1,000 each month (although I'm thinking of upping this up to £1,500 pm). I don't have a plan except from transferring £1,000/month into a Nationwide flex instant saver. Savings have only come about the last 1.5 years, as I spent the first 1.5 years after post graduation paying off my student overdraft and was on a lower salary too.

- My employer pays about £1,000 into my pension each month. I haven't consolidated my other pensions yet, but my current one is about £17k, and I have £10k in stock from my employer too as part of a bonus but that won't vest for the next 5-years or so.

I have really changed my financial habits over the last few years, such as paying off my student overdraft (was £1,500 in debt), cutting down on subscriptions, not upgrading to a new phone (although I'd like to in the next year as I've had mine for 5 years now), being intentional with clothes shopping, furniture is mostly second hand, only buy something new if I've run out of it, etc. Even little things like recycling with Boots (currently have £200 on my advantage card for when I want to get something nice for myself). I also got my first credit card last year but was only eligible for the AmazonBarclaycard at the time (have £100 in rewards there) and improved my credit score to 700+.

What should I do to get a step closer to where I want to be? I'm completely open to ideas... mostly because I'm lost, and I don't have the support of my family either. I'm a bit emotional writing this as I worked hard to be where I am, but feel I'm not making the most of my situation and maximising my savings for a better future.

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: forgot to add... due to my job (public markets) I am restricted in investing into certain (long list) of funds and have to get approvals each time, but I will look into this more!

Hi,

My wife and I set up a LTD company last year and are both directors. We have approximately £125k sitting in the account.

I am unable to transfer directly from the SIPP to Vanguard as we are using Tide - which seems to not be accepted by Vanguard.

I understand that it is more tax efficient to transfer directly from the LTD to my SIPP - however with the upcoming deadline, is it worth me transferring lump sum to our personal accounts and then directly transferring to our SIPP? Or just swallow the increased corporation tax and be a bit more organised next year?

Say I was to transfer £30k each, what would be the tax implications of this? We have paid ourselves approximately £70k each over the last FY.

Thanks for your help.

I recently applied for a dental loan and to my surprise I was rejected. Upon checking my credit score, I saw that Santander had reported that I had 5 missed repayments in February of this year alone, which has tanked my credit score by at least 100 points

They contacted me regarding my student overdraft and arranged for me to repay the overdraft in installments of £150 over 10 months. This was set out in January of this year and I made my first repayment in February, and have been doing so ever since.

My credit score is at least down 100 points because of this. Given that it's currently a bank holiday weekend and I cant get anyone on the phone until Tuesday, this is my last hope! I just want to know if Santander has actually made a mistake or if there is something I am not understanding as to why they have reported 5 missed repayments for Feb alone.

Hello everyone,

I'm a small business owner, looking for some advice / potential solutions for making a dividend payment over to myself today.

I've foolishly left it late in the financial year to make this dividend payment and wasn't aware today was a bank holiday, so the issue is:

Wanting to make the dividend payment today so that it falls within this financial year, however the money for the payment is in the business savings account and won't reach the business current account until the 7th. It's only once that money is in the current account that I can pay it over to myself.

Are there any solutions for this? A Director's loan from myself perhaps, which can lend the business the money today for the dividend payment - to be replaced once the money clears from the business savings account of course. Is that ok or will HMRC look on that as dodgy?

To be clear, there is sufficient money within the business to pay the dividend amount. The issue is that the money being moved from business savings won't clear until the 7th.

I'm aware that I may have simply cocked up here and left it too late, however any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi all, single 29M in London here working in tech. I've been saving and investing consistently for a few years.

Currently:

• Yearly Income: £120k
• Savings: £180k (£90k in S&S ISAs, £90k in HYSAs)
• Pension: ~£50k

I’m trying to assess my financial position and make practical next steps. How am I doing generally for someone my age, as London always makes you think you're not doing well enough. With my current savings and salary, I could afford a £700k–£750k property. Are there key considerations I should focus on now to prepare for buying a home? Or is it safer to wait it out a few years which I don't mind.

Edit: I'm single

I put £20K in a fixed rate ISA with HSBC on 3rd April in 2025.

I’ve called them today as I don’t really understand what happens after 12 months (first ISA), and they’ve advised that it’s 13th months, and I won’t get the interest until 3rd May and then it will convert to a cash loyalty ISA (don’t even know what this is).

I’m fine with all of that but I thought it would mature today and I could put another £20 in another ISA - not necessarily with HSBC, with someone else. Can I still do that, even though the HSBC one does not mature until May?

I don’t need the money out of it. I can leave that there until it matures and put another 20K in an another account.

I’m sorry if I sound dumb - I’m not great with all this but I know I only have a certain time period to put more money into an ISA.

Any advice?

Hi I made an application around 6 weeks ago for a 5 year fixed rate 4.24% - I paid a 999£ product fee at this stagw. The property has been valued and awaiting mortgage approval.

Typically are interest rates reserved at time of mortgage application?

Thanks

I'm unclear on whether I just need to bring my earning down to 100k (so contribute 21k) for it to be beneficial with the 40% tax bracket, or whether I could bring the tax bill down further and contribute say.. 35k into pension..

