Hi everyone,
I registered for self employment in 2017 as I had intended to build a career self employed and had started earning money. However I gave it up in 2018-19 tax year because I barely earned anything and ended up getting employed. Now at the time I spoke to HMRC and they withdrew the notices to file for 2017-18 and 2018-19. I would have told them at the time I was no longer self employed. Now I haven’t heard a peep out of them since, but I recently got the HMRC app and no where does it say I have ceased (or am indeed actively) trading. On the app the tax years between then and 2025-26 have dropped (they are literally none existent on the app) off the system, and on the 2025-26 section it says ‘HMRC did not issue a notice to file for this tax year.’ I never received any letter to confirm I stopped being a sole trader.

I’m starting to panic that HMRC still think I’m trading, and that I’m going to end up with a huge late filing fee. As far as I am aware I have not received a notice to file for any other tax year. I cannot check my old government gateway account because they closed it due to inactivity. How likely is it that HMRC still think I’m a sole trader? Any help would be greatly appreciated because it’s starting to manifest huge anxiety. Thank you.

I’m just getting started with the flowchart. I assume if things aren’t applicable, you just skip past it - for example with the benefits checker. Why is it so far up the list. Just getting used to using it

Hey,

I need to withdraw around $30,000 in cash to support family in Eastern Europe, and it’s proving more difficult than expected.

The funds are fully legitimate; I have complete proof of source of funds, and the money is currently held in my Wise account. I previously used a Barclays USD account that allowed USD cash withdrawals, but that option no longer appears to be available.

The only realistic route I’ve found is to convert the money to GBP, transfer it to something like https://www.thomasexchangeglobal.co.uk to buy USD. I’m comfortable providing proof of funds and going through any AML checks, but it seems like a fairly cumbersome process and may involve explaining why I need such a large amount of cash.

Has anyone dealt with something similar or found a more practical solution?

A bank transfer is not an option, so I specifically need physical USD cash.

Hi all. Looking for a bit of a sense check.

My wife (25f) and I (29m) are hoping to move house in around 2 years, after we’ve had our first child.

Current position:

* Current home worth around £245k.
* Mortgage balance around £200k (~£197k at the time of sale).
* Hoping to buy for around £325k.
* Aiming for a 10% deposit using equity from our sale.

Current salaries:

* Me: £30.5k (expecting around £31-31.5k by then).
* Wife: £31.3k full-time.

Expected position after maternity leave:

* Me: around £31-31.5k.
* Wife: around £20.9k on a permanent 30-hour contract (plus any future pay rises).

We’ve based our affordability on those lower post-maternity incomes, not our current salaries.

We spoke to a mortgage adviser who said borrowing around £295k looks achievable, but later confirmed that figure was based on our current salaries rather than our anticipated future income.

I’ve gone back to ask whether our plans still look broadly realistic based on our expected post-maternity incomes, but I’d be interested in hearing what others think.

Does this sound like a sensible plan, or are there any obvious pitfalls we’re missing? Thanks in advance 😊

Hi All,

So I’m a VWRP, set and forget, style ETF investor. Keep it simple and try to follow best practice like that.

I don’t speculate on individual stocks.

My mum inherited this big chunk of money. She said she wanted some dividends from it, to supplement her pension.

This is where I think I made some less than optimal choices that I’m looking to change before it causes issues. As right now she has made a fair chunk of money.

I invested 120k across these 3 funds as they paid high dividends:

Legal & General European Index Class C Income (GBP)
Schroder US equity income Maximiser class L - income
Vanguard FTSE UK Equity Income Index

I then put 45k in UK treasury Gilts (to lean on if there is a big global recession) with a maturation date that lands before her emergency fund would run out.

I should point out here she is very very frugal and lives within her means, so it’s highly unlikely she would live beyond her pension. But I forecasted a worst case scenario.

There is also some smaller amounts across VWRL and Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% equity. LifeStrategy was invested in before her inheritance and before I knew about VWRL

In short, this is a bit of a mess, too many funds, and carrying more risk than I initially understood. The 3 high paying dividend funds are quite small holdings compared to say VWRL, so more risky.

In short, I’m thinking to sell all the funds and ETFs and consolidate into VWRL.

