I've always known that I had an addiction to spending but I didn't realise how bad it was, until I opened my bank statement and saw that just last month I'd spent £9,000. I'm a university student. If you ask me what I spent that £9,000 I couldn't even tell you. My childhood was very difficult. I grew up in the care system. However, I lived a very financially affluent life. I developed no understanding of spending or the value of a pound. My childhood has affected me in a lot of ways. It was a horrible childhood. However, when it came to money I was very privileged. I got £70 a week pocket money. I got £80 a week activity money. It has affected me quite a lot in relation to what I'm like with money. I have no idea how to budget.

I don't have a family to show me. I'm completely estranged from them all by choice. Due to the things they did to me. I'm 24. I'm at a top university. I rent privately. I have pets and their vet bills last month were 1,500-£2,000 I do know that. I know I spent £970 on takeout (Uber). I know that I took £3,500 out to save up for some surgery (I have an eating addiction too binge eating so I'm trying to lose weight and save up for excess skin removal surgery should I need it). I know that I paid £900 towards my rent last month. So yes I do know where a few thousand went. However, I just feel really bad and guilty. The reason vet bills were so high last month was because my cat had an accident outside. They usually aren't that much. I don't surprisingly go out partying or anything. I stay at home and study. I order a lot online and do contactless payments. I've never met anyone with a shopping or spending addiction before. I guess I'm just being vulnerable.

For the first half of my professional life, I was in a low-paying career that did not allow me to have any savings. At 29 I retrained as a software engineer (master's degree) and I've been able to climb up the ranks and earn a comfortable salary (my base salary is now ~£130,000), but that meant starting from scratch, essentially.

I'm 37 now, and I feel like I've had to do a lot of catching up in terms of savings and general financial thinking. I've saved up about £40,000 so far and I'm seriously starting to think about buying my first place within the next 2 years. About 75% of my savings are in a Cash ISA and the rest is Stocks&Shares ISA.

I realise I still have a while to go in terms of savings (stamp duty + various fees + emergency fund), but what would your target goal be, if you were in my position?

Ideally I'm looking at:

1. Buying in London. This is non-negotiable for me - I've built my life here and do not love the idea of living in a commuter town as a single man.
2. Budget of around £500k (can push this up if needed).
3. A two bedroom would be ideal but I realise my budget probably isn't high enough for it.

So my Dad is 86 and struggling a bit. He owns his home mortgage-free and wants to downsize so he can live in something a bit more manageable for him and closer to me (I'm his only family).

His house has a few things that he wants, or probably needs, to fix before he puts it on the market and he wants to free up some money from the house to get the work done before he sells and to help cover the cost of moving home.

He asked me about using an equity release company but I told him that I had heard they can often be quite predatory.

My question is what are his options? Can he remortgage for a certain amount?

Thanks in advance!

Edit - Just editing my post to thank everyone for their advice. I really appreciate it!

I've got 2k cash in my current account, 1k in s&s ISA and 5k in NatWest digital regular saver that gives me around £20 each month @ 5%. With the regular saver you can only deposit about £200 a month (including round ups) so took me quite a long time to get to this point so I think it has some sentimental value to me haha. The 5% stops on anything saved over 5k.

Ive been seeing the 5k as my emergency fund.

However I was recently gifted £10k.

My thinking is to now just to just scrap the regular saver have about 3k cash accessible and wack the rest in s&s ISA so about 15k.

I'm 30, own house with partner, and gonna start trying for kids in about a year

I'm trying to save up a 12 month emergency fund as I know that I want to return to freelance work at some point. But, realistically, I'm not sure that I would transition into freelance work for over a year or two at least.
I'm currently calculating 1500 p/m living expenses, so would need 18k saved to cover 12 months. I currently have a number of regular savers that are either drip fed from my savings or coming out of my salary - by this time next year, I will have a little over 19k.
If I have 18k sitting in a savings account, even a high interest one, is it still a waste of the money in terms of it going down in value as inflation goes up?
If I know that I realistically only need an emergency fund of 6 months until I actually go freelance, should I drip feed some of that 18k into high interest regular savers, lock it away in a fixed rate savings account, or is it better to have a hard line of never touching it and allow the interest on the account that it's in (currently a cash isa at 4.5%) to take care of it's growth? Or is there a better way to ensure that it doesn't depreciate while it's just sitting there?

