My partner and I would like to purchase a home in the Scotland in the next 12 months. I'm a US citizen, reside in the US full time. He is a UK citizen, resides in the UK full time.

My income is the equivalent of £105k/yr, my partner makes £36k/yr. The property would serve as his full time residence. We'd like to purchase in the £250k range, and obviously we'd need to use my income to qualify for that. 20-25% down in no issue, I could do more if needed given a little more time to save. We would both be first time home buyers.

I'm having trouble parsing out what mortgage options would be available to us, and I'm unfamiliar with the language I need to navigate the information available to me.

Has anyone navigated a similar situation? Or have any advice on what banks would be likely to be able to assist?

Hi there, looking for some advice. My employment income over the current financial year has been very varied due to having a 0 hour contract, working for 2 different employers, as well as self-employed income.

I try to keep tabs on the figures relating to tax and NI that have paid through the two PAYE employments, however some of my payments are missing from my HMRC App. Currently have 2 months from last Autumn not showing at all. I have questioned this with my employer and they say not to worry as Tax and NI is being deducted, as per my payslips.

Is this something to be worried or concerned about?

I got a email saying “welcome to online banking” with my username I’m just waiting for an activation code in the mail. Does this mean I’ve been accepted?

If we made under £7.5k from rental (which I believe is tax exempt under room to rent) so we need to set up a self-assessment to declare it still?

Unsure on whether it should be declared and it’ll suggest nil balance or whether it just doesn’t need to be declared under that amount.

Thanks

Hello,

Can anyone advise how often you transfer money from your workplace pension to your private pension and do you know if there are any costs when transferring. I'm with Scottish widows and my private pension is vanguard.

I am trying to pay a hmrc bill of £7K to HMRC and I would prefer to pay using a personal credit card. I have they money in my savings post but its earning me 5% atm and would rather use a credit card as I have access to a 0% credit card card. so paying over time would make more sense

it seems like HRMC only let you pay with corporate credit cards not personal.

I know there are services with a fee and a few mentions in other forums have mentioned Bill hop the most but this is for businesses only so did not work. I use curve already and that doesn't work either

I am yet to try these but if you use have used let me know

https://meliopayments.com/pay-by-card/

https://getapron.com/pay-by-card

https://www.getincredible.com/bill-pay

https://www.bluechain.com/#payments

also what about PayPal

I've recently made £60k in crypto. It was a reissue of a token I got airdropped and the price rocketed (So I don't think it counts as traded?). My mother is currently renegotiating her mortgage contract for our house, current contract ends end of March. The current debt is around 65k, I would like to pay off part of the debt as it's something I promised her I'd do.

Id like to know whats the smartest way to do this seeing as theres tax implications and i obviously dont want to lose a fair amount of money to that. Ive currently got a POD shop going and its at 17k profit so id like to know how this would influence it as i do my own self assesments.

Thank you in advance

//
Further context: I'm 29(m) live with her, my father retired this week and is moving back to our home country since he's much older than her and wants to live in better weather. I had a dark period a few years ago and went through depression so had only my family to rely on and I trust her. There were a lot of months I didnt pay rent and she never asked me for money; if we do sell the house then i'd get this money back + the percentage she promised me and my sister.

I am single and have no dependents and am considering taking out an equity release in the future to clear down my mortgage, leaving me a bit of freedom to pursue other avenues in life other than having to work full-time at a laptop for the remainder of my life. I've started researching this and will obviously ensure I obtain very solid advise and give it some serious thought before taking the plunge. However, I'm wondering if anyone has done this themselves and how it has turned out for them?

Say you have been investing in a global tracker for the last 10 years and you're going to use the money as an ISA bridge to retirement and your aim is to retire in the next four years, does that mean you should turn your equities into cash because you're going to need it within five years or do you just YOLO it for the gains and hope the market doesn't drop just before you retire?

It seems a bit of a gray area to me that I haven't seen discussed.

I’m 27F looking for advice or a better place to seek advice. I have a large amount of cash, of which 100k I would like to invest somewhere. I currently live in my parents house. I’m unsure whether to buy my own place or invest the money.