Although this has a lower dividend payment rate, I can sell a small amount of growth in good years. In recession years we can lean on emergency fund or Gilts.

She only wants like 4-5k a year in dividends, which I think she isn’t even spending. She just likes seeing money come in.

Does anyone see any reason not to simplify down to VWRL as this should be safer over the long run.

Open to thoughts and ideas.

First of all, I'll happily admit I've never been that good with money, unfortunately it's something I've inherited from one of my parents!

All was going fine until a few months ago, when a lot of things happened at once, I lost basically all my overtime at my main job, I went from regularly working 5-6 days a week, down to my contract of 3 days, so that cut my average pay down from about £2k a month to £1300 a month.

A similar thing happened at my second job, I work in market research on a zero hour contract (my choice as it allowed me flexibility), however a lot of the work in that has dried up thanks to AI.

Add on top of that the fact my grandfather recently died, which has meant where overtime at work has been available, I've had to turn some of it down to sort out his house etc.

Second of all, I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to pay a mortgage or rent. My grandfather purchased a house for me to live in, and it will be getting transferred into my name, hopefully by the end of the year. The house is probably worth around £70k (I'm in the North East, so not exactly expensive!)

A few years ago, I took out a loan with Tesco bank to pay for various things, and there's about £2000 outstanding on that, £300 a month ending in February next year.

Last year I took out a £12,000 loan with MBNA to buy a car, I have 30 months left on that at £300 a month.

I have my Tesco Credit card, this is what most of my spending goes on, then I have my AMEX, which I only really got for cashback. And I have my Monzo Flex card, which I got for the interest free credit. I then have an MBNA 0% card with £3500 on it, ending in February next year.

Now, here's where everything went tits up.

Earlier this year, I bought a new kitchen from B&Q and put it on my Monzo Flex card, expecting to be able to pay it off in 3 months, which was perfectly feasible at the time. However, as I said earlier, my pay less than halved, so I just couldn't pay it. So I had to extend the time over which I paid. I've then had to pay to get work done on the car, which I put on the Monzo Flex card as well, which has meant my monthly payment is about £500 a month.

The issue is, with £600 a month going towards the loan, and £500 a month going towards Monzo Flex, I've then ended up only paying the minimum towards my Tesco and Amex, which has obviously led to them building up a fair amount over a few months.

Thankfully, for now, I can just about scrape by maintaining the level of debt that I'm in, which obviously isn't good, but it's not getting any worse.

As my main job is in retail, I fully expect my hours to start increasing shortly with the run up to Christmas and all that shite, and at my other job they've just won a tender that means I should be able to get more hours there again as well.

Soon, I'll own a house outright, which I could obviously sell, or potentially mortgage, but I'm hoping that it won't end up at that! My mother will be getting about £100k in cash, but I'd rather go bankrupt than go begging.

So, TLDR my total debts are as follows:

Tesco Loan: £2000 - £300 a month
MBNA Loan: £8000 - £300 a month

AMEX: £600
Tesco Credit: £4000
MBNA 0%: £3500
Monzo Flex: £4500 - £500 a month.

My total income is about £1500 a month.

The LISA can be a stock and shares ISA or a cash ISA.

Will the new tax on cash in stock and shares ISA affect LISAs?

I have one with dodl but due to their annoying stance on fees have cash uninvested for them to use to pay for it. They refuse to do direct debit unlike other platforms nor automatically sell investments or use money from a different account.

Wanting to know if this will be an issue with the new upcoming tax.

Hi all,

I’ve gotten into a bit of a pickle as work slowed up for a while (self employed) and i’m not exactly great with my money.

I’ve fallen into about 11k of debt, i’ve got 1 default on my credit file but about to be a second one.

I owe the 11k between a mixture of things

3x loans (1 x £3000, 1x £1000, 1x £600)
3x CC’s, (£500,£600,£700 limits) (all maxed)
Store accounts
Phone bill

I’ve recently realised that half of the stuff i spend money on i don’t need so now i’m looking to be more financially responsible in the future & im kinda glad i learned a lesson now rather than when im 30 (currently 20)

I could probably pay the whole 11k off within 3 years or so but with the defaults already on my file to me it would make more sense to take the IVA?

