The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

In this episode of the Meaningful Money Podcast Q&A, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six real listener questions on UK personal finance - from inheriting a SIPP (and the under-75 vs over-75 rules), to how inheritance tax could hit a property-heavy estate. They also discuss what to do with a large Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) holding, whether a longer 35-year mortgage can be a safer option, and the realities of financial planning for UK expats. Finally, they tackle a growing concern for many UK investors - how to protect wealth from increasingly sophisticated scams and impersonation fraud. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA49  02:04  Question 1 Hello Pete & Rog. Thanks for the wonderful podcast I will keep it as brief as possible as it means hopefully you can squeeze more content for your listeners. I am a 35 yr old renting in London with a salary of approximately 35k and would consider buying my own place if I could build up enough of a deposit. My mum died a long time ago but my dad has just been informed that he has a medical condition which will probably end his life in the next 5 years or so. He is currently 73. I don't have any siblings and my dad has shared with me the details of his assets which primarily comprise of a SIPP of around 200k (he has taken and spent his 25% tax free amount). My question may sound a bit morbid but it reflects the reality of life unfortunately. It's about the rules of inheriting this SIPP. I'm not sure I fully understand the 'rules' about if my dad passes away before 75 or after he is 75. My understanding is that if less than 75 I can just 'cash in' the 200k tax-free and for example use it as a deposit for a house. That seems straightforward. But hopefully he will get well past his 75th, so if that's the case I understand the 200k would be taxed as income, so I would be crazy to take it all out in that way. So what would be my options in that case? - Is there any way to take it out of the pension wrapper without having to pay tax to give a bit more flexibility? - could I just inherit it as a pension and if so, would I still be able to take 25% tax free? - can I draw down from before I reach pension age e.g. to pay the mortgage or rent (mindful not to go up into the next tax bracket)? Have I got the rules right and are there any other options I could consider? Regards, Steve   07:08  Question 2 Hi Pete & Roger Love the content and just discovered your YouTube podcast! I'm concerned about my wife parents (Mid 70s) inheritance tax liability and was wondering if you had any advice on how to structure the portfolio to reduce it or if it was worth considering a gifting strategy. Primarily I'm concerned as the recent inclusion of pensions into IHT from 2027 and I'm pretty sure their estate is over 2m and therefore a reduced residence nil rate. Rough figures are below: Current house - 1.1m (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) Own another house 800k (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) Own a holiday letting business (retirement business) which has three properties circa 1.1m (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) With this in mind I put their IHT liability at 2m+ without factoring their pensions Questions What do you consider the ball park IHT bill to be? How do you suggest my wife (mid 30s) approach this issue? Or should she just deal with the cards as they lie in the future? Tony   14:05  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, I wanted to start with a thank you for your podcast - specially for acting as the friendly, inclusive and relatable voices of finance. The podcast is a welcome change to the scarier world of finance which many of us sometimes run and hide from! My question for you is regarding my ESPP. I was employed by a US-based company around 10 years ago. During my time there I was able to sacrifice a percentage of my salary which was put towards the purchase of company shares at a discounted rate. It's a very effective scheme, and although my salary there was modest, I've been able to leave the shares alone which are now worth around £230k. The predicament I now have is what to do with these shares. I've been happy to let the shares sit and grow, which they have been doing extremely well, though the value of them now has me wondering what my future strategy should be. For reference, the 10 year growth on these shares is around 850%. As far as I'm aware, I'll need to pay tax on these shares when it comes to selling them as there's no way to transfer them into my stocks & shares ISA or similar. So it's either leave them where they are, or sell some/all of them now and transfer the cash (after tax) into my stocks & shares ISA, SIPP or elsewhere. I'm 40 and looking to purchase a house next year with my partner - though we don't need these funds for that purchase. I have a stocks & shares ISA, a cash ISA and a SIPP, as well as a modest amount in a LISA and cash savings. Whilst I don't feel like I have all of my eggs in one basket, I do feel increasingly nervous about the value of the shares which are entirely dependant on the success of one company. That said, the returns to date have been incredible and I wouldn't want to miss out on future growth. I'd love to know if you have any guidance on this, and if there's any factors that I haven't considered yet. Thanks again, Ian   20:36 Question 4 Hi Guys, Love your podcasts. You've helped me a lot with understanding my finances and I'd love to ask a question. My wife and I are 36 and have been back in the UK for 3 years. We are hoping to buy our first property in 2026. Due to our age, is it okay and safer to do a 35 year mortgage and pay more off monthly to pay the mortgage off quicker? We aren't high earners but hoping to put any extra onto the mortgage principle. Hope to hear from you. Kind Regards, Dhiren   23:49 Question 5 Dear Pete and Roger Thanks a lot for all the education and sensible insights you are providing to all I am an avid listener of your podcasts and  watch your videos regularly.  Now I can see Roger as well.  Both very handsome and knowledgeable. Your discussions are lively and interesting. I am also a member of the academy from the beginning. Also on Facebook community. Currently working my way through retirement guide. I am working abroad for nearly 8 years. I was told by a financial planner that he can't advise non UK tax payers as per regulations. Since then you have been my main source of information and guidance. I am an Ex NHS consultant and now receiving pension. I have a very small SIPP and substantial Investment ISA which I can not contribute to. So my main investment is through GIA. All via Vanguard. Apart from this I have stocks and shares account with a couple of providers which helps me to keep thinking about investment opportunities. I am not a big risk taker and currently doing well with my stocks. I read and listen to a variety of educational materials to help with this I have 2 questions. Is it possible to get financial planner help for UK citizens while working abroad? What should I do with my investments before coming back to UK to live, for tax planning and reduce risk of huge tax for selling investments after coming back? Currently I am in Middle East with zero percent income tax. My pension is also at zero percent under DTAA arrangements. Sorry for long question. Thanks a lot again for your suuuuuuuuuper work. Continue great job Kind regards, Sudhakar Link: Perceptive Planning https://www.perceptiveplanning.co.uk/world-citizens  28:37  Question 6 Hi Roger and Pete, Love the podcast. Thank you for everything. This is about to be a long question, for which I'm not at all sorry. I've seen articles and videos about the increased sophistication of hacks and scams. Things like stealthily getting access to accounts and for years collecting information that can then be used to impersonate you to socially engineer access to bank accounts. AI plays a part in letting people change how they sound to make impersonating on calls easier than ever. Going forward, I'm worried that one of the biggest threats to my wealth is not a market crash, but someone getting access to my investments through fraudulently calling support lines and impersonating me, or alternatively getting access to my money through 'traditional' password leaks and viruses. To this end, I've been overpaying my mortgage as a way of having money locked away in an asset that cannot be liquidated without a solicitor (and hopefully more stringent checks of identity), but I'm going to be mortgage-free in less than 5 years at this rate.  My question is: Am I overblowing the risk here, and what are my options if I want to reduce the my risk from this perspective? I have considered: - Having multiple S&S ISAs with different providers should mean that only a fragment of my portfolio can be lost through any one hack. - Buying 'real' estate as an investment seems appealing from a security standpoint, regardless of expected returns, and although recent changes have made BtL less attractive, the old Rothschild saying of "Buy when there's blood in the streets" could mean that now might be a good time to buy. Is there an advantage in having overseas property as a wealth storage mechanism? - Putting money in my DC pension pot will lock the money away until retirement, but suddenly becomes fair game to foul play once I do. - Buying an annuity is not as fiscally efficient as drawdown, but is an attractive way of mitigating risk of losing it all to a scam caller. Especially if I'm old and doddery and more likely to fall for a scam. - Buying physical gold (and a safe or a Swiss safety deposit box) doesn't appeal to me, but I have considered it. Please assume that I'm being sensible with passwords and 2FA. My question isn't about basic IT security practices, but which of these decisions you think might be a good/bad decision and whether there's anything I haven't considered. Thank you, Alex Link: Cal Newport - https://calnewport.com/    

It's another Q&A show where Roger and Pete answer YOUR questions about such mighty subjects as bridging the gap from retirement to state pension, CGT for non-taxpayers and much more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA48  02:18  Question 1 Hello Pete and Roger, wonderful podcast and I'll try and acceed to your short question desire. And I'll try not to use the word should. I am 52 and my wife and I would like to retire at 60. I have a DB pension that should pay me £20k per year from 65.  I would like to live off £50k per year and currently have £220k in a DC pension. That will hopefully get to £500k by age of 60. Equally I am hoping to have £100k in a S&S ISA and hoping to have the first year of retirement spending in cash.   My question is around my bridging requirements before my DB pension and state pensions kick in (my wife is 46).   Am I better off pulling 25% of DC tax free at the age of 60 and putting that into ISA's  or is it better to just pull pension money per year with and ongoing 25% tax free Allowance and using the smaller ISA amount to minimise tax. Just interested in your thoughts :-) Thanks and please keep up the great work. Kind regards, Adrian 06:38  Question 2 Hi Pete & Roger A few months ago a friend recommended your podcast and I've been devouring it ever since! Having worked in Compensation & Benefits for the past 15 years, and spending much of my time these days in the design and operation of pension plans, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on such things. But I've already learned a few tips and tricks to help as I plan my retirement, so huge thanks to you both! My question for you is about CGT liabilities when one is a non-tax payer. My son is in the fortunate position of having a healthy savings pot in a GIA, thanks to gifts/inheritances from grandparents over the years, which each year he sweeps into his LISA and stocks and shares ISA up to the £20k limit. The return has been really good this year and he is likely to realise a gain in excess of the £3k limit next April when doing the sweep. As he is still at university and only earning a few pounds here and there as a freelance musician, his earnings are well below the Personal Allowance. My Googling suggests that he would therefore not have to pay any CGT if the gain was above £3k next April. Is that correct? Many thanks in advance and keep up the good work! Kind regards, Marion 10:03  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, I am 56 and have been paying closer attention to my Pensions for the last 12 months. This is with a view to making an informed decision about my retirement plans at 60. Pete's videos and the podcast have been a great help. I am aiming for the Retirement Living Standards 'comfortable' figure for a single person because a) why not?, b) I am pretty sure I will be able to afford it, and c) I have estimated my needs and that more than covers it. I have a spreadsheet which models everything for me. I have 2 questions. A quarter of my pension will come from a DB which starts at 65. A quarter from the state from 67. The rest from my DC pot which I expect to be at least £600,000 by 60. The bridge from 60-65 comes from other assets. Any thoughts on the equity/bond split for my DC pot given that 50% of my pension is secure? 60:40 feels too bond heavy to me, I was thinking 80:20. And, following your 'not advice' I have modelled what I know now, inflation at 3.6%. I experimented by dropping inflation by 1.0%. I was amazed to see that at 3.6% my pot runs down but not out at age 100. At 2.6% it keeps accumulating and never turns down. I have used 8.25% for growth but made no allowance for tax free cash, UFPLS etc. It just shows the pernicious impact of inflation. Does that feel about right to you. Thanks, Mike 18:31 Question 4 Hi Chaps A thought just occurred to me and I wondered whether you've covered this already.... Will v Pension Expression of Wishes - which one wins in that battle if there's a conflict (from April 2027)? I've just noticed that my wife's EOW for her pension is different to that in her will, and would therefore be a problem from April 2027? Cheers, John   21:34 Question 5 Hi Gentlemen (Pension Gurus) My 18 year old children are setting out in the wonderful world of work and (with my "encouragement") are squirrelling away 10-12.5% of their salary into pensions (with their employers contributing 4 and 12.5% respectively). So one ok and one really good. Q: Their workplace pensions are with Aviva and L&G respectively and at the moment they are in the "default" scheme. As default pensions are a "one size fits all" I don't think that it's necessarily the best for my children with at least 35 years of investing left. Plus I don't like the idea of 10% being gambled on start ups. I'd like to come out of the default scheme but am not sure what to invest in i.e. if I DIY what % global index? global bonds what %? multi asset and if so what %? Or something simple like life strategy etc? What would your guidance be to an 18 year old on what to invest in their pension? Many thanks, London Mum 27:48  Question 6 Hi both, I am wondering how to approach retirement. I am 32 years of age and I have a DB pension with work. I am single with 18 years left on my mortgage. No kids. I have been splitting my saving contributions between workplace pension which goes out before I get my pay, cash ISA, S&S ISA and Lifetime ISA. With the latest budget I am conscious of the constant messing of the pensions and ISA's, mainly the lifetime ISA as they are potentially getting rid of it. Do I just carry on with the contributions as is? Will the lifetime ISA still be ok to contribute to for retirement planning? Thanks, Lisa

Time for another Q&A episode where Roger & Pete answer questions on retirement planning, passing assets to children. SIPP vs ISA and much more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA47  01:42  Question 1 Hi Pete, Roger, and Nick, Thank you for the podcast - I've been listening for a while but fell behind and just binged about 15 Q&A episodes over the last fortnight! There's nothing like listening to the podcast to get me fired up about my finances! I have a question about the upcoming change to minimum retirement age, and a question about how to use my SIPP versus S&S ISA post-55/57. I was born in February 1972 and so by my reckoning should be ok to access my SIPP at 55. However, I heard somewhere that access could be removed at the date the law changes, because I wouldn't be 57 by that date. Can you shed any light please? It doesn't make sense to me to grant access then take it away. The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking that in the next year I should favour putting money into my SIPP for the tax relief instead of into my S&S ISA, since I can access it within a short time anyway if I really needed to. Once I'm 55, does it still make sense to put money in the ISA at all, given the SIPP will continue to have tax relief so long as I'm working? All the best and looking forward to the videos coming out! Chris 07:04  Question 2 Hi Pete & Rodger, My wife & I are both aged 55 & I plan to retire aged 60 possibly a little earlier my wife isn't sure exactly when she will stop at the moment. I currently have a work place Scottish Widows default pension lifestyle turned off £225,000 I pay in 31%, company pays in 4%, salary sacrifice I then occasionally move funds to my 100% equities SIPP low cost global index fund £442000. My wife has a small DB pension and 45,000 in a SIPP again all in equities. My plan is to retire at 60ish on the SW pension to bridge the gap to state pension age 67. Leaving the SIPPS invested in equities both in low cost global index funds. Possibly adding some bonds a few years out from state pension age. Currently 20k emergency fund cash isa and my liquid assets whisky collection. Do you feel I could improve my plan or is it reasonably sound? Kind regards, Lee.   12:48  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, I have a deferred DB pension which in 2018 (when it closed) I was told my annual pension at age 62 would be £18270. The pension is capped at CPI or 2.5% annually, whichever is lower. As such it is getting deflated by high inflation. As of today it's £21840. (With CPI it would be £23830 or even £26050 with RPI). I have a decent DC scheme to top it up but what can I do mitigate this decline with transfer out values currently quite low? Thanks for your advice. Richard   18:08 Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger, Firstly, thank you for your brilliant podcast - it really is absolutely fantastic. Since discovering it early in 2024, I've listened to almost every show! I love the way you both make complicated concepts easy to understand and often have me chuckling along at the same time! I have a question to you both about inheritance tax and a potential way to reduce, or even eliminate, its effects. I don't believe you have covered this particular strategy, so I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. Here's what I am thinking. My wife and I are both 43 and have two lovely children aged 7 and 9. We both work full-time in well-paid jobs and save a good amount into our pensions and ISAs, whilst also ensuring we 'live for today' by going on regular holidays and spending as much time as possible with the children (whilst they still like spending time with us!). Our rough combined financial position is as follows: - £1m in company DC pensions, contributing at a rate of about £85k gross per year - £350k in stocks & shares ISAs, contributing at a rate of £40k per year - For each child – £40k in Junior SIPP contributing at a rate of £3600 gross per year, and £10k in Junior ISA with no significant annual contributions - A house that is worth about £700k with £400k still to pay on the mortgage (remaining term 15 years) I am aware that it's very early to think about inheritance tax, and I know that rules in the future will very likely change. However, it's very conceivable to me that our children will incur a very significant IHT bill when we both shuffle off (to use Pete's phrase!). My "solution" to this is as follows. When our children reach the age of 18, rather than paying £40k per year in our ISAs, we will pay it directly into their ISAs. We will fund this either through earnings (I still love my job and envisage working well into my 60s), and/or from one or both of our pensions. When we are retired, we plan to take regular payments from our pensions up to point where we would start paying higher rate tax; this will hopefully allow us to live comfortably whilst also contributing to our children's ISAs. Any shortfall will be covered by our own ISAs. We will give this money to our children on the basis that it is still our money if we ever need it (e.g., care homes, massive holiday, Lamborghinis, etc). In other words, we will tell them that we will continue paying them £20k a year each provided that they do not touch it and have it available for us if we ever need it. With a bit of luck, we will never need it, and both our children will ultimately receive a substantial sum of 'inheritance' without paying any IHT. I appreciate there are some risks associated with this strategy. The two that I can think of are as follows. Firstly, there's a risk that we fall out with our children and lose control of the money. Secondly, if one our children marries, then divorces, then half of the money we've given them may disappear to someone else. This is definitely a concern. However, provided we are both comfortable with these risks, do you think this is a sensible method of transferring wealth to our children, and can you think of anything other considerations we need to think about? I'm probably missing something really important so it'd be great to hear your thoughts! Thanks again for your amazing podcast – I really do love tuning in every week! Thanks, Martin 28:19 Question 5 Hello gents, My question is this : if someone is looking to retire pre-state pension, and bridging that gap, what are the primary options available?  I've been looking at for example - fixed term annuity if rates are good; bond ladder (feel a bit overwhelmed on this); money market fund; bung it in a cash savings account. I'm assuming I want minimum volatility - is that the right approach to take? Richard. 32:18  Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick I have become an avid listener in the last three months, having just taken Voluntary Redundancy at age 63. I have benefitted hugely from your expertise and listenable style. Many thanks. I'm imagining that if you include this question in your podcast you might mention a tax tail wagging the dog. However, I don't want my dog to miss out on performing tax tricks. My question concerns whether I can take taxable income from my SIPP whilst leaving my tax-free lump sum untouched. I would then like to take the tax free lump sum at a future date to fund a home relocation. Is this possible?  The background is as follows: My DB (£40k) pension will kick-in at 65 (18 months to go) when I will also take a lump sum which I will place into my and my wife's ISAs. I have to do this at 65 due to scheme rules. So in the meantime we're living on my £100k redundancy pay which is sizeable enough to also fill our ISA allowances for 25/26 financial year. I will avoid higher rate income tax on this VR payment via a SIPP contribution. This means that our current and future 2 financial years ISA contributions will be full and I will also have a SIPP bumped up to £250k. However, it will also mean most of my VR pay will then be in SIPP and ISAs leaving us short on spendable income next year! But next financial year, being un-salaried, I will have the opportunity to take £50270 from my SIPP whilst limiting my income tax to 20%. This will then fill next years income gap. (Once I start receiving my DB pension I will find it harder to get the remaining SIPP funds out without paying 40% income tax as the state pension plus DB will then take me over £50270). I don't want the tax-free lump sum next year as I don't have a need for it until age 65 when we plan to relocate and I can't put it in ISAs because I've already filled them. So can I start taking taxable income but leave the tax-free lump sum in the SIPP where it currently performs the function of an ISA (ie tax-free growth). Alternatively, am I just being a bit silly and making life overly complicated? Your wise observations will be eagerly received. I have done my own cash-flow modelling in detail and this is just a simplified summary of the main facts. Once I am in the new routine post-65 then it'll become a lot easier, but these few steps in the dance over the next couple of years require a great deal of thought. Kind regards, Tom

