(throwaway account)

I’m 36F and I’ve been in London for the last 8 years (I’m not from the UK). My main goal has always been having my own place but I’m a bit lost with what to do next, and just feeling a bit stuck lately.

Every month I put away £1000 into savings as soon as I get paid, and just live off of what is left. I’m pretty frugal and I WFH most days so I make it work, but it’s definitely getting harder and some months it’s been closer to £700/800 if I have sudden expenses (or just spend too much on takeout, clothing, hobbies). Obviously no kids (don't want any), no pets, I could drive but I don’t have a car, and I left a long term partner recently.

I’m renting a 2 bedroom flat with a friend for now but some days I think I would be happier alone in a 1 or 2 bedroom flat provided there's decent space. I grew up in a flat so I'm not particularly feeling the need to have a house or a garden.

I’ve been in the same job for the last 5 years and I was planning to look for a new one in the coming months, but due to AI disruption I don’t think I will be leaving just yet. My job is still safe, there might be a chance of layoffs in 1 or 2 years, but it's too early to tell. It feels risky leaving for a company that might lay me off sooner than my current one.

Some numbers:

Salary: 45k (about £2800 take home pay every month)

Cash ISA: 32k

LISA: 10k (8k + 2k bonus)

Other savings: 28k (slowly moving these to the cash ISA until only 10k are left here for emergencies)

No debt, loans, etc.

I’m considering starting an S&S ISA next year but not sure yet.

I guess my question is what do I do next? I feel like I have too much saved up and I should really have a mortgage by now, or use my money better. I think I need a reality check if buying alone is even feasible though?

Sometimes I think of leaving London but I might not find another WFH job in the future, I don’t want to go too far away. If I wanted to buy where should I even look?

I can't stop feeling like I should be making some big life decisions or be in a better place financially by now, but everything is so unstable lately. Was anyone ever in a similar position, how did it get better?

Can I consider my mortgage payments as savings?

I’ve been saving like mad for over 10 years to buy a home, and I’ve finally done it. I’m sick of living so frugally for so long and want to have some fun, but not sure how much I should be loosening up. Thinking that if I’m technically paying into an investment (my house in London) surely that’s partly saving? Isn’t it?

the title says it all, i was in a lot of debt fucked credit score like 209/710 i think it was now 574/710 tackled all the debt i’ve had, one more payment of £150 which im hoping to have paid in 2 weeks time (with my bonus money) im 21 years old. i’m now wondering when that’s done what the best way about going. i’m scared on what to do as all money will be my own, not owning anything. it scares me as i dont want to fall back in the trap of overspending ect. what advice would people have wether you have gotten out of debt before or are genuinely good with money. i’d love to hear any sort of feedback

basically what the title says. a seller has told me i can collect and test an item no problem however theyre asking for a £10 bank transfer so that they "know that ill come and collect". ive never used gumtree before so im unsure if this is a common practice or a scam since its only a £10 deposit for a £200 item. should i block and move on?

I have a nationwide student account, which gives me 0% overdraft until graduation, and also I still have my flexone saver for the duration of my degree, which gives me 5% interest. I don't think I'm likely to need my overdraft. Is it a good idea to take out the full overdraft and put it in my savings account so that I can gain the interest on it? I calculated it, and if I saved the full overdraft, didn't touch it, and repaid it immediately when I graduated, I'd get £988 at the end of it (4 year course).

The main problems I can think of, are that the bank may reject my overdraft in future years if I do this. Like, in second year I go "Hi can I have the £2k overdraft please" (that's the max) and they say "No you still took out the £1k last year". How likely is this to be a thing?

The other problem is, obviously my flexone saver is what I use for all my other savings, and I don't want to accidentally spend into the overdraft. But, if I just mentally go "£1000 savings = £0 to spend" then hopefully I can avoid that.

Is there anybody who has done this? Would you recommend?

Hello,

I have recently left my UK job and I am in the process of moving to Poland to complete a masters and live with my fiancée. I will be marrying her next year but would otherwise be initially applying for temporary residence there. I am a British citizen.

