Sunday, September 28, 2025

Listener Questions – Episode 27

Questions Asked

  • Question 1
    Hi Pete and Rog,

    I’ve been listening to the show since 2020, and I absolutely love it. It keeps me grounded in a generation that frivolously spends for the sake of Instagram. Thank you for offering such helpful advice for free.

    I’m in my early 30s, I have no bad debt, regularly contribute to my workplace pension, and have been saving for a 2–3 bedroom house over the past three years. In 2 months I’ll have the 10% deposit (the minimum I want to put down) saved in my LISA. I'm currently renting a really affordable flat with a great landlord.

    I started saving when I was single, but I met my lovely boyfriend almost two years ago. We’re serious and are planning to get married and move in together in the next 12 to 18 months.

    Here’s my question: Should I delay buying a house for a year or so until I'm married, or should I buy now and plan to keep it for at least five years—even if, during that time, my boyfriend and I buy a different house and I end up renting this one out?

    Many thanks, Leah

     

  • Question 2
    Love the Podcast guys

    My Question is about what to do with an unexpected inheritance (likely to be around £150,000 from the sale of my late parents' house) a year before remortgaging. For context; both my Wife and I have recently become Additional Rate tax payers with a defined benefit NHS pension. We can max out ISA contributions for a few years (including LISA for the next 6yrs) but with no personal saving allowance and only being able to effectively get savings rates of <3% in GIAs we are drawn to an Offset mortgage (current mortgage 21yrs to run ~£330k remaining LTV 40%) but these don't seem to be popular and don't get mentioned much. I estimate within 5yrs we'd be paying 0% interest and could start drawing down from the offset savings pot. This seems like a hedge against uncertainty (and allows us access to the funds cf to paying off the mortgage) and would be effectively paying us whatever the mortgage rate would be (>4%). Would welcome your thoughts on this

    Gareth + Helen

     

  • Question 3
    Hi Pete and Roger,

    I've been following your channel for over a year now, and I’m really grateful for the practical insights—wish I’d discovered you years ago! Your guidance has helped me make some much-needed improvements to my financial planning.

    My question is: Could you provide any guidance for couples with an age gap on balancing pension contributions and withdrawals, as well as utilising ISAs, to effectively phase-in their retirements together? My Civil Partner and I have an 8-year age gap, which didn’t matter in our 20s and 30s, but 20 years later, with some middle-aged aches and pains! We want to align our plans better to enjoy more time together, rather than one of us retiring much later or sooner than the other.

    We underutilised pensions, unfortunately, but hold equity in two properties and decent cash savings. We are now mortgage free and plan to boost our pensions.  Within 10 years, we might buy a small flat in Malaysia (his home country) and downsize our UK home from Manchester to Scotland (my ‘home country'!). We hope to split time between the UK and Malaysia or possibly settle over there, drawn by the affordable living and our fondness for the country.

    Best wishes,
    James

  • Question 4
    Love the show, you guys accompany me on walks when I have a break from work. I have two questions but this may be a bit much so I have broken them down

    I have possibly an easy question for you but one that I can’t find the answer to online. My wife is a teacher with a final salary pension estimate of £23.5k p/a. We’re unsure whether or not this will provide for a comfortable retirement, so we are considering making additional savings for retirement.

    My wife is a basic rate taxpayer and currently 39 so my question is whether it is better to invest the money in a lifetime ISA and effectively get the tax relief through government top up, as when she comes to retirement the additional income that would come from the LISA would be tax-free and not subject to income tax, or invest in a SIPP but this would incur income tax when accessed?

    To me it seems a no brainer as the tax benefit on the way in is effectively the same but there is no tax burden on the way out of LISA versus a pension am I being dim or is this the right way to go?