I’m single so I would be buying property alone in Berkshire if I choose that route. On my salary (£36000/year) to get a 2 bed property in an area where I could commute to London in under an hour would mean maxing out my mortgage and making compromises which I’m not too keen on as I enjoy my financial freedom.

Can anyone advise me on what the smartest options would be? Or the best place to seek advice on something like this? Thanks

Hi, I am looking to move my VLS80 fund out of vanguard and am shopping for other funds while trying to maintain the same assets mix (80% Stocks and 20% Bonds). Looks like there isn't a managed fund like VLS80 out there with cheaper fees so I am thinking to get it split into two funds. 1 All World Stocks and 1 All World Bonds for example. But now I am thinking why not do Cash ISA instead of the Bonds? What would be the pros and cons? Any advice is also welcome 🙏

Hello everyone,

I’m 23 and about to start saving for the first time (long overdue!). After reading a lot in this community, I’ve narrowed my options down to two: S&P 500 index funds or Premium Bonds.

I already have a high-interest savings account, but I’m interested in diversifying the rest of my saving budget by investing £700 into either.

Should I split it between the two equally what ratio would you recommend? Or would it be better to put it all into one?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all. I am a researcher and my name is Shuying. I am currently working with a UK government-backed financial wellbeing organisation - Money and Pensions Service on a contract.

My current research project is around debt, and how they can create a product that better helps people manage their budget and debt payment. I am running 45-minute online or in-person interviews (fully confidential) with people who are or have been in debt situations in the last 18 months.

Please chat with me if you can spare some time, it will be remunerated (£30 UK supermarket voucher) upon the completion of an interview. All interviews are managed in line with GDPR, consent forms will need to be signed before the interview.

Please send an email to my work address: shuying.xu@thepsc.co.uk, if this is something you can help! Thank you so much.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to donate to charity each month, and I've been looking into how to do so in the most tax efficient way possible.

Currently, I pay the Scottish Intermediate rate of income tax (21%) and will soon (hopefully) move into the Scottish Higher rate (of 42%, which kicks in for earnings over £43,663).

When reading about Gift Aid, all the guides I can find reference the rates used in other parts of the UK (i.e. Basic rate of 20% up to £50,270 and Higher rate of 40% over that).

When paying the Scottish rates, is the additional tax eligible for Gift Aid too? If so, how do you go about ensuring this goes to the charity?

FTB here, 29. Oxfordshire based. Housing market is crazy, but my wife and I want to settle down. I need some straight forward, simple advice and feedback based on the numbers: Can I afford this house or am I being stupid and over-stretching.

• Joint income after tax and 10% pension per month: £6150 [wife is around £2900 and I am £3250 per month after tax and pension]
• Currently pay £1500 for a 2 bedroom rental
• Total monthly expenses (Rent, council tax, gas, groceries, car insurance, wifi, phones, petrol and other needs with a bit of spending money) = £2700
• No debt. 2017 Car paid off

We were looking at 3 bed houses around 350k, but there's not too much option. We want to move in and not have to renovate, so are looking at increasing budget to 400k.

Do you think we are being irresponsible by stretching, considering we want to have a kid and wife may go part-time for a few years lowering our joint-income to around £4000 after tax and pension

• 400k property
• We could put a 20% deposit down
• Monthly mortgage payments would be around £1550 on a 35 year term
• After deposit and legal costs, furniture etc. we will have an emergency fund of around 6 months expenses, but no other cash savings

So £1550 mortgage payments of our joint income after tax / pension would be 25% which is great. But if wife works part-time for a few years it will go up to about 39% of net income.

Should we go for it? The only other option is we either lower our expectations and buy a place towards 300k or 350k, but will be worse. Or we continue renting, but rent for a 3 bedroom will be around £1600 anyway. So we have to move to a different part of the country I guess if we can't afford that. Renting does give flexibility though if we decide life is too expensive here when wife is working part-time, and we could move to another part of the country that's cheaper but that's a whole different story.