In this Meaningful Money Q&A episode (QA46), Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six listener questions on the financial decisions many UK households are wrestling with right now. We cover bridging the gap to the State Pension with fixed-term annuities, strategies for staying under £100,000 adjusted net income (and avoiding the 60% tax trap), and how LGPS "CARE" pensions work including whether salary sacrifice can reduce student loan repayments. There's also practical guidance for self-employed listeners facing a tough year and needing to cut costs, plus how to think about funding private school fees without derailing long-term plans. Finally, we discuss how to decide whether to take the maximum tax-free lump sum from a defined benefit pension, including the trade-offs and how to model the impact. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA46  02:18  Question 1 Hi Pete & Roger, I am a long-time fan of your podcasts, and I often sneak off during the day for some peaceful R&R and listen to your latest release or even go back on old shows. My wife and I are in the fortunate position that we have both retired but still have a number of years before the state pension will commence (6 years / 2 years). Our long-term plan was to build up our private pensions so that we would have a comfortable retirement but also be able to leave our two children a reasonable inheritance which has meant we have been reluctant to dip into our DC pensions too early. With the proposed changes to IHT bringing in the unused pension pots on 2nd death into the estate and on current projection we have in excess of £1m in DC pensions which unfortunately are heavily weighted in my favour to 80/20 and we both have a DB scheme each (circa 5K) which have been activated. My questions relate to fixed term annuity. To bridge the gap between retirement and receiving the state pension for my wife circa 6 years, I was considering looking at one of these to cover sufficient income to take her up to the personal tax allowance limit bearing in mind the annual DB income. My dilemma is where or how best to fund this. Can we or do we use our personal savings? Do we use my wife's DC pension in part? Can I use my own DC pension, but any withdrawal would be subject to 20% tax rate so not a preference even if allowed? As part of my look into these fixed term annuities, there also seems to be an option to have guaranteed cash return at the end of term.  Is there any sense in considering this as it would require a bigger investment or withdrawal?  Would this cash also be tax free or would it be income and added to your existing income stream? It would seem to me that if I wanted to reduce the pension pot differential but ensuring the tax payable was only 20%, then I could either max my withdrawal requirement annually or consider the annuity route but this could be complicated with my state pension commencing 2027? Should I be hung up on the pension pot differential values between us and does the IHT rule of the couple's tax-free limit being £650,000 nil rate ignore where the money originates.  This pension pot differential must be quite common, do you have any other comment or suggestions that would be helpful. I, like many of your listeners enjoy your banter and how you impart knowledge to the wider audience for their better good – a big thank you for this. Best Regards Brett. Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning 11:04  Question 2 Hi Pete & Roger, I'm a big fan of the podcast — thanks for all the clear and practical advice you share each week. My base salary is about £76k, but with shift allowance and a car allowance my total package is closer to £90k. On top of that, I can earn overtime (which is unpredictable) and I also get a discretionary bonus of up to 20% of base salary. The challenge is that we don't find out the actual bonus figure until the end of March, but if we want to waive it into pension we have to decide in advance — so it's guesswork. Without any planning, the bonus can push my adjusted net income over £100k, which means I start to lose my personal allowance and fall into the so‑called "60% tax trap" between £100k and £125k. At the moment, I already have several salary sacrifices in place: – Pension, Holiday purchase, Share Incentive Plan (SIP). I'm now considering adding an electric vehicle through salary sacrifice, which would reduce my taxable pay by about £10.5k a year. That would keep my adjusted net income below £100k, but it obviously reduces my monthly take‑home. I'm 29, so I don't mind putting a bit extra into my pension for the long term, but I don't want to over‑commit too early and lose too much cash flow now. In the next year or so, my wife and I are also planning to have children — which adds another layer, because if my income goes over £100k we'd also lose access to childcare perks. I know there are worse problems to have, but I'd really like to maximise my take‑home pay without losing benefits and while staying as tax‑efficient as possible. So my question is: how should someone in my position — with variable overtime, an uncertain bonus, existing salary sacrifices, and family planning on the horizon — think about the £100k threshold, the 60% tax trap, and the personal allowance taper? And more broadly, how should PAYE employees balance lower monthly net pay against the tax efficiency, taper protection, and childcare benefit eligibility that salary sacrifice schemes can provide? Many thanks. Lewis. 19:48  Question 3 Hi Pete and Rog I'm 28 and my fiancé is 26 so we're at the early stages of building our empire. The knowledge and insight I've picked up from listening to you over the past 12 months has been a massive help, so thank you! My financial situation is fairly run of the mill: a  Salary Sacrifice DB pension with a 6% employer match, early days Stocks & Shares ISA, emergency fund etc. However my Fiancé works for our local council and has a DC pension titled "CARE". From what I can understand, this means every year she works, she builds up an amount, that yearly amount tracks inflation up to retirement, then at retirement all those revalued yearly amounts are added together to give her a guaranteed annual income for life. To my question! Firstly, is my understanding correct, or is there anything I'm missing? And secondly, is there a way of playing with her percentage pension contribution to lower the amount of student loan she has to pay back? Bonus question: I've just finished Q&A Ep31 and caught wind Pete had a beer - what's your tipple of choice? Always thankful for each episode and video you provide! Thanks, Tom   24:23 Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog Long time Facebook group, podcast and you tube fan, asking a question that I haven't heard answered yet. I am self employed, and have been for 12 years now. 2025 has been an unexpectedly difficult one in my industry with corporate customers cancelling projects and budget cuts, and individual clients feeling uncertainty. How can I make hard decisions about cutting back on my business and personal expenses, whilst also staying as positive as possible about the future? My turnover is down about 30%, with a knock on effect on my income. I've stopped investing in my pension as the business isn't making enough profit to do so, and am now looking at cutting back on business expenses like the subcontractors I book to work with me and marketing (which I've held off doing hoping income will recover). Meanwhile I took on many personal expenses that feel very hard to cancel like private health cover for my family, income protection insurance, gym membership, kids sports clubs and their  orthodontist treatments - all totalling £6-800 pounds per month. I'm not sure where to start! Thanks for considering my question. Best Wishes, Lara   31:40 Question 5 Dear Pete and Roger, Loving your podcast. I can honestly say listening to it has transformed my relationship with money and investing. My husband used to do all the money management alone and seems thrilled I've finally shown an interest... Short version: - She 39, he 44 - Her - late starter due to Uni and maternity - now profits of £60pa self emp - He has £50k pa accrued in DB scheme plus AVCs - maxing contributions - He sacrifices to stay below £100k - ISAs - they don't say how much As the children are approaching secondary age and with some SEND issues in the mix we are looking at all the options including fee-paying independent schools. Luckily with the age gaps we have we will only be paying for two kids at any one time and grandparents are stepping in for eldest. This is costly, but I think doable for us as we're quite frugal people anyway. I'm now working out how best to fund this. If we reduce our pension contributions we will lose huge amounts to tax and student loan deductions (in my case) - 62%/47% (him) and 51% (me) will be deducted and we'll lose the childcare funding for our toddler which will be a massive blow. Would it be mad/bad to release some equity from the house, enjoy this money now and pay this off with a pension lump sum when we can access it? I feel that it would be absolutely mad to retire with far more than we need, whilst our children missed out but also mad to miss out on the tax relief. I'm really interested in your thoughts and if there are other ideas? We have just a few years to prepare and ideally I'd like some flex or contingency in any plan. Could an offset mortgage be useful here? I could go full time but I don't want to miss out on raising the kids so this would be the last resort. It just feels like a cash flow issue that needs some planning for. HELP! Thank you for reading, fingers crossed I've got all the vernacular right and haven't caused any confusion. Take care and best wishes, Annie   36:58  Question 6 Hi Nick…Roger…and the other guy!  I'm an avid new listener having read and loved Pete's retirement book and binged on your podcasts. I'm loving what you do and how you do it, and have recommended you widely.  My question relates to how I judge the amount of tax free lump sum to take from a DB scheme. It feels wrong to convert inflation-protected DB pension into a lump sum, but I'm thinking of taking the maximum and wonder if I'm being foolish. I could take my £40k DB in 18 months or could reduce this to £26k for £190k lump sum with a commutation factor of 14. The spouses pension is maintained at 50% of the unreduced pension (ie £20k) even if I take a lump sum. Nice! My wife will also have a £6k DB at same retirement date. We will both receive max state pensions 2 years later. We also have SIPPS and some ISAs and I am confident that these non-DB funds will see us through to state pension age with good margin. My budget shows we will need up to £60k PA spend for very comfortable retirement. £40k PA to cover basics. If I didn't take a lump sum then we have £40k (DB) + £6k (wife DB) + £24k (SP) = £70k income. This works. But as I say, I actually think I should take a max £190k lump sum… This would mean £26k (DB) + £6k (wife DB) + £24k (SP) = £56k total index linked, which works out at £49k after tax.  The additional £11k PA will be easy to provide from the  invested lump sum. But the real reason to take the max lump sum is to manage the risk of me being first death. If/when that happens then my wife has £20k (spouse DB)+ £6k (her DB) + £12k (SP) = £38k index-linked income, or £33k after tax. I think she'll need to find £15-£20k PA from the invested lump sum to stay comfortable. This feels more borderline, especially as she has little natural affinity for investing and may be better buying an annuity.  It seems to me that I would be wise to take the full lump sum to best provide for my wife should I die first (statistically the most likely). This matters a lot to me. Is this reasonable thinking? Or is there a way of judging an in-between lump sum? With kind regards, Tim  

In this episode of the MeaningfulMoney Q&A, Pete and Roger answer six listener questions covering a wide range of personal finance topics. We tackle a tricky inheritance tax situation involving a property bought in children's names, look at pension and ISA options for a daughter likely to spend her career working outside the UK, and offer some perspective on balancing financial sensibility with life's genuine passions. We also cover whether a minimal LISA contribution strategy actually works, how to manage the transition from 100% equities to a retirement asset allocation in the years before you stop work, and what income protection options exist for a young professional wanting to guard against long-term illness or injury. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA45  02:20  Question 1 Hello Peter and Roger (without a D) I am so pleased I discovered your podcast a few months ago, since then your words of wisdom accompany me on my daily dog walks and I have become the annoying older colleague in the office telling the younger colleagues about the power of compounding and contributing to the pension scheme. I have a rather unusual query I would really appreciate your view on and maybe the potential pitfalls we are experiencing would be of interest to other listeners as I have read lots of questions on-line about potential benefits of putting property in children's names. My parents retired to Spain 25 years ago, they cash-purchased a UK flat for when they come back 10 years ago. In a bid to avoid inheritance tax they bought this in mine and 3 siblings names (all in our late 40/early 50s). They did not seek professional  advice, just assuming it was the right thing to do, which could be the morale of the story. Sadly my Dad recently died and as executor of his will I have been looking into the UK assets. I realise now that this cunning plan does not work, as they regularly stay in the flat without paying rent. Therefore, it is classed as gift with reserved benefits and still included in the estate. However this is not an issue as they are well below the IHT threshold. The question I have relates to the future financial position that I think they have inadvertently created. My mum wants to sell up in Spain buy a house in the UK and then either rent the flat for some more income or potential sell it. But how does this work if the property is in our names? Can she legitimately take rent (with our permission) without it having income tax implications on us (I am higher rate so do not want this!). If she wants to sell it I assume it will be sales to us siblings so we will pay capital gains (but what rate? we are a mix of tax brackets and one of my sisters doesn't own another house.) She says she might be best just transferring into her name, but I don't think it will be that easy and we will still be liable for capital gains as it will effectively be a sale to her. Is there something we have missed here and is it something we should be concerned about? Or is it OK to leave as is and let her keep to draw down income. Could it be the right thing to do and having the property in our names be simpler to resolve when she dies? I am hoping your soothing Yorkshire/Cornish tones can reassure me all will be OK. Vicky a faithful listener.   11:24  Question 2 Hi Pete and Rog I only discovered the podcast fairly recently, but have been following your web-based lessons on Meaningful Money for a while (and have read the books). I am really loving the podcast - so many back episodes to listen to! Super-informative, and your dulcet tones are also very soothing! My question is to do with advice for an adult child who is likely to spend her career working outside the UK. My husband and I are both late 50s and technically have reached FIRE (years of finance-nerdery despite relatively low incomes) but I am still doing consultancy because I quite enjoy it. Our older three children are all getting established in their careers, and I've brainwashed/ educated them in the ways of financial sensibleness, so they're all set up with emergency funds/S&S ISAs/employer pensions/SIPPS. Our youngest daughter is studying at university in Poland (the kids and I all have dual Polish/UK citizenship, as my mum was Polish). This means my daughter can work anywhere in the EU, and although she will always have strong ties to the UK, it's looking as if she is more likely to work outside the UK once she graduates in summer 2026. This opens up a whole new world of options in terms of setting her on a path to financial security, and there's quite a lot of conflicting information  - I would really appreciate some input on what are likely to be the best options for someone in this situation. At the moment she's 'ordinarily resident' in the UK, on the electoral roll etc., but doesn't have any UK income. Can she make pension contributions in the UK even if she's working elsewhere? I assume she still has an ISA allowance if she's a UK citizen working abroad, but a LISA would make less sense if she's not likely to buy a UK property? I am self-employed via a limited company and she has occasionally done bits of tech support for me, so she could register as self-employed in the UK and bill me for that - would that count as UK employment? My accountant is super-scrupulous, so I'm not interested in anything that might be sailing even vaguely close to the wind in HMRC terms. I would appreciate any thoughts on this perhaps slightly non-standard situation, although I assume there must be quite a few other people out there with dual UK/EU citizenship who might be facing similar questions? Many thanks, Felicia 19:06  Question 3 Dear Pete and Roger. I listen to your podcast all the time and it keeps me right. It has really helped me navigate my financial literacy or lack thereof. I am now in a situation where I have much better understanding of what I need to be doing with my money, and have made sense of all financial decisions such as paying into my workplace pension, owning my own home, and I have a recently paid job and some side projects which earn me a little. My question is, I think, a search for a validation of my life choices! Basically, despite having a good job and owning my own home outright, I am still struggling to budget every month. This is because I have made a terrible financial decision of owning two horses. These horses are my pride and joy, but the financial strain of it does make me feel guilty in terms of the distribution of spending between me and my husband. I spent about 600 a month on the horses, give or take a bit each month. Do you have any words of wisdom about how to balance being sensible with money Vs 'investing' in my life passions? I don't think I'll ever give up the horses, so it's more about whether I continue to stress about it or not. Many thanks for your wisdom as always Josie   25:20 Question 4 Thank you for all the great content! I have a LISA question for the podcast in relation to my 25 year old son? He currently lives with me in SW London and is saving to buy his own place. I love having him stay and I am in no rush for him to move out. He/we decided not to go with a LISA because he is likely to buy a property in or around London and we are concerned about the £450K cap which I believe has remained fixed since 2017. He is very motivated, ambitious and hard working and has already had several promotions with an opportunity to work in the US next year. He has already saved £50K for a deposit and I intend helping him too. He is not in a rush to buy as it feels like the property market is no longer running away from him.  He told me he thinks it makes more sense to enter the property market on the second rung of the ladder rather than the first as it costs so much to move with stamp duty, fees etc. So perhaps a 2 bed in a nice(ish) area rather than a starter home (and renting the second bedroom to a friend). I think I agree with him, especially if he ends up working in the US for an unknown period of time.  A 2 bed in a nice(ish) area where he actually wants to live would cost more than the £450K cap which is why we are reluctant to use the LISA for saving for his first home (I understand it can also be a pension investment but he is already contributing to his workplace pension). However, I have in my head a bug that says he can put minimal contributions into a LISA each year (say £5) which he could top up retrospectively if he changes his mind and does find somewhere to buy for under £450K. Am I correct? Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Michelle 29:04 Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger Thanks so much for all the work you do, I've only found the podcast recently but already enjoying learning more and thinking about things differently. My question relates to saving for retirement and specifically the period leading up to retiring.  Nearly all of our (mine and my husband's) pensions are in SIPPs where we have been happy to be 100% equity, in global index funds. We are now maybe 7-10 years from the point where we could retire, and I've been able to research withdrawal strategies to the point where I'm confident managing that when we get there.  We have determined our target asset allocation split between equities / bond funds / individual gilts and money market funds for the start point of retirement. I haven't been able to find much information about the period of transition from 100% equity to the asset allocation we want in place for the start of retirement.  Obviously it's a balance between reducing exposure to volatility as we approach retirement and accepting a drag on the portfolio caused by the increasing allocation to cash and bonds and my instinctive (but not evidence-based!) approach would be to gradually move from one to the other over a number of years. So my question is this - is there a better approach than just a straightline shift from one to the other?  How far out from retirement is it appropriate to start making the transition?  The best advice I can find online is just to pick whatever makes you feel comfortable and do that but surely there must be some more robust guidance out there?  I appreciate it might not be a one size fits all answer but would appreciate your thoughts on how to approach this. The one piece of advice I do seem to have found is that however we decide to do it, to stick to a predetermined schedule to avoid temptation to try to time the market - does that sound sensible or have I missed the mark on that? Thanks so much for any help you can give. Fran   35:26  Question 6 Hey Pete & Roger, Thank you for the great podcast! I have a question about income protection insurance. I'm quite young (25 - probably among your youngest listeners!), no dependents, renting with my partner, and am fortunate enough to have a well paid job and a promising future career. I recognise that my biggest asset is my future earning potential and would like to protect that in case of the worst. I have a 6 month emergency fund, healthy amounts (for my age) invested across ISAs and pensions, and my work offers 50% loss of income protection for accident or illness for 3 years, which is all great. My question is - to what extent should I think about trying to protect against the tail risk of not being able to work for >3 years, possibly till pension age? This is of course quite unlikely, but would be very detrimental if it were to occur - the exact sort of place where insurance would make sense. However I can't seem to find any insurance policies with such a long deferral period and I can't "double up" by having a shorter referral period. So, do such products exist, and if not are there any alternatives other than just accepting that risk and re-evaluating if and when my circumstances change? Is this even a reasonable risk to be thinking about, or is it overkill? Is there anything I should think about that I may be missing? Many thanks, Sarah *Affiliate - https://meaningfulmoney.tv/lifesearch 

From April 2027, many unused pension funds are set to be brought into the IHT net, changing how pensions work for legacy planning. Pete and Roger explain what's changing, what still remains exempt, where "double tax" can arise, and the practical steps to consider now — without rushing into knee-jerk decisions. 01:55 KNOW - Pensions no longer outside of estate 09:49 KNOW - Some important exemptions still remain 10:32 KNOW - In some cases there could be TWO taxes 14:15 KNOW - The administration will also change 16:58 KNOW Summary 17:15 DO - Rethink the old "leave the pension last" strategy 22:40 DO - Review who your beneficiaries actually are 24:56 DO - Consider using surplus pension income while you're alive 26:35 DO - Don't rush into drastic decisions 30:39 Podcast Review   Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session616 

