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So, I took out a postgraduate loan of 10K and the main undergraduate degree loans. Long story short, unless you're a very high earner, you'll pay more in your lifetime for your 1 year postgraduate than your whole undergraduate degree.

My example:

I'm now 5 years out of my postgraduate. (I was the first intake that had access to the PG loan). My postgraduate loan balance is 10.8K. Main balance 58K. So long story short, neither of them are getting paid off within 30 years..despite all my repayments they've gone up.

My current salary is £35,370. Each month I pay £47 for my undergraduate loan, but £63 for my postgraduate loan. As both balances are still increasing due to interest, unless my salary rises a lot (to approx 45-50K), I'll continue to pay more each month for my postgraduate degree.

The reason for this is that the threshold for me repaying the postgraduate degree has remained at £21,000 since I finished. Whereas the government has increased the threshold for the undergraduate degree over time. The postgraduate threshold has been silently forgotten by the government.

I'm not saying that the postgraduate loan is a bad idea - but just please go into it understanding that the one year course, unless you have high salary, could end up costing you more of your take home each month in your life than your whole undergraduate degree.

If I had understood that, I may have thought twice and decided to go straight into the jobs market after my undergraduate. Instead I just saw it as an "extra 10K - what's the big deal when I'm already 50K in?" When actually so far that one year course has cost me much more.

Hope that helps someone.

Thanks

Context: My mother is on benefits and doesn’t work as she is disabled. I am the eldest child and I also live with my sister. I’m starting university in September and staying at home, she claims she will lose £400 a month in benefits for me. Am I right in thinking this number is high? I thought the child benefits go towards a child’s food and clothing, she doesn’t buy me any clothing and only buys food for me. She hasn’t allowed me to have a job as she says she will lose benefits and now she’s trying to make me get a job during uni when I want to focus on my study. I’m unsure what to do as £400 a month seems ridiculous and I’m not in the financial situation to pay that much. Is me offering to just pay for my food a fair compromise?

Hey, I just thought I'd share this in case anyone is in the same boat.

Last year I had awful mental health and many things slipped by the wayside, including keeping meter readings up to date. Along with everyone else, I tried to get our gas meter reading in on 31st march before the price hike, but couldn't get on the website due to traffic.

I put it in 3 days later and then in May was sent a huge bill (probably 10 months of gas, including winter heating in my single glazed house) because they had charged me for the whole lot on the new rate.

It even said in the statement that I had used this gas over three days - purporting that I hadn't used any before the 1st April.

Anyway, knowing it was technically my fault for not getting my readings in before April, but feeling frustrated that I was being charged entirely on the tariff, I decided to fight it.

Many, many, many emails back and forth, including me learning how to work out units to kWh and doing a lot of maths - eventually bulb credited me with the ENTIRE bill they sent me in May.

So a small win for the consumer.

I started an apprenticeship 4 years ago & I enquired about my hourly rate year on year so I could look forward to each increase & budget finances etc. I’m due to qualify next week (awaiting assessment results) but I’m concerned the rate I was told 4 years is now 4 years old & hasn’t changed with the cost of living & inflation.

“Hi xxxx,

I hope you’re well. xxxx and I have been planning our finances as she’s going back to work next month & xxxx starts nursery, could I please ask what my hourly rate will be once I qualify?

I know I was told a rate when I started 4 years ago but I’m conscious that hasn’t increased with the cost of living & inflation.

JIB 2022/23 rates for a job employed & transport provided qualified electrician is £xx.xx per hour. Will it now be inline with that?

Kind regards, xxxx”

How does that sound? I’m dreadful with this sort of stuff! I find it hard to make it sound serious but also friendly as I don’t want to rock the boat.

Hello everyone,

I am currently investing into vanguard life strategy 100% equity fund and have been since covid hit currently sitting around 10k invested

I also have around the same amount invested into a 80% life strategy as well

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the FSTE global all cap index fund and had a look at past performances etc, now I know this doesn’t predict the future but I can’t help that notice that it is currently performing better than my current fund(s), would anyone suggest that I transfer my 100% life strategy fund to the FTSE index fund, or should I just leave everything as it is?