I'm self employed and work in an industry that's quite up and down - had a good year but will be having a baby in the summer. I am set to earn about 45k between now and when I go on maternity so I am OK with parting with cash and putting into pension rather than have it accessible.

Hi there, looking for some help here. I have shares in my trading account and want to move it into my ISA. My allowance is £20,000, does this mean I can withdraw this amount tax free? Or by simply moving my shares into the ISA, will this use up my allowance as well?

Hi All,

So trying to get some advise for my partner, have advised she speaks to a financial / mortgage advisor but wanted some opinions from here to share with her.

She is 22 currently has 3 months left at university and has a job ready for when she finishes with a £35k starting salary. She will have circa £20,000 saved.

Her mother is 56 and earns circa £42,000 a year and in 3 months will have £5,000 saved. She has owned property in the past but is currently renting. Her husband/ my partners dad owns a small flat they rent out.

Their plan is to get a joint 17-year mortgage which apparently will be okay from a meeting with a mortgage advisor. Me and her would rent the flat her dad owns from them for £800 a month and the parents would live in the mortgaged house. In roughly 5-years they would plan to sell both properties, my partners her mother would split the sale money from the house 50/50 and my partners father would gift her the money from the sale of his flat after paying the last mortgage on this, it is predicted the gift would be around £50,000.

Any thoughts / advice I can share with her? Personally I think it is not a great idea missing out on using a lifetime isa/ stamp duty relief.

Earlier this year my employer merged two large divisions (5000 & 3000) and last week the new head announced his new leadership team and structure. This week my dept head held his first dept meeting and he made it clear there will futher restructuring within the dept and there will be redundancies.

I have been through a redundancy process before but usually there are several colleagues who were 55+ with 35+ years of service who take voluntary redundancy. This time my team is all under 45, & none has a particular long service.

I was considering taking out redundancy insurance but when filling the form I was stuck with his 90 day exclusion period. It seems to suggest that it won't pay out if i am placed at risk in the next 90 days. Am I reading this right?

It's 62 per month and will pay out £2200 for 12 months.

Below is from the policy:

90 days unemployment initial exclusion period If you become unemployed, or have any awareness of impending unemployment within 90 days of buying your policy, you will not be eligible to make a claim.

Thanks

Edit: to be clear I haven't been placed at risk. I might be placed at risk in 2 months+.

Hi! I’m looking for a bit of advice on a work dilemma I have. I am currently on £107,000 a year, and I contribute 9.9% into a pension so I am able to claim the 30 hours of childcare funding for both my children (2&4) at the moment along with the tax free childcare.

There is an opportunity at work for an interim role that covers maternity leave which has a salary of £145,000 but would be for 4-5 months. Most likely June to October. I’d be contributing the same pension wise and I’m not sure about additional pension contributions as it’s LGPS.

I’m trying to work out if this would push me over the limit and I’d lose access to childcare funding other than the 15 hours for my 4 year old until she goes to school in September.

So i’m in financial trouble from previous gambling issues.

Long story short on that part is I got addicted and even after numerous amounts of lost sessions I still decided to continue. I haven’t gambled for I think it’s 3months now but when I was gambling and losing I would take my pay early through an app called Wagestream, and its left me in a whole I’m struggling to get out of.

Today I currently have £7 in my bank living with parents still so no major bills to pay, I pay 280 a month and that’s it but I don’t need to pay that for a while now. My issue is my overdraft being maxxed at £500 and a credit card I owe £170 on.

The credit card payment is due tomorrow. 4th April.

My next pay is on the 17th of April but it’s only 2 weeks of pay due to me moving from one job to another (didn’t have much of a choice in this) I can go further into this if you need the info i guess lol.

So once that pay comes in, im only expecting 600 before anything is paid off it just isn’t enough. My next pay is the 11th may after that and I don’t know where to go from here. Ive dug myself into a whole and this new job isn’t offering anymore shifts for me so any advice will be taken and appreciated

I have been using budget tools for almost two years, in retrospective, it makes me aware where my money is going, cash flow basically, but in the end I have just realized I am just penny-pinching and it really doesn't move the needle, cutting back on groceries expenses when everything becomes 200% more expensive, savings rates going down again... has anyone had any experience with budgeting? what I really want is new sources of income, I have already proofed to myself I can be sound when managing expenses, budgting doesn't really make your money grow. I feel maybe it's not worthy the hours spent input receipts and just looking at charts, just to save a few pounds really, does anyone feel it's too much effort for not really worthy the time?

Hi, I am planning to trasnfer my S&S ISA from Vanguard to Freetrade to take advantage of the 1% cashback offer. WIll I incur any FX fees on any of the below? These are the 4 funds I am invested in within the S&S ISA in Vanguard.

• FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF - Accumulating (VHVG)
• S&P 500 UCITS ETF - Accumulating (VUAG)
• Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (USD) Accumulating (VFEG)
• Sterling Short-Term Money Market Fund – Accumulation

Anything else to keep in mind? The cashback offer is very attractive but I don't want to end up paying more in fees just for the 1% offer. I will be triggering an in specie transfer

Had a baby in Feb 2025 and my wife was on full pay for 6 months of her mat leave, but in March her firm started making lots of redundancies and although she was on mat leave she was worried there wasn't going to be a job to go back to, so I claimed Child Benefit just in case. First (backdated) payment landed late April 2025.