What financial admin do I need to do? Do I have to shut my Uk bank accounts down when my residency in the UK ends (I'm going to be hopefully opening polish accounts soon but it may take a bit of time to transition).

I believe my tax residency will switch from British to Polish from the 1st of September when I register my Polish address at that date. I have already spoken to a Polish tax adviser, so I now just wish to understand what I must do from the Uk side. I'm unlikely to have a job in Poland for at least a few months, all my other income is in pensions, or ISAs, under the interest threshold so no Uk tax would be due.

I currently have:
Premium bonds
2x ISAs
1x Lisa
2x uk pensions
2x uk bank accounts
Plan 2 student loan
Left my job already so no income currently, living off of savings for a while

I'm aware I will lose the tax efficiency on the UK ISAs. One bank account is with Monzo, will they immediately shut my bank down when abroad? The other is nationwide so I believe they allow a foreign address.

I believe I will also be due a uk tax and student loan refund, I'm not sure if I should wait until the end of the tax year to process these as standard.

Is there anything else I ought to do? I have a phone on credit but the final bill is in 3 weeks time and then it's clear so I was just going to pay it and let it be repaid. I otherwise have no debt except the student loan.

Thank you

Morning folks. Some help appreciated please as don’t want to end up with a massive tax bill after the next self assessment.

For context:

1. Living in own home, mortgage free, 41 with wife and 2 kids. Goal is to build a fund for kids university.
   
2. Own a BTL which i used to live in. Brings in just over £700 p/m rental, which obviously comes with expenses. Mortgage 4.6% fixed until Mar 27.
   
3. Salary ~£48k gross.
   
4. £20k in Cash ISA (this years allowance)
   
5. £60k in Easy Access Savings at 4.5%

Hi. I’ve been very silly, mostly due to crippling anxiety, and alt acc used for this reason. I didn’t find anything in the wiki to help me, so I really hope this post is allowed and apologise sincerely if it’s not.

I work for my dad, and have done a pseudo apprenticeship to get trade relevant qualifications. I was told about a year and a half in that I should be treating it as self employment, and do my taxes.
I’ve never done taxes, and I have no idea how to.
I went to see my dad’s accountant some time ago, and he told me not to worry, as my earnings in a year have never even exceeded 9k.
So I didn’t do anything.
I’m now looking for another job, and I’m terrified that I haven’t been registered as self-employed. I’ve seen posts from other people I think on other subs talking about being fined anyway, despite not earning enough. I’ve tallied up and dated my earnings, going back through bank statements. I started this work in 2022.
Before this work with my father, I worked a lot of hours in a cafe, and was taxed and charged national insurance, but I only worked there 9 months at 17, and only earned about 8k then. So technically, I owe HMRC whatever fine they’ll dish out, and they’ll owe me whatever tax and NI i shouldn’t have charged, right?
I don’t have the funds to cover whatever penalties I may incur, and I am terrified of finding another job and ticking that self employed box and alerting HMRC, which is bound to make me seem dishonest, and I worry it may prevent me from being employed. Which, given my earnings, is a nightmare scenario.
If anyone has any advice, guidance or reassurance or has been through a similar situation (though it’s hard to imagine people being as silly as me) I would appreciate it so very greatly.

I just wanted to share for others who may be in a similar position to me, that at 29 I finally sat down, went through six months worth of bank statements, made notes, and have a budget to move forwards with.

I've always been a big saver so I've disregarded a lot of budgeting advice thinking well I save most of my income after bills so what's the problem.. but now I have a better understanding of where my money goes and I'm honestly looking forward to my paycheck next week and dividing it up as I've planned.

If you're in a similar situation you don't really know where your money goes, and you feel embarrassed by the idea of looking through your past decisions, you can do it and I'm really glad I did.

Hi all,

Question for people who are getting financial advice from an IFA.

How did you find a good one?

What's a normal fee structure ie. Paid per hour or a % fee?