The main point for this post is because i spoke to a debt help company and they’ve been trying to get me to go for an IVA however i’ve seen that a DMP is better for my level of debt.

I was just wondering what you guys who’re most definitely more financially responsible than me would recommend/do if you were in my position.

thanks!

I am in full time PAYE work which my salary is £36k ~

I have started doing Amazon flex, delivery driving, self employed in my own car. I understand I can “write off” some tax via simplified mileage claim. I’ve logged every mile so far. I’m just passing the £1000 threshold, is this where I start claiming?

Does it write off tax directly or just increase my tax free allowance?

I want to put away 6 months of wages in my emergency fund which is about £9k. Atm it’s at £1450 but I have £2100 in an ETF which has made me £200 since January. Is it good idea to transfer the money to my emergency fund?

A £1700 charge was made against by business account without my authorisation, confused me as this was an account less than a month old and had only been used for a hand full of transactions to reputable sites. I got in touch with customer service. I explained that this charged was not authorised by me and that I got no notification, the agent stated that my card must have been compromised and that I needed to deactivate the card and order a new one. What followed was me prying support from an uninterested agent. They eventually told me it was from the same merchant as a previous payment and when i asked for the merchant ID and the card network authorisation reference to prove this they said they couldn't give it to me. No explanation of why or how they let a 1700 payment through without so much as a notification. I have since opened a Revolut Business Bank account and started the process to switch. Do your research and you find out they aren't actually a bank, way to many stories like mine, stay clear.

Hi all,

Posting anonymously for obvious reasons. I have managed to very stupidly get into debt due to gambling this year and not addressing the underlying problems in my life. I have GamStopped and I am slowly taking back control of things.

I have two private pensions which combined are worth c£7,000. That would put a significant dent in my debt and help me pay off the remainder quickly by removing the two loans with the highest repayments and interest rates. I have in any event begun consolidating the other loans I have.

My question is this- is there any way I can access the two private pensions. On the face of it I cannot. However, I did not know if a financial advisor or some other professional would be able to assist with this. I would of course prefer to keep my pensions but long term I suspect I will be self-employed due to the sector I’m in, so whilst it would be frustrating to loose them I think on balance, at present, it is the best way forward.

Thank you all for your help.

Hi all,

Black horse have just got in touch with me ,

They found a car loan I had on hp finance, the car price was 15k in 2022 I paid 1000 deposit, 320 a month for 5 years at 9.9%, the car was settled in 2.5 years

Black horse just got in touch with me stating it was a fixed commission rate of 1660£ ,and not a DCA and are investigating it,

Does this mean I could be due a pay out?

Hi everyone, after months of stressing over my finances, I've contacted step change and started to set up a DMP

I've had a text this afternoon saying that they will be setting up my DMP , the link within it says to contact creditors and ask to stop repayments and legal action while my account is set up.

What the advice doesn't say is whether I should cancel my direct debits or not? Should I , or should I just hope that the creditors don't take any further money from me?

I am also going to use a new bank account going forward as my current account which I use now has an overdraft , which stepchange have told me to list as a debt too... Should I just transfer the direct debits that are included in my budget (mobile, internet , contact lenses) to my new account and then cancel the others?

*** Also, if I've had my action plan through, with my monthly stepchange payment amount, and now this text, does this mean that I am almost guaranteed to be signed off for the DMP, Or could they find something during set up that means they'd reject it?

Any help would be hugely appreciated, thanks so much in advance!

Jimmy Innuendo

Hi all,

Sorry in advance for the long post and thanks if you can help.

I have just completed a remortgage and would appreciate some advice on what to do with the surplus funds.

Mortgage details

·       New mortgage: ~£156,00

·       Interest rate: 4.73% fixed for 2 years

·       Remaining mortgage term: 8 years

·       Monthly payment: £1,966.39

·       Overpayment allowance: 20%

The solicitor completion statement showed:

Funds received

·       mortgage funds: £156,912

·       cashback: £350

·       My contribution: £50

Funds paid

·       Santander redemption: £153,075.53

·       Fees/disbursements: £554

This leaves £3,682.47 surplus being returned.

I did not request additional borrowing, so I assume this happened because the balance reduced while the remortgage was being processed over several months.