Hey guys,

I'm finishing up my first tax return - I've been in hospital so I know I'm either going to cut the deadline really fine or be a day or so late for submitting - but i just wanted to ask if there is a good method of finding out how much interested I've earned over the tax year? I've not done anything clever with my money so far, but i do have lots of different bank accounts with between 2-15k in each of them, and while none are specifically high interested earning accounts (something I need to address) I was hoping there might be a method of finding out the interest earned that was a bit less daunting than downloading 12 months of statements from each account and adding it all up.

Thanks for any advice given!

Hello all,

Recently started work and got a salary sacrifice scheme set up in which I pay a set amount, and my company pays double into my pension each month

I’m currently set up in the aviva my future focus pre 2024 account with a risk level of 4

I’m ago it to do my own research but thought I’d see if anyone had any recommendations over riskier plans they put their pensions in

If relevant, i do also invest in the stock market (FTSE all world)

Hello all. I've tried to find info on this topic but nothing quite fits my circumstances.

Please bear with me!

I've been on Universal Credit since May 2024, prior to that I was taking a break in work after being made redundant. I have some health issues which mean that it is difficult to find a job that will now fit my abilities....

The start of all this is that I bought several job lots at a local auction house starting mid-November 2024. I wanted 2,3 or 4 items in each lot for myself and then I sold the rest of the items on ebay.

Although not doing it specifically to make a profit (I was hoping to make most of my money back for the lot I purchased so the items I wanted to keep for myself would be free or very cheap) I found that on some lots I have made small profits, totalling around £800.

I believe that I would not have to let HMRC know as it is below the 1K limit, however, to make things even more complicated, I have been selling off a lot of my unwanted items that I have had for maybe a decade or more, PLUS helping my mother get rid of a lot of my late fathers stuff. From all this, my total ebay sales for this financial year will probably be around 3K or more by April !!

Does that mean I now have to tell HMRC? Will I need to fill out self assessment? I cannot find any website that deals with circumstances like this but I cannot be the only person in this situation...

Any help or info, or just pointing to a website with comprehensive info would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the long message :)

Hi - if one is already at 907k in a pension pot and ultimately can only get a max tax free of 268k tax free is it worth contributing further?......currently unemployed and taken early retirement so was considering just paying the 2880 pounds allowance going forward. Thoughts?

My company is changing their pension provider to Mercer Master Trust in the middle of this year. I've been looking at the many funds they offer and can only find one passive global equities fund, so I'm trying to compare that to what I have now.

Current:

• 95% @ "Aviva Pensions BlackRock World ex-UK Equity Index Tracker S6" - fund charge: 0
• 5% @ "Aviva Pensions BlackRock UK Equity Index Tracker S6" - fund charge: 0
• Platform fee: 0.29%
• Protected pension age: 55
• Total invested: £110k

Mercer:

• Fund that tracks "MSCI World ex Selected Securities Index" - fund charge: 0.155%
• Platform fee: ???
• No protected pension age (as far as I can tell)

I cannot find what their platform fee is, because they don't use that terminology in their documents. They just quote a "total annual fund charge" for each fund, which may or may not include the platform fee. The MSCI index is obviously different to the BlackRock ones but given there's no other choice I guess I'll just have to go with it. I currently salary sacrifice down to £50k to stay in the basic tax bracket. The big thing I think I will miss from my current pension provider is the protected retirement age, which is why I plan to not transfer my existing pot over.

Questions:

1. Does anyone have any experience with Mercer? Good, bad?
2. Does anyone have any info on their platform fee or whether it's all included in the "total annual fund charge"?
3. Would it be a good idea to front-load my pension contributions in the 2025-26 tax year to get as much money as possible into my current pension before they change provider? i.e. I could whack my sacrifice up to 60% for April and May, then bring it down so that I earn ~£50k for the tax year.

Thanks for any insight.

Hi all. I wanted to hear from people a lot smarter than me if this was a terrible idea or not.