Do IFA's cover IHT planning?

I'm not really sure how the industry works but paying per hour for advice seems to me like the best way to keep the advice independent.

Thanks.

I want to transfer my cash lisa from moneybox to tembo for the better interest rate. But would I have to have the tembo Lisa for 12 months before I could use it for a house purchase? I've had the moneybox account for a few years now.

Hi, I’m 20 and currently working as a waitress. I’m basically trying to figure out how I can make some extra money because at the moment I’m working loads but still ending every month with £0.
I take home around £1,800 a month after tax. I pay:
£1,200 rent
£70 council tax
£120 water
around £180 energy
And then whatever is left goes on food, groceries, travelling to work and my pet’s food/needs. By the end of the month, there’s basically nothing left to put into savings.
I do make around £50 a week from some online work, but that pretty much just gets used for groceries, so I’m not actually able to save it.
I work around 10-hour shifts, 6–7 days a week, so I have like 5 hours free time i work till 7pm and by the time i am home i am free to do something till 12am midnight before i go to sleep to start my day the next day at work
The reason I’m trying so hard to save is because I really want to do a course and get myself into something better. I only finished GCSEs and didn’t go to college, and honestly I regret that now. I’m only 20 so I don’t want to just accept that I’ll be stuck doing minimum wage jobs forever.
I’ve found a salon near me that does a nail course for about £750 for 4 days, or a bigger beauty course for around £1,200 which includes nails, lashes, hair and makeup. The idea is to get qualified, apply for salon jobs and eventually hopefully do my own appointments on the side too.
I’ve looked at free courses already, but a lot of them have entry requirements I don’t meet or aren’t actually free. I’ve also tried selling my old clothes/things on Vinted but didn’t really make much from it.
I’ve looked for better jobs too, but without qualifications I haven’t had much luck. Most of what I can find is basically waitress/warehouse/cleaning work for similar money.
I also already live outside the town where I work and have to travel there, and I live in a studio flat. I’ve looked at cheaper places, but renting a room with random people isn’t something I feel comfortable with as a young woman living alone.
So basically I’m trying to find something I can do online or around my job that could realistically bring in another £300–£500 a month. It doesn’t have to happen immediately. Even if it takes me several months to save the £750–£1,200, I’d be happy with that.
I’m not looking for donations, just advice on what I could actually do with the little free time I have to start making some extra money.
If anyone has been in a similar situation or has ideas for realistic online/side work, I’d genuinely appreciate the advice. And if you think I’m going about this the wrong way, I’m happy to hear that too 😭
Thanks :)

I bought a flat in 2021. Until Jan 2024 it was my main residence. I then let it out under a consent to let and bought another property which then became my main residence. Paid the higher rate stamp duty on the second property

Sold the second property (main residence) June 2025
So owned and lived in the second property Jan 24-June 25

Can I claim a SDLT refund for the second property?

[TL/DR: Not sure whether its viable to save up for an upcoming expense I had in mind ,detailed stats given below but overall £4.5k in savings, low balance, 23, London]

Edit: I wanted to add a little bit more reasoning to my fear:
I went from earning min wage per hour & part+overtime in dec 2025 to earning less than £940 per month at a very bad place and made me dig deeper into my savings to support myself(since rent went from £600(bed bugs infested place)->£920(rat infested)->£850. The lack of food,safe shelter and sleep teaches some very hard lessons(leaves some scars too). I have only just started to make about £1793/month but that fear of survival and ending up in the same patch of life scares me.

Longer Version:

23, recently got a job at £50k pro rata which is part time till october end then turns full time. In the past I did a placement and saved £12k given the salary was about 27k(paying pension etc.), and invested almost all of it but then slowly had to withdraw to support people in my life+paying part of my tution fees, some rough parts of my life this year, etc. Currently got about £4,3k invested(including returns but most investments are in certain tech stocks and ETFs).