    I am a higher rate taxpayer so I know that to get the most tax efficiency it should go in my pension but there’s a possibility I would be a higher rate taxpayer in retirement too so not sure it’s sensible to have it all in my name (also mindful of lifetime allowance being reinstated)

    Other question is more complicated and around planning for me. I’m 38, a higher rate TP recently earning £90k p/a, I currently have c.£215k in a few employer pensions. My current employer pension scheme is based on qualifying earnings only. My employer pays 3% (so <1.5% of my salary ) and I pay 25% (c 11%), I’ve tried to use some online pension calculators and they vary wildly (from 600k - £1.9m) so I don’t really have any idea what I’m likely to be retiring with. I live a fairly modest lifestyle with my wife and two primary school aged kids with 1 week holiday p/a, I’m worried that I might be scrimping now and over saving rather than enjoying my time with my kids by having more disposable income. Fully understand that you can’t give advice now but is there any fairly standard target for the comfortable pension age and reliable calc to figure out what I should do. Now that inheritance tax is likely to apply to pensions the incentive doesn’t seem to be there for me to save as hard, I’m slightly lost. Many thanks, David

  • Question 5
    Hi Pete, Roger and team, I've been enjoying the question and answer sessions enormously. I have a question regarding pension recycling as the rules are not very clear to me.
    I am a higher rate tax payer and pay into my workplace pension to keep my taxable income below 100k. I have built up a pot of around £260k in the DC part of my pension. I also have a DB part to my pension which should provide around £34k when I retire. My wife stays at home and therefore doesn't use her personal allowance. Can I gift her my tax free cash so that she can buy a pension product in her name as she gave up the opportunity to grow her own pension by looking after our family.
    Am I right in thinking this could be a good idea when we retire as it could help us make use of both personal allowances with the added benefit of keeping my income within the basic rate tax bracket?
    Are there any potential problems with this situation that I haven't considered?
    Regards to you both
    Chris

  • Question 6
    Hi Pete and Roger

    Thanks for your informative and thought-provoking podcasts.

    My late father’s house was valued for IHT following his death last year at £975k and my sister and I are looking to sell it. Since the valuation, planning permission has been achieved for the development of the garage and the estate agent I’ve spoken to suggests that the property could now achieve £1.15m (either selling as one or separating into 2 lots ie the main house and the plot). Therefore there is likely to be a significant capital gain.

    Currently the property is still owned by the estate. My understanding is that it would be more CGT efficient for the house to be transferred to my sister and I and then sold by us rather than being sold within the estate.

    I understand transferring to us would allow us to utilise two sets of £3k CGT allowances and benefit from the 18% band available to individuals for the gains within the basic Income Tax band (and then 24% on the excess). Conversely, if the property was sold within the estate, I understand there would only be one £3k allowance available and the CGT rate is a flat 24%.

    We are both unmarried so I don’t think a Deed of Variation could help us utilise extra CGT allowances.
    Is the above thinking correct?
    Is there any downside to transferring ownership to my sister and I before selling?
    Are incurred costs such as architect fees CGT deductible in both cases?
    Does it make any difference from a CGT perspective if the house is sold as one or separated?

    Keep up the great work!
    Thanks, Paul

Send Us Your Listener Question

We’re going to spin out the listener questions into a separate Q&A show which we’ll drop into the feed every 2-3 weeks or so. These will be in addition to the main feed, most likely, but they’re easier for us to produce because they require less writing! Send your questions to hello@meaningfulmoney.tv Subject line: Podcast Question


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The post Listener Questions – Episode 27 appeared first on Meaningful Money – Making sense of Money with Pete Matthew | Financial FAQ.



* This article was originally published here

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Saturday, September 27, 2025

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Leeds Reforms

In 2008, we saw banks collapsing, economies going into reverse, and millions of ordinary people losing their homes, jobs, and savings. At the heart of the catastrophe was banking deregulation – this created a kind of financial Wild West where unchecked risk-taking and a loosening of consumer protections led to devastating consequences.

The promise had been clear: loosen the red tape and get prosperity and growth. Instead, we got chaos and the nearest thing to a complete financial meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. That was 2008, and now, 17 years later, I’m getting déjà vu…

Article on Leeds Reforms

If you want to learn how to do that, how to build a portfolio which is simple, low-cost and easy to manage, check out Meaningful Academy Build Wealth.



