r/UKPersonalFinance

I am single, currently earn £50k in a public sector job that I've worked at for a few years and has prospects, and I have £20k savings. My mum and aunt sold my deceased grandparent's house (London). My mum is sharing a significant chunk of her share of the money with me, enough to comfortably put a deposit down for somewhere in an area I've always wanted to live in. However, it also could pay for an undergrad degree (part time - it's not enough for me to quit my job and live off). I have no other debts.

My career is fine and my job is stable, but it has always bothered me that I don't have a degree and in my 15+ year career the lack of one has limited/influenced my life and choices. It is a priority of mine but also feels less practical than a house, especially seeing as I've had some success in my career without one - that said, a degree for me is not only about career but also about fulfilment. I am torn.

I've started searching properties, I understand well what I can afford etc., have an AIP in place and know that I'd comfortably afford the mortgage repayments + surrounding costs plus enough to keep an emergency fund and a fund for some upgrades. I'm keeping my mind open in terms of how much I'd like spare to put in some kind of index fund, but I've decided to cross that bridge when I know how much I truly have "left over".

I've been renting for a long time and I'm sick of where I live because it's far out and lacks amenities/connections to the point of gradually wearing away at my mental health, but my landlords are really solid and the rent is stable so I've stayed here all this while. I've outgrown the place but don't want to leave to rent somewhere in a better area - if I move, it'll be because I've bought somewhere. My thinking is that if I buy a property, I'll be in an area with better amenities and travel, and my mental and social wellbeing will improve hugely especially as I'll be closer to my current workplace, my loved ones, and central London. However if I get a degree, I'll also be massively fulfilled as education has always been important to me and it's a dream of mine, plus it'll boost my career options. I would also still have some money left over, but not quite enough to comfortably afford a deposit for a property + surrounding costs like conveyancer, wriggle room money for anything that comes up etc.

I am single so I am unable to plan with a partner in mind etc. and this is my one opportunity I think to afford something comfortably on my own. I've talked to people in my life and they're also not really sure what's best as they know me really well and know both are important to me. I don't even know if there's a way to do both, as I'm quite fixed on the area I want to live in especially for the reasons laid out.

I end up either investing it or spending it every time I’ve built it up. I never ever use cash so If I were to keep it in cash I know I’d never use it. Currently on £7K now in cash and I’ve never been able to save more than £4k when I kept it in the bank.

My wife brings in about £3300 per month and myself and £3500.

How much would be sensible to use for a mortgage? We currently have a £1100 mortgage but we're looking to move. I really don't want to move and then feel like we've bitten off more than we can chew. Were both 28 with no children. I have about 35k In investments,(self employed) and I invest about £700 per month. Wife invests £200 per month and also 6%into her pension. No other major outgoings fortunately (vehicles all paid off, and wife gets a cat through work)

Any advice? Thanks

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm cutting a very long and complicated story short because, right now, I really just need financial advice, nothing else.

My husband is going through a very difficult time financially. It's partly his fault (he's never been very good with money) and partly due to very bad luck (a lot of things have happened all at once). Point is that he now has more debt than he can realistically repay.

My financial situation is good and stable enough to cover our household expenses (rent, food, bills, and pretty much everything else), but it's not great enough to cover his debt repayments as well.

A bit more context:

We have separate bank accounts.

I have a savings account in my name only.

We used to have a joint bank account (along with our two individual ones), but we closed it about six months ago.

My husband has three personal loans and one credit card, all in his name only. I have never acted as a guarantor for any of them.

We do not have a mortgage, a car, or any other major assets in both our names.

His total debt is around 8k including the credit card.

My savings have already taken a hit because of this situation, and I'm no longer willing to use them to cover his debts.

So my question is: what do I risk, and how might I be affected if my husband starts missing repayments or, worst case scenario, defaults on one of his accounts? Could it affect my credit score, just because we're married?

Hi all, hoping for some insight before pulling the trigger in a few months, keen to understand whether monthly mortgage costs are too high relative to income:

Me: £3100 net per month
GF: £2500 net per month

We’re currently looking into buying our first home, approximate monthly mortgage costs would be ~£1800 per month total.

We would split this equally each month, aside from this I am saving £1000 pm into ISA, and ~620 into pension

GF is saving approximately £300 pm and £200 in pension.

My only concern is we are mid twenties and early career, and would be purchasing outside of London where we currently work - is this too much risk if we lost our London jobs? (House would be in Wales)

Thanks!

Thought I’d post this here to see if anyone has any insight.

My wife and I share a house with my mum and have done for the last twenty years. It’s a big detached house that has two separate sides to it linked by doors, so it’s one house and not registered as two separate properties but operates as two for us (two kitchens, lounge areas, etc.) I own a third of the house and the property will be left to me in her will. We pay all bills alongside rent to her on a monthly, direct debit basis.

