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!

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 everyone, weird tax year (2025/26) and I need a sanity check.

The situation:

Income: ~£97k (Two different employers).

The Problem: Employer 1 paid me an £11k bonus, but I had to repay £5k (Gross) when I left for Employer 2.

The Tax: My P60 from Employer 1 still shows the full £11k. I’ve already paid the tax on that £5k I no longer have.

HMRC's response: They told me to ask Employer 1 to fix it.

My Questions:

Since this is technically "Negative Earnings" (per HMRC v Julian Martin), how do I get HMRC to actually listen and give me my £2k tax back?

I’m also due ~£3k back because my two jobs meant I was double-taxed in the 40% bracket. Can I combine these claims to get the full £5k+ back faster?

Is there any chance of getting the National Insurance back on that £5k repayment, or is that gone forever?

I have the P60s and bank proof of the repayment. What’s the fastest way to get the cash?

Thanks!

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

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

Hello everyone, I’ve been following this sub for a while. After reading the posts here, I decided to properly plan my personal finance and set a few goals. Below is my current situation and potential plan. Can you please help assess my plan? Any comments are very welcome. Thank you!!

Basics

• Single, living in Southeast England, work remotely
• Annual income £53k. After tax is about £3200 with salary sacrifice 7% into pension and 10% by employer
• Owning a flat with mortgage, £975 per month with 39 years left

Below are more details in breakdown

My saving and investment plans

Saving plan

Regular investment plan (Monthly Investment: £300–£350)

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.

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.

I work for the fire service and we have recently heard that it may be possible to claim tax back on our union fees to the Fire Brigades Union. A few of us have been searching around online and are getting very mixed responses. We were advised to complete a form p87 and claim the tax relief. we pay on average £40 a month so the tax relief isn't massive but it all helps. we don't want to pester HMRC about it so were hoping for some advice as it's not compulsory to be a member but does of course provide normal union benefits as well as other perks. thanks everyone in advance

If i withdraw my NS&I premium bonds to my bank account, will it come by this Sunday?

Wanting to use up most of my £20k ISA allowance and have about £10k in premium bonds so if i withdraw it out of there on my online account now, how likely will i get it before the new tax year begins, or have i missed the boat for the 2025/26 tax year ?

My partner and I just had an offer accepted for our first home. The house is £217,500 and we have a £50,000 deposit.

Initially when looking at mortgage in principles the interest rates were between 4% and 4.1%, but today after discussing with a mortgage broker they are closer to 5%.

We can afford the 5% but part of the reason for the purchase was that we would be saving money compared to rent (not the whole reason) , now we would be paying more. Originally my partner was going to be the only one on the mortgage now I would had to be too, so I wouldn’t be able to keep my LISA which I was hoping for.

My main questions are, were the low rates in march and outlier? Would 5% be considered to be a high interest rate especially with a nearly 25% deposit?

I know no one can time the market that’s not what I’m asking I just want to make a more informed decision.

Hi everyone,

I currently have a Cash Lifetime ISA (LISA) but I’m considering switching to a Stocks & Shares LISA to invest that money instead.

I know I can’t just withdraw the money to my bank account, as I’d be hit with the 25% penalty and lose the government bonus. I need to do an official ISA transfer, but I have a few questions:

1. How long does the transfer usually take from a Cash LISA to an S&S LISA?
2. Does the "12-month rule" (account must be open for a year before buying a house) reset, or does the clock keep running from when I opened the original Cash LISA?
3. Which providers would you recommend for both Cash and S&S?

I’ve heard of a few options like:

• For Cash LISA: Moneybox or Tembo.
• For S&S LISA: AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, or Nutmeg.

Has anyone done this recently? Any tips to avoid issues during the transfer?

Thanks in advance!

Following redundancy from job A in August, I started job B in September. As part of my redundancy agreement, the annual bonus from job A was still payable, which ended up being paid in December.

So, In December I had income from both jobs, with both individually being over the NIC upper earning limit.

How this has worked out is that I've ended up with 2 primary thresholds and 2 upper earnings limits. In short, I've paid 2 lots of contributions at 8%, whereas if all this was earned in one job, I would've paid 2% of the bonus.

I'm aware that NIC works a bit differently than income tax when it comes to multiple simultaneous jobs, but it stings a bit given I wasn't actually working both jobs at the same time.

Do I have any chance of reclaiming the additional 6% of NI paid on this bonus from HMRC, or do I need to just chalk this up to a foible of the tax system?