In this Meaningful Money Q&A episode, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six listener questions on UK personal finance, pensions and investing. We cover inheritance tax (IHT) and who actually pays it, a defined benefit pension "state pension deduction" before State Pension age, and whether salary sacrifice affects higher-rate tax relief. We also discuss whether global tracker funds are too concentrated in the US, how offshore investment bonds compare to a general investment account (GIA), and how IHT taper relief works for gifts and the nil-rate band. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA44  03:40  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, I have been really enjoying your podcast and have learned so much about finance, tax and investments that I did not know before. I enjoyed your episode on inheritance tax. I have a question regarding inheritance tax and what happens if beneficiaries are unable to afford to pay it. My parents are wealthy with three properties (mortgages all paid off) and a large private pension, my parents also had a limited company which they used to maximise their earnings by minimising tax. However, me and my brother are average in the financial sense, where we have "normal salaried jobs", as my father would say. We earn far less than him and hence have much less assets. I own a house but have most of the mortgage left to pay because I only bought it last year. I am also single and live alone on my single income. My brother rents a flat and spends most of what he earns and has no concept of saving/future plans or investments, he does not even have a pension. I am under the assumption that the IHT has to paid first before the inherence is released, rather than IHT simply being deducted from the actual inherence itself before distribution? When I look at the total of my parents assets, me and my brother have no where near enough money to be able to pay it, due to the large gap in wealth between us and my parents. I tried to discuss this with them a few times but was fobbed off. They don't have any plan in place, all they have is life insurance to cover each other should one party die, and a simple one page will including just each other and us, no extended family. My brother and mum have no clue about money, and my dad who is in charge of the finances has multiple health problems of late. I am anxious of the day when I will be asked to pay tons of IHT which I might not be able to able to afford, especially because I am single and have my own bills and mortgage, I can't afford another loan. Is there a way to get around this or reduce the burden? If I cannot afford to pay the tax, can I simple "run away" from the situation and decline being a beneficiary, hence shoving the responsibility of IHT onto other family members? I don't really understand the process of probate, and whether my parents life insurance would pay it, but it seems to be that it pays out to the spouse should the other die, so I assume this would be added to the total assets and hence increase the tax burden should the other die? My parents don't seem to be bothered and are reluctant to discuss this so I am unsure what to do. How do "average/mediocre" kids like me and my brother usually deal with the tax from being born into a wealthy family? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I would appreciate any words of financial wisdom. Many thanks, Lava 13:08  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, I hope this message finds you well. As an avid listener of your podcast for the past couple of years, I want to express my gratitude for the way you break down financial and pension topics that can often seem overwhelming. Your insights have been invaluable to me. I wanted to share a personal experience and seek your views on it. After dedicating 42 years working at M&S, I am now approaching 60 and preparing to take my pension later this year. While I am proud of my long service, I've encountered an unexpected surprise in my pension arrangement. I have a Defined Benefit (DB) pension valued at around £9,000. Per year. However, upon receiving my pension quotation, I discovered that the scheme is structured to pay me this amount only until I reach 65 years of age, after which it reduces by approximately £2,200, a 24% reduction. This reduction is based on the assumption that the State Pension will compensate for the difference. However, with the State Pension age being pushed back, I will experience a reduction in my income before the State Pension begins when I turn 67. This situation feels particularly unfair, especially given that at M&S, there are a significant number of women who are lower-paid workers. The unfairness is further accentuated by the fact that the reduction is a fixed sum, irrespective of one's earnings. This fixed sum reduction impacts lower-paid and part-time workers disproportionately. I would greatly appreciate any insights or advice you might have on how to navigate this issue. Thank you once again for the fantastic work you do. Your podcast has been a tremendous help in making sense of pensions and finances. Best regards, Joan   20:06  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, Discovered the podcast and book a few months ago while trying to get more organised with life admin and planning for the future. Enjoying working through the back catalogue of the past seasons on the podcast and that's been very helpful - thank you. I do have a question about salary sacrifice/exchange in a workplace pension around tax brackets. As I got a promotion at work a few years ago I ended up moving into the higher 40% tax bracket so I adjusted my pension contributions - my workplace offers salary exchange for pension contributions - to bring my adjusted salary to below £50k and stay within the 20% income tax bracket and also saving on National Insurance contributions and tax relief. However, last year, another promotion led to another increase in salary and several things going on such as buying a house meant that I hadn't adjusted the pension contributions enough and my adjusted salary was above £50k and a portion of that was taxed at the 40% rate. Question I have is can I claim back the tax at the 40% rate from HMRC or does the salary exchange mean that I have already had the maximum tax relief applied? Thanks and keep up the good work, Simon 23:42 Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog, Only just discovered the pod and loving it! You advocate global trackers and I can see why, as they are cheap and simple and have the appearance of diversifying risk. But do you not worry about putting 60-70% of your money in one market (the US), which is what a global tracker does? I understand that you're letting the market determine how your capital is allocated, but what is 'the market' when so many other people are also just investing in global trackers? It seems to me there is not enough price discovery and trackers may be chasing a bubble. Would love to get your views. Cheers guys. Will https://www.timeline.co/resources/indexing-the-paradox-of-concentration-of-return  Adviser 3.0 Podcast episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Y4jVxDLL4  30:09 Question 5 Dear Roger and Pete Huge fan of the show! I had a question about offshore investment bonds. I'm an additional rate taxpayer and after contributing to pension and ISA, am then looking at what could come next. I've seen offshore investment bonds as an option, however I'm struggling to see how they would deliver a better outcome (assuming the same underlying investments) than simply using a GIA, and selling down the investments once I stop work. Thanks again, Matt Investment Bonds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q5HBoXmekI  35:28  Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger and Team, Firstly, thanks to you all for the amazing podcast, I have been listening for years and it has given me the confidence to manage my finances. I spread the word to all who will listen! My question is regarding tapering with relation to gifts and IHT. The scenario is this, a person is gifted a fairly substantial sum (say £100k) but less than the £325k personal allowance. The person who gifted the sum then dies at 6 years post gift. The persons estate is say £750k. In this case does tapering occur? Even though the gift is less than the £325k the whole estate is well over the personal allowance. Would IHT be paid on the sum over £325 with tapering on the gift? For example £325k IHT free due personal allowance, £100k at 6% taper relief with the remainder at normal IHT rates? Hopefully that's a short enough question! Many thanks, Alastair

If you're a UK beginner and you're not sure where to start investing in 2026, Pete and Roger talk you through a calm, step-by-step investing order to follow. They cover when to build a buffer, tackle expensive debt and use employer pension matching, plus how to choose between a Stocks and Shares ISA and a pension. You'll also hear the key beginner mistakes to avoid so you can invest with confidence and stay the course. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA43  02:00  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger I'm late to investing but thanks to your informative and entertaining podcasts and books - I feel on track to at least a decent retirement. I'm on a £60K salary and currently manage to contribute around £25K annually via salary sacrifice - which keeps me happily and comfortably within the 20% Income Tax bracket. However, with the Salary Sacrifice Cap coming in April 2029, I will end up in the higher-rate tax bracket. I was thinking about using my employer's Car Benefit Salary Sacrifice Scheme to help bring down my taxable income – whilst still maintaining the maximum salary sacrifice and utilising Relief at Source my AVC. I'm fully aware of the saying "don't let the tax tail wag the investment dog" but I was planning on getting a car in 2029 – when my mortgage is completed – so this might be a good alignment. My question's are: Can you confirm whether the Salary Sacrifice Cap applies to pensions only — and does using the car salary sacrifice scheme seem like a sensible idea in this context? Is there anyway that paying into my AVC via Relief at Source and claiming the higher-rate relief via Self-Assessment would result in HMRC issuing me a new tax code for the following tax year. Keep up the good work – and all the best to you and your families for the festive season. Thanks, Cris 06:43  Question 2 Hi, I recently came across your podcast and have not stopped listening to all the older episodes, and look forward to the new ones each week. Keep up the great work! I'm a 53 year old business owner looking to exit my business within the next 3 years via a sale and hope to receive around £1.5 - £1.8m from my share of the proceeds after tax. My wife is 8 yrs younger than me and will probably still be working doing some consultancy work. She has her own pension and savings in ISA's (currently a combined pot of around £250k which will hopefully grow over the next 10+ years) but we wouldn't need to access that till much later as required. My 2 questions are: 1. What would be the best way to invest the lump sum from the sale of my business to provide an income to support my retirement without having to necessarily eat into the capital or touch too much of my savings / pension early on as it will need to provide for my wife and I for quite a few years if we retire / semi retire in our mid 50's. Having looked at our living costs we would need around £60k p.a - albeit to live comfortably. Any holidays / large purchases etc could be funded through savings. 2. How would you prioritise what pot of funds you use first to make it the most tax efficient, enable growth and ensure that the pots do not run out. Given the new IHT rules on pensions is it now wise to use those first including the 25% tax free lump sum or use the ISA's / savings first leaving the pensions to continue growing in their tax wrapper. Thanks, Jeremy Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning: https://meaningfulacademy.com/retirementplanning  14:53  Question 3 Hello Peter and Roger You answered a previous question for me on the podcast so thank you for that, and I hope you don't mind me asking another one! We're in the very fortunate position of being able to pay the full £60,000 annual allowance into my pension scheme this tax year and are considering making additional contributions using unused allowance from previous years.  I understand that the total contribution we could make would still be limited by my annual salary this tax year - my question relates to how that is defined. The contributions are made using a combination of salary sacrifice into my work scheme and lump sum contributions to my SIPP which is separate from the work scheme.  So, would my "salary" that would be the limit for total contributions be the salary before salary sacrifice or after?  And is the "salary" further reduced by the contributions to the SIPP, as I believe my adjusted net income for calculating tax bands is? Perhaps some hypothetical numbers would help.  Let's say my gross salary before salary sacrifice is £125,000 and I salary sacrifice £25,000, and my employers' contribution is £5,000.  Let's say I also pay £24,000 by bank transfer into my SIPP, so I'd receive £6,000 of tax relief into the SIPP.  If I've understood it correctly, my adjusted net income for tax purposes would be £70,000 (which is £100,00 salary after salary sacrifice minus £30,000 gross contribution to SIPP).  In total, £60,000 has been paid into my pensions which is the full annual allowance for this year. If I had £120,000 of unused pension allowance from the previous three tax years, what is the maximum additional amount I could pay into my SIPP this tax year?  Is it £65,000 gross (so £52,000 net), to bring the total paid into my pensions up to £125,000, my pre-sacrifice salary?  Or £40,000 gross (so £32,000 net), to bring the total paid into my pensions up to £100,000, my post-sacrifice salary?  Or some other amount, if the salary that counts for this year is limited to the adjusted net income? Thanks so much for your help - I know it's a bit technical but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere! All the best, Fran   19:33 Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, I've been listening to the podcast for years now, and it always makes my Wednesday commute more enjoyable. Every time I hear your names together, I think of The Who, so thanks for all you do, helping people of My Generation become Finance Wizards and make smarter decisions so we don't get Fooled Again. I'm 34, and after working in the small charity sector since university, I've accepted a role in a larger organisation which comes with a significant pay increase, taking my income over the Higher Rate threshold. As I step into this new tax band, what reliefs, allowances, or financial planning considerations should I be thinking about? In particular, I'm aware there are some reliefs (particularly for Gift Aid donations and pension contributions) that I will be able to claim through self assessment; do they 'compete' with each other in any way, or can I claim the full relief on both? Thanks for all you do, Tim   23:40  Question 5 Pete & Roger Great podcast - don't ever retire! I've just started receiving my state pension (now you know how old I am) but I was wondering how I can check that the government are paying me the correct amount. I have more than a full set of NI class 1 contributions but I've also had some years contracted out and some years working abroad in a country with a reciprocal arrangement with the UK (which I've claimed for). The government just sent me a statement telling me how much I would get paid without any detail behind it. How can I check that they have made the correct deductions for contracting out and the correct additions for my time abroad? Call me cynical but I don't always trust the government to get these calculations right. Many thanks, Glen   26:58  Question 6 Hi,  great show by the way, very informative, it has certainly helped me and I'm sure is great help to many others. My wife Michelle is planning to retire at the end of March, age 58.5.  She is self employed, a relatively low earner and finds the work tiring now. I myself am 56 soon and likely to work another 2 year (max), I am luckily enough to receive a decent salary and have above average pension provision. Michelle has the following pension savings -  £143k in bank savings (not isa), £130k S&S ISA, £118k SIPP - all combined £391k. I realise markets are high at the moment. Plan to use 4% rule and reduce when State Pension kicks in (have full NI Contributions). So assuming want £15k pa (and rise annually with inflation), my query (that many others may have) is it best to use the cash or the ISA or the SIPP first or mix it up?  Michelle is very unlikely to have to pay income tax, until State Pension triggers at 67. Any advice much appreciated, Jason  

Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks cover self-employed saving rates, inheritance tax and estate planning, and how dividends are treated inside pension drawdown (including SIPPs). They also discuss salary sacrifice and contribution limits, the pros and cons of recycling tax-free cash, and whether to overpay your mortgage or invest via a Stocks & Shares ISA. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA42  01:07  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you for your amazing podcast! My question is about budgeting & savings percentages: Should you aim for a % of your gross pay or your net pay when it comes to aiming for a savings percentage? e.g. Invest 20% of gross or net? I'm self employed and work contract to contract. From each contract payment I have to give 25% to agents and lawyers. Then I get paid the rest and have to put aside some of the money ready for the Tax man. When planning for how much I should save / invest from each contract payment should I be putting aside: 20% of the original contract amount? (which would be prior to the agents taking their cut and prior to the tax man taking his cut?) 20% of the amount left after the agents but prior to the tax man? Or 20% after both the agent cut and tax man cut? Thank you! Isabel 05:50  Question 2 I am a 70 year old widow with no children.  My current net worth is about £2 million. This is made of of a house (£500,000), savings and investments (£1,150,000) and a drawdown pension pot of £350,000 which I inherited from my husband.  My husband died aged 68 so the pension pot is currently tax free. I plan to leave our inheritance tax free allowances of £650,000 to family, mostly nephews and nieces and the reminder to charities.  The drawdown pension will also go to named family members until the rules change in 2027 after which this will also go to charity.   I understand that this would mean my estate wouldn't be subject to inheritance tax.  Am I right about this? Is there anything I might not have thought about or any flaws in my thinking? Thank you for your very informative podcast, Susan 08:24  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger,  I'm still catching up on the back catalogue and am still loving the show, the listener questions are a great alternative, absolutely brilliant :) My mind has been wandering as it usually does, and this time thinking about my retirement plan and what dividends will look like at retirement. I have some queries I would love you to clarify please if possible. As it stands I have a combination of SIPP and stocks & shares ISAs all globally diversified with various stocks and ETFs etc and also a NHS DB pension.  I'm about to turn 49 and planning on a retirement at around 60. I'm trying to plan in the most tax efficient way (obviously this may change with future governments). For now though I am trying to max out my ISAs regularly for the tax free benefits and in particular focussing on a goal of using global ETF high yield dividends as income  annually at retirement. I have a Vanguard SIPP with 3 ETFs. I plan to take the 25% tax free amount from this when I retire. The rest (75%) I plan to leave as is, in the same ETFs and as they will hopefully still be paying dividends, I am a little confused as to how these will be regarded, such as for tax purposes? My assumption is the dividends will be added as cash to my now 75% remaining pot and then if I start to drawdown on this then I guess I will be taxed as normal depending on my tax status at the time only on what I drawdown as income. However when the dividends are added to my drawdown (75%) portfolio will this be part of my annual tax free (currently £500) dividend allowance OR will they not count as they are in my "pension pot" (and not classed as income) as is the case currently pre-retirement? At the present should I actually be adding the dividends that I currently receive in my pension pot to my annual tax free allowance (£500 for me)? (I assumed dividends in a SIPP don't need declaring/adding up towards your annual tax free dividend allowance). I hope that all makes sense? Thanks for all your work with the podcasts and Listener Questions too, you guys are awesome! Cheers lads, Jon 13:22 Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, I've just turned off lifestyling on my pension thanks to your excellent podcast and videos. You may have saved me thousands so many thanks! I now have a cunning plan! I work for a university and have a hybrid pension with the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Payments for my regular defined benefit (DB) pension are made via salary sacrifice. I'm also making additional voluntary contributions to the defined contribution (DC) part of USS, also by salary sacrifice. I've increased these DC payments to a level where my reduced effective pay is just above the level of the National Living Wage. As all my USS contributions, DB and DC, are made by salary sacrifice, they count as employer contributions. As I understand it, I am also allowed to make employee pension contributions to an entirely separate SIPP up to the full level of my Relevant Earnings, which in my case is my salary alone. Is that correct? If so, am I allowed to make employee contributions up to the level of my original salary (before salary sacrifice reductions)? Or am I only allowed to make employee contributions up to the level or my reduced salary (after salary sacrifice), just above the level of the National Living Wage? Is my plan a sound one or is it a cunning plan worthy of Baldrick? I'm 54 years old and a basic rate tax payer with a salary of about £37,000 per annum. I do not expect to be promoted. Simon 17:56  Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, Long time listener and watcher on YouTube and think it is absolutely wonderful all the free good advice you put out there. I hope you give yourselves a pat on the back for helping so many people build their wealth and no doubt have a better future in their latter years than they would have had without you. As I reach a certain age I am pondering a strategy and was wondering if you could advise if this is a flawed approach, letting the tax tail wag the dog or perfectly valid. I've never heard anyone suggest it and can't believe that I have an idea that experts haven't thought of. It involves recycling tax free lump sums from an existing DC pension. My understanding is that you have to "break" ALL the conditions to breach the recycling rules and the one I am considering not breaking is "tax free lump sum is less than £7,500 in any 12 month period". The idea is this: - Crystalise 30K. £22.5K into a drawdown pot and left untouched so as to not trigger the MPAA. £7.5K tax free cash withdrawn - Take the £7.5K tax free cash and recycle it into a new SIPP - Benefit from 40% tax relief to gain an additional £5K - Do the same a year later and repeat until actual retirement If I did this for the 10 years between first accessing my DC pension and retiring from employment at state pension age that's an extra £50K "free". The only downside I can see is that by crystalising you remove a portion of your existing DC pot from being able to have a 25% tax free slice of a bigger pie in the future. However I would have thought by putting the tax relief and tax free cash into a new SIPP, plus 25% of that total being tax free second time around when withdrawn, it would outweigh the downside, particularly if you think you're going to be a lower rate tax payer in actual retirement. Any thoughts gratefully received. Keep up the great work and fantastic content. Kind Regards, Tom 24:40  Question 6 Hi Rodge & Pete Love the energy of the show, both educational and also very funny one of my favourite financial podcasts! I recently purchased my first home solo at 35 on a 39 year mortgage term which takes me above the standard retirement age and I do hope I am not working full time by the age of 74. I went with the longer mortgage term to keep monthly costs down initially with the plan to possibly review this when my fixed term comes to end in 2030. I contribute monthly to my S&S ISA currently £200 with the plan to double this in 2026 but should I be diverting some of these funds instead to overpay the mortgage? I'm conflicted about this as I believe I will get better returns on the S&S ISA over the 39 year period vs saving interest on the mortgage. I currently contribute to my employer DC pension and also have a fully funded 3 month emergency fund so any spare cash can be put to work for my future. Thanks, Chantelle  