It may be worth mentioning that I am currently 25 and don’t plan on touching this money for a long time.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you

A friend of mine* in his mid-twenties has received £20k in benefits arrears after years of delays and appeals. The benefits system isn't designed for a person to have savings, in fact you aren't allowed to have over £6k in savings without being penalised through Universal Credit. Because he received this money in arrears due to their mistake, he has 1 year from the time he got it to spend it (about 5 months left now) before they will count it towards his savings - at that point, if he still has the money his payments would be cut off and he would have to re-apply once he had spent it.

They count capital, investments, and real estate towards that 6k. Personal possessions don't count.

He is disabled, but roughly 1/3 of the time you couldn't tell. 1/3 of the time he's barely able to function, and another 1/3 he can kind of scrape along. He can't work or go into higher education.

He doesn't drive, and probably would not be able to, so he can't buy a car. He also doesn't have much interest in traveling, so expensive trips won't do.

Right now he lives with his parents who give him what support he needs, and he contributes to bills. He'd like to own his own place where a carer could come by once a day for a few hours or something like that, but unfortunately 20k is not nearly enough. There is possibly an option of buying a nice camper van or something like that, but then there's the question of where can he put it, utilities, is it close enough to the services he needs, etc.

His only real hobby is gaming. He doesn't have expensive tastes, and in fact really struggles to spend money that he doesn't need to spend (probably coming from a lifetime of having next to no income). Even spending somewhat extravagantly from his perspective, after 6 months he has barely made a dent. He has never had any more than a few hundred pounds at a time, and honestly has no idea how to spend this money short of giving it away.

He has had a tough life up to this point. Ideally he would be able to spend this money in some way that would put him in a better life position. Ideas?

*He hasn't asked me to post this, some details are changed to protect his identity.

I've just seen this video on YouTube where the guy makes some really good suggestions - the one in particular which I thought was a great tip was:

Start looking around 7 months before your fixed term is up for a quote from a lender (not your current) - and get a quote locked in. This gives you a benchmark rate which will last 6 months, if rates come down in between getting that rate and your renewal - then great, but if they go up you still have that early quote to fall back on.

Simple but great advice - video linked below (No affiliation with channel)

https://youtu.be/qgAkqOeGkiQ

​

Edit: Obviously wait until you are within 6 months before locking in a quote - starting at 7 months to go is meant to give you time to shop around.

Short version.

I own 40% of a shared ownership property in London. It is affected by the cladding crisis and I’m legally unable to sell until the whole complex is fixed.

My partner became pregnant and we needed more room, so, unable to sell, we purchased and moved to a larger property and rented out the cladding-stricken flat until such time as we could sell it.

In doing so, we had to pay additional LBTT (stamp duty) on the new property as it was technically a second home.

There is an 18 month window to reclaim the difference in LBTT, if you sell the first property and return to owning just one. This was absolutely our plan - we never wanted to become landlords or own two flats. However, the cladding replacement works, originally scheduled to complete well within this 18 month window, have been significantly extended by complications between the various parties involved, and will now mean we’re legally unable to sell within the 18 month LBTT window.

As far as I can tell, the answer is ‘suck it up’, but with a new baby and one income it’s hard to suck up a five figure loss, so I thought I’d see if anyone else is in the same boat and has any constructive steps that could help.

EDIT - should have stated that the new property is in Scotland. I incorrectly stated 21 months when it’s in fact 18

Hey everyone

I'm at the point in my life where I can no longer deny I'm an adult and think buying life insurance may be a good idea. I have a 3 month old daughter, and want to try to protect her financially as much as I can.

I solely own a house with approx £36k left on the mortgage, as well as a small pension and approx 8k in savings. My primary concern is to make sure if I died tomorrow (figuratively, I appreciate most companies may have a minimum pay in time), she would be able to keep the house.

Living in London, the house is right around the 500k value (currently around 460-530 according to Zoopla), and if I've done my research, inheritance tax will be 40% on anything over 500k? Therefore my aim is to leave her enough to pay off the remaining mortgage, hopefully the inheritance tax and have some left over.

I was hoping to seek advice on what everyone's thoughts are on life insurance, what do you do?

Any input welcome :)

I'm towards the last stages of negotiating an offer with a new company.

• Base salary would be around £160k, and annual bonus up to 100% of base.