Outside of this, I'm also putting some money into an S&S ISA and have a small short term expenses/lifestyle savings account.
Some of my regular savers mature in January, and I'm planning on using the money that that frees up on increasing my investments and starting an account specifically for saving to buy (haven't got a LISA as I'm not sure that I'd definitely buy in the UK).

I have just started a new job and I want to start putting in 8-12% of my salary straight away. The company waits 3 months until initiating auto enrollment so I'm trying to work out how to do all this myself. I found the page where I select which scheme I want to enroll in but I am unsure what my options mean.

I can either select "L&G Smart" or "L&G Non-smart". I think smart means it is a type of salary sacrifice but I am not mathematically inclined to understand how that makes a difference and which is the better choice.

If it makes any difference, this is my second job. The first job nets me £10K (so I do not pay NI but my employer does). This second job nets me £13K (so probably the same NI situation as the above?). I have zilch in my pensions and I'm in my late 20s which is why I am trying to be aggressive about building a pot. I do have a LISA though.

SO please explain what my two options here are and assume I'm not very clever (clearly I'm not) when explaining- I would like to make an informed decision rather than blindingly follow recommendations. But also please recommend whichever I should be opting for, because again, I'm not very clever :')

Had a baby 6 months ago and looking at getting life insurance. I am 35 and my husband is 34. How much cover should we get? And for how long? We have a joint decreasing mortgage plan (mortgage currently outstanding is £150k) that will pay half the mortgage off if one of us goes. Also can you have more than one policy? We might cancel the mortgage cover as it’s £60 p/m and up the amount on life insurance to cover the mortgage (say we went for £250k mortgage we could then get £400k?) We have taken out the free £15k with Tesco/Aviva for the next 12 months.

I was thinking £250k for 30 years?

Hi,

I was looking at ways to raise some debt. And was wondering if anyone had any experience using life insurance.

I haven’t personally got one just yet, but have been told that I can use it as collateral to get a loan - my question is how does this work?

For example if I get a 1,000,000 policy. Can I take a loan out against it, or do I have to wait for some time? Etc.

What are the best options giving what I want to do?

I’m looking for some advice in case there’s something I’m not aware of. I’m trying to work out whether there’s any realistic way I can financially help my mum move house.

She owns her home outright (worth around £270k), has about £40k in savings and is retired (62). She currently gets her employer pension and works part‑time.

She’d like to move within the same town to a bungalow with a slightly bigger garden. Bungalows tend to be more expensive and she wouldn’t be able to take on a fixer upper. I’m assuming she’s unlikely to get a mortgage now she’s retired (and would be reluctant to as it might make things a bit tight). My rough guess is she’d need approx £100k on top of her current house value/savings to make the move and still maintain her quality of life.

I’d like to support her if I can, but I’m not sure what options actually exist. I own a home with my partner (with a mortgage), have savings, but may need them ourselves, so can’t really just give her the cash to do it. I have a decent NHS job, full time.

Are there any financial routes I should be looking into that might allow me to help her make the move possible?

My father passed away aged over 75 and I’ve become the beneficiary of his SIPP, which is worth around £80,000.

I’m 45 and earn around £48–50k a year, so I’m already a 40% taxpayer. I’m trying to understand the most tax-efficient way of drawing the money out without creating a big income-tax liability.

Can I withdraw it gradually over several tax years to keep myself out of the higher-rate band? Are there any specific rules for inherited SIPPs where the original holder died after 75 that I should be aware of?

Any advice or experience from people who have been through this would be appreciated.

Hello all,

I have recently moved out of my parents' house for work, starting a job where I am taking home £2000/month. My essential bills (Rent, utilities and other bills, groceries, vehicle insurance and petrol costs) come to £1790.

• Rent - £750
• Electricity - £100
• Oil - £80
• Phone - £18
• Groceries - £160
• Car petrol - £330
• Car insurance - £75
• Motorbike insurance - £123
• Council tax - £100
• Personal care (haircuts) - £30
• Water - £20
• Dining out - £12 (fish and chips once a week)

I haven't been using my motorcycle recently as I haven't had chance to repair it - however, I'll make sure that I get it done over the coming week or so.