In this Meaningful Money Q&A, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer listener questions on UK personal finance, focusing on pensions, tax, and planning ahead. Topics include SIPP vs Lifetime ISA, retirement drawdown and which accounts to spend from first, Junior SIPPs, gifting company shares (IHT and CGT), and UFPLS vs drawdown.   Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA41    01:47  Question 1 Hello Pete, Roger and team. I'd first like to say thank you for all the wonderful information you provide, it has been a great aid for increasing my financial intelligence and helping me secure my family's financial future. My question is regarding the benefits of a SIPP vs a LISA in terms of retirement. My understanding is they both benefit loosely from the same boost. 25% Boost for LISA and in effect 25% boost to a SIPP due to the 20% tax relief as a basic rate tax payer? They are both locked away for a long period and are both released early if I was to suffer from any serious ill health or death? Due to this is there any benefit I am overlooking in terms of a SIPP over a LISA invested in a world wide fund? Other than age of access? I am currently 36 and due to the increasing demands of public finances it would be logical to assume a possibility of the state pension age being raised above 70 (above 60 if taken early) or becoming restricted to who can collect (means tested) before I am to reach pension age. Whereas I would be able to claim a LISA at 60 regardless with the added benefit of it not being subject to tax? I have a generous company pension of 6% personal and 13.7% company contributions with an additional 1% matched salary sacrifice. I also put in an additional unmatched personal 3% contribution.  As well as a small military pension. so I would not be without a pension at retirement. Due to this is it worth hedging my bets by maxing my LISA contributions rather than a SIPP to cover potential future scenarios? Apologies for the long winded question and I hope it makes sense. Thank you, Adam   08:42  Question 2 Hello Pete and Roger! Thank you for your wonderful podcast, I started listening several years ago and have found your advice incredibly useful. I am here to ask a question about planning a future for a disabled child. My husband and I are in are late 30s and we have a 5 year old daughter who is autistic and has profound learning difficulties. The challenge we have is how to plan for her future care and our future careers with so much unknown.  We both work full time and are currently both basic rate taxpayers (although we are both getting close to that boundary). We receive child benefit and some DLA for our daughter. When our daughter was born we started saving small amounts regularly into a JISA for her, but as her disabilities became clear we switched and started saving money for her within our own S&S ISAs. We still put money into her JISA when she gets gifts from grandparents etc as it seems disingenuous to keep that money under our names. We have an emergency fund, workplace pensions and are saving regularly into S&S ISAs, as well as mortgage that will last until we are about 60.  Is there anything we should be thinking about or trying to plan for our daughter's future. At this stage, it is difficult to determine how much she will understand about money and investing or whether she would have the capability to work or live independently. It may be that she will be under our care for the rest of our lives. It is also possible that one of us may need to reduce working hours or stop working when she turns 18 and needs care after she leaves school. Is there anything you think we should consider or advice on how to navigate the unknown? We are in the process of putting together a will and in the event of something happening to both of us, the care of our daughter would be covered by my husband's sister, but unsure how to navigate the financials. I appreciate that there are several questions within this question but any advice or areas that we can research on ourselves would be appreciated. Thank you so much, Laura Centurion (specialist IFA for people with children with special needs) https://centurioncfp.co.uk/special-needs/  Scope https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support    16:34  Question 3 Hello First of all, thank you both for your wonderful podcast. I have learned so much. I have a question about the order in which to spend in retirement and how to hold our various investments. We have worked out a cashflow ladder using cash, short-term money markets funds, a defensive mixed asset fund, a 60:40 mixed asset fund and a 100% equity fund. But we also need to think about our various wrappers- about half of our investments are in DC pensions (mine and my husband's), a quarter in ISAs and a quarter unwrapped (which we can gradually move into ISAs). Is there a rule of thumb for how much of each investment should be in each wrapper? I'm also not sure about what we should be spending first- assuming no disasters we are hoping to give some money to our children before too long for IHT purposes. But if we take a large sum out of our pensions to do this, we'll pay 45% income tax on it which makes the IHT saving a bit pointless. So should we be making any gifts from our ISAs and using the pensions first ourselves (taking care to stay within the basic rate)? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you Elizabeth Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning - https://meaningfulacademy.com/retirementplanning    For a discount, use coupon code: PODCAST 24:03 Question 4 Hi Roger (and Pete!), Firstly, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the education you provide to me and so many others. You've really helped me sharpen my financial tools. After spending the last 12 years self-employed, I didn't take my personal finances too seriously. Now that I have a steady, "grown-up" job, I've been able to get organised. I have a workplace pension, a private pension, a Stocks & Shares ISA, and a Lifetime ISA, all thanks to what I've learned from you both. My question is about Junior SIPPs. I often come across opinions suggesting that these should be the last thing you do, only after every other financial base is covered. I didn't receive a financial education growing up, and there's no pot of gold or property waiting for me down the inheritance road. That's why I'm motivated to change the course of my children's future — even if the benefit is far down the line. For a relatively modest target amount £15,000 each at age 18 (they are currently 1 and 4), I believe my children could have a very strong footing in later life due to the extensive length of compounding available, even without continuing contributions beyond that point, or perhaps with me matching their own contributions as an incentive in adulthood. I believe this will take some of the pressure off them which I currently find myself in having to aggressively play catch up on my retirement plan. They also have Junior ISAs, which I contribute to each month, to give them more flexible money when they turn 18. Their future stability would mean the world to me, even if I won't be here at that point to see them enjoy it! I'd love to hear your opinion on Junior SIPPs, as I don't think this topic is discussed enough — and it sometimes feels dismissed altogether. Thank you, Steven   29:15  Question 5 Dear Pete and Roger, You do marvellous work in educating us all. Thank you. I am a company director with 9 alphabet shares. 5 for me, 2 for my wife and one each for my adult independent children. I have substantial IHT liability so want to gift my shares to my children. The company has seven figures invested in the stock market. Can I gift the shares? How do I go about? Will that help reduce my IHT liability if I survive 7 years after gifting? Will there be a CGT liability on the gift? The company still trades but is unlikely to qualify for BADR (Business Asset Disposal Relief) as majority of assets are in investments. Thanking you, Narendra   36:35  Question 6 Hi Pete and Rog, Firstly, thanks for all that you do, your podcasts, videos and the Academy have really changed mine and my family's life for the better. A pensions drawdown question: If you plan to use all of your tax free allowance on retirement. Am I right that there are no benefits to using UFPLS over drawdown? I think there used to be a benefit with the lifetime allowance but I can't see any other benefits now. Thanks for all that you do, James

Pete is joined by Andy Hart to cut through the noise and talk about Andy's new book No Bullsh*t Money Advice, sharing straight-talking, practical personal finance insights for UK savers and investors. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session611  Book: No Bullsh*t Money Advice Ebook: No Bullsh*t Money Advice - Kindle Podcast: The Ten Financial Commandments Website: TRAP - The Real Adviser Podcast

In this episode we answer listener questions covering emergency funds for higher and additional rate taxpayers, and inheritance tax considerations around beneficiary SIPPs. We also discuss whether couples should rebalance pension contributions, the key steps to take before retiring abroad, and what to know about DB pension transfers. Finally, we look at cross-border pension taxation using the UK–Denmark double taxation treaty as an example. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA40    01:20  Question 1 Hi Pete & Roger, Thanks for all your helpful and easy to understand information. I have only been on my financial wellbeing journey for a year.  I work in the NHS and am in a higher tax bracket. I am fully enrolled in the NHS pension, more out of previous disinterest than any actual action on my part. I am single and currently saving up for a down payment on a house in about 4/5yrs. I maxed out my ISA last year and expect to do the same this year; this includes money for the down payment. I also took out a SIPP which I only recalled last year; I took it out 20+ years ago. However I am still waiting for a statement from the pension office before my accountant can work out how much more I can add to the SIPP.  In the interim I have my emergency fund in a premium bond (20k) but am worried it's being eroded by inflation. I expect to be an additional tax payer in the next few years. Where should I keep my excess cash? More in premium bonds with no tax but erosion by inflation; or open GIA or more in high interest savings account and pay the tax? Or is there another option you would recommend? Btw I have £600 in crypto (Coinbase and Etherium) but don't plan to put more than £400 more in then plan to forget about it. It's a tiny fraction of what I put in my ISA. Thanks, Joy   04:46  Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger. Love the podcast. I think it is essential listening for those wanting to elevate their knowledge of the incredibly important subject of financial planning and it also highlights the value add that financial professionals can provide. My mother is 79 and has a comfortable guaranteed inflation linked income via state and civil service pension, which is supplemented by savings (maxed premium bonds & healthy cash savings) and investments held in ISAs and a beneficiary SIPP from my late father who passed before 75yrs old (therefore the assets are income and CGT free). My mother is keen to minimise the IHT on the estate both her and my father worked so hard to create. Despite her comfortable situation, I still have to encourage her to spend and use your very helpful '40% off sticker' analogy on a regular basis. It is my understanding that SIPPs will be subject to IHT and income tax from 2027. As my sister and I are both additional rate taxpayers, we will potentially be subject to 67% tax on any assets remaining in the SIPP if the estate is above £1m IHT threshold. While the '67% off sticker' analogy is even more helpful to encourage her spending, it has triggered some planning. We are drawing down the beneficiary SIPP to fund ISA each year for my mum – keeping the income and CGT tax benefits for my mum while removing it from the double income and IHT tax on death. As part of the IHT planning we are now considering regular gifts from surplus income. When combined with her guaranteed income, the assets in the beneficiary SIPP are more than sufficient so sustain her lifestyle until her age would be well into three figures. Based on my reading, it appears any drawdown from SIPPs are considered 'income' for gifting purposes, regardless of if they come from capital or income. Therefore she could start to draw more 'income' from the SIPP and gift this surplus which could be considered IHT free. Are there any limits to how much or how quickly she could reasonably drawdown from a SIPP so that it would no longer be considered 'income' by HMRC for IHT purposes? i.e could she empty the SIPP over a 5 yr period, gift that as excess income, then reduce the gifts to reflect a different income and or expenditure? While all the drawdown from SIPPs is considered 'income' for IHT purposes, the treatment of withdrawals from ISAs or other investments are distinguished between whether they are actually capital or income. Therefore, we have the added complication of needing to balance the 'income' drawdown from the beneficiary SIPP to make sure she doesn't eat into 'capital' of the ISAs and savings which would then mean the gifts from regular surplus income would then be considered part of the estate again. Our circumstances mean my mum feels slightly trapped between keeping the SIPP (so it is considered income for gifts from regular income but gets IHT taxed at 67%), continuing to use the beneficiary SIPP to fund ISAs (reduce IHT liability but lose flexibility to gift it as income), maybe change the investment engine of the ISAs from a lower yielding balanced solution to something with a higher natural yield, or do something else altogether (lump sum gifts and hope to survive 3yrs for taper or 7yrs). Any thoughts or suggestion would be appreciated. While there are some relatively niche circumstances, I think it covers two more broadly applicable IHT planning considerations SIPPs v ISAs under the new rules and regular gifts from surplus income. Thanks in advance Stephen   17:06  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger Thank you both for your continued help in navigating the financial maze and I am enjoying the listener questions. My wife works part time and is a basic rate tax payer. She pays into her workplace pension and contributes an additional 15%. Her pension provider receives 20% tax relief on these contributions. I am a higher rate tax payer and I make contributions to a SIPP. My pension provider receives 20% tax relief and I claim an additional 20% directly from HMRC. As a couple, we could stop making the additional contributions to my wife's pension and instead make them into my SIPP. This would give us an additional 40%, rather than 20%. Mathematically this makes sense. We haven't done this so far, as I like the idea that we are equally contributing to both of our pensions, for the future. It also helps keep things simple. I am mindful that one day, we may kick ourselves for not making this simple switch which may leave us with a significantly bigger pot, when we need it. What options would you consider in this decision of splitting pension contributions. Many thanks, Rob 20:17 Question 4 Dear Pete & Rog, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for your podcast and the incredibly valuable information you share. Your conversations are not only insightful but also reassuring as I start to think more seriously about my own retirement planning! One of the things I'm considering is retiring abroad (somewhere sunny!) Spain most likely, and I wondered if you might explain the process you go through with such clients. Specifically, do you have a checklist, or a list of key questions, that you typically ask clients to work through before moving overseas? For example, I've learned that ISAs are not recognised in many EU countries (so it may be better to sell before leaving), and I imagine there are similar considerations around SIPPs/UK DC pensions and other investments. Do you also tend to liaise with financial planners or accountants based in the EU when helping clients prepare for such a move? I would be very grateful for any wisdom you could share. Thanks again for all the work you put into the podcast, it really does make a difference. Warm regards, Chloe 24:55  Question 5 Hi Pete, Love the podcast.  Very informative and user friendly. I have a question, once popular but maybe not so much now and one that will make advisers sweat again! I'm a sophisticated investor (so to speak!), I manage my own SIPP etc and I'm an accountant so I guess I have a head start over most people.  I have a net worth excluding my house of circa £2.5m spread across a SIPP, ISA, FIC and GIA. I also have an old DB pension.  I'm 59.  It pays out circa £6,500 from the age of 65.  My dad died aged 63.  Given my circumstances I want to transfer the DB scheme into my SIPP.  I have two children so would like them to get it rather than die with me so to speak.  The last transfer value I got was pre covid at circa £100k which I know isn't a brilliant multiple but I'm happy with that.  I'm fit and healthy but I'm not relying on the guaranteed pension given my other pension provisions. So, firstly is it likely the transfer value would have gone up or down given the increase in interest rates and secondly do you think I could get a positive recommendation from an adviser? Thanks, Oscar 31:35  Question 6 Dear Pete and Roger, Love the podcast. I'm a bit more of an adventurous investor than you usually caution, but you provide a certain "passive-tracker-Yin" to my "property-investment-Yang". Given your backlog I'm going to ask you a pension question that I probably don't have to think about for 20 years, so you have time to get to it. I worked in Denmark for several years and paid into a pension scheme while I was there. I believe it is structured similarly to a UK DB pension scheme. There is an initial lump sum plus an income for life.  This pension fund is not covered by QROPS, so there is no transferring my way out of this complexity. The Danish pension fund thinks I'll be paying Danish income tax (presently 37-38%), Chat GPT is adamant that I'll be paying UK Tax. Who's right? If taxed in the UK I can imagine getting the tax free cash allowance right might be complicated. Is there anything else I should be considering? Best Wishes, James

Pete and Roger reveal how to spot a good financial adviser from a bad one. Learn the red and green flags—from transparent fees to pressure tactics—and the key questions to ask before committing. Essential listening for anyone considering financial advice.   Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session609    Everything You Need To Know 04:00 - life vs product 05:18 - listens vs talks 06:40 - behaviour vs numbers 08:25 - clear vs vague 09:38 - plain English vs jargon 11:21 - transparent fees vs evasive costs 13:12 - probabilities vs certainties 14:48 - evidence based vs secret 'sauce' 16:15 - calm vs urgent 17:46 - facts first vs opinions first 19:50 - "I don't know" vs blagging 20:44 - written rationale vs 'trust me' 21:41 - respects advisers vs criticises advisers 23:40 - growth & protections vs chasing returns 25:31 - professional vs sloppy   Cheatsheet: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/adviser-checklist    Everything You Need To Do 29:18 - ignore unsolicited approaches 31:58 - verify they're legit 33:48 - get fees and scope in writing before committing 36:36 - first meeting questions 43:40 - pressure test  

Pete and Roger answer six listener questions covering Coast FIRE strategies with GIAs, US 401(k) tax implications in the UK, record keeping for IHT-exempt gifts, Australian pension taxation for UK residents, pension contributions to avoid the £100k tax trap, and managing a £2M portfolio as Power of Attorney. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA39    01:17  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, I'm 29 and working towards Coast FIRE within the next 2–3 years so I can begin a digital nomad lifestyle — working remotely while knowing my long-term retirement is taken care of. Right now, I've got: - £45k in a Stocks & Shares ISA - £25k in a workplace pension (via salary sacrifice) - A Lifetime ISA for a future house deposit (or later retirement) - A fully funded emergency fund I've already maxed out my ISA for this tax year and plan to continue doing that every year. But I have more money to invest now, and I know that to reach Coast FIRE on my timeline, I need to start using a General Investment Account (GIA). Here's where I'm stuck: I want to keep things simple and tax-efficient, but I feel a bit nervous about GIAs. I keep hearing about the "bed and ISA" strategy but don't really understand how it works in practice or how to implement it over time. Could you explain: - How best to use a GIA alongside an ISA when working towards FIRE? - How to manage capital gains and dividend tax efficiently? - And how the bed and ISA approach actually works — especially for someone trying to keep things simple? Thank you both so much — your podcast has been an incredible resource and a big part of why I've been able to take control of my finances. Warmly, Pauline 12:22  Question 2 Hello Pete & Roger I am very late convert to the podcast but have been ploughing through the Q&A for a few days now. I think I only have another 592 episodes to get through so should be up to date by the end of the week !! I am not sure whether this has been covered or not. I have a 401K plan that has been hibernating in the USA for 20 years. I have only recently started looking at it and now need to understand the tax implications. I have tried to read HMRC guidelines on tax treaties etc but get even more confused than before. My current belief is that the provider will pay this money out by means of US issued cheque (not a problem) but withhold 30% tax (a problem). How will HMRC treat this? The usual sources http://unbiased.co.uk for one run for the hills on finding information about this, is this an area you can provide guidance, but obviously not advice as I know you cannot through the podcast. Regards, Stephen 16:10  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Like so many people I am really impressed, not just with your knowledge and great communication skills, but that you put out such life changing content. You're providing us with the means to help ourselves in this financial world as well as letting us know when to seek professional help. On to my question: we're (wife and I) retired (late-60s) and are lucky enough to have more than enough to comfortably live on, thanks to DB & state pensions, house price inflation etc. Not really through any financial planning but just having been born at the right time! So we do now have an IHT liability. We have a joint second death Whole Of Life policy (in trust) in place for potential IHT and have given help with house deposits for our children. We also are gifting to the kids out of our excess income and would like your thoughts on the type of record keeping needed for this. We have letters stating the intention to give the gifts, recording who to etc. We keep completed IHT403 forms which we update annually. We also have a monthly/annual spreadsheet of income/expenses which demonstrates our surplus and keep track of expenses with the MeMo transaction tracker (thanks for that). These are all in our 'WID' file (again thanks to you for that). What we're not sure about is any documentation that might be needed to evidence the figures. Income is straightforward with P60s, statements of interest/dividends. However, what is required for expenses? Can't really keep all supermarket receipts etc and even bank/credit card statements would be quite bulky over several years. Not sure if we're overthinking but don't want to leave a difficult task for our kids when we're gone. Thank you both again for all the good you are doing Simon 20:33 Question 4 Brian (in Australia) Thank you for all your podcasts and videos but I think I may have to sign up to the academy to fully get my head around all the UK rules. We are looking to move to the UK from Australia - we have no UK govt pension entitlements but are retired with personal Australian private superannuation account pensions. The pension income payments and withdrawals are all tax free in Australia but will the UK government apply a tax on these pension payments once we are UK residents?   Thanks again for all your useful information. Regards, Brian 22:55  Question 5 Hi Roger (and Pete), I had a question which is boiling my brain far more than it should and I was hoping you could include it in one of your Q&A episodes. I'm in the fortunate position of being caught by the £100k 'tax trap' due to being paid a bonus for the first time in a number of years. This particular first-world problem is being made all the worse because my daughter will start nursery next year so in addition to the 60% tax charge on my bonus, we would also lose the 30 free hours of childcare we currently have access to. I currently salary sacrifice roughly £5,000 of salary into my pension (which my employer matches) and this holds my income at £99,000. However there is no option for me to do any kind of 'bonus sacrifice'. My only choice is to receive the bonus payment net of tax & NI through PAYE and then make a payment into my personal pension (a Vanguard, low cost multi-asset fund, just like you taught us!). I think I'm right in saying my pension provider will claim back the basic rate tax automatically for me, and I can then claim back the other 20% via my tax return with HMRC paying this extra 20% back to me directly. So far so easy, but what I can't work out is just how much I have to pay in to my pension in order to take all of the bonus payment out of my taxable income. Presumably its not the net amount extra that gets paid into my bank account on the month my bonus is paid because this will also be net of NI, meaning I wouldn't have paid enough in to avoid the £100k trap. Assuming my bonus payment was £10,000 (I don't know the exact figure yet but its likely to be around this amount), could you talk through how to calculate the net payment I need to make into a personal pension to achieve the desired result? As a follow up to this, if HMRC send me a cheque (very 1990's) for say £2000 of refunded higher rate tax, do I need to pay this into my pension in the next tax year to avoid having it counted towards my taxable income in that financial year? Please keep up the great work that you both do, you've really helped me get my financial life in order after an extremely difficult period in my life. Thank you both! Jimmy 27:29  Question 6 Hi Pete and Rog, Firstly, a huge thank you for all the insight and support you continue to offer. The impact of the Meaningful Money Podcast is immense—I've personally benefited so much from your free content over the years. I'll keep this as brief as I can: My great aunt (now 84) has built a substantial portfolio over decades—about £2 million across ~60 individual company shares, with approx. £1.3 million in a GIA and the rest in S&S ISAs. She also holds £400k in fixed-term bonds, savings accounts, and premium bonds. Sadly, she was diagnosed last year with dementia and Alzheimer's and now resides in a care home. I am her Power of Attorney and want to act in her best interests—simplifying her affairs and ensuring tax efficiency, especially regarding her legacy. She has no spouse or children but wishes to leave money to nieces, nephews, and charities. Here's my working plan: - Offset gains in the GIA by selling loss-making investments (totalling £30k–£40k) alongside some of the profit making investments to reduce market exposure without incurring CGT costs.     - Liquidate all shares in her S&S ISAs and transfer funds into cash ISAs with decent interest rates - Leave most of the GIA portfolio untouched to benefit from the CGT uplift on death Am I broadly on the right track for tax efficiency and sensible financial planning? Should I seek formal advice to ensure I'm doing the best by her? Thanks again for all you do—it really matters. Best regards, Josh  