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Thursday, September 18, 2025

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Listener Questions – Episode 25

Questions Asked

  • Question 1
    Hi Pete and Roger

    Many thanks for all that you do.  I am a long time podcast listener and happy client of Jacksons.

    I am currently playing catch up on the current series and have a couple of thoughts on points raised in two episodes.

    In episode 3 – there was a question on pensions and the answer included the point that when making contributions to a scheme they are generally paid net and the scheme reclaims basic rate tax from HMRC.  Just to say that this is not always the case.  My employer recently moved its scheme to an Aviva master trust.  I wanted to make a lump sum co tribute. Ahead of the tax year end.  However I found that the scheme could only accept gross contributions and I would have to reclaim the tax myself.  As it was quite a decent sum and I preferred not to wait for the tax I made the contribution into a different scheme.

    In episode 7 you had a question about moving abroad.  The point we made that you can’t continue to contribute to UK tax favoured schemes when abroad which is correct.  However there is another watch out in that ISAs in particular may be subject to income tax in the new country of residence – as they were when j lived in the US.  It is therefore critical to get advice so you can make the right choices when moving abroad

    All the best, Richard
     

  • Question 2
    I have been listening to your podcast for the last 5 or 6 months. Like so many of your listeners, I have spent many hours catching up on your early episodes, no longer do I watch movies or drama series or wildlife programmes. I listen to Pete. Your advice has been priceless. However, I do have a question that I seemingly cannot find the answer to. Perhaps, I already know the answer, but am putting my head in the sand because I do not like it.

    I know that the pension tax free lump sum is limited to £268,275 and I believe that this applies to the total taken from multiple pensions. I retired from the police in 2013 as a chief inspector. I took the maximum lump sum available at the time which was £206,000. I started a new job with the NHS and am paying into the NHS 2015 scheme. My projection on retirement from the NHS at age 67 suggests that I can expect a lump sum that combined with my police pension lump sum will take me well beyond £268,275.

    I have seen some articles on line about lump sum protected allowances, but do not know if this is something I can access. Clearly, if all I can take from my NHS pension is £62,275 I will be paying 40% on a greater proportion of my pension in payment.

    I suspect there may be others like me that maxed our their lump sum when first retiring and have gone on to further employment and have built up a tidy pension that has the potential to pay out another handsome lump sum.

    Your advice is gratefully appreciated.
    Kind regards, John
     

  • Question 3
    Hi Pete and Rog

    Always a delight when a new episode comes out – I hope Rog is getting fairly compensated for his efforts!

    I have been a keen listener for a number of years though until recently had lived outside of the UK, so while not everything was applicable (ISAs or pension contribution limits etc), the podcast has always been a valuable tool as I improve my personal finances

    I have a question I was hoping you could clarify for me which relates to questions you answered on previous podcast Q&A.

    Trying to keep it short but failing:

    On a couple of occasions when talking about pensions there seems to be an assumption that your income will fall in retirement and so income tax on the way out of the pension is less relevant.

    You recently had a question around moving money from a Lifetime ISA to a SIPP for a higher rate tax payer who was moving abroad and the calculation / discussion went something like:

    Invested 4k, got the extra 1k but have to take a 25% penalty when taking the money out so down to 3.75k. Then when investing that back into a SIPP you get tax relief so back up to 4.7k or even 6.25 with higher rate relief.

    Then the discussion seemed to suggest in such a case you might even be better off than if you had left it in the LISA. However, doesn’t this depend on what your tax rate is on retirement / withdrawal?

    Now on to my question:

    Similarly, you had someone who had maxed out their annual pension contribution limit and they were trying to decide whether to pay more in to their pension (foregoing the tax relief) or to put it in to a GIA. This is a situation I find myself in and the Q&A discussion seemed to suggest it doesn’t make much difference. There were comments that an ISA would be better than a GIA but assuming the ISA allowance was already fully used then there was little difference.