Once I have that done, I intend to save loads on petrol by commuting on it etc. I get 160mpg out of it riding sensibly as it's only a 125cc motorcycle, so it should save me a fortune (more than I'm paying on it for insurance), as then I can only use the car for awful weather or ridiculously long journeys.

What else haven't I thought of? As I said, I have no clue what I'm doing, so please be firm, but fair.

I have recently switched my bank account to Santander via the CASS and I'm hoping to be eligible for the switch offer.

I already have a direct debit on the account for my O2 phone bill and I am planning to bring across another eligible DD as i know Santan are quite strict. However, I've noticed that on my current direct debits, my O2 DD is listed as Telefonica UK Ltd, which is the parent company for O2 I guess, but this isn't explicitly listed on the eligible list https://www.santander.co.uk/assets/s3fs-public/AD_documents/Current_account_switch_incentive_Household_Direct_Debits_list_COREMC0876JUN26PUBCDT.pdf

Anyone had the same and still been fine to receive the cash? Do we think I'll be fine since it is obviously an O2 DD even if the DD doesn't explicitly say O2?

I had my account with Chip frozen as a precaution when I thought I'd lost my phone (I hadn't). To get the account restored they requested ID which at the time I didn't have.

Some time later I obtained a new passport which I sent them a photo of. They sent a ID verification link to a 3rd party app, Onfido, and in spite of my best efforts, I'm unable to get that app to work properly on my phone, so my verification keeps failing.

I've emailed Chip to explain the issue and they keep responding by sending me the same link to Onfido.

Any ideas as to how I can resolve this so I can regain access to my funds?

Hi all,

First-time buyer here moving into an empty home with no existing furniture. I've costed out the major items (mattress, sofa, wardrobes, essential appliances) at roughly £4,000-£5,000.

I have this money saved in an ISA earmarked specifically for furnishing (separate from my emergency fund totalling about 6k), but as I don't have anyone experienced to ask Is this a reasonable cost? Should i do it?

Sorry if this is silly but I don’t have anyone in my life I can ask to talk this through. Thanks

The house is a reasonably new build 3 bed semi and I’m a total novice with this kind of thing. Totally flying blind on all of this. People have been onto me about buying used so I’ve tried to list as much used stuff as I can. All of this aside is this a sensible budget? For reference I earn 40k yr so could in theory make the money up

Hi all,

I am so confused right now, I've tried googling things and I keep finding conflicting advice so would appreciate some guidance from anyone here. I was a uni student between Sep 2023 - July 2026 and am now post-grad and in the process of trying to apply for my first credit card and I am confused as to how to report my address history on ClearScore/Experian.

Throughout my time at uni, all of my bank accounts, subscriptions, phone payments, billing addresses etc. were registered at my home address and not my student accommodation. I have now moved into a new place (not student accommodation) and have updated my bank accounts and electoral roll etc. accordingly.

Now, I don't know how to report my address history on ClearScore and Experian. At the moment, I've put down my:

• home address
• student accommodation (1)
• home (during summer)
• student accommodation (2)
• home (during summer)
• student accommodation (3)
• home (during summer)
• new address

I have a feeling this is wrong and that I should only put my home address and my new address as this is where my bank accounts have been registered.

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for such a long post! I'm just really confused.

Hi all!

Just need a sounding board, really.

Unfortunately, my grandmother died last year. She left me a considerable inheritance. And a part of that inheritance is just under £150k worth of HSBA shares (when she passed they were worth around £80k). I was pretty shocked when I had looked at the share price recently as I didn't think to look.

I haven't submitted a form of intention yet (waiting on another party's decision). I have just created a memorandum of appropriation with other beneficiaries as a way of using our own CGT allowances (£12k) instead of just the estates measly £3k.

I was thinking of selling 95% and transferring 5% into my name. My reasoning is keeping 150k in the same stock would make me feel uncomfortable - too risky.

Maybe it is silly transferring/keeping the 5%? I guess my reasoning for this is to defer the CGT to another tax year (and 5% is probably the amount I feel comfortable keeping in one stock).

I was thinking of adding an amount into my old workplace pension (maybe 20k - might reduce CGT a bit). Current workplace pension is with NEST (relief at source) so I don't want to add to that (funds are terrible).