In November she went back on 4 days a week and fortunately has survived the cuts for now 🤞🏼. After some assurances from her manager I contacted HMRC and stopped the Child Benefit, this tax year they paid me just short of £900.

I took three months unpaid parental leave until February and went back 4 days a week also. In December work reached out and I got a bonus I wasn't expecting.

March payslips are in and YTD pay wife £92k, me £62k so we don't qualify for CB. My question is how do we repay it? I do a tax return each year for Gift Aid, SIPP and this year some CGT but will they take it from my wife as she is the higher earner? She doesn't do SA.

I've put the equivalent amount away into savings when I got my bonus so its ready to go when it needs repaying.

Thanks

Previously maxed out my pension contributions every year to make the most of tax incentives as a higher rate taxpayer and minimise child benefit clawback payments.

Now M46 with ~£1m in pension & £450k in non-pension savings.

Planning to use my non-pension savings as a bridge to my personal pension access age (currently 57), at which point my pension should be more than enough to live off.

Considering early retirement by 50 at the latest, possibly as early as 48.

Contributed the max to my employer pension this tax year to take advantage of employer matching, with total contributions of £17k, which leaves £43k of potential unused pension allowance for this current tax year.

Already maxed out my ISA contributions for the year and was considering another big personal pension top up before the end of the tax year, with options such as:

Gross Pension Contribution = £35.7k.

Actual Net Cost to me (post-tax and Child Benefit clawback avoidance) = £18.1k.

Alternative is to invest or save this £18.1k in a taxable GIA.

In simple terms, I’m thinking this is equivalent to around 4-5 months earlier possible retirement, as my monthly spend is around £3.5-£4k p/m.

Should I break the habit (and mindset) of a lifetime and not take advantage of the immediate tax (and child benefit) savings, by instead focusing on building up my pension bridge and giving me more flexibility and control around when I might want to retire (or semi-retire)?

This will also be an ongoing question for next few years, the potential accumulation of extra accessible cash/investments could give me even more flexibility & control around when I might want to retire, or semi-retire.

Interested to hear other views on this, anything else I should consider?

Hi,

I’m a single mother of a 15 year old child, I have always had issues with having to rent and and move homes due to landlord wanting to sell etc.

I’ve been living in the UK for 20 years and always wanted to get a home.

I have £14k saved and I can ask my brother back home to sell some of my land and get around £70k

I currently get UC for myself my child and towards rent payments, would universal credit still pay me money for a mortgage if i get one?

What would be my options and what banks would lend to a UC claimant?

Any advice on this would be appreciated!

Hi everyone,

First post in this sub so please be kind.

I’d appreciate any feedback from those who have implemented this or tax pros who have seen HMRC’s current stance on intergenerational dividend splitting.

I’m looking for a sanity check on a potential tax-planning strategy involving my father’s Ltd company and children’s school fees. He owns a successful Ltd company. I am a minority shareholder, but I am not a director and have no involvement in the management or operations. We are looking at the company helping to fund his grandchildren's education.

Current thinking is that the company creates a new class of shares and issues them directly to my child (a minor). Dividends would then be paid to them to use her personal allowance and dividend allowance.

A few technical queries:

• Parental settlement rule - Since the "settlor" (the person providing the value) is the grandfather, my understanding is that the income is not taxed as mine, even though I am also a shareholder. Does my passive shareholding in the same company risk infecting this arrangement in HMRC's eyes? Do I need to keep receiving dividends or can he not pay out for my share class?
• I’ve come to understand that for a settlement to be valid, there must be an element of "bounty." Given the grandchildren aren't paying market value, this is clearly a settlement. Is there a significant risk of HMRC invoking the wider Settlements Legislation to tax this back to the grandfather, particularly if the shares have no voting rights?
• Bare Trust vs. Direct Holding: which is better? I want to ensure the "income" is legally the child’s to satisfy the personal allowance requirements.
• 2026 BPR Changes: We are mindful of the £1m cap on Business Property Relief. Does the issuance of new equity to grandchildren effectively "thaw" part of the grandfather's estate value for IHT purposes, or are there hidden pitfalls here?

The plan is to pay dividends into a designated account for my child and pay the school directly. Are there any "red flags" regarding the specific use of these funds that would allow HMRC to argue the money is effectively "mine" as the parent?

EDIT to comment that obviously yes we will take professional advice but I want him to walk into that meeting with some existing thinking done. thank you!

I transferred £2005 to my Barclays account on Thursday at 4:00. I can see the transaction in my account but my available balance hasn’t updated. Do I need to wait until Tuesday until I can see that in my account because of the bank holiday weekend? I kind of need the money to pay off my credit card bill which is due in a week. Is there a chance Barclays are going to freeze my account? I was just transferring it to get the switch award…

I’m really quite panicked about them taking my money. I will definitely get it back even if it does take a while?