This week we finish off our two-parter on how to become a financial adviser. In this session, we cover the 'softer' part of the job, the human side which is arguably MUCH more important than the hard numbers… Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session607   02:18 - Why Financial Planning Is Not About Money 05:30 - Planning vs Product  14:38 - The Core Human Skills of Great Advisers 25:50 - Behavioural Coaching (The Real Job) 33:15 - Judgement, Responsibility, and Pressure 38:31 - Ethics and Integrity in the Real World 47:57 - Who Thrives on the SOFT Side 50:05 - Bringing the Hard and Soft Together

This week, Roger and I discuss the answer to a frequently-asked question - how does one become a financial adviser? Clearly Roger and I make it look like a sexy profession, but as you can imagine, we have lots to say on the subject… Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session606  01:47 - What People Think Financial Advisers Do (and Why That's Incomplete) 07:25 - The Structure of a Modern Advice Firm 17:29 - Career Progression 22:31 - Qualifications and Regulation (The Reality, Not the Myth)  29:14 - Routes Into the Profession 37:20 - The Economics of Advice (High-Level) 46:39 - Who the HARD Side Will Appeal To 

It's another Meaningful Money Q&A, taking in the £100k tax trap, splitting pensions on divorce, safely switching investment platforms and much more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA38    01:59  Question 1 Hi Roger and Pete, Long time listener, first time questioner. My wife and I have both earned in excess of £100k for a few years now, meaning I am acquiring a peculiar set of skills on the various ways to use pension contributions, rollover allowances, gift aids, etc to keep us both below the (entirely bananas) £100k cliff-edge each year. My question is on the £60k pension annual allowance. Does it only apply to the amount of pension savings in a given year which can be made without paying a tax charge, or does it also count as the maximum amount of pension deduction which can be taken to calculate net adjusted income as part of completing our tax returns? The (slightly over-simplified) situation in my mind is that if I earned £160,500 in a given year, I would prefer to pay £61k into a pension, thereby reducing my net adjusted income to £99,500 to stay below the cliff-edge, even if I had to pay 40% tax on the extra £1000 above the pension annual allowance. As a fun aside, I asked this to my preferred AI - and I leave a link to see if you agree with it's answer or not  - https://g.co/gemini/share/8c23e91cb658 Stephen 07:58  Question 2 Hello Pete & Roger Listen and enjoy all your podcasts regularly but every now and again you get one that addresses specific points to the individual listener. For me it was Podcast QA18. A really great podcast. 1. The 2015 changes to pensions made  significant differences to pensions and most financial experts have rightly advised using your pension as one of the best places to put savings. It does seem unfair that you plan your savings and pensions well in advance for retirement based on government rules. and then you you find you are likely to have a sizeable IHT bill. At 78 it is difficult to turn the ship around quickly. Many more people will be affected by this over the next decade. The main reason however for my question relates to ways to reducing the effects of this IHT change. The general allowances and the 7 year rule are all clear. However the main exemption that could help is the little used Gifts form Excess Income. I have read up as much as I can and the whole system seems rather vague and many things open to interpretation, even by financial experts. There is no clear and precise set of rules whereby you can be certain something is capital or income. Your executor will have to understand all this and have all the back up documentation to convince HMRC that the gifts are justified.  I do have excess income and spent significant time over the past weeks analysing all our expenditure and income sources ending up totally confused and with a severe migraine. Any advice on how best to handle this can of worms would be appreciated. 2) So many of us these days have children living in different countries with their families. All with different citizenship and residency situations in different countries. There seems to be very little information about  IHT and general tax issues in relation to gifts and inheritance of money and pensions for children and grandchildren in this situation.  Best regards, Peter   16:52  Question 3 Hello Roger and Pete, Thanks for a great series of podcasts. Some of them confirm what I already know and some give me insights, ideas and an understanding I didn't have. You provide a great service. My wife and I are 54 and 55. We are getting divorced. The divorce is amicable and we want to share everything evenly. I take home £5k/month and she takes home £2.3k. We will split this evenly as long as we both work. Our pension funds are not of equal value. I have DCs and SIPPs worth £800k and ISAs worth £100k. I also have a small DB pension that will pay out about £3k/year in today's money at age 67. My wife has a DC pension worth £210k and ISAs worth £220k. She has a DC pension that will pay about £2.5k/year in today's money at age 67. As you can see, the majority is in my name. This makes sense as I have worked whereas she has taken time off to raise our children. We have equal claim to the money in my mind. I think the ISAs are straight forward. We can balance the value by selling some of hers and investing more in my name. The DC pensions are more difficult. By right I should give her £295k to make them of equal value but how do we do this? We want to avoid expensive solicitors and accountants but are not sure if we can DIY this. Please share any advice you can give. Regards, Jay   25:43  Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks so much for what you do with the podcast. It's completely changed my approach to my finances, especially over the last year which has felt even more important after the birth of my son. I have a question about investment platforms. I currently have about £70,000 invested in passive world index trackers via a platform. I estimate my total annual fees including fund and platform fees to be about 0.66% pa. I don't think this is terrible but I think it could be less. I'm considering transferring my investments (which is a mixture of stocks and shares ISA, LISA and (very small) SIPP) to a cheaper platform. Do you have an advice on the transfer process, especially in whether to transfer all the funds in one go or is there a strategy you'd recommend to avoid falling foul of market fluctuations? Thanks, Jack 30:47  Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, You guys are the best. You've given me my only financial education. Never underestimate what a difference you are making to ordinary people's lives. THANK YOU. I am 42 years old saving into my workplace DC pension. I have a bit of a gap because I started late and then freelanced for a few years, so playing catch up, but thanks to you both, seeing the positives in this, rather than beating myself up. I am basing the 'gap' on not quite having 3x salary saved by age 42 - is that a decent rule of thumb? As you both say, arming people with knowledge can be a good thing and a bad thing, because armed with this new knowledge we can go off and overcomplicate things. I decided to pull my pension from the default fund and pick 6 funds. What's the best route for working out if I am paying too much in fees, if I have got too much crossover across funds, and if the more pricey ones are worth it?  Do I need to get financial advice or could I do this myself (being a complete layman obvs)?  Do you have any tips on the process of comparing, finding inefficiencies and consolidating? What's a reasonable number of funds would you say? 3? 1?  BTW I've done the same thing with my ISAs since they let us have more than one. How do you just pick one and stick with it, and not get distracted by the new shiny providers? It seems like newer, better products and platforms come out all the time. Or am I worrying unnecessarily and might it be ok to have fingers in many pies? Thanks again for all you do. Hayley 37:47  Question 6 Thanks for all the content, I listen to every episode and often share the pod with others to share the good word! My partner will soon be able to get her NHS pension. While we were looking at the numbers, I began to wonder whether there is any benefit in taking the maximum lump sum and investing it outside of the pension. My thinking was that she would probably be able to generate the same amount of income from investing it in the stock market, but that when she dies she will be able to pass the capital on, whereas her pension will just stop paying out. I think the maximum she can take is about £70k. Presumably she could put this in a GIA and feed it into an ISA over a few years, accepting that any gains in the GIA would be subject to tax. I just wondered if there were any other tax implications that I hadn't considered? If not, then presumably it's just a case of comparing the drop in the annual pension payment against the expected returns (after tax) from investing outside the pension? Would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks again, and keep up the good work. Tim

This is an important episode. Here, Roger and Pete dive deep into one of the most important subjects for anyone looking to improve their finances to understand - RISK. It's misunderstood and it's misrepresented, but risk can be your friend if you treat it right. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session604  Get the PDF emailed to you - Risk Lens Guide: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/risklens    02:18 Everything you need to KNOW 04:17 - Market & investment risks (the ones everyone worries about) 08:37 - Inflation & purchasing power risk (the silent wealth killer) 13:35 - Behavioural risk (where most damage is actually done) 18:31 - Planning risks – when the structure is wrong 23:31 - Life risks that derail even the best plans 26:06 - The risk nobody talks about: building the wrong life 29:35 Everything you need to DO 29:42 - Get clear what the money is for 32:28 - Match risk to time, not emotion 33:43 - Build shock absorbers before chasing returns 35:56 - Diversify like you mean it 38:03 - Design for behaviour, not brilliance 40:27 - Protect the foundations 42:32 - Review — don't react 44:49 - Spend intentionally — now and later 47:25 The Meaningful Money Risk Lens 51:15 Summary 52:42 This week's reviews  

Welcome to the first podcast of 2026 where Roger and Pete answer more of your varied and interesting questions, covering everything from what to do when you've maxed out your pension and ISA, to whether you should borrow on your mortgage to invest! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA37   01:30  Question 1 Hello to Roger and his trusty sidekick Pete, Only kidding Pete, but it will make Roger feel good briefly. I must credit the pair of you for your continued dedication and commitment to educating the wider population on all things financial.  I have gone from strength to strength in planning my retirement with the guidance and abundance of free information you have provided, the books you have written Pete, as well as signing up to the Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning and now planning to retire several years earlier than originally intended. Using the information provided and learnt, I have got my finances in order but more importantly, that decision is to align my future life (and that of my wife) to the finances we need and when our needs are likely to be met, hence the realisation retirement is not as far away as we had originally perceived, so I really appreciate what you have done for me and my family. My question maybe very simple, but it was sparked during a previous Q&A session Listener Question – episode 20 - 30th July – Question 2 – The question surrounded company Shares. I am employed by BAE and I purchase company shares each month, partially as a sensible Tax saving being a higher rate tax payer (purchase them pre Tax) but also for the first £75 worth each month I buy each month, the company will match, so effectively £150 worth of shares which technically costs less than £50 in real money each month.  Now whilst I do sell some shares along the way (after the 5-year maturity to avoid tax payment), I continue to have a reasonable amount invested (£35k subject to tax relief period on some). A statement you made during the above session was "as a sideline issue we tend to say to people that investing in shares for the company you work for is a bad idea at any scale, thus to avoid backing one horse and it's not a good idea to hold onto shares for a company you work for." Now I thought I was onto a winner and being tax efficient and building an amount of money which I tap into on an occasional basis as well as additional source of income once retired, but are you implying, as you did to that listener, I might consider cashing some in and transferring the money else where? Perhaps in this instance it is suffice leaving it there, as the examples you gave were for smaller companies (in comparison) that folded, whereas BAE one of the larger Defence industry companies, doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon?  I do have a Royal Naval DB pension already paying out, as well as a part DB and part DC pension with BAE (continuing to build), so I'm not reliant upon the money, which is another factor why I've not considered moving them away or am I doing myself a bad deal, id value your opinions (not advice ha ha)? Thank you for your time Regards, John 08:02  Question 2 I'm 39, a basic rate taxpayer and I have a Lifetime ISA and a SIPP with HL. Can I save for retirement in my Lifetime ISA and invest in the same funds as my Pension after receiving the 25% bonus to achieve similar growth. Then at age 60, withdraw all that money tax free and pay it into my pension (up to my allowances and possibly using previous years) to gain the 20% tax relief just before I draw the pension? I would also save some money on platform fees as the LISA is 0.25% vs the SIPP at 0.45%. I know I can get cheaper platforms elsewhere but I find HL easy, intuitive, and feel like I can trust them with my money, which really encourages me to save in the first place. Thanks, Robert 13:40  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, Longtime fan and listener, thanks for all the great work you do! I'm 40 years old and a member of the LGPS DB pension scheme, which I've been paying into since my early 20s. My partner is also in a DB scheme (Central Government). We have no debt other than our mortgage. We currently live in a modest home we bought for £89k, but are thinking about upgrading to a bigger property for more space and comfort (no plans to have children). That said, we've enjoyed the low cost of living here. We've built up around £160k in savings, split roughly 40% in a Stocks & Shares ISA and 60% in Premium Bonds and cash. I've tried to keep the ISA intact as a form of flexibility/security around retirement, potentially to retire early or reduce hours in the future. The dilemma is: 1. Do we spend most of the savings on a better house and accept working longer? 2. Or do we stay where we are, keep our financial flexibility, and potentially one of us works less or retires earlier? 3. Or is there a sensible middle ground, spending some of the cash to improve our living situation while still preserving part of our financial cushion for future flexibility? We're just trying to balance quality of life now with freedom and options later, and would love to hear your take on it. Is there anything else we haven't thought about? Thanks so much for your thoughts! Gez   19:25  Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog, big fan of the show and I appreciate the helpful topics you cover. I am currently going through a remortgage and am extracting equity from our house to invest. The new mortgage rate is around 4% and our LTV will be around 80%. The additional monthly costs are within our budget too. My strategy is to invest the extracted amount in a stocks and shares ISA with my wife, utilising the £20k allowance each per tax year. This will be invested into globally diversified index funds. I have ran calculations on how much I will be paying in additional interest vs how much is probable from stock market returns. Over 25 years, the additional interest paid on £50k extracted at 4% is £29k Over 25 years, having invested £50k, I would need to return 1.84% to break even from this deal. This is due to the way mortgages are amortised via repayment vs the investments compounding positively. With conservative returns of 7% used, this will net £236k of interest. Am I missing anything here? Keep up the great work and I'm very interested to hear whether you have done this in the past. Stephen 26:40  Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, Recent discoverer and now big fan of the show here - I have now caught up on all the Q&A episodes and am continuing to work my way through the back catalogue: a lot of material! My questions centre on tax-efficient options once ISAs and pensions are maxed out, and how to "bridge" savings if retiring before pension-age. I am 36, married and have 2 young daughters who are the apple of my eye. We have a very manageable mortgage and I benefit from a very well paid job. However, an extremely stressful period last year sent me on the track of better understanding personal finance (and ultimately finding you) in order to achieve financial independence and not need to tolerate that kind of situation ever again, as well as be free to dedicate my time and energy to things without worrying about how much money they pay. 1) I am trying to get to functional financial independence (i.e. paid work is entirely optional) as soon as possible - I now max out my annual pension and ISA allowance each year and am likely to continue to in the future. Are there any other normal vehicles I can use for additional saving and investing? Giving money to my wife to use her ISA allowance? Anything else? I don't want to overpay the mortgage for the next several years as we managed to get a fixed rate that is below the current rate of inflation. 2) I have a good understanding of our essential and discretionary spending, and with a conservative annualised rate of return I could theoretically stop contributing to my pension pot in the next 7ish years and compounding would mean it would be big enough to fully support us once we can access it. My question is - is there a good rule of thumb or approach for working out how much I need to save outside the pension if I wanted to stop working for money before 57? Is it just a case of working out # years x expenses or is there anything more sophisticated to it? 3) bonus question - feel free to cut if it doesn't fit: I'm familiar with the idea of asset allocation and rebalancing to "smooth the ride" for my portfolio. Most things I've read or listened to have focused on equities vs. bonds. When I was looking at a number of bond indexes recently the returns have been pretty flat, often 4% from a cash ISA, what's the point of the bonds? Am I missing something? Thanks so much for all the knowledge you put into the world, giving people the tools to look after themselves. The chat is pretty great too! Kind regards, Martin 37:18  Question 6 Hello Pete & Roger Thank you for your fantastic materials, so well explained. We're 62. We already have a standard pension pot Annuity and we have around £300,000 in savings in building society accounts. (We value peace of mind over the potential for big gains, so we're not really considering stocks and shares). We're wondering whether, rather than rely entirely on savings accounts, it would make sense to use a Purchase Life Annuity. With current annuity rates, it looks like that's a Yes, so we're curious what your expert view is on this. We're aware of the downside: that it leaves us without much of a savings pot for any unexpected very large need. Have watched the Annuities: Back from the dead? video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alTTzrd2NbY -  which talked about buying an annuity with pension, but in our case it would be Purchase Life Annuity, so does that make a difference when purchasing an annuity? Thank you again! Moira  

Join Roger and Pete for a 2025 retrospective where we look into the kind of year it's been and a little bit ahead to 2026. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session602  02:04 Meaningful Money - Podcast, YouTube, Academy 12:05 Antidote to the noise. 16:40 Bank of Dad 22:39 Jacksons 31:18 Personal Reflection 45:18 Thanks To... Meaningful Money Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MeaningfulMoneyPodcast  Meaningful Money Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@meaningfulmoney  Meaningful Academy: https://meaningfulacademy.com  Jacksons: https://jacksons.life 