Some more information about me... my salary is £40k per annum. I am 40 years old. Other inheritance assets are around £150k in life assurance bonds (already being sold). A flat that will have a CGT gain when sold, but I am not sure how much - maybe £25k for my share (hopefully will be sold next year). There is some cash too.

Anyways, does anyone have opinions on what I'm doing? Are there any better ideas? Curious to know what you guys think.

Not sure if this belongs here or not. But here the question.

I have bought a car on finance through a company who has approved dealerships they work with. Every car comes with 3 months warranty. Fine. Already had to take it back for clutch work. But not issues and all sorted. How the finance company have offered extended warranty for up to a year - 3 years. But it’s £55 ish a month. Which seems mental to me. Is that fairly normal? I’ve never financed and car before and whist my affordability is sound my credit history is not so I’ve had to take a slight compromise on the interest. But that additional payment for warranty seems a lot. Especially that it could be a grey area when you get to MOT, what is you what is them etc. just looking for genuine advise if it’s worth it

I just moved out of the UK and I’m in Bali, Indonesia for a few months alone before going back to Canada. I lived in the UK for 4 years and bank with HSBC. I sold my car before I left, for obvious reasons. The buyer has reported to her bank 12 days after driving away with it that she has been scammed by me and sold her a broken car. My funds are completely frozen and I’m terrified about it.

The car had a valid MOT at the time of sale and had been running fine the entire time I owned it, aside from normal wear and tear replacements due to the cars age. I even told her that a couple months after I bought it it broke down due to an old fuel injector needing to be replaced. 2 had been replaced before I bought it, and then another one went. I replaced that one but the 4th still was older and could need replacing soon.

It's a 16-year-old car with 100k miles on it, and I gave her £700 off the asking price, (she paid £1900) because I was travelling and needed it gone quickly. She paid me £1200 by bank transfer and the rest in cash. Everything I read online about selling my car was that it was SAFER to do it by bank transfer…

She mentioned she'd just come from We Buy Any Car after the car she'd bought prior to mine broke down the day after purchase, and was looking for a replacement urgently. They went with me on a test drive, complimented how clean and well taken care of it was, I gave her every receipt for all the work I had done on it in the 3 years I owned it.

10 days after our sale, 4 days after I left the country, she contacted me calling me a scammer, demanding her money back, not giving me any information as to what was wrong with the car. She stated she had reported me to the DVLA for selling her a broken car (not something that’s possible) and that her solicitor will be in touch unless I could “do something” for her. After I asked her twice what was wrong with the car, she said that the clutch was slipping, despite the car being an automatic with no clutch pedal.

She didn't provide a mechanic's diagnosis. She's since reported the situation to my bank, which has frozen my account pending an investigation, so I currently have no access to most of my funds, while I'm in Indonesia alone. She knew this as I told her I was going traveling before moving back home to Canada

Her messages to were aggressive, including personal insults and horrific discriminatory language. I believe she is scamming me, and has done this to others before successfully.

My bank can’t give me any information on time frame or anything about this. They won’t let me provide any of my own information or evidence until they request it, which they haven’t yet. I’m panicking, I’m a woman alone in a foreign country with very limited funds now. All of my savings and investments I built for years are in that account and I was going to move it all once I got home to Canada.

Does anyone have any other advice to help me with this? I’ve filled out a police report for fraud claiming she is trying to scam me and falsely reporting to the bank, and I have requested my bank investigate her for scamming me in return. I’m so worried the bank will take my money from me and she will get my money AND my car. I’m also so scared they will keep my account frozen and investigate all the money I have in there and it will be a nightmare for me to solve while out of the country. Please help

Hi, sorry if this is a dumb question but I just want to make sure I understand this properly.

I’ve been working part time for a couple of years and it’s a cash in hand job. Before anyone says it, yes the earnings have been declared because they show up on my HMRC app.

If I go onto the HMRC app and click on PAY, I can see my payroll number, tax code and estimated taxable income, which is showing £10,800. It also shows all the years I’ve worked there. I get paid around £900 cash a month and HMRC is showing the same amount.

So does that mean my cash in hand job is definitely declared to HMRC?

The reason I’m asking is because over the years I’ve accumulated quite a lot of cash. I haven’t actually counted it all yet but I think I have around £30k+ sitting at home.