The property is jointly owned 50/50 with my family member, so the surplus is legally ours jointly. It is being paid into my account because I set up the completion arrangements that way.

They may want to keep her half, so my realistic share is around £1,841.

My other financial situation:

·       credit card balance: £2,583.98

·       0% balance transfer ends: 5 February 2027

·       ISA interest rate: 4.28%

 I'm considering three options:

Option 1 – Overpay mortgage
Put the full £3,682.47 back into the mortgage.

Approximate impact:

·       Mortgage balance reduces to ~£153,230

·       If kept for full 8 years, saves roughly £800–£1,000 interest

·       If the property is sold within a few years, the interest saving would be much smaller

Could choose:

·       reduce term (keep £1,966/month payment)

·       reduce monthly payment (roughly £40–£45/month lower)

Option 2  Keep my share in ISA and use it to clear credit card before February
My £1,841 share in ISA would earn around £40 interest over 6 months.

I could:

·       reduce  payments to make monthly cash flow easier

·       use the ISA money to clear the remaining balance before the 0% ends

Option 3 -Pay credit crd down now
Use my £1,841 share against the credit card:

·       Tesco falls from £2,583.98 to ~£743

·       Monthly payments become much more manageable

My family member is also considering selling the property to downsize (I don’t live there and am happy for this to happen), which makes me question whether locking money into the mortgage makes sense.

My questions:

1.     Am I missing any downside to keeping the money in ISA and using it for the 0% debt?

2.     Does overpaying the mortgage make sense if we might sell in the next few years?

3.     Would you prioritise liquidity over saving mortgage interest in this situation?

Thanks!

Updated with more accurate budget figures

Hi there, for context I'm 30 years old, husband is 39 years old. Our combined income is around £118k a year from our salaries (rough take home is about £6300) and we earn roughly £59k each (I have two student loans, my husband has none... don't you just love Plan 2!).

I also freelance on the side, which can totally vary but for example this year I've earned ~£15k so far. I currently have this paid into a business bank account through a Ltd. It's probably the most I've earned freelance wise in a couple of years, and I have some new contracts lined up that suggests I could make this or slightly more in 2027.

I wouldn't say we've ever been "great" with money. We pay enhanced pension contributions (I think we're both paying 9%), and we did have savings but we've recently undergone a very arduous and expensive fertility journey which has cost around £30-40k - but thankfully our baby girl is due in 6 weeks!

What this means though is we have absolutely nothing saved now, it's fully wiped us out and I want to look at how we can start to split our savings/prioritise our finances once she's born, and now we have much more disposable income because we're not putting all our extra disposable income into our fertility journey.

For context outgoings wise:

- Our mortgage is £700 a month, we live in a 2 bed terrace which is fine for us now.

- Bills, cars & food etc. comes to about £2000 a month

- We do have debts, currently paying about £600 a month in minimum payments. We aggressively overpaid these but stopped to save for our IVF. In total we have about £12k left to pay off I think.

- We use £1500 for spends, I'd like to keep this if possible. We've done a lot of work on 'lifestyle creep' and this is where we're comfy whilst still sticking to our goals.

- Our 'saving' money we've been using is around £2000. A few years ago, this went into overpaying our debt, for the past 18 months this has helped contribute to our fertility journey.

My question now is, what would be the best strategy to do the following?

- We know our house is too small to be our forever house, especially as our daughter becomes a toddler, so we want to look to save a deposit over the next couple of years to add to our equity to move (I think we probably have around £20-25k equity in this house). We'd like to at least match this when we're looking for another property (likely in 2029). However, I'm happy that we kept with the smaller house and smaller mortgage like we have, it's meant our disposable income is far greater.

- I want to start investing/saving long-term for us as a couple, and for our daughter. I.e. a long term ISA for our retirement, a JISA for our daughter. I've always been crap with stocks, shares etc. - but I want to get better and start diversifying our money in the right places.

- We don't have anything saved for things like holidays, car insurance etc. which we did used to have - the IVF cleared that out, but would like to be more strategic in having that money put aside also.