Welcome to the last Q&A session of 2025. In this show we cover selling properties to invest in pensions instead, starting to invest for the first time, UFPLS vs FAD and SO MUCH MORE! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA36  02:05  Question 1 Big thanks to Pete and Roger for all the excellent advice. This question is for some of the 2.8 million UK landlords. Even those with just one property in their own name—not through a limited company—are increasingly affected by fiscal drag. Looking ahead, I plan to sell down much of my property portfolio in later life (because who wants to be a landlord at 70?). Plus, mortgage finance becomes trickier in your 70s. That said, even if I retain one or two of the best properties, the rental income alone may push me into the higher-rate tax bracket. I'm 49 and don't currently have a SIPP, but I can invest up to the £60k annual allowance via my limited company. Would it make sense to start building a modest pension over the next 10 years as a risk mitigation strategy? If so, how should I think about the opportunity cost? I'd save 25% corporation tax going in, but pay higher-rate income tax on the way out (less the 25% tax-free lump sum)—so is the net tax cost around 5%? Or am I overlooking other factors, like the benefit of CGT and income tax exemptions on growth within the pension? Appreciate your thoughts—and keep up the great work. Regards, Cameron. 07:29  Question 2 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick, I've recently discovered your YouTube channel and podcast, and it's been a real eye-opener - thanks so much for all the great content! I'm 45 and currently have £74,000 in a Fidelity SIPP, but it's all sitting in cash. I know that's far from ideal, especially with 15–20 years until I plan to retire. I also realise it's a relatively modest pot for my age, and it's not earning anything while it just sits there. How would you typically advise someone in my situation to begin investing some or all of that cash? I'm keen to make up for lost time but want to do so wisely. Thanks again, and keep up the brilliant work! Joanne 15:15  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Firstly thanks so much for all your hard work - I devour your podcasts, videos & books - so much hard work on your behalf & I hope you realise how appreciated they are. I am just at the stage of life where in the next few years I need to start thinking about drawing money out of mine & my husband's pensions and I am considering the most tax efficient way of doing this. I have been reading all about UFPLS and FAD. As background, it is unlikely that either my husband or I will ever have much Personal Allowance unused in the years up to receiving our State Pensions due to rental income we receive; it is also unlikely that either of us will ever become higher rate taxpayers. I also understand that to get the most out of ones PCLS it is best to only crystallise the funds actually needed from an uncrystallised pension so the rest of the pot can hopefully grow and therefore the 25% tax free sum also grows.  So, my question is, what am I missing, in what situations would it be more beneficial to take an UFPLS payment v making a partial crystallisation into a FAD pot (I am with ii who offer this). I feel like an UFPLS payment would give me 25% tax free and 75% taxed right away, whilst a FAD would give me the same 25% tax free and 75% could be taken straight away or drawn down over time as desired and could also be left invested to hopefully grow? Thanks so much, Tracy 21:12  Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, thanks for hosting such a great podcast! I've recently been searching for a new job and was lucky enough to receive an offer with some interesting compensation features that I thought I would ask your opinions on. I actually turned down this role in favour of something else, but wanted to ask nonetheless as the offer came with an interesting feature that I have not come across before. Firstly, and probably most straightforward to answer – The salary on offer was £50,500 per year, which seems a weird figure – suspiciously only slightly above the threshold to tip me into the higher tax bracket, which got me thinking – are there any benefits (to the employer or employee) of being only just into the next tax bracket up? Why not £50k, or £51k? Secondly, in addition to a very generous DC pension scheme (they would pay in 12% if I pay in 5%) they offer a "Savings Scheme" whereby 5% of my salary would be deducted (and paid into this scheme) each month and at the end of 12 months the company would then top up these savings with another 5% of my annual salary – (actually 6% to "account for the extra tax"). My real question is this – what are these "savings schemes" in a nutshell, and are there any benefits of them over trying to negotiate for increased employer pension contributions instead? Interested to hear your thoughts on these. Thanks so much! Jamie 29:09  Question 5 Hello Pete and Roger I've recently found your podcast and wanted to say thanks for all the insight you are providing. Not only do you make a fairly dull subject tolerable, you even manage to make it reasonably enjoyable 😉 My wife and I have a couple of rental properties which should be paid off along with the house in a year or so. I'm 47 and on an average salary. I have a medical condition which means I'll probably be unable to carry on working till 67 (but life expectancy unaffected). The problem I have is I don't know when I'll need to access my personal pension so planning is a bit tricky. My DC pension pot is just over £200k which ordinarily would be quite healthy but if I have to access it at 57 suddenly it isn't so great. I'm currently invested 100% in shares and have been a bit braver than I'd normally be inclined, as I feel I need to make hay while the sun shines, but now getting to the stage where I might want to reduce the risk on the money I've worked hard to save. The problem I have is knowing how to go about planning for an uncertain future. I'm also aware I have a blind spot when it comes to bonds. I know they are meant to fare better than shares in falling markets but not sure if the reality matches the reputation. Fundamentally I just don't understand the mechanics of how they work and what factors affect how they move. Would be very grateful to hear your thoughts! Thank You and keep up the good work. Danny 37:08  Question 6 Hi Pete and Roger, I'm 31 and have been listening to this podcast for at least 10 years so have been very lucky to have baked all of your wisdom and advice into my own financial habits over the formative years of attending university and entering the world of work, which has undoubtedly set me on the right path for the rest of my life - I hope! I can't thank you enough for your generosity and dedication to this mission. My question is maybe an unusual one... I am fortunate to be in a well-paid job in what I think is a relatively secure career and have all of the basics covered - from a good EM fund, no debt and money put into wealth-building mechanisms (pension and Stocks and Shares ISA). I have more than enough to be comfortable. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago my brother got diagnosed with a rare cancer at the age of 26 and has been battling the condition ever since. He's spent a lot of time in the care of the national treasure that is The Christie in Manchester, and I'm so grateful for the work they have done to support him and would like to financially donate to them so that I can do what I can to help them and others in return. I get (what I consider to be) a significant pre-tax annual bonus to the tune of £10-15k and am considering donating this in one-off charity contributions through my employer's benefit scheme each year when I receive it. Alternatively, I could pension-dump these bonuses and build a strong compounding engine for retirement one day and at that point could then donate a substantially higher figure (potentially even just from interest on the core portfolio alone..?). Whilst I won't ask you to answer what is probably an impossible question on behalf of The Christie in terms of which is more important - money now or money later - do you have any thoughts on the pros and cons of either approach? Is there a right answer here in your opinion? Thanks again for all you do Tom

It's episode 600 of the podcast, not that we're doing much to mark that milestone! We have some excellent questions today, taking in retirement planning, getting a mortgage if you have a new business and how flexible ISAs work! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA35  02:43  Question 1 Hi Pete, I'm a single household, due to pay my mortgage off in my early 50's….I have very little savings and pensions are everywhere and been 'balanced fund choices' as I either do self employed work or fixed term contracts. I'm really concerned I won't have 'enough' to retire.  Where do I start to know how much I need? I don't have an extreme fancy lifestyle but want to live comfortably with running a car, having a nice home and having a holiday every few years. I would also like to help my siblings out if possible when they need it. Also for your business…..have you thought of making it an 'employee owned trust' in the future?  This could be a good option if you don't want it swallowed up by larger organisations and want to keep a people focussed culture. Thanks, Anna 12:57  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger Recently discovered the podcast and it's been really helpful in getting my thoughts straight about future planning - thank you! My job gives me a DB pension that as it stands will give me £4617 per year at 67 - for every year I work that will go up by one 54th of my salary, (£57k) so £1055 annually if I stay at the same grade. Increased by cpi plus 1.5% annually at the moment; and by CPI only once in payment. I can exchange part of this for a lump sum when I take it but that's a decision for another day! I'm projected for full SP at 67 after another 2 years contributing. I have £30k in a pensionbee that I'm adding to £100 a month, and after listening to the podcast I have started an AJ Bell SIPP (vanguard lifestrategy 60% equity) which I'm adding £200 a month to. Also working on the cash ladder/emergency fund - currently just £5k in a cash ISA I am hoping to get this up as much as possible. After overpaying mortgage and contributing to PensionBee/SIPP I can save £200 in a good month. I am aiming to retire as soon as I possibly can after 60, when the kids will all be in their 20s. I am sure this seems impossible but might as well aim high!!! So my priority is to build for the years between 60 and 67. And leave something for the kids, eventually! So…my question!! I have an old tiny deferred DB pension that I can take at 60, £3461 lump plus £1153 per annum (no option to take either a smaller or larger lump sum). I can't trivially commute this due to the rules of the scheme. As it's deferred there are no other benefits eg death in service. Or,  I can take this now (age 53) with a reduction for early payment so it would be worth £3076 lump and £869 per annum.  The pension increases each year by CPI while deferred and also when it's in payment. Does it make sense to take now, and put lump and monthly payment into either mortgage, or SIPP,  or cash ISA? And if so which - SIPP gets me extra 25% from the gov as it's under pension recycling amount? But £3k off my mortgage now might be better. Cant get my head around the maths of this...but my gut feel is it would be working harder for me in my hand despite the fact I'd be taxed on the annual amount? I'd make sure that with my work and personal contributions I stay in 20% tax band and reclaim from HMRC when I do my tax return. Sarah  19:39  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, great show and love the new format to allow listeners to ask lots of questions. My question is around pension inheritance. When a person dies and passes a DC pension to a spouse or child, does the inheritance remain in the pension wrapper when it passes on or does it lose its pension wrapper status which allows the person inheriting to use the cash as they want without the pension restrictions? Many thanks, Kavi   26:04  Question 4 Hi Pete I've been watching your videos and listening to your podcasts for about two years now and I'll start by thanking you (and the youthful Mr Weeks) for the public service you provide outside your paying work.  I have what I think is a simple question, but I don't seem to be able to find a definitive answer on-line. I retired about this time two years ago at the age of 62 so I'm 64 now.  I have a DC pension in the form of a SIPP which is currently worth a little more than £600k.  I also have a similar amount in savings (some in cash, some in an S&S ISA).  I live on a combination of the income provided by the cash and the S&S ISA, plus a series of small UFPLSs taken roughly quarterly from my SIPP throughout the tax year. At this stage the SIPP withdrawals are relatively modest (totalling maybe 12k a year, of which of course 3k is tax free).  My intention is to continue doing the UFPLSs at roughly the same rate, possibly increasing a little as a result of inflation.  State pension will add another 12k or so to my annual income in 3 years so that will likely reduce the need to increase my SIPP withdrawals for a while.  My SIPP is currently growing faster than my rate of withdrawal. I understand that the maximum tax free cash I can have out of my pension in my lifetime (under current legislation) is £268,275 and obviously at my current withdrawal rate, I'm not getting to that total anytime soon.  However if I've understood the rules correctly (and I may not have), I think my ability to have tax free cash once I reach the age of 75 goes away.  If that's true, presumably I need to crystallise my SIPP pot just before I reach age 75, taking a quarter of it or my remaining LSA (whichever is smaller) as a tax free lump sum, at which point the remainder turns into an entirely taxable (crystallised) draw down pot?  Alternatively, have I completely misunderstood what happens at age 75 and I can continue to do UFPLSs (with 25% tax free) until the cows come home, or I reach the LSA, whichever is sooner? I don't think it's relevant to my question above but just for background, I have a wife who inherits everything if she survives me, or a few nieces and nephews and charities that benefit if she doesn't.  We have no children of our own. Keep up the good work gentlemen. Regards, Robert   31:05  Question 5 Hi Pete My son, who has never been a saver (apart from workplace pension) and never seems to have any spare money (single dad, renter) is in the process of going self employed with a colleague. If all goes well, he has a chance to make a reasonable income, not be hand to mouth and periodically take lump sums as a company director. E. G £5k to £10k starting in a couple of years. My question is not about the viability of the business but this business will open up the prospect of my mid 30's son, David, owning a house while I am alive. As in, building up a deposit as dividends are paid. It may take several years and then, I assume, he would have to go through the pain of a self employed mortgage. An area that I know nothing about. In effect, he is just starting out, but we would be really interested in your thoughts about the longer term aim of buying a house. Many thanks again for your wonderful books and podcasts Helen   37:55  Question 6 Hi Pete & Roger, I continue to recommend your podcast to others.  Please keep up the excellent work.  My question is on the process of using flexible Cash ISAs.  I cannot find any worked examples online and a few IFAs I have approached suggested kicking back the question to the ISA provider but I would appreciate your thoughts. My wife and I have £200k in flexible cash isas.  We plan on using these funds for a house purchase.  Should I reduce the balance to zero, can I top the ISA back up to the full £200k provided the money goes in and out of a 'flexible' cash isa (and is within the same tax year)?  I would be in a position to do this following the sale of some investment property.. And the second part of the question would be can the money move freely between a stocks and shares isa and a flexible cash isa eg £200k in a flexible cash isa moved into a stocks and shares isa > then back to the flexible cash isa. We are both higher-rate tax payers and I won't drop a tax bracket in retirement so I feel the ISAs are the most useful savings bucket we hold. Take care and all the best. Stuart  

We're getting into the groove of doing video podcasts now, and today we have another mixed bag of questions. They include the tax implications of moving abroad, whether to start a pension in your 60's, whether it's possible for a pension fund to be too big and lots more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA34    01:24  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger Thanks for the fantastic podcast, YouTube videos (and book) I have learnt so much. My question is essentially about whether to overpay my mortgage or invest. I have watched Pete's videos on this subject but just wanted to check if my situation changes anything. I'm a 41 year old Firefighter and I am in the Firefighters Pension Scheme. I am recently divorced and as such have had to start again with a 25 year mortgage currently fixed for 5 years at 4.1%. Essentially should I focus on overpaying this mortgage so that it is definitely paid off by the time I am 60 (When I can retire from the Fire service) as I already have the DB Firefighters Pension. Or would I still be better to invest this money in a stocks and shares ISA and use it to pay off the mortgage at a later date? My disposable income for whichever option would be around £200 a month. Lastly I will probably continue working past 60 yrs old but it may be in a different profession as by that age I may not feel like dragging hose and climbing ladders anymore! Thanks again, James   05:33  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, I've been listening to your brilliant podcast since COVID, so around 5 years now and always look forward to the new episode coming out. I don't really have a financial related question for you, more some advice... I've tried to educate my daughter on personal finance and I think she now has a good grasp and is interested in becoming a financial advisor. She is now 19, has decent A levels and has just completed an Art foundation course. She has University offers for September which she has deferred as she really doesn't want to go! We live in West Kent (nr Tunbridge Wells) and I've been looking for trainee, bottom of the rung, Financial advisor jobs for her but I can't seem to find anything. She could commute to London, if required but would rather stay local if possible. Do either of you have any suggestions about how she might be able to get into the industry? We're happy to pay for courses of that helps her but not sure what would be best. Sorry for the long email, any advice would be very gratefully received. All the best and keep up the great work Matt and Belle Hart   13:23  Question 3 Hello to Pete and Rog, Thanks for the podcast so far, my family is in a much sounder financial footing since I've started putting into action some of the basics you've spoken about previously. ISAs, pensions and insurance all ticking along nicely now - thanks to you! I have a question about my pension, is it possible to add too much? My thoughts are, if my pension pot in today's money is worth £1.25m when I retire, I can take the 250k tax free and £40k a year thereafter, anymore than this and I would be paying 40% tax on my drawings. Are there benefits I'm missing of having a larger pot (say £2m)? Not one I need to worry about yet, if at all, but it's always puzzled me! Many thanks for the content, keep up the good work and enjoy the sunshine this weekend! Adam   18:30  Question 4 Hi Pete & Rog, Have been a long time listener and have loved your double act with the self effacing banter alongside sound, sensible guidance on the minefield that personal finance can often seem to be. Listening whilst walking the dog is like chewing the fat down the pub with a couple of great friends, So my situation is this... 47 years old, married with two kids (11/14). Myself and my wife both have good jobs, own jointly (own names) 8 x BTL properties generating a profit. Equity in Portfolio is about £400k Portfolio was built to provide additional income and to support us in retirement (either the income or by selling) We have our own home (mortgaged) and are in the process of moving to a bigger place as we're growing out of where we are. This will come with a bigger mortgage as we're scaling up so to minimise the increase in monthly payments we're increasing the term back to our state retirement ages (which is a bit depressing!). So our ideal plan is to have the "choice" to semi retire / work as much or little as we want by age 57 - so around 10 years from now but we are not sure whether this is realistic and the best way to set things up to achieve it if it is. We would probably still work part-time beyond 57 but would want to have other sources of income that could support a comfortable lifestyle. To add to the complexity, but in a good way, I'm also in the process of changing jobs and the new job comes with a £20k pa pay rise and a matched pension at 6%. This is obviously lower than my current employers scheme but I plan to at least match what currently goes into my current employer pension one way or the other. So after what must be one of the longest pre-ambles you've ever read here are my question(s): In terms of where we are now do you think getting to a position where we have a choice to retire/semi retire in 10 years is realistic and what are the key things we should be doing now ten years out taking into account our circumstances? How would you approach the pension situation with my change of employer, my thought was to make contributions to my private pension to cover the overall reduction (9% matched to 6% matched) between employers so that I'm still putting in 18% overall. I think I may be able to put as much as I like into my new employers scheme though (but they'll only match 6%) so would this be a better option? In terms of our mortgage in 10 years it will still be around £350k so we would want to reduce this significantly or even pay off in full at that point. My thought was to sell 5-6 of the BTL's over 5 years leading up to age 57 to pay it down however this obviously reduces our passive income from the portfolio and we'd pay a chunk of CGT along the way. Are there any better ways of achieving the same result? I hope I haven't broken any rules around length of email and number of questions, I can only hope you'll treat this with your customary humour and patience! Keep up the great work guys. Best Regards, Nick 25:15  Question 5 Hello Pete and Roger -I'd like to say how your podcast has really helped me to focus on preparing for retirement ,so thank you . My question is I'm in my early 60,s I have 2 x Db pensions which will pay about £22000 Pa immediately if I choose , a full state pension at 67 and I have no mortgage and cash savings of £235000 half of which is in cash ISAs. My DB Pensions and state pension will be enough for my life style . I may move home next year hence the large cash savings and also because I recently divorced and that's how the settlement added to that figure. It was a coercive relationship and I'm so worried now I hold too much cash as I never had my own money to invest in a pension. Prior to the marriage and children I did work and pay into a pension which will provide half of the DB pension as stated earlier but that all stopped when I married. Should I start a personal pension now so close to retirement if I know I'll have spare cash to pay the max £3600 inc tax relief to take advantage of the tax relief and build up a pot not for income necessarily but for care home fees /inheritance tax costs for my two young adult children? Or shouldn't I worry? Many thanks for your help. Charlotte. 30:13  Question 6 Dear Pete and Rog, Thank you so much for your incredibly valuable podcast. I've learned a great deal from it and really appreciate the clarity and insight you bring to complex financial topics. Can't wait for the Youtube version to finally see what Rog looks like!  I had a question that I hope you might be able to shed some light on. My wife is from Slovakia, and we're likely to retire there in the future with our two children. I understand that capital gains tax and inheritance tax are both zero in Slovakia. However, I've read that UK-situs assets remain within the scope of UK inheritance tax even after leaving the UK, and that these would seem to include UK-domiciled OEICs such as the Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% fund, which I currently hold in a general investment account. Would it therefore make sense to consider switching from the LifeStrategy 100% UK domiciled fund to an Ireland-domiciled ETF such as the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRP)? Would doing so resolve the issue of UK IHT exposure on those Situs assets? Or transferring the UK OEICs to a global investment platform, would that work (seems too easy to be true)? Any other tips to look into before making the big move abroad? Thank you very much again for your time, and for all the invaluable information you share! Please keep it going ! Best regards, John  

Roger and Pete discuss the November 2025 Budget, 24 hours after it was announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. We cover the salient points from a financial planning standpoint and try to avoid politics if we can! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session598b  02:37 Income Tax 09:27 Capital Gains Tax 12:35 IHT 17:32 State Pension 19:48 Salary Sacrifice 25:32 What was NOT announced 30:02 VCTs 30:53 High-Value Council Tax Surcharge 34:00 EV and Plug-in Hybrid mileage scheme - eVED 37:55 Student Loans 38:44 Opinions 41:37 A Podcast Review