    This confused me and brings me to my question. If I overpay into a pension and so get no tax relief, don’t I still pay income tax when I withdraw the money from the pension? So for any contribution above the annual limit I receive no tax relief initially (ie I have effectively paid tax) but then future withdraws from a pension are taxable so I pay tax again when I retire. Is this the case or is there some way the pension knows what proportion of the pot received tax relief and what proportion didn’t? If no such split exists then surely a GIA is a far better option where I will only pay CGT on any growth in the investment (or income tax on dividends). Imagine a situation where there is no growth or dividends then in a GIA I take the initial money back out with no tax to pay, in the pension I still pay income tax on the withdrawal.

    What am I missing here?

    Kind regards, Matt

  • Question 4
    Hi – love the podcast and really enjoying the Q&A series! Keep up the great work!

    I was hoping you can assist me. I have a pretty simple salary structure and lucky to earn annually (salary and bonus) around 190k.

    I’m looking at what I can add to my pension and very aware of the 60k limit and also the 200k income threshold. Is it as a simple as if my only income stream is from employment, that by definition in the above scenario I’m below the £200k. Or am I missing anything else that feeds into this as a consideration?

    Thanks, Steve

  • Question 5
    Thank you Pete & Roger for an amazingly insightful informative podcast. This has given me a giant springboard to the next level of financial literacy.

    My question is:

    I am a seafarer and all of my income from it is subject to seafarers earnings deductions (SED). My annual salary is £79,000. How much can I pay into a SIPP claiming the full amount of tax relief given that all of my income is subjected to SED?

    Thanks very much for everything you do.

    Kind regards, Benjamin

  • Question 6
    Absolutely love the podcast – always look forward to driving home on a Wednesday so I can listen to it.

    I'm 47 and my husband is 55 and we have 2 fabulous children aged 13 & 11. I am an additional rate taxpayer and have a good DB pension for the future (NHS consultant). My husband did the tougher job of being a full time Dad so only has a small SIPP at present worth about £50,000 which we add £2880 to each year. I am hoping to retire early so we are building our Stocks & Shares ISAs each year to bridge the gaps between my retirement and state pension etc although we don't use the full allowance at present although may do in the future as my pay increases.

    We just wanted advice about the best way to extract the money from my husbands SIPP. He works a few hours now making approximately £5000 per year so is a non-taxpayer (and all our emergency cash is in his name!). We had planned to start drawing down his pension in a few years once fully retired to try to get it all tax free before his state pension kicks in but we don't actually need the cash and thus it would be reinvested into his ISA.

    Is there any reason not just to start that process now so we put the money in the ISA gradually over the next few years (bearing in mind that we may be able to fill our ISAs in the future)? Can we still top up with £2880 each year one this process has started?

    Maybe this sounds like an obvious thing to do but just can't work out if its the correct path?

    Thanks so much, Ciara Mulligan

Send Us Your Listener Question

We’re going to spin out the listener questions into a separate Q&A show which we’ll drop into the feed every 2-3 weeks or so. These will be in addition to the main feed, most likely, but they’re easier for us to produce because they require less writing! Send your questions to hello@meaningfulmoney.tv Subject line: Podcast Question


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The post Listener Questions – Episode 25 appeared first on Meaningful Money – Making sense of Money with Pete Matthew | Financial FAQ.



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Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Listener Questions – Episode 24

Questions Asked

  • Question 1
    Hi there!
    I'm one of the very many people who look set to lose disability benefits (PIP and ESA) at the end of next year. I was disabled following an industrial injury 15 years ago and have a lifetime award of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit assessed as 70% disabled which currently brings £155/week. It's definitely not enough to live on let alone pay the additional costs of being disabled. (there's no chance of recovery enough to work as I can't access healthcare but that's a long story)
    I am 50 and conventional life plans involve maintaining saving/investing through midlife on the expectation of reduced income on retirement. But I'm now facing acute poverty for 15 years until I hit the relative luxury of state pension. (Assuming I can find the cash to buy the missing NI years!)
    I have some assets that are pretty badly managed on account of my being unwell, and in particular a second flat which has £7000pa post-grenfell service charges and so can neither be mortgaged, sold nor rented out until those repairs finally complete-if they ever do! I think I can afford to cover costs from cash savings/investments for maybe 5 years. But after that…
    Can you speak to the general point of financial planning for people with unconventional life trajectories, particularly disability, and especially what sort of financial information/support resources are available? I'm unsure if you've any specific suggestions for my situation to get me through a decade of sub-living income/cashable assets against potentially sustained high costs?
    Obvs I love what I can manage to get from the pod and was particularly interested when you've spoken of financial coaching.
    Cheers! Sam
     