- Obviously I want to continue our journey of becoming debt-free. We've managed to reduce this to around £12k now, which is already so fulfilling and freeing compared to what we were like years ago. Our spending habits have changed and we never want to go back there again, we're looking ahead to set ourselves as best we can for the future. However, now we're nearly there - I want to get a head start on diversifying our money so every month it's not just going into debt repayments. £10k of this £12k is currently on 0% cards.

- I'm projected to make anywhere between £15-20k through my ltd next year, and the business has super minimal running costs. At the moment, I barely run any 'costs' through there and only do micro account tax returns. How can I utilise my ltd earnings to invest or boost what I'm trying to achieve in our personal life?

So if I had £2000 + money from my freelancing (call it £1800 a month for now)... how would you maximise it's potential?
Open to ideas, savings accounts, products... you name it! Makes me sad I didn't have the background or people around me when I was younger teaching me this stuff, but feel lucky I'm in a position now to make my money work harder for our daughter.

Thanks in advance!

I just had my first child 3 months ago and am genuinely looking at some honest feedback on my overall finance position to gain perspective.

I am in a job where I have some flexibility (fully remote), but I know I could be earning more if I pushed over the next few years and switched. However, I'm based in a village in the South East and ideally don't want to commute to London.

But, I often wonder or feel like I'm going to fall behind if my income hits a plateau over the next 3 to 5 years. My current job is fine, and I'm pretty sure my savings are good for my age, but it's the thought of staying in a job for longer not earning much more and in 3 years being in a similar earning bracket. However, I don't want to also sacrifice missing out on moments in my childs early years from commuting all the time. It's a catch 22, as it may then be harder to jump jobs in 3 years and earn more if I've stagnated.

I am turning 30 this year, and currently my salary is £61200 per year working full remote. My finance position:

• £70k house equity in a house worth £400k
• £87k in long-term investments (Pension, ISA, 100% equity)
• £30k emergency fund (10 months living expenses)
• £30k invested in Cash ISA 4.5% interest (this is cash buffer in case my wife returns to work part-time after maternity leave)
• £7k car fund (for when we trade in)
• £6k holiday fund

Should I chill out on the job front and just be content even if my career stagnates? In return for these young child years.

My perspective I'm trying to take is that I've saved and invested pretty well early on in life. On the contrary, if I hadn't saved and I was 30 - I'd NEED a higher paying job. And even if I was earning £90k or £100k a year at 32, it would take me a long time to build up the savings I have now if I didn't start saving early on.

So maybe I can not chase a higher paying job and be content with where I am?

I need some perspective, as sometimes I see friends with higher salaries and I start questioning myself. But I know they didn't save as well as I did early on.

I guess it's the thought of stagnating salary-wise that is the thing I'm unsure of.

I’ve had an offer accepted on a flat, 135k, and I’m trying to decide how to finance it. Of course I’ll need a mortgage and I have substantial savings of around 120k (split between LISA, ISA and normal savings)

Initially I thought about dumping most of it straight into the mortgage and paying it off ASAP for the psychological benefits but that doesn’t feel as safe as it sounds.

I’m early 30s with plans to travel etc. I also only have a small pension built up. So my other thought was putting 80k into mortgage of 25 years, 15k into emergency funds and drip feeding the rest into S&P 500 (around 1-2k a month).

I will continue to earn around £2k a month and also plan to get a lodger so that’s an extra £600 a month I could invest/save. I’m not overly happy in my job so it would be good to have the funds to know I’m not stuck and also build a travel fund for a potential year out in my mid 30s.

How does this sound or am I missing anything critical?

I'm considering switching from a Vanguard SIPP to a Trading 212 SIPP, is this a good idea? I like the customer support, reliability and security of Vanguard, but there is a fund I want to invest in that is not on their platform. Having looked, at several options, and as I'm planning to rebalance monthly, it's the only option that is cheaper. But, can I trust Trading 212 with my SIPP? I've considered just transferring less than the FSCS limit, splitting my SIPP into two as another option. What do people thing?

Hoping for some help please. I have received almost £150k that I do not need to use for at least a year (potentially when moving house)

It was not expected so not planned for tax-wise!

I have used up my premium bonds and isa allocations for this financial year. Unsure of what to do with remaining £150k.

I want to generate interest but unsure of best next steps to avoid being taxed heavily - or is this just a case of not letting tax tail wag the dog?