Welcome to another show full of questions form you, the audience and hopefully some meaningful questions from Pete & Roger. This week we have questions about paying school fees, becoming a financial adviser, how to invest an inheritance and lots more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA33    01:15  Question 1 Good morning Pete & Roger, Thank you for a great podcast, been really enjoying it over the years and it's been no end of help for me. My question concerns my grandchild. She was born in America but now lives in the UK, is duel nationality. As grandparents we were hoping to put money aside into a savings account for her. Now obviously we thought the JISA but as she is born in America we can't do that.  Is there any advice for how we can save for her in the most tax efficient way for her, conscious that she is quite young. If we can put some money away now regularly, it could build up into a nice little nest egg for her.  Also hoping to do this for other grandchildren, not necessarily born in America.   Any advice gratefully received. Mike. 05:48  Question 2 Hello Pete & Rog Wow these Q&As just keep delivering incredible value -keep up the great work!   I'm 52 and my wife is 43. We're both higher-rate taxpayers contributing to a DB-DC hybrid via salary sacrifice. We'd like to retire together in 12 years (me at 64, my wife at 55—she has a protected pension age). We both have a DB pension and a DC pension. Combined we have emergency fund of £30k in Cash ISA, no S&S ISA. Observations: - Once both DB & State Pension are in payment pay, planned spending of £60k p.a. is fully covered. - My ability to draw DC within the basic-rate band post-State Pension is limited, as DB 33k p.a. - My wife has much more scope to use her DC tax-efficiently before her DB/State Pension start. - Likely outcome: large residual DC balances if we only withdraw what's needed to spend. Question: Would it be sensible to draw more from DCs early (using UFPLS at ~15% effective tax) and reinvest the surplus in S&S ISAs? This could: - Lock in withdrawals at basic-rate tax before DB/State Pension restrict allowances - Reduce the chance of paying higher-rate tax later - Diversify across ISAs (which we intentionally lack currently) Am I letting the "tax tail wag the investment dog," or is this just  pragmatic tax-efficient planning? Cheers, Dunc   09:05  Question 3 Hi, Thank you both for your financial wisdom! It has definitely lit a fire under me! My husband and I (41) would like financial independence at 50. We have received £120k early inheritance gift and also plan to sell 2 rental properties over the next 5 years to reduce commitments (a further approximate £250k post CGT) We are mortgage free and I have since filled our stocks and shares LISA and ISA, investing in 100% equity low cost global trackers. Other than investing the remaining in a GIA and transferring to ISAs each year are there any other options to help money grow over the next 9 years. We may continue to work at 50 but under our terms. We need sufficient to tide us over from 50-57 when we can consider access to Pensions and the LISA at 60. Thanks Amy 12:18  Question 4 Dear Pete & Roger, Thank you so much for all the work you do on YouTube, on the Website and on the Podcast, it really does make a difference to people's lives and long may it continue! I'm 36 years of age, and I currently work as an Aircraft Technician, which I somewhat enjoy. However I find the older I get, the harder it is to keep up with the physically demanding nature of the job, and fear this may become more of an issue further down the line. This has prompted me to think about my future employment. Engineering has been my whole life, and my curiosity for learning and my persistent quest for personal development has resulted in me becoming a fully qualified Car Mechanic and Aircraft Technician. I have also achieved a BSc (Hons) in Motorsport Engineering & Design! However, my race car days are over, and in a way I feel like I have "completed engineering" to the best of my ability, and I am eager to take on a new challenge! I have always been interested in finance (some would say I talk about nothing else!). I've always kept on top of my own personal finance (thanks to yourselves), and try to encourage/empower others to take control of theirs. The past few months I have been thinking of self-studying (whilst remaining in my current employment) for the AAT Level 2+3 in Accountancy, however the more I think about it perhaps Financial Planning is more my cup of tea? I love working with numbers, working with and helping people, planning for the future etc, however I worry I lack the necessary confidence and people skills to become a successful advisor. So I guess my questions are: 1. How do you become a Regulated Financial Planner? 2. Is it possible to self-study for the CII Level 4 in Regulated Financial Planning whilst remaining in employment? Or would you advise against this?  3. Are there any pre-requisites to studying for the CII L4 in RFP?  4. Would an Accountancy role be more suited to someone who does not possess great people/communication skills? 5. Could a RFP qualification open doors to work in industry as a FP&A as oppose to personal finance?  6. Anything else you wish to add for clarity?  Both your opinions are highly regarded. Keep up the great work! Kind Regards, Tom 23:55  Question 5 To the wonderful Pete and Rog I am a long time listener with my husband .  the podcast and videos have been invaluable in developing our understanding of personal finance  - translating complex issues into an accessible format so that people like me can get to grips is a real skill and thank you sincerely! My husband and I are 53 and have quite late become parents to beautiful twin daughters who just started secondary school (and are learning how to slam doors and stamp feet... you know that age...) anyway back to us, we are both employed, my husband is a higher rate tax payer and I am on the lower rate band. Because of some specific issues with the kids development needs we have decided to prioritise their education and to put them in our local small independent school where there is excellent specific support for them.  They started in September and were paying £45k per annum.  just typing that number scares me! To support the fees we moved house and extended our mortgage.  This given us c100k for fees and alongside significant monthly savings out of our income (1.5k) has given us capacity to support the fees for the next three years, however it won't be enough to take them through to GCSEs. We're feeling weighed down by our mortgage which is now significant although supportable because of our salaries.  It leaves us very little capacity for savings or luxuries like holidays. We realise this is our choice! Up until this point we have been relatively disciplined paying into pensions.  My husband has DB pension scheme which will pay circa 50k a year from the age of 61 (he has been paying in since 21) and one of those good, connected DC pots which should have circa £350,000 in by 61.   the 350k can be used to provide the TFLS as it is connected to the DB scheme.  So, we know when my husband retires, we will have capacity to clear the current mortgage.  But this can only be accessed at 60+.  I have a smaller pot which is £180k currently.  I'm paying in £150 month which is as much as I can afford. We need to make a planning decision about how do we afford the 5 years of fees not just the next 3?  the decision is imminent as we have to renew our mortgage in the coming months.  We have we think two options (excluding selling a kidney or two). 1. To further extend the mortgage. This will mean we push back possibility of retirement even further and will certainly use up all £265k of TFLS from husbands pension.... and gives us a problem of repayments - further squeeze. or 2. we wondered whether we could use my pension fund? The idea we had was to use tax-free cash from my pension to support the fees. I will be 55 in November 2027 and we think we might be able to get c £50,000 to use as a TFLS. - Is the drawing my tax-free lump sum a real option? It feels like the only way we might access funds other than the mortgage. - what impact would that have on my pension does it mean I can't continue to contribute to the pot? - Finally, how might we evaluate the pros and cons of the two options? we suspect there is no right or wrong answer but if anyone can offer a few wise words it would be the dynamic duo - thank you're the best. Katherine 31:50  Question 6 Hi Pete and Roger I love this show. There's so much great information and it brings me comfort to know so many people are making similar decisions to me and I seem to be on the right path! My question is about property vs index funds. I am about to inherit about £100k and am wondering what to do with it. I invest in global index funds every month so would be comfortable DCA-ing (pound cost averaging) it in over a few months. But, I do not own a property. So, I could buy a 2-3 bed property in Kent with approx. £150k mortgage and rent out a room to take advantage of the rent-a-room scheme. I am fortunate that my job provides my accommodation so I do not pay ridiculous rent and so do not need a property. Would you choose index funds or property for growth over the next 10-15 years? I'm located in Kent. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Ceara

This week I enjoy a brilliant conversation with Dan Haylett, a fellow financial planner and podcaster, and author of The Retirement You Didn't See Coming, a book I highly recommend.   Dan Haylett on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-haylett-retirement-coach/ Humans vs Retirement Podcast https://www.humansvsretirement.com/ The Retirement You Didn't See Coming - Book on Amazon https://amzn.to/4o0UhYB The Retirement You Didn't See Coming - Book on TGBB https://www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk/products/the-retirement-you-didn-t-see-coming The above links can also be found on the Meaningful Money website, at https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session597     

Some excellent questions this week, as always, and with the added bonus of moving the podcast onto YouTube! Join Pete and Rog as they answer questions about finance management apps, investment platform selection and transitional tax-free allowance certificates! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA32  01:39  Question 1  Hi Pete and Roger    Thanks so much for all the work you do, I've only found the podcast recently but already enjoying learning more and thinking about things differently.   My question relates to saving for retirement and specifically the period leading up to retiring.  Nearly all of our (mine and my husband's) pensions are in SIPPs where we have been happy to be 100% equity, in global index funds. We are now maybe 7-10 years from the point where we could retire, and I've been able to research withdrawal strategies to the point where I'm confident managing that when we get there.  We have determined our target asset allocation split between equities / bond funds / individual gilts and money market funds for the start point of retirement. I haven't been able to find much information about the period of transition from 100% equity to the asset allocation we want in place for the start of retirement.  Obviously it's a balance between reducing exposure to volatility as we approach retirement and accepting a drag on the portfolio caused by the increasing allocation to cash and bonds and my instinctive (but not evidence-based!) approach would be to gradually move from one to the other over a number of years.  So my question is this - is there a better approach than just a straightline shift from one to the other?  How far out from retirement is it appropriate to start making the transition?  The best advice I can find online is just to pick whatever makes you feel comfortable and do that but surely there must be some more robust guidance out there?  I appreciate it might not be a one size fits all answer but would appreciate your thoughts on how to approach this. The one piece of advice I do seem to have found is that however we decide to do it, to stick to a predetermined schedule to avoid temptation to try to time the market - does that sound sensible or have I missed the mark on that? Thanks so much for any help you can give. Fran   08:28  Question 2 Hello I listen to your show when out on walks and find it helpful for somebody who struggles at times with pension planning I am 55 and myself and colleagues were told we had to leave the Final Salary pension scheme in 2019, the flipside being we would still have employment and our final salary pension would be triggered at reduced age of 50, although we would only get the years paid into rather than the magic 40 years which would give 40/80ths of your final salary. So, for me , mine was triggered in 2020 and it was around 32/80ths (paid in since age 17), and I still remain in employment. At this time I received a statement saying my pension had triggered, I had opted for the smaller lump sum (we had two options and some took the larger sum).  There was no option to not take a tax free lump sum. I received a statement from the pension provider and it stated I was using 57% of the LTA Now,  since 2024 the P60 I receive from the pension provider annually now shows how much of the LSA I have used, this shows an amount of £153k , which equates to the same 57% , this time of the tax free lump sum allowance of £268k   (I have rounded the figures). However, the actual lump sum I received was £80k - so should I not have £199k left to use up ? As I got my lump sum prior to 2024 and it is far lower than the standard calculation used to generate £153k used figure , do I not have any protected rights and able to dispute this ?   It seems unfair that others who opted for double the tax free lump sum I received will be treat the same as myself regarding what tax free lump sum they can get in future  (We all pay into a company DC scheme these past 6 year, with a different provider). I have read about Transitional Tax Certificates but unsure if they are relevant to my scenario. I was unsure if the onus is on myself to take some action, or if the above is correct and that is how it works. Any advice would be appreciated and may help others in a similar scenario also. Many thanks, Jason   13:15  Question 3 Hi both, Thank you for all the great content, my question relates to financial planning as a couple. My partner and I are getting married next year and plan to combine finances at that time. We will also be looking to buy our first home in the next few years. Aside from some lifestyle creep, we are both 'good' with money and have worked with monthly budget systems before. We are looking for a system to help us manage our *total wealth/finances* on a larger scale as opposed to the majority of online finance spreadsheets which focus more on monthly budgeting. Do you have any recommendations for spreadsheets or software to help us keep track of the 'big picture' i.e. emergency fund, pensions, ISAs, investments. We WILL be seeking financial planning but are keen to keep track of this stuff ourselves. We would be happy to update spreadsheets quarterly, but not get bogged down in tracking specifics of bills etc! Best, Maddie   18:44  Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger, The older of my 2 sisters has been diagnosed with a terminal illness at the early age of 46 and because of the late stage diagnosis the timescales could be as short as 3-6 months without treatment. Myself and my other sister have been looking through her work pension/ finances to sort out her estate to get everything looked after for her only daughter, who is under the age of 18. She works for a government department and after reading the small print with her pension/ employment contract her estate would be about £130k worse off if she continued to be on sick leave but employed compared to taking medical early retirement. We have advised and started the process to get the lump sum and early retirement pension for my sister, as she is unlikely to benefit from the higher yearly pension payouts of around 23k vs 15k with £100k lump sum. My younger sister is applying for power of attorney as my older sister is too unwell to deal with all the admin and is becoming very forgetful with her condition and medication. My sister's entire estate will be around  £300k, we are concerned about my niece inheriting such a large lump sum at the age of 18. We are considering setting up a trust so that the money can be fully invested and paid out in smaller staggered lump sums to her on a 6 month or 12 month basis, just to get her used to dealing with larger sums of money and when she needs a Deposit for a house etc this will be available. Are there any reasons not to go down the Trust route and would this even be practical? Are there other options? We have been thrown into the deep end trying to make the best decision and could use your advice. I'm 38 and if I'd have inherited such a large lump sum at the age of 18, I probably would have blown it on expensive cars and motorcycles and have had some great fun in my 20's, but probably would have little left to show. Regards Mark   24:03  Question 5 Hi Pete and Rog Long time fan here! Love the accessibility of your information in the pod and the books! I've learnt a huge amount. But.... I still have a probably rather stupid question... I have a SIPP with funds in a Vanguard Global Index fund with Interactive Investor. It's taken a bit of a battering, but I'm hopeful it will grow in the next 10 years! My question is, how does it grow? I keep reading about interest and the magic of compounding, but it seems to me that there is no interest in an index fund? I dabble for a while with a dividend specific pie on Trading 212 and clearly saw dividends being paid to me on a regular basis, but this doesn't seem to happen with the Vanguard fund. What is it that's compounding? Please can you explain (as if I was a child!) how and why the fund grows and (hopefully) keeps gaining value over the long term? Many thanks! Alex  29:34  Question 6 Hello Pete and Roger, Great podcast! We are all very aware of costs eroding returns over time. On reading the Sunday Times review of investing platforms (8th June 2025 entitled, *'Switch investing platform and save £30k*'), this would seem to advocate changing platforms as funds increase to minimise costs. However, what this article doesn't go into is the flexibility on each platform to invest in individual shares / ETFs etc. Please could you and Roger give your insightful views about investment platform selection and particularly keeping with the most cost effective platforms as invested funds grow in value.  Thank you for helping so many of us! Ivana

A couple of questions this week about having too big a pension fund, plus a great question on platform choice where Rog and Pete discuss their own experiences. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA31    01:58  Question 1 Hi, really enjoying the podcast.  Started by watching your YouTube videos and still like getting the notifications of your new content. I have a question regarding early retirement, before pensions are available. I'm 50 and my wife is 52 and we would like to retire now. We have a mix of DB and DC pensions that will be sufficient for our retirement.  She can start taking her pensions at 55 and I'll start at 57. We have a savings pot outside of pensions of £700k in a mixture of investment funds (ISA being maxed yearly) that we would like to live on between now and our pensions becoming available. Based on £5000 per month to live on, we would need to withdraw £60000 in year 1, year 2 and year 3.  After that, we would need to withdraw £32500 in year 4, year 5, year 6 and year 7. Based on these figures and your experience of the expected interest we should gain over the period if our pot is sensibly invested, what are your thoughts on how low the pot will drop to over the first 7 years and how long would the amount we spent take to recover to the original value of the pot? Many thanks, Adam 10:39  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you both for all of the content and guidance – it has really helped me build my confidence in planning my finances. How much is too much in a pension? I'm 42 years old and have always prioritised pensions as a relatively high earner. I'm now in a position where I have a fairly healthy £530k in my pension, and wondering if I need to throttle back the contributions soon? If I take an assumed 5% growth rate, I'm on target for a £1m pot by age 55 without any more contributions (my access age is protected at 55). Should I just pay in enough to get employer match - I get 7% employer contributions for my 5%? My employer offers salary sacrifice, so as an additional rate taxpayer, I benefit from 47% relief (the employer savings are not shared unfortunately). I do already manage to fill my S&S ISA every year and have an adequate emergency fund, so really it's a question of pension vs GIA at this point. My concern is that I may have to pay 40% tax on withdrawals on the way out, so I might be better to keep the money accessible and support an early retirement before pension access age. What is the maximum pension pot size to target at age 55? – what do you think? Many thanks and keep up the good work, Steve 15:55  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you for all you do! My mum is 63 and retired a few years ago. She has a DC pension, which she won't need to take until she's around 68 as they currently live off my dad's income. Her pension has been in the default fund, which automatically de-risks as she approaches retirement age. We only recently learned that this default fund probably isn't ideal for her circumstances, when I discovered your podcast and forwarded some episodes to her! She doesn't intend to buy an annuity, so what can she do with her pension pot at this late stage to stop it being entirely de-risked and losing value as she gets older? She plans to start taking an income from it in around 5 years time. Many thanks in advance! Kathryn 22:23  Question 4 Hi Roger and Pete, Listening to your podcast has me feeling like a money ninja - ready to conquer my finances one episode at a time! Here`s my question: My workplace pension match is 3% and I also I contribute 3% - it`s auto enrolment and a DC pension. I would like to put 15% in my retirement, but can`t find any advice on how to best do that – do I just up my contribution into my workplace pension to 15% and that`s that, or do I also open a SIPP and GIA and split between all three? What do people usually do? :D Thanks so much – Leah 27:22  Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger Been a fan of your podcast for a long time and have put some of the lessons from yourself and others into practice since I was 19, now 46 . Regularly saving and investing as much as possible by way of ISA , high interest accounts etc I have been able to build a decent portfolio over the years My question is regarding the most efficient platform for Stock and Shares ISA regarding fees. In the past I had an FA and the ongoing fees I always felt eroded investment gains and switched to Hargreaves Lansdown. I have a mix between individual shares/funds and trackers totalling £210k with Hargreaves Lansdown.  I have heard about other cheaper platforms such as AJ Bell Trading 212 and wondered if your opinion would be to move over to something cheaper with an in specie transfer. I remember well the financial crisis and Lost money with the bank ICESAVE, only saved by the then PM Gordon browns decision to reimburse. So although I am attracted , once bitten  twice shy for lesser know companies. My end goal is to scale back or stop work mid 50's For fullness of info , Pension DC £240k , Cash Isa £30k, House Paid off in Full  £550k, Trust £50k No debt , No loans, 2 kids well looked after. Keep up the good work , that regular saving and diligent invest has  worked really well over the long term ..   thanks in advance and keep up the great work. regards Blair 36:11  Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick! My question is: when should you stop making additional pension contributions over and above those matching contributions from your employer? I am 43 and have amassed £450k in defined contribution pensions. For the past few years I have been topping up my contributions to the maximum £60k. But given that I still have 15 years until I will be able to access my pension, I assume with standard growth rates I will have amassed a significant sum even without the extra contributions (the extra is about £33k). I plan to withdraw approx £50k per year (up to the high rate income tax band) so assuming a 4% withdrawal rate I would need £1.25m at age 58. Should I just stop contributing the extra now and instead make contributions to my wife's SIPP instead? She has a salary sacrifice pension via work and has headroom to pay more into that pension or a SIPP.  I am at the 62% marginal income tax/NI rate but my wife is a basic rate tax payer. I don't love the idea of paying 62% tax but only getting 28% tax relief (via salary sacrifice) if I do this! Many thanks, John