My mum is constantly stressing about inheritance tax. I did suggest that we potentially reduce the payment we make to her by £200 a month and that I save it in my ISA so it doesn’t get gobbled up by inheritance tax, however, she’s insistent that wouldn’t work and that her bank balance would be scrutinised when she passes and that any reduction in what I pay her would be queried. I’m essentially wondering whether she is correct in this assumption or whether a reduction in what we pay a month would be ok, specifically as I own part of the property anyway and that it’s a family rent agreement between us.

If anyone could offer any advice or knowledge around this it would be tremendously appreciated. Many thanks!

EDIT: Thanks for the replies, people! Much appreciated! I’ve looked at this app way too much today for my liking so I’ll park it here but thanks to everyone who gave some clarification and food for thought! Cheers!

I own two thirds of a rental property and my sibling owns one third, and wants to cash this in.
I am retirement age, on an annual income of £30,000, have £30,000 in savings, and the property in question would have a market value of about £320,000, I own my home and have no outstanding mortgage
I can see three options to follow:
1 Mortgage or loan for £80,000-£100,000 and buy the offered third share
2 Ask the tenant family if they could buy the third, they are good people and have lived there since 2020,
3 Sell the property
What is the possibility of option 1 and the potential implications of option 2; thanks

We have a £100k-110 deposit*, ideally we would like to shoot for a £300k property which works out at a 66% LTV.

*We're pretty much skint aside from a £6k each emergency money.

Credit rating: Mine is 661/710 using CreditKarma, no debts at all. My partner is unknown, but does not using any money lending services, however was a University Student- so we got the debt which she earns to little to pay.

Income: I'm on £26k, and my partner is on £13.9k

Extras: My partner does have autism so we might get some help, additionally on the higher level of PIP. We're both 32 if that helps.

From my understanding, we may only be able to borrow only £170k (£20k short of our ideal), I understand Nationwide can provide upto 6x our income, while we only need 5x, but its still extra debt.

We cannot do anything to bolster our income, based on the local job market, and what we can reasonably do.

How does our position look to buy our first house as First time buyers?

I'm currently with the share incentive plan at my company, where you pay in each month and the company matches up to a certain amount.

I believe the shares become tax free after 5 years, and the tax relief tapers off by year id you sell before then.

The share scheme is administered by Equiniti, who have a clunky portal online and likely high dealing fees.

What would be the best way to sell these shares? Is it possible to maybe transfer to my existing trading broker?

I live in London, recent graduate.

It took me from July (when I graduated) to June to find a job so a year.

I’m now earning 1790 pounds a month, however I got into a -3k interest free overdraft for due to the fact that I was paying 100 (rent money at home to mum) in university, my rent was way more expensive then my maintenance that even with working I wasn’t able to not go into my overdraft with is completely fine, however I’ve managed to save uk 5k of my own money, and I also am now earning.

I want to move in September after my probation

Due to mental health at home, and I feel like it makes more sense as my job is based in Essex and I live in SE LDN so I pay 700 a month on travelling. And then the small rent my mother charges.Also I wake up at 5:30 and get home at 7 so im always really tired and don’t have time to myself or to study so I can progress (job market isn’t easy) I also am more inclined to by food outside because im too tired to prep my food when I come home

My dad says it’s a bad idea to move to Essex financially, and as a young woman alone. And because I won’t be at the job for mostly more than 1.5 years , I was looking at available rooms I could defo find somewhere for 700 monthly bills inc

Do you think it’s a smart move to move away, should I clear my overdraft before I start to even think about it? I will most definitely be waiting till probation, but I basically spend around 1100 at home on just expenses so is it worth just living closer to work for peace of mind?

I’m 37 now and only started paying into pension at 30. I am on a £29kish salary at Royal Mail. I also get some PIP money. I’ve been at Royal Mail for 7 years. The pension has recently changed to a collective defined contribution scheme which is the only company to use this in the country. I am on a mission to try and secure a retirement plan for 60. There were some years I was out of work and I paid off enough National insurance credits so I could effectively retire at 60 and still claim the state pension. Obviously we don’t know what will happen with the state pension by then though. Hopefully it’ll be safe if it’s still around. Anyway according to the Royal Mail pension site I’m forecasted to earn £14,500 every year if I was to retire at 67. But I’m planning on retiring before that when I’m 60 and claiming the pension when I get to 67. I’ve started paying £50 AVCs every week into my workplace pension. I have also been contributing £150 a month into my LISA. I am due to receive about £220k in inheritance which I plan to pay off the remainder of my mortgage with and put 60k onto a SIPP and increase my LISA payments

My question is

- will I likely have enough of a bridge between 60 and 67? I could live on 20k a year net quite happily.