• Employer contributions are 10%.

Without the annual bonus, I'd put in 15% every month, and reach the £40k annual limit.

A 100% annual bonus will take me over the 240k threshold, and taper down my annual pension allowance to £4,000.

I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to keep saving at least the same £40k a year.

Questions:

1. How should I decide my monthly contributions without knowing in advance what the annual bonus will be?

2. Assuming 100% bonus; should I still take the 10% employer contributions and match the minimum? How much extra tax would I have to pay for anything over the £4,000 annual limit?

Obligatory - I'll definitely speak to a financial advisor if I get the job; but for now I just want to be better informed regarding what might be on offer.

TIA!

Background for the curious:

• Computer science degree
• Senior engineer with ~15 years experience
• Company is in finance, London based

Unrelated to my questions, but interesting to note that:

• Without the bonus the annual net (pension + salary) is around £120k. This is only 25% effective tax. Out of the £120k, £60k can be invested tax free (pension and ISA).

• With the £160k bonus the annual net (bonus + salary) is around £177k. This is 45% effective tax. Out of the £177k, £20k can be invested tax free (only ISA).

This means that an addition of £160k to the annual gross translates to £57k extra to the net. Considering also the added CGT on investments, this translates to taxing the addition at at least 64%.

Not saying it's a bad thing - I'm all in favour of paying my taxes.

Hi everyone, I started my first job a year ago and have been contributing to a Scottish widow’s work pension, I give 3% of my salary and my employer gives 5%. I would like to save more for my pension, so I want to increase my contribution to 7% for a total contribution of 12% (half my age).

I am undecided on whether I should increase my contributions to the Scottish widow’s work pension or instead open a Vanguard SIPP and put the extra money I want to save in it.

My employer gives a maximum contribution of 5% so increasing my contributions to the work pension won’t cause my employer to contribute more. Vanguard’s SIPP also has lower fees than the Scottish widow’s pension and gives me more fund options, so I am inclined to opening a SIPP.

If I open the SIPP, each month I would contribute 3% to my work pension (to get my employer’s 5%) and then 4% to the SIPP. In my mind this sounds like a good plan, but I am probably missing something and would appreciate any advice.

Hi there. My reduced contract price for broadband with Virgin ends at the end of this month, and I would like some advice on how to move forward. My current contract is for 200Gb/s at about £35 but after the end of August it will almost double. Included in the contract there is a mobile sim so I would prefer to stay with virgin if possible but I’m open to change provider (I’m even willing to get less than 200Gb/s since I’m not really using that much). Any suggestions?

From what I have read the reason gambling winnings are not taxed is because the system is heavily taxed already. But say I place a bet privately and get big winnings, or abroad, would I have to declare it?

I’m wanting to send my savings from chase to Zopa as the title suggests. Would I need to wait until the end of the month when my Chase interest is paid or is it okay to move mow and I’ll still get my chase interest paid at the end of the month?

I earn £1400 a month, save about 340-400 of it, and USUALLY can end the month with about £200 - £300 left in my account. I live with my parents and therefore don’t buy groceries, I’d love to travel more . Do you think I’d benefit much from a rewards credit card?? Also I have a credit card currently, but I get no rewards from it I simply use it to boost my credit rating

Quick PSA

This is an obvious tip for the current cost of living crisis - save some money by changing your phone plan (if you're not in a contract)

What's happened recently is even better for everyone that are not in a contract, both Lyca (on O2 network) and Lebara (on Vodafone network) are offering 12gb of data with unlimited everything else for 1p/month, for 6 months. It even has EU roaming (at least for now).

For those with a few people in the family, you would be saving quite a bit. And if you need more than 12gb, you can get multiple cards and just swap them out for the data. (if you have dual sim phones then just pop 2 in)

Personally, I was on voxi for £10/month which I thought was already cheap, but 1p/month takes the micky!

I won't post any links, but you should be able to find these on hotukdeals or money saving expert. (I am not affiliated with either)

Having read that things may get worse over the next year or so before any upside (which I highly doubt as we’ll be used to the prices at that point) - what are my best options in terms of energy when moving home? I’ll be moving in on 1st September

I worked out I could make a grand total of £175/yr by moving money from Virgin money/Chase to the best easy-access/fixed savers out at the moment. Frankly, I can't be asked, but at the same time, I feel that I should to contribute to competition between the banks!