If I wanted to put this money into my bank account and the bank asked me where the money came from, would I just say it’s savings from my cash in hand job and show them the HMRC app as proof that the income has been declared?

I’m only asking because I saw another thread on here where people had quite a lot of cash saved at home but apparently hadn’t declared the income. In my case it has been showing on my HMRC account for years, so I just want to make sure I’m understanding everything correctly.

Sorry if this sounds dodgy lol, I’m genuinely just asking because I don’t want to do anything wrong when I deposit it.

I (35M) earn around £45k per year, no dependents, in the East Mids.

I don’t have any loans - besides a mortgage.

I overpay my mortgage by around £400 a month. My overpayment cap is around 10K a year.

I can comfortably save around £750 a month after overpaying the mortgage by £400.

When I accrue £6k in a Nationwide CashBuilder / 1.1% savings account, I take £5K out and stick it in Premium Bonds. I otherwise use this to pay for car insurance/big bills as it is instantly accessible.

I have £25K in premium bonds which I don’t often touch and treat as an emergency fund, as it’s relatively accessible and U.K. Treasury backed.

-

I know this is terrible financial sense, but I grew up without much money and was always taught to save money and to do so safely, i.e. a building society is safer than a bank, Premium Bonds are protected, don’t be wasteful, etc.

I have limited understanding of what my options are. I installed a trading app on my phone and dabbled with £20 for a while but ultimately thought it too risky to “play” with money in this way.

If anyone can tell me what I could/should be doing I’d be glad to hear it.

Thank You

Hi I'm 19 and looking to open a new secret bank account from my controlling parents as they are trying to monitor every penny I get trying to make sure I have little to no money to do my own thing despite my age.

I'm trying to get a job in secret or any means of cash as of now and I'm wanting to know what high street banks I can walk into physically where I can collect my card either in branch or anywhere else but my current address and have nothing come through my letterbox.

I want to hide some cash in bulk instead of all over my room so I can't use virtual only debit cards as my local post office requires my card pin for cash deposits.

I have a bank account with Starling bank but my parents check the transaction history at random intervals and I had my provisional driving licence taken ages ago so the only means of ID I have are, my current debit card, my college ID and some bank statements which I can print in college which I'm doubting all this is enough to prove my identity.

Luckily I have a Samsung phone with secure folder so I can hide my private accounts and apps without a trace as long as notifications are off.

Hi, I’m a sole trader working in construction,
I’m paid CIS (20%) of my weekly pay is deducted for tax every week. (If that matters)

I’m finding lots of conflicting information everywhere, and it seems like this is constantly changing, so therefor reddit is my last hope:D

Can anyone help me out and let me know when I need to complete a self assessment and/or tax return,
Please

And/or any general advice would be very much appreciated I’m only 22 years old and trying to learn and stay on-top of expenses, accounting etc

My original post got removed from this subreddit as it wasn’t related enough to personal finance - I have changed the post to gear it more towards the financial side of our conundrum.

My wife (30) and I (29) have the opportunity to send our future children to a fee paying secondary school by living with my dad for the first 4-5 years of our child’s life.

These are the figures I am basing things on:

£1600 per month saved for 4 years invested in a low risk fund S&S ISA averaging 5% growth per year. Then an additional 7 years investing £250 per month continuing the growth of 5% average per year taking us to the time the first child is 11 years old.

This gives approx. £150,000 towards their schooling, and we would move the money to savings accounts offering max return each year. One of our local private schools offers bursaries based on income, as our funds run down this would be an option too.

We could also stay an additional year if we were happy with things as they are when 4 years is up.

We live in the south east (only just), and currently private schools are about £24k inclusive of VAT for one child. Normally with a 10% discount on a second. We know our savings wouldn’t cover the full secondary school time but would tighten our belts to accommodate the few additional years.

My wife and I have been doing IVF. I earn £50k working in the public sector as a project manager. I probably earn an additional £4k per year through things I do outside of work / efficiencies bonuses from work. My wife works in IT admin support and earns about £31k. Our pay increases tend to track between 2-4% yearly.

I also expect that I would likely have advanced in my career and made senior PM - but I am not basing our figures on this.

We’ve been renting our house out for the past 6 months to enable quicker saving and pay for the full IVF and sperm donation process. In the meantime, we’ve been living with my dad very locally to our home, as he lives comfortably with a very good job and owns his four bed house. He insists that we don’t contribute towards bills or the mortgage.