- will the pension likely be enough through my workplace? I didn’t start paying until I was 30 and want to retire early at 60 but I’m putting in more. And I’m presuming I’ll have some sort of state pension?

I know the flowchart says 6-12 months, and I’m past 14 months of expenses now. Every time I reach a milestone I come up with anxieties to increase it further. My issue with this, is taking it so far that I negatively affect my future by neglecting investing for example.

Is there an amount/number of months of cash emergency fund that you would consider as too far, all things considered?

To give context we recently moved and the property has turned out to be a money pit! All renovations have been done utilising credit cards! I am able to clear them but I need to know what to do once they are clear.
My worry is there always seems to be a new project but I can’t keep using credit cards and my outgoings are already tight.

I know overall I’m in a very lucky financial position.

I’m 30, married, twin toddler boys.
I work 2 days/ week.
Husband covers most of the household bills.
I put £350/ month into SIPP and around £350/ month into savings, and am left with some spending money (~£300) after helping with some bills.

I am comfortable and have a good base saving pot (~ £50k).

The thing is every week there seems to be new expenses coming up.
My sister has a baby and is getting divorced, and will need help with buying a house. My whole circle is either getting married or having kids so expenses galore.

How do you handle these types of expenses without it stressing you out too much?

For any NHS higher rate earners, I am curious to know how you are increasing your tax efficiency and investing.

The NHS pension is great, although I’ll love to pay more into a pension outside of the scheme if it was available as a salary sacrifice. I have a Plan 2 student loan, so salary sacrifice really helps me save a lot.

Do you tend to use a SIPP, alongside the NHS pension?

I have decided to utilise my LISA more recently, although it offers less benefit as a higher rate tax earner. I don’t mind.

Any advice or tips?

I am looking to open an account similar to revolut or Monzo. But I have low credit score so most of the accounts I tried to open it failed because of that.

I just need an account to get paid from online surveys. Maybe with the chance to transfer money between cards or even connect to the PayPal.

No transaction fees.

This question might have been asked a thousand times but I need update advice.

I read about monese but they have transaction fees ..

Thank you :)

I made an online payment, as usual did the authorisation to confirm its me making the transaction. However it still declined. I tried again and still declined. But noticed the amount was deducted from my available balance, yet no “pending” status nothing. The retailer didn’t get the payment so I assume it’s an issue with TSB flagging this. I spoke to them and they said the fund is on “hold” (no idea what this means) and that it will appear again on Monday (this happened on Saturday.) Is this a standard procedure?

I’m looking to buy my first car (automatic) and have only 2k saved up. I know this is nothing for a car so was looking at PCP or HP options. Can anyone advise what would be smart to do financially? What budget should I set? I think I can comfortably afford £250 for car payments per month…

Hello!

Trying to help my partner sort out their finances - they have a Cash ISA and want to move to a S&S ISA, and want to consolidate several small pensions dotted over a number of companies into one. I'm trying to work out what the best value place for set and forget investments for both. (It'll probably be something like VWRP, but not necessarily exactly that.)

Looking at this: https://www.pensionbible.co.uk/providers - It's pretty clear that what's 'best' depends on how much money you have. They've around 52k in pension, 10k in a cash ISA. They're doing regular payments to both, but we're hoping to increase them a bit in the next couple of years because those sums are... not great. (They're sub 40, but not by a ton.)

They'll be paying in monthly, so I guess doing 12 trades a year (just buying more of the same thing), or 24 if it's for both? But ideally automated.

If you take both the things they want separately, then logic seems to dictate going for places that do 0%, 0 fees - Trading 212, InvestEngine.
Vanguard looks more expensive than ii from here with their pension amount: https://moneytothemasses.com/saving-for-your-future/investing/interactive-investor-vs-vanguard - but maybe I'm missing something, as I see it recommended a bunch more than ii.

If you are setting up both, does that change the calculation? (I have both a S&S ISA and a SIPP with ii, and I'm quite a bit over the 100k, so the £180 for both a year works out better than most % based fees, though not better than 'free', though I've not factored in the 1 free trade to that calculation.)

There's the 'friends and family' ii option - where they use my account to open a S&SISA free, and then get a pension elsewhere that has 0 fees?

Thank you!

(After the advice of someone here, I'm reading the Smarter Investing book and it's really good though I'm not the world's fastest reader, but I swear we should not have to be qualified accountants to work out how to be allowed to retire at some point before 90!)

Ive been losely budgeting and tracking for 6months now, but a lot of people talk about having different pots of money for different things - whats the best way to organise this?

Do any of the major banks have this available directly online so you can save into an account and name it (i.e. Holiday fund, car fund etc) but also separate your main account into separate pots? So that you have a grocery pot/bills pot/fun pot etc within the main account?

Im quite visual so think this would work best for me!

Otherwise I assume people use budgeting apps, can people recommend free ones for this?

Thanks