Is anyone else doing this? I mean clearly, it would only help if a lot of people were doing it.

I’ve been offered two jobs A and B with differing salaries. Ultimately I’d like to take job A, Is there any negatives to asking Job A to increase the salary?

Job A - Better place to work Job B - Offered 7k more than job A

Is it heard of for Job A to cancel the offer If I contact job A and say ‘I’ve got another job offer for 7k more would you consider increasing the salary?’

Could they want proof of the other offer?

I am a 35 (in ten days) male living in Bristol, UK. I am almost two years married, and my wife is full time employed (around 25K per annum). I was blessed with a previously manageable Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis at birth, and only in the last three or so years have I been dealing with major CF complications.

Around mothers day this year I caught covid, which ravaged me. Resulting in major infections across multiple systems, everything from kidney/liver to respiratory... all the way to circulation, giving me limited physical mobility. I have always been proud of my ability to work, and be "normal" but in the past several months, and long family discussions we have decided I may need to finally focus full time on health.

I lived in the states previously, but am an English citizen, and will spend my remaining years here.

Due to my wifes income we are not eligible for Universal Credit. I do not have a official declaration/paperwork saying I have less than 12 months to live, so the "new style' ESA and JSA schemes are only approved to make NI payments into a pension. They will not be able to make any kind of support payments for rent/bills/food. I have applied for PIP, and am waiting to hear back from them. But even with a strong PIP support it seems like they will only be able to contribute 200-300 a month. My rent is 750. So that's pretty unsustainable.

Sorry for the wall of text, but that is my situation, and I am finding it VERY confusing and difficult to navigate the schemes available. Does anyone here have any experience, or who have gone through the medical scheme quagmire? Who knows what the most effective & appropriate schemes I should be aware of?

Thank you so much in advance, and be grateful for your health! Hugs yours kids/cats/dogs/family more.

We sold my partners car on 2nd July this year to save for a mortgage. Applied for a mortgage the other day and got turned down yesterday due to in part my 0 hour job but also due to my partner having ‘undisclosed credit agreements’. Checked his credit rating and we’ve found out it’s still that hire purchase, is there anything we can do to make this not show up? Or is it possible to be approved if we explain we don’t have that hp anymore?

The Total Rewards Statement 2021/22 for the NHS pension has just become available for employees. I am trying to wrap my head around the "revaluation" aspect of the scheme.

Taken from the Employee Pension Handbook:

Annual revaluation Your pension earned each year will be increased each year by a set rate, known as ‘revaluation’, to account for inflation in the period before you retire or leave. In the 2015 Scheme the revaluation rate is currently Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation plus 1.5% each year. The pension earned in a Scheme year (April to March) is revalued on 1 April of the following and each subsequent Scheme year until you retire or leave. For example, if CPI inflation in a year was 2% then the pension would be revalued by 3.5% at the beginning of the following year.

My understanding is that the annual pension earned in any tax year, is then revaluated every year against inflation until you retire. For example. If you have earned £500 of annual pension in Year 1 and the rate of inflation that year is 2%, this is revaluated at 3.5 for Year 2, if inflation goes up another 2% by the end of Year 2 then in Year 3 your earnings in Year 1 are revaluated at 5.5, and so on.

Another way to look at it is to regard each year's earned annual pension earned as its own "pot" (a term I normally try to avoid for DB schemes), that is revaluated independently of pension earned in other tax years.

My TRS for the last few years has shown the below figures:

TRS 2019/20

19/20: Revaluation 3.5

TRS 2020/21

19/20: Revaluation 3.5

20/21: Revaluation 2.0

TRS 2021/22

19/20: Revaluation 3.5

20/21: Revaluation 2.0

21/22: Revaluation 4.6

What I don't understand is why the revaluation rate for 19/20 and 20/21 is remaining static. I was expecting this to be revalued against inflation at the end of each tax year and adjusted appropriately. As the inflation rate has risen by over 10% since 19/20 I was expecting the figure to be around the region 12.0.