I’m in my first year of university. My student loan is the lowest you can get (£3790). This isn’t due to eligibility, as I am eligible for a much higher loan but I don’t need a higher one as I don’t live at university, instead I travel from about an hour away. I only end up using about maybe £500-600 of it as I only use it for petrol and a bridge toll. With this leftover money, it got me thinking - if I were to apply for the highest one possible, only used how much I needed and then deposited all the leftover money into a Lifetime ISA so I get a bonus of £1000 on it would this make sense?

I understand that I’d be willingly putting myself in a lot more debt, but from what I’ve heard not many people end up paying off their student loan, and it comes out as a percentage of your income. I would use this leftover money in the LISA towards a house deposit. I’m also aware that there is other factors that could influence this, such as the government changing policies on how much we repay etc.

Thanks.

Hi all, currently 22 saving for my first house. Realistically I don't see myself moving out of my parents house for another 2 years or so. I work full time with a salary of 24k a year which is expected to rise a fair amount of over the next year with my responsibilities increasing. I currently have no debt as I took the apprentice route instead of uni and my credit card is payed off in full at the end of the month. I have 15k in savings towards a deposit for a house. I ideally want 40k for a deposit and that may be combined depending on when I marry my partner.

Last year I bought a cheap run around for £600 and decided to drive it until it dies or the costs to make repairs doesn't seem worth it. I am at that point now. I'm after a new car that will last me 6-10 years. I've given myself a budget of £7000 for the next car as I would like some modernish luxuries. I'm trying to decide now if I should outright buy my next car for £7k or finance it. For the repayments I would be looking at £170 a month which I can comfortably afford. My other outgoings aren't loads as I live at home for free and all I really have to cover is my phone bill, car tax, insurance and any luxuries I want.

My question is do I pay the 7k all in one go and take a hit to my savings or loose £170 a month which might come out of how much I put into savings a month. For reference I put £700 a month into my savings currently. That split between a LISA, stocks and shares ISA and regular savings account.

Hi there, recently started employment but have lost all my details for my aviva pension so can’t log in or anything

Does anybody know best way to retrieve them, never had any emails with documents and it’s all been through the post which I stupidly discarded (22M)

Every year I vow to do this sooner but, well, I never do.

Last minute dot com I know but I have submitted my self assessment yesterday and it said to come back in 72 hours to view payment due?

This would mean a late payment and a late fee?

Is there a way around this to avoid it?

EDIT - Thanks all - sorted now

Hey all so I have just completed an IVA and trying to get a mortgage, I’ve spoken to a few brokers who say that they can’t find anyone that would lend to someone without being 3 years clear of an IVA. Yet looking on other places it says that they will do mortgages to people within the 3 year period. Does anyone have any idea if this is possible. Many thanks in advance

I came got far towards £100k. Then bought a house. So saw huge reduction due to deposit, fees, and furniture.

I am wondering if that compound of the first £100k applies to if you have say £75k in your house, and £25k in emergency fund and investments?

Or is it only £100k in investments?

This probably shouldn't be this difficult...but I'm struggling and would appreciate a dummy's explanation if possible please...

My work provides me with private medical via BUPA, it is not deducted in my monthly wage but comes through on my P45. HMRC have been amending my tax code to account for this, taking the ~£2k BIK cash value off my £12750 zero tax threshold.

I self assess and declare it into the appropriate section. I've worked it all through and appear to have been taxed on it again at 40%

I'm struggling to understand why this would be, feels like I'm being double charged, could anyone explain please? And advice appreciated

Hello guys I am on an exchange semester in Scotland for the next 4 months. I wanted to ask if anyone knows what is the best way to pay in the UK? I was thinking of using Revolutt, using Revolut but I'm not sure. I Can anyone help me with this?

hi, i hope you all are well.

im turning 18 next week and needed help deciding which credit card ould be best suited for me, that i would actually get accepted for.

i earn about £100 a month, and do plan on going to uni this coming september. ill preferbly looking for one with good cashback and that can help my credit grow.

any recommendations would e helpful.

Vanquis have offered me a £2000 limit but how did they calculate this amount?

Is that a good amount to be offered?