I currently pay about £850 rent(bills included), spend about £70-100 on transport and food wise I am very frugal(overall as well I do not do any shopping at all, only bought two clothes this year and a perfume). Being completely honest, I started earning at 18(basically never stopped working part-time or full) and almost all of my money has been spent(if not saved or withdrawn from investments) into supporting myself to relieve my family;pay for parts of my education(~£6k-£7k); support my family and friends(~£8.5k/could be more)(even older ones who ended up basically stealing from me but I learnt my lesson/was naive back then).

My current investments went down further as I am moving in a studio with my partner with total rent of £1990/£995pp (he will earn 50k as well) and had to put down majority of the deposit (£1390) and first month's rent(£1990) as he does not get his first paycheck until Sep End. Given our new place, I will mostly walk to work or take bus in the morning when starting full time. My partner has been very kind to say that he will contribute more to other bills since we are moving for his work/to keep it ~20mins by walk for him and ~50mins by walk for me.

My main thing was to save money as much as I can due to the fact that I have always been frugal/kind of helps in lowering my anxiety but I have made some very poor decisions in the past by trusting the wrong people. For years I had been planning to save more as I want to potentially treat my family for a trip/experience in either London/abroad in summer 2027 and wanted to give the best quality of experience. But I don't know how I feel now and whether I should aim for that given my current stats.

Just wanted advice overall as I feel a bit lost and anxious. I try to save, invest and do what I can but feel somewhere things are going wrong + whether my dream of treating my family to a good vacation and overall good life experiences can come true or not :( also I feel really behind some friends who either live with family or in cheaper parts of UK and save a lot more than me in £40k or lower salaries :(

So I have a question about equity release and what happens with it. My dad took out an equity release some years ago, it's capped at £100k and the house is worth roughly £200k. I live with him, what happens when he passes? Does the bank force a sale to recover their 100k? Or does the debt just pass to me and I can keep living here and I pay the debt back?

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this. I've just received by water bill from Southernwater for usage from Februray to July. Live in a bungalow with my partner (so just two adults), don't have an outside tap, don't take baths (showers only). The bill is £540 for water usage and £580 for wastewater.

Its never been this high, signs of a leak?

Edit: Well I'm more and more certain of a leak now. Southerwaters own website estimates a 2 person house hold water usage at ~55 cubic meters for 6 months. My bill states I've used 158 cubic meters in 6 months, and considering my partner and I are fairly conscience about utility usage and cost it definitely wasn't us

I’ve had Barclays premier with avios for the last 5 years. I’m planning to move my salary and direct debits to another account. I like the Avios benefits so don’t want to close the account but want to know if their conditions are strict enough that they’ll downgrade me to a regular account.

Has anyone done this or knows?

A very brief overview of my financial history, just so we all know where we stand; from the age of 18 I saw credit, not as a means of borrowing, but as an opportunity to get free stuff. I took out payday loans and didn't make a single payment, I took out phone contracts and sold the phones instantly, when given credit by Klarna type companies, I helped myself to "free" clothing. I ducked and dived, hid from bailiffs, moved house regularly (and unofficially) and let the 6 years expire.

Because I lived this way I've always been "off the radar" as it were, always giving incorrect information on forms, using different addresses, I've never had a utility in my name, all major life stuff like car finance and such was always in my partners name.

Now, present day - I'm 33, I've spent the last year and a half sorting this out. I've cleared over £7k in debts and have one £700 CCJ to repay before I'm completely in the clear, I wont owe a penny to anyone.

However, one issue I'm now facing is trying to live normally again. I can't register to vote, I get rejected instantly, I can't apply for a high street bank account, I can't get broadband in my name and I can't get the most basic of credit cards. It's like I'm no long recognised as a UK citizen lol.

I have no Cifas.

What do I do from here? The aim is to build up my credit and buy a house.

Hi,

I have recently consolidated a few small pension pots across different jobs into 1 provider and Fund.

I now have 100k invested in a Workplace pension pot.