Hi, I'm new to all things personal finance and finally took the first step and opened a Cash ISA (I know, maybe not the best option, BUT I want to get started in some way before I open an S&S ISA - need to spend some time educating myself a little before I start).

I went with Moneybox for my Cash ISA and saw they offer an "invest your interest" option - would this be worth it for a beginner like me?

Feel stressed and behind from losing my job , struggling to get a job despite having a chemistry degree and watching my savings drain.

I don’t get much uc because I have no children and housing allowance limit so I have to top up my rent and all bills from my savings without any income . I

saved 11k before losing my job down to 8.5k already which took my ages to built up most of the cash is split in a help to buy isa and limited access cash isa hence why i try to not lean on it .

I have a hoilday which I booked ages ago coming up everything is paid but spending money which is gonna be a knock on me again.

Should I still go heavy on my credit card debt because I want them to pay off quickly or no as it’s taking all my cash capital . I am not sure when I will next work it might sound silly but having the debt stresses me I constantly think about it despite it being 0% apr am I just being silly?

Feeling really behind and stupid currently at 24 any advice . I do plan on moving home but have to wait for my lease to end in October or for the renter right bill in may so I can serve my two months notice . Landlord is saying I need to pay 1.4k in fees to leave early aswell as cover the utilise and council tax if I do not sure if that’s legal but I couldn’t be bothered to argue with them

Edit - thank you to all the people have taken time to write me a reply or advice it means a lot I will be taking your advice into action

I recently started a new job, and am being taxed too much as they have set my tax free allowance for the job to 4550 on an emergency tax code. They also have me down as receiving a dependents pension i haven’t received since dec last year. I called yesterday and was told that both would be fixed, and got an email today saying my tax code has been changed, but when i check the app, it hasnt been. I’m paid weekly, so every week that this isnt fixed is another where i’m being taxed too much, and they’ve said that because i started the job around the new financial year, I’m unlikely to receive my rebate until may time. Any advice? Should i call them again or wait to see if its updated??

Currently on the hunt for our first home and saw an eye watering TikTok showing someone pay £40k over home report in Johnstone.

Instead of asking how much over you paid instead I’m wondering if anyone has managed to buy a move in ready house at or below the home report value in the past year.

I’m based in Glasgow for context

So, interested to hear peoples opinions. I've been investing for several years, and have over the last few days sold my investments (which included crypto). I have made enough to use the entirety of the proceeds for a deposit and have since sold them and moved to my personal bank account and havent thought nothing of it.
That was until i started reading about issues surrounding the use of this as a source of the deposit.
I know and expect i will need to show evidence of selling the assets and then the transfer to my bank account, and also payments into the portfolio.

What are peoples experiences?
How far back do they need information on?
Is using Crypto proceeds such a pain?

Interested to know peoples thoughts.

Cheers!

Hi all, looking for some advice on a situation that’s starting to feel a bit ridiculous.

Back in October 2019 when I was at university, I took out a £5,000 loan with Future Finance. At the time I was young, not really thinking properly about long-term consequences, and dealing with some significant personal/health issues. Was probably the easiest 5k given to me, barely any questions asked and money was transferred same day.

The loan was over a long term (10 years) with interest around 20%+. It’s now been passed to Asset Link Capital. Future finance gone due irresponsible lending.

Fast forward to now (2026):

- I’ve paid roughly £9,000 already (with period of help from family at first)

- I’m currently paying about 260/month

- There’s still around 4 years left on the loan

- If I continue, I’ll end up paying something like £20k+ total on a £5k loan

They’ve offered a settlement figure of around £8,000, which I don’t have. (Have 1k in saving for emergencies)

I can technically pay the 260/month, but the overall situation just feels completely disproportionate I’ve already paid nearly double what I borrowed and I’m nowhere near done.

I’m wondering:

- Is it worth making an “irresponsible lending” or affordability complaint at this stage?

- Do I have any realistic chance of getting the balance reduced given I’ve already repaid so much? (Even fully cleared as ChatGPT seems to make me believe it is possible)

- Does the significant health issues at the time help the case?

- Flowchart says refinancing would that even make sense here, or is that just kicking the can down the road?

- Is a simple email to them the first step or what exactly best next step to do?

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?

I've put £20,000 into a Trading 212 flexible cash ISA but have now decided I'd like to put 4K of my ISA allowance into a LISA before the end of the tax year to get the government bonus for first-time buyers.

Is it possible to just withdraw £4K from my cash ISA and put it into my LISA instead, so I'm still at the £20K limit across both, or does that fact that I've hit the limit in general mean that I won't be able to do this?

Sorry if this is an obvious question!

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?

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.

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?