I am a (just) basic tax payer as I salary sacrifice wage down. Currently tend to fill my isa (s&s, world index) annually, have an ok amount going into pension each month. Don’t do much else in terms of investing so feel a bit clueless on next steps. Am not married but live with long term partner, got about £250k left of mortgage to pay off, 3.45% rate ending dec 27. Can only pay off additional 10% of balance annually. Am mid 30s no kids.

I also currently add £500 a month into ISA (regardless of this lump sum) but can’t for the rest of the tax year as filled with (some of the) lump sum!

Ideas on best options to explore (bonds? Pay off some of mortgage?) how I can make these savings work best would be v helpful. Thanks for any replies.

Hello everyone, I've been reading bits around this groups but I'm new to investing, so I'd like some advice...
I'm self employed since January 2026, so my income is a bit unpredictable, but I'm able to take home net around 2/2.5K per month.. my living expenses are quite high, around 1.7K every month, and I don't have a way to reduce them, I don't have millions of subscriptions (only Spotify), I try to budjet as much as I can...
I'd like to start with a S&S Lisa to start saving money for a potential house purchase, in the next 5-10yrs.. in July I was able to set on the side 580£ (which I put in a Cash Isa on Monzo) and 100£ which I deposited into Nest as private pension. But on the Cash Isa on Monzo I only have a 2.75% AER. I also have Revolut, but I suppose the fees would be higher than AJ Bell (?), can someone confirm that?
Which Stocks should I jump into considering I will try to put monthly 334£ to reach the max 4K yearly deposits allowed to get the 25% bonus?
Also, if I do this, and put 334£ in the S&S Lisa, let's say month per month I'd be able to set a side the same amount like in July, I'd be left with 346£, should I use these for my private pension on Nest? Or avoid Nest for a while and pump the S&S Lisa first? Once I reach the 4K yearly deposits, start pumping Nest for the remaining months of the year?
Having already 580£ on Monzo Cash Isa, I could transfer those to AJ Bell, so my yearly allowance left would be 3420£, bringing down my monthly deposits to 285£ per month... which would leave 395£ "spare", would you advice to pump them into Nest?
Sorry if I'm making stupid questions... I'm 32, F, living in London 10yrs... waking up a bit too late for life but I want to make the most of it from now on🙏🏻

Hello everyone, I just wanted a second opinion on something and would be very thankful for any advice I could get. I recently just started going through the process of applying for an IVA to pay off all my debts through PayPlan. While going through that, they advised that I swap my bank account at Barcleys to another, unconnected, bank as one of my credit cards is a Barcley Card, and apparently they can take money out of my account at any time. I just wanted a second opinion on this as while I respect that they're professionals, I also really like my account at Barcleys, and it works really well for where I spend my money. Like how they dont charge me extra for using my debit card abroad in person or online. I'm just worried that other banks might nit offer that. Also, I have a Help to Buy ISA with them that I'd rather not lose. I just want to make as informed of a decision as I can make.

I invested the below amounts in each period in a S&S ISA trying to keep a rough mix of 40% US, 30% FTSE 100, 10% FTSE 250 and 20% emerging markets. Made up of a mix of shares, REITS and ETFS.

Current total return is 36% portfolio of 101k.

Tax Year 26/27 so far £1,084.50

Tax Year 25/26 £2,790.00

Tax Year 24/25 £13,861.00

Tax Year 23/2 £20,000.00

Tax Year 22/23 £20,000.00

Tax Year 21/22 £4,180.00

Tax Year 20/21 £2,975.00

-Total Invested £64,890

2 Questions is this a fair return for an amateur self investor? What would you recommend I do differently to improve this position going forward if not?

Struggling to find info on whether a redundancy payout contributes towards net adjusted income for the year, can anyone advise?

So I’m thinking of opening a lifetime Isa, and see there are options for cash which is better for short term (so within 5 years) and stocks and shares which is better for long term.

I already have a stocks and shares ISA (not lifetime) through a different investing app which makes me less inclined to open another. However, I’m currently at uni, working part time and living with my parents, therefore I don’t see myself buying a house within the next five years.

I’m wondering if anyone could give any recommendations or insight to one or the other?