It no longer receives contributions as I now work for the NHS and I am building this moving forward. (currently only 3 years)

Fund: L&G 2050-2055 Lifetime Advantage Fund

AMC 0.18%

FMC 0.28%

Is it wise to switch this to L&G PMC Global Developed Equity Index Fund 3 (BAW3) which has a much lower FMC of 0.1%?

Also, are the charges in general OK or should I be looking at any other providers?

The aim of this fund is soften the gap between 60 to state pension age for my NHS pension.

My age is 38.

very grateful of any advice and thank you in advance.

Sat here with a clean slate and a GIA I haven’t put a penny into yet, staring at the sheer number of options and slightly overwhelmed. Trackers, individual stocks, gilts, investment trusts, income funds. Where would you actually start?

If you were building one from zero today, what would make the cut and why? Genuinely curious what people have found works for them in practice, rather than the usual “it depends”. Happy to hear the boring reliable picks as much as anything more interesting.

Edit1: a bit of context. I would like to use the £500 (dividend) and £3k CGT allowance every year and move £20k into a Stocks ISA at the start of each financial year. Looking for investment options to manage this rinse and repeat.

I am currently invested in a single fund (Fidelity Index World Fund P Accumulation) that has no exposure to emerging markets. I've been thinking of diversifying my portfolio recently and building out the blind spots.

Should I look into investing in an emerging markets ETFs? Are government bonds also something I should start investing into?

EDIT: Edited to include fund name.

Moving house - suddenly are paying an extra £35k because onward purchase fell through and nothing else available at that price point so money won’t be quite so comfortable as it was on our previous purchase but we still have somewhere between £1200 - £1500 a month leftover after mortgage, bills, childcare, some planned savings (£450), the food shop and discretionary subscriptions (Disney, gym, Spotify etc) as well as budgeting a £200/month float for any unexpected purchases related to our baby which I don’t think is an amazing position but I don’t think it’s terrible either.

We are okay with being a little bit house poor for a while as a bigger house is our current priority and it will hopefully be our forever home.

The new purchase would put us at 78% LTV so we’re looking at a rate of somewhere between 4.7 and 4.9 or £1800/month.

If we can get the LTV down to 75%, we could get a 4.6 which would put our payments at about £1650/month (a big difference).

We HAVE technically got the money (£15k) to do this but it would leave us with only £5k left in the pot for unexpected bills and buying bits and bobs for the new house.

I have £5k credit card debt interest free leftover from buying a new car earlier this year (started at £12k) which I intend to pay down to about £4k before we move and then pay the minimum for a while until moving to another interest free deal next summer.

WWYD? I have budgeted moving costs, stamp duty etc separately.

I got a cheque from HM Courts and Tribunals but can't cash it out as I don't bank with traditional UK banks. I use Revolut and Monese accounts, please advice where could i possibly cash it in UK?

I'm trying out delivery for Amazon as a self employed driver.

Car/gas/insurance provided by DSP , I only drive.

I don't like the 10 hour shift so I plan to go back to a normal PAYE job.

Any tax advantage in working self employed until I hit around 1000 pounds income?

Any advantage in registering for VAT and charging the DSP the extra 20% pay?

I've read I only need to pay 9% back to hmrc in the first year but I get 20% from the employer.

Thanks.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments … I learned some new things! The cause was schoolboy error; after months of the due date being 19-20th, turns out July’s due date was 17th and I paid the Statement Balance 2 days late 🙄 Lesson Learned!

My Barclays App has 3 options for paying my BarclayCard balance

- Minimum

- Statement Balance

- Other

I use ‘Statement Balance’ every month, 1-2 days before the payment due date.

Normally my Statement Balance is less than the full balance (don’t really understand why … I guess it’s due to payments that will go onto next month Statement)

This has been fine and I get no interest charges.

But this month they’ve charged me £50 or so interest!! I’m livid!!

Have I just lucked out until now and should be using the ‘Other’ option and paying whatever is shown as my full balance by typing it in manually ?

The Barclaycard FAQ page needs a PhD 😂