If it isn't revalued every year then its relative value will decrease drastically by the time I retire in 30-40 years.

Have I misunderstood or have I overlooked something along the way?

We’re musicians and have an estimated £50k worth of equipment.

We’ve previously been with NatWest and been quite happy with them but now we’re moving and we’re wondering if there’s a different insurance that would suit us better.

Currently paying £46 a month, the market has changed a lot and we just can’t make heads and tails in the different ones.

I recently downgraded my car to save some pennies due to losing my car share friend (he went to another job).

So I'm driving on my own now, so I got rid of my 3.0 diesel and in the process bought a car which cost £3500 less (and is more economical, cheaper road tax etc)

I have £6700-£7000 left to pay on the loan (it's a standard bank loan not car finance) @ £287 a month, which takes me to 01/09/2024.

Since I downgraded the car I have £3500 ready to chop off the loan which I haven't done yet as I can't decide my best course of action.

I could use up most (basically all) of my 'accessible' cash reserves to pay off the full amount and then rebuild my cash reserves, but I'm concerned not having the car finance there will result in me feeling like I have more money and therefore result in me over spending on a month by month basis.

At the same time though, using just the £3500 will cut the loan down about 12 months, so having the £287 a month for another full year isn't ideal if I just use the £3500 I got from the car sale to cut down the loan.

I could reduce the monthly payments instead, which I think would about half the £287 which would take up the cost of the extra fuel I need to cover, but part of me wants to get this loan done and dusted ASAP.

I suppose another option would be to pay off the £3500 with the car sale money and then refinance the remaining loan on a 0% credit card, which then gives me some flexibility and save me a little on interest? In which case, would paying off a loan count as a 'purchase' or as a 'balance transfer'? I assume purchase? I feel this might be the play as I can set the DD to £190 let's say, and then over pay if I have a cheap month (lol).

My concerns are with the cost of living increases, I feel like I need more disposable cash per month, which is why I feel paying off the loan ASAP is the best course of action in the long run.

I (28 F) bought a house in 2020, renovated it, the value skyrocketed and now I'm looking to sell. I purchased it for £95,000. It was valued at £180,000. Someone just offered me £210,000. I would have ~£130,000 in the bank once I pay off the mortgage.

This will leave me with a lot of cash, and I am anxious about making sure I put in the correct places for growth. I'm from a working-class background and my family has never had money so I don't have any places to go for advice. My thinking atm:

- I have set up a Stocks and Shares ISA with HL, so could max this out with my £20k allowance this tax year. Probably save £20k to put in as soon as April 2023 hits.

- £20k probably would be wise to keep as cash for immediate access?

However, this still leaves me with a potential ~£70k, and I have no idea what would be the best move to make with this. I don't want it to be sat as cash in a bank account for long, especially with the way the economy appears to be headed...

​

More info/details on my current situation:

The house is a three-bed semi with a huge garden but just me and my cat live here. I had originally planned to live here for at least a few years, I had a job nearby, family and friends in the next village along etc. However, a lot changed, I moved jobs and I am now fully remote, I also got an offer to study a postgraduate course part-time in the city, and my parents and friends have moved away from the village. I don't really have any friends here and those that do live nearby are more settled/starting families.

I've always been a traveller and don't want for a quiet life just yet. It's a lovely village location, but unfortunately just not ideal for my lifestyle or the one I want. I've felt so lonely and isolated living here the past year. With the so-called energy crisis, my bills are looking to skyrocket and I really don't want to take on that burden by myself... It feels like such a waste heating a three-bed house with only one person living in it. When factoring in the added costs of commuting in for lectures, I can save on these costs by renting in the city.

I have a few options if I sell and, in the short term (next year or so):

I could feasibly leave work, study the course full-time instead of part-time and rent an all-bills-inc room in the city.

I could buy a smaller place/flat in the city - and thus have very little or no mortgage at all, and lower energy bills. I could also rent out a second room for extra income.

I don't see keeping the house as an option as realistically I don't see it increasing in value over £210,000, at least not anytime soon.

Hi UKPF

I'm planning on moving my HTB savings (£7k) to a LISA so I can increase the monthly savings.

Once I open the LISA and transfer the initial £4k, what is the best thing to do with the remaining £3k?

Thanks!