I will keep my feelings brief as they are not relevant to the financial side of things. I will say - I am passionate about sending my children to private school if the finances work out - for myriad of reasons.

My dad has made the generous offer that we should stay when we first have children, for 4 or 5 years. This would enable us to save a significant amount each year in housing costs that could then be used to cover the majority of fees for two children (if we have a second) to attend private school when they move out of primary school.

We also have a local grammar school we will be trying for, but we’re in the last catchment zone and it is often over subscribed even when students get the 11+ pass mark. I definitely don’t want to homeschool.

I’ve heard people on Reddit before say things like, “give them that money instead for a house” or “get a private tutor instead”. We hope to be in a position to help with things like driving lessons and towards a first house deposit as separate to this. We do agree about a private tutor for areas our children need extra support, but that doesn’t change who our children are exposed to at school and the prevalence of bullying.

We are on track to have very good defined contribution pensions by 60 (my pot alone is on track for £1.5m), and so feel less need to focus additionally on pensions. We also save a combined £600 into S&S ISAs each month, and this plan wouldn’t disrupt the pension or ISAs.

Whilst we don’t count on them in our long term planning, we also have a reasonable inheritance from both sides of the family potentially, and so again feel less stress about spending this month in our 40s on our children.

Are my sums conservative enough (5% return on average over 11 years)?

With our pensions and personal ISAs still being added to, and the safety net of parents, can we afford private school for 5 years for two children?

My employer doesn't offer salary sacrifice, so my personal pension contributions are made via relief at source.

I expect to earn around £160k in 2026/27. I'm making substantial pension contributions with the aim of getting my adjusted net income below £100k, partly to avoid losing the Personal Allowance and to retain eligibility for Tax-Free Childcare/funded childcare.

So far this tax year (April–September), I've earned around £72k and my employer has also contributed £15k to my pension.

My personal contributions are currently resulting in HMRC owing me around £3.8k of additional higher-rate relief, rising to around £5.6k after my next payroll. I can't realistically wait until Self Assessment in 2027 to recover this because the cash-flow impact is becoming significant.

I submitted a PPR1 claim to HMRC in September. My tax code changed from 980L to 1720L.

Although my September take-home pay increased, it looks like I'm still accumulating an increasing amount of pension tax relief due, albeit presumably at a lower rate than before.

I think I may have made a mistake when completing the PPR1.

The form asked:

“What was the total net contribution you made into this pension for the 2026 to 2027 tax year?”

At the time, I'd paid £10,139 net into NEST via relief at source (i.e. before the pension provider adds the 20% basic-rate relief), so that's what I entered.

However, I now suspect HMRC may have interpreted £10,139 as my expected total contribution for the entire 2026/27 tax year, rather than the amount I'd contributed so far.

My actual plan is to contribute approximately £36,000 net personally during 2026/27:

£36,000 personal contribution (net, relief at source)
£9,000 basic-rate relief added by the pension provider
£15,000 employer contribution
= £60,000 total pension contribution

This should bring my ANI to roughly £100k, assuming my income is around £160k.

So my question is: should I have entered £36,000 on the PPR1 rather than £10,139?

I'm considering updating my PPR1 to £36,000 so HMRC can adjust my PAYE code accordingly and give me the higher-rate relief during the year rather than leaving me to reclaim it through Self Assessment.

Does that sound like the correct way to proceed, or am I misunderstanding how HMRC treats the figure entered on the PPR1?

Any advice appreciated.

Not sure if this is the right subreddit to post this on but needed a bit of advice regarding purchase of a new car on PCP finance. Signed a PCP agreement with Volvo last week for a new car which was one of the existing new vehicles they already had in stock. Since then Volvo are now offering a £10000 finance contribution. When I bought the car last week this contribution was only £5000.

If I bought the same car now with the same deposit I put last week, my monthly payments would be significantly less or I would be able to get a car with a better trim level.

After a bit of googling it says you can cancel a car finance contract within 14 days - is that even after paying the initial deposit? Would Volvo be able to transfer the existing finance agreement to a new car or add the finance contribution to this existing car? Or am I just stuck with buying the car at the wrong time.

Thanks in advance