  • Question 2
    Hi Pete & Roger

    Loving the Q&A sessions. Even when topics aren’t relevant to me it’s still insightful to hear from other people and always educational to listen to your response.

    I suspect the answer to my question is simple but have yet to see an answer to it anywhere online!

    I have a cash ISA with T212 from 24/25 tax year and will have a new £20,000 to invest come April (cash ISA’s are my preferred vehicle – long story!). Can I just add the new 20 to the existing ISA or do I need to take out a new one? And also, do I benefit from compound interest if I leave it all alone?

    Regards Maxi
     

  • Question 3
    Hello

    I am loving the podcast and finding out about situations I would not have considered before listening. I don’t know if you can help on this one, it’s a bit of a tax question on CGT.

    We are a couple both with dual citizenship (Aus/British) and are planning a sabbatical break from working in 2026 for a minimum of 3 months, but this may turn into years.

    We have a house purchased in 2003 with no mortgage and want to know our CGT obligations if we were to be non residents when we sell our house? Also is this CGT obligation a tapering obligation like IHT when moving abroad?

    Kind regards, Sam

  • Question 4
    Hello gents,

    Enjoying the podcast as always. Especially the Q&E episodes as I like to test myself to see if I would answer the questions the same as yourselves!

    My question, I am 20 years old and have recently got my Level 4 diploma with the CISI, and now looking to take the next steps in becoming a planner myself. The obvious route is to stick with the CISI, competing their Level 6 Advanced Financial Planning then the Level 7 Case Study to become CFP. However, just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s right! I seen that the CII’s set up is completely different, lots a smaller exams, with the outcome being Chartered (not CFP). Am I overthinking this or are there pros and cons for each exam board. Also what is the different between CFP and Chartered?

    Many thanks, Lewis

  • Question 5
    Hi Pete and Roger,
    Firstly, thanks for a great podcast – I’ve been listening for many years and often catch up with the latest episode whilst on the rowing machine at my local gym!
    I have a question regarding the pension recycling rules.

    In Feb 2024, I initiated a DB pension, taking £108,000 lump sum and a yearly amount of £15800.
    This was to pay off my partners property that we are both about to move into mortgage free. My total contribution was £200k and the remainder of the balance was from my savings.
    I currently earn £80k salary and have additional rental income from two properties I own of approx 10k net per annum.

    I am in the process of selling one of my properties and want to use the proceeds (after CG) to maximise my pension contributions in tax year 25/26. So in total it would be about £66K contributions (as I have carry over allowance from the past three years). Over the past 3 years my pension contributions on average have been approx. 35k per year. I’m likely to retire within the next 18 months hence wanting to maximise my contributions during this time.

    However, my question is, would this higher pension contribution likely trigger the pension recycling rules because of the pension lump sum I took in 2024, even though that amount was used solely to pay off a property at the time?
    Many thanks and keep up the great work. Phil

  • Question 6
    Hi Pete and Roger

    Thank you both for all you do.
    What do you think about keeping an emergency fund in a money market fund, rather than cash?

    Many thanks, Rob

Send Us Your Listener Question

We’re going to spin out the listener questions into a separate Q&A show which we’ll drop into the feed every 2-3 weeks or so. These will be in addition to the main feed, most likely, but they’re easier for us to produce because they require less writing! Send your questions to hello@meaningfulmoney.tv Subject line: Podcast Question


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The post Listener Questions – Episode 24 appeared first on Meaningful Money – Making sense of Money with Pete Matthew | Financial FAQ.



* This article was originally published here

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