It's another varied mix of questions, with a couple on catching up after a late start, avoiding the 60% tax trap and lots more. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA30  01:03  Question 1 Hi, I'm curious if you have advice, best practice or tools to advise people who have a reasonable rental property portfolio on how to plan for retirement? I am 55, have taken 50k tax free cash, and 13k a year drawdown, approx 40k left.  I have 11 rental properties, but I am still remortgaging and buying more properties.  Currently have about 450k available to reinvest into a few more properties, and then probably stop buying. I'm really struggling to understand how much I can/should have available to spend each month, especially as I'm still reinvesting into properties.  I'm sure I should be spending way more than I am, but can't work out how best to put a retirement plan together to show how much I truly afford to spend each month. Love your content, and thanks for any advice you may be able to give. Thanks, Paul 09:49  Question 2 Hi Pete and Rog. Big fan of the podcast, keep up the good work. I am looking at ways to stay under 100k income each year to remain eligible for childcare benefits. I know if I were to make AVC into my work pension this would help to remain below that figure. I would prefer to put this money into a SIPP. My question is if I got paid the money and deposited it into a SIPP instead of my work pension will this reduce my income tax and prevent me from going over 100k and losing childcare benefits. Kind regards, Joshua 12:33  Question 3 Hello Pete and Roger, Firstly, thank you so much for such an informative podcast. I don't think I listen to a single episode without taking away something valuable! My question relates to what I should do to with money as I accumulate it for the next financial year's ISA and SIPP allowance. For context- I am 39, an NHS doctor with an NHS pension, have a paid off mortgage and have started making SIPP contributions to bring my adjusted net income below the 60% tax threshold. I am in the privileged position to be able to contribute maximum S&S ISA contributions at the beginning of each tax year and already have filled premium bonds allowance as my emergency fund. Should I put my accumulating savings in a high interest savings account until April, or am I missing out on growth each year and should I be using a GIA with a bed and ISA approach? I appreciate there may be tax on savings interest above £500 or CGT on anything over £3k gains. I just don't want to be missing out on the best approach for the next 20+ years as I hopefully continue to max out ISA and pension contributions. Thank you so much in advance and keep up the fantastic work! Paddy   16:36  Question 4 Dear Pete and Rodge, I am relatively young (36) and have started listening to your podcast relatively recently (in the last year). What I like about it best is the calming relaxed attitude that money matters are discussed in and the comforting belief that life is more important than money I think shines through. Comparison is the thief of joy I know but I find it hard to situate myself in relation to where I 'should' be financially. I stayed at university a long time (10years) and so always perceived of myself as 'in debt' and living to the brink of my means, I didn't have a credit card but I would spent all my money and save nothing. When I did eventually get a job it didn't pay much and again it was paycheck to paycheck for many years. Then came three big changes almost at once. First me and my wife had a baby daughter come along, next the company I worked for went bust and third I found your podcast! Something about the mix of these three made me sit up, take notice and want to engage with my finances where previously my head had been in the sand. I did very much feel like I was way behind the running. I managed to find a job which paid almost a third as much take home pay again and decided to set up savings for my daughter, set up an emergency fund, increase pensions contributions, open a stocks and shares ISA, all of the good stuff that you guys continually discuss. However, I still am very much of the opinion that I am way behind the game and starting late which is a shame seeing as time is such a valuable component in investing. My question to you guys is, were you in my position, where would be the first places you would look to educate yourselves on the right things to do next? I feel like I don't know what I don't know and things continually surprise me (for instance I didn't realise that having a car on finance was considered bad debt until the other day). I have this constant nagging doubt that I will be missing something because I haven't started from the beginning. I did consider going back to the start of the podcast when I found it, but Rodge wasn't even around in the first few so I didn't enjoy it as much and also felt like maybe some advice would have gone out of date? Is there a key place for me to start, non-negotiable sources I have to get to grips with in the first place that you can direct me to? What would you do? Very keen to learn your thoughts and hugely appreciative of all your efforts! Kind regards, Dan 24:16  Question 5 Hello Pete & Roger I've gained Incalculable value from listening to you so keep up the amazing work! I have a DB-DC hybrid scheme and at my target retirement age (64) my projections say I'll have £33K p.a DB income + £345K DC pot. This would give me ~ £86K TFC allowance at the pot. My plan has been not to take any TFC on the DC pot upfront and to use regular UFPLS withdrawals to reduce income tax over the long term. However, as this is a hybrid scheme, if I take both DB and DC components at the same time I can keep the DB at £33K p.a. and take £220K TFC upfront. This has made me question my slow TFC strategy as I can realise far more taking it upfront by leveraging the DB 'value' but only at that point in time. My thoughts are to then find a way to get this £220K TFC into S&S ISAs where they would be invested in the same way as in my DC pension. This would allow me to reduce income tax massively over my lifetime. This seems too good to be true! Is it? Problem will be finding a home for such large amounts of cash Options Max mine and wifes ISA allowances (£40K p.a) £10K p.a. contribution  to mine and wifes DC pots  (MPAA limited) (£20K p.a.) Any other options? Thanks, Duncan 28:46  Question 6 Greetings Pete and Roger, Speaking as a fellow Gen X gruff Northerner (…Pete!), I'd just like to express my huge gratitude to you both for rescuing me from years of financial ineptitude, misdirection and investing ignorance. I can only blame myself, but losing a parent in my late teens, then late 20s, and subsequently finding myself on the non-receiving end of 'Sideways disinheritance' (Dad remarried / mirrored will / sold our family home to pay second wife's debts….) didn't help with establishing good long-term financial habits. Thankfully, the financial clouds parted 21(ish) months ago when I discovered your excellent Youtube videos, first book, and podcast back catalogue, including a tour de force in 'tough love' re: DC pension catch up.  Since then, I've been desperately trying to catch up, with a rough target of getting a DC pot to support an UFPLS annual 3.5 - 4% withdrawal of, the magic, £16,760. Starting from a very low base, I've been using direct payments from my own Limited Company into a Vanguard SIPP, approximately £3k+ per month (yes, I'm living on lentils..) combined with transferring personal contributions of £10k from money sat in a S&S ISA, thereby getting tax relief up to my small wage of £12.5k.  Using this mechanism, I've placed £48k into the pension (mindful of the £60k limit – tax relief is added on the 10k personal, but 19% corp. tax is saved on the employer contributions) in the last financial year, but won't be able to sustain this forever. My question is as follows – provided I still make a net profit after the Employer pension contributions, am I correct in assuming I'm ok re: the 'Wholly and exclusively' HMRC test?  The employer pension payments dwarf the remaining net profit, from which I then take a small amount of dividends, and a smaller corporation tax payment is made at 19%. Also, provided I don't transgress the personal earnings limit (£12,570 for me), is that ok also re: also putting in from the employee side? Am I missing anything at all?  E.g. could you use the 'carry-forward rule' to top up previous years with employer contributions from the Limited company?  I'm assuming the answer is 'no', as dividends don't count as earnings / they don't exceed £60k, but thought I'd ask anyway! Apologies for the 'War and Peace' length question, and thanks again. Stay intentional, Bill PS: Really like the 'Catching up' section of your, also excellent, second book Pete.

In today's Q&A episode, we're answering a bunch of questions from those on the threshold of retirement, getting into the nitty-gritty of age-difference planning, DB scheme reductions and all sorts! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA29    01:04  Question 1 Hi Pete I am really enjoying listening to the podcast, thank you. They make what can sometimes be a complicated subject much easier to understand. I have a question which I have asked my SIPP provider but even they don't appear to know the answer so here goes: If someone has a SIPP valued at say £1.2m and a DB pension valued at say £300k, in order to maximise the favourable annuity provided by the DB pension, is it possible to draw the full LSA (25% tax free cash) from the SIPP? Or is there a requirement to draw the LSA on a pro rata basis from both the SIPP and the DB pension? Thank you, AJ 07:07  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks to The Meaningful Money Handbook, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide and listening to all of your podcasts, I'm now in the fortunate position to retire in three years at the age of 55. However, I have a couple of questions about building a Cash Flow Ladder: Q1 - Should I be moving my investments into the various rungs of the ladder now, or just wait until I retire? Q2 - Most of my investments are in a pension, but I also have an ISA for a bit of flexibility. Would it make sense to use the same ladder structure in both the pension and the ISA? Thanks for all your good work. Tim 11:17  Question 3 Hi guys Loving the podcast - helped me through the COVID years and it's been a staple ever since so thank you for that. My question is around investing in older age. At what point, if any, is it worth cashing out GIA investments if other sources of income such as state pension and DB pensions are more than enough to live off and I have sufficient other capital (cash isas) for those big things still ahead? I'm not planning to leave any sort of inheritance (unless I pop my clogs early !) so is there some rule of (age) thumb of when to cash out and spend investments? I sort of don't see the point of continuing to invest after a certain age and to spend the money. But I guess it's not easy switching from investing to spending. Thanks, Chris 16:33  Question 4 Hi Pete & Roger, Great show gents, always interesting and informative.  I've been an avid listener for a couple of years now and have been encouraged to write in on the off-chance that my question may have relevance to others with a similar dilemma. I fear you may feel it's too niche but here goes: I'm 59yrs old and for all intents and purposes retired, in as much as I quit my career in business 18months ago to take on the full-time parental care role of my 6yr old twins which enables my wife (15yrs my junior) to continue in the career she loves. We are fortunate that my wife is an additional higher rate tax payer (as was I before I quit), we live mortgage free in a ~£1.5m family house - all of which means I have no plans to draw a pension until my wife is also ready to retire, which despite her occasional gripe, is not likely to be until our children leave school (by which time we will be ~ 72 and 57 respectively). I have a small index-linked Public Sector DB pension that kicks in in a few months time when I hit 60 (£7k per year) and expect to get a full State Pension which should provide me with around £20k p.a. at todays values as a base income when I reach state pension age in 7 years time. I also have a Pension pot currently valued at around £1.2m, made up from £1m SIPP and £200k S&S ISA) and my wife's Pension pot is currently valued at around £520k (£400k SIPP & £120K S&S ISA).  I no longer contribute to my SIPP but my wife invests around £30k Gross in to her SIPP annually and we plan on continuing to fill both ISA allowances each year until she retires.  We are both 100% invested in equities using low-cost Global trackers to maximise their growth potential. Here's my question, I was burnt a few years back (before I started listening to podcast like yours to educate myself on how to manage my finances) when I was persuaded to join SJP and combine all my old workplace pensions into a single pot managed with them.  I even persuaded my wife to join and I opened Junior SIPPs for my twins when they were born (not their advice, my own) which we continue to pay the full amount into monthly to hopefully secure their future retirement. Long and the short of it, the more I learned about investing, the more I regretted my decision to tie myself into SJP and the more I begrudged paying their relatively high fees (for what turned out to be a lower return than much lower cost tracker options could / would have produced over that same time period). I eventually sucked up the exit fees and bailed out a few years back, taking my wife and children's accounts with me and whilst I haven't looked back, it has made me reluctant to spend money on financial advisors, given the perceived poor advice I felt I received last time. To that end, I'm currently planning on managing mine and my wife's finances through retirement without recourse to an advisor but have started to have niggling doubts as to the whether I'm being too arrogant in my own abilities. In simple terms, our aim to build a combined Pension Pot (incorporating a healthy ISA element to aid in tax-efficient drawdown, allow my wife to retire early(er) if she so desires and to cover one-off expenses that may from time to time will come up) that's large enough for us to live off comfortably based on a flexible 3-3.5% drawdown rate annually (index-linked).  The plan is also to remain 100% invested in equity throughout retirement with the exception of and maintaining, a 3-5yr cash-like buffer (invested in MM Funds / short term government bonds) from which to take our living expenses. My wife and I are not extravagant spenders and can easily cut our cloth according to circumstances, so my feeling is, with a small but decent guaranteed income that we will have as a foundation, when combined with what I hope/expect to be a sizeable joint Pension Pot and a relatively low and sustainable withdrawal rate that should see us right even through the harshest of winters (metaphorically speaking) this should provide all the income we'll need for a comfortable retirement with a good chance of leaving a fair amount left in the pot for our children at the end, without over complicating our portfolio or expensive management costs. The obvious concern I have is around IHT but even there, I feel like that's a concern to address further down the road once we know we are financially secure and when we know more about the needs of our children as they grow-up and can plan what to do with any excess cash we might have using the rules in place at that time. Sounds simple, but is it too simple?  Can you spot any obvious flaws in this plan or reasons why you think seeking professional advice would make sense that may not have considered? Thank you and keep up the good work! Regards, Aaron 27:42  Question 5 Hi both Love the podcast. I listen regularly and enjoy hearing the banter between the two of you,  as well as providing answers to thought provoking questions. As an additional rate taxpayer in Scotland, my marginal income tax rate is an eye watering 48%. So I get significant benefit from tax relief when topping up my pension. It can cost as little as £33,000 to enjoy a full input of £60,000 once I get money back on my tax return. I have been diligently stuffing my pension as much as I could afford for years now as it was always the prevailing financial advice. I'm now only a couple of years away from retiring at age 55. I am fortunate enough to be now over the old LTA (which is now of no consequence). However the tax free limit is still set at 25% of that old allowance (£268,273?). Given I am now NOT going to benefit from any further tax free money on the way out, I wonder whether continuing to contribute to my pension is a good idea anymore. My choices are either : 1) Pay into the pension and enjoy tax relief of 48% now, allow the fund to accumulate tax free over the coming years, then pay income tax on the way out at 40%. (I expect to be high rate , not additional or basic rate tax payer in retirement) 2) Take the tax hit now on income, don't contribute to pension, put the nett amount into a GIA, and pay 24% CGT on the gain on the way out. I did some numbers and while the pension wins out, it's not by much over a 10 year term assuming 5% growth. But tax rates could change, pension rules could change, and inheritance tax changes are pending. Can you compare the pros and cons of each approach to help me make a decision, or is there a third option to consider? (I hear Roger sometimes suggest a strategy of taking the tax hit now rather than later e.g better the devil you know) I hope this makes sense. Thanks, Martin   33:47  Question 6 I became an avid listener of the podcast during the first lockdown and have learned so much in the past 5 years. I really enjoy it and appreciate all the effort you put into it. My question is with regard to age gap relationships and planning for retirement. I'm 59 and am currently contributing to the NHS Pension Scheme. Part of my pension can be taken at  age 60, without deduction, and I hope to have an income of £16,000 plus a £50,000 lump sum. The rest of my pension I'll be able to take at age 67 and by the age of 63 I hope to have a further pension of £18,000 without a lump sum. In addition to this, from my career before the NHS, I have a SIPP and the current value is £400,000. 63 is the age by which I hope to have stopped working at my current level but it might be sooner. My wife is ten years younger than me and has not been working for most of her adult life. Currently she is paying into a local authority DB scheme but by the time she is 58 her pension entitlement might only be £5,000 per year, but this would need to be discounted by 40%-50% in order to take that income. By the time we are eligible I expect both of us to qualify for the full state pension. We have no other cash savings to speak of and our mortgage is due to be paid off next year, when I will be 60. My question is what advice do you have for couples who face this age gap issue. The plan is that we want to spend our retirement together while I am fit and active (well fit-ish). Once we both have the state pension, with my NHS Pension, we should have an income of £58,000 at todays values, which will be enough for our needs when I am in my late seventies, but might make me a higher rate taxpayer in requirement. Before then, we'd like to spend a bit more and we are planning to use my SIPP and my wife's DB scheme (when she is 58) to fund our pension, until it is replaced by the second NHS Pension and the state pensions. I never realised this would be so complicated to get my head around. When the mortgage is paid off, we'll have some money and should we concentrate in paying it into an ISA so that we can get an additional income without me having to pay higher rate tax, or should we set up a SIPP for my wife so that she can build up a pot of money that she can drawdown on from when she is 58. This would be with the aim of her utilising as much of her annual tax free allowance as possible. I've assumed there is no way that I can transfer part of my SIPP to her before I die. I very much hope that you can help. Best wishes, Steve    

It's another mixed-bag of questions this week, covering income protection, the local government pension scheme, avoiding the 60% tax trap and much more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/2025/10/08/listener-questions-episode-28/    01:33  Question 1 Hello Pete & Rog I like to think of you as a couple of great mates offering me life changing information in a relaxed & entertaining fashion. When putting income protection in place, how do people/planners typically frame a target? Just replacing essential income? Or also replacing  large contribution to pensions (including lost employer contributions) and S&S ISAs for long term wealth building? Thoughts on how I should frame these questions are very welcome! Many thanks, Duncan 11:27  Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger, Firstly thank you so much for all the free resources you put out there to try and help make the world more financially literate and astute. I myself started a journey of self awareness a few years ago thanks in no small part to your content. I have a question about pension recycling and what is allowable. I've read the rules on the criteria, all of which I think have to be met in order to fall foul of the rules, but am not clear on my wife and my specific situation. My wife and I met later in life and have been married for 13 years in a happy and stable relationship. I've just turned 50 but my wife is eight years older. In summary when we came together I brought earning potential but no assets (previous divorce wiped me out!) and she brought assets (house, SIPP pension built up, inheritance) but, through mutual agreement, no earning potential. Fortunately we have a healthy open discussion about money. I am an additional rate tax payer and use my £60,000 limit of pension contributions every year. We have paid off our mortgage and we have always lived using my salary for all our outgoings and live within our means with little consumer debt. I max out my ISA allowance too. Essentially I have no more tax breaks we could take advantage of by her giving me money, save for CGT or dividend allowances. After thinking about her tax implications I have encouraged my wife in the last couple of years to start to withdraw from her DC pension the maximum amount that would result in no income tax being paid (currently £16,760 of which 25% is tax free). Since we don't need the money for living expenses she tops it up with her savings to £20K and puts it in a S&S ISA so really is just moving investments from a less flexible tax free wrapper to a more flexible one while she pays no income tax. We will do this for the next ten years until she reaches state pension age and I retire myself. She'll still have a sizeable SIPP at this point as this strategy won't deplete all her pension. She still has significant other assets that attract tax as she earns more interest than the starter rate for savings allows tax free. She's fully paid up all her NI through additional contributions, has the maximum in premium bonds and I also have started to get her to put £2,880 into a new SIPP in her name every year to get 20% tax relief. My question (sorry it took so long to get here) is that now she is drawing an income of sorts from her DC pension could she recycle more than £2,880 into a SIPP? Clearly it fails on the intention front, on the >30% of the tax free cash and the fact she has actually taken tax free cash. But she's not taking in excess of £7,500 of tax free cash in a 12 month period (another one of the criteria) and I'm also not sure if her taxable DC withdrawals (on which she pays no income tax as Any advice gratefully received, Tom 15:56  Question 3 Dear Pete and the lovely Roger Weeks, Hope you are well. Thanks for all the amazing work you are doing to support people to have a better understanding of their personal finances. I have recently bought and read your new book, it's fantastic. Plus, I have bought several copies of your first book and given them to family and friends as presents. I love a practical gift haha; not sure the recipients feel the same but it's a gift that will keep giving if they follow your advice. Anyway, my question is related to a defined benefits pension. Background info, I am 49 (50 in a few weeks) and my husband is 64. From 1996 to 2000 I built up benefits within Merseyside Local Government Pension Scheme. I transferred this along with a DC pension from the voluntary sector (at the time I heard this was a good idea, I literally didn't have a clue about pensions but can't change that decision now) into my Wiltshire LGPS, which I was in from 2006 until mid 2012. After listening to your podcast on the Bill Perkins book Die With Zero, I started to run the numbers on accessing my DB pension scheme at 55, as this would enable me to pay off mortgage earlier and maybe work part time. This is a big consideration for me as my husband is almost 15 years older than me and I want to be able to spend some quality retirement/semi-retirement years with him whilst he is still in his 'go go years'. Wiltshire LGPS has a good portal and all the information states my normal retirement date is July 2040 (65). I know the government is increasing the normal pension retirement age for works pensions in 2028 to 57 years old. However, I recently read this on the LGPS website and wondered if I would have protective rights and would still be able to access my pension at 55. https://www.lgpsmember.org/your-pension/planning/taking-your-pension/ Taking your deferred pension If you left the LGPS on or after 1 April 1998 Your deferred benefits are payable in full from your Normal Pension Age in the LGPS. You do not have to take your deferred benefits at your Normal Pension Age, you can take them at any time between age 55 and 75. If you were a member of the Scheme before and after 1 April 2014, the benefits built up before 1 April 2014 will have a protected Normal Pension Age – usually age 65. The Government has announced the earliest age that you can take your deferred pension will increase from age 55 to 57 from 6 April 2028. This will not apply if you apply for your pension early because of your ill health. I have emailed Wiltshire LGPS and got a one liner back saying I can't access my pensions until 57. The limited response makes me wonder if they had considered the dates, I built up my benefits; 1996 to 2012. Or am I just clutching at straws hoping I will have protected rights when I do not. I would really appreciate your opinion on this matter, as I am only 5 years and 6 weeks (clinging on to my 40's LOL), away from 55 and this is not a long time in the world of personal finances to try to get my ducks in a row. Thank you sooooo much Liza 21:58  Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger I've been a listener for almost 2 years and love the show. It helps that you both make it entertaining and I laugh along whilst I'm walking the dog. I'm single, 49 years young and aggressively investing so I can retire early in approximately 5 or 6 years time. I earn £120Kpa, annual bonus of £24K and quarterly bonuses possible but these are erratic. They can vary so I would roughly estimate they could be an additional £20k to £50k per annum. I salary sacrifice £60K into my pension in a global index tracker by paying 24% of my monthly salary and 100% of any bonus received. Once I max out the £60K I can stop payments for the remainder of the financial year. I also pay £20k into a stocks and shares ISA effectively maxing both tax advantaged accounts out. I also add £2880 into each of my 2 children's pensions per annum and some into their JISA's. My question is, how am I best avoiding the 60% tax trap whilst also wanting to make the best use of tax advantaged accounts? I honestly wish everyone had a coup regarding this tax trap. It feels so unfair! First world problems I know. I have a fear of my annual earnings falling at £125K after my pension contributions effectively making me pay 60% tax on £25K. Any advice would be helpful and appreciated. Thank you for the advice and entertainment! Hope. 27:47  Question 5 Hi Pete & Roger, Love the podcast and have been a frequent listener for a number of years now. I'm in my early 30's and feel that as a family (Wife and 2 kids) we are in a great position to build wealth and a good future retirement due to the knowledge you have shared. I have a question with regards to Stocks & Shares ISA's and when is deemed a suitable reason to actually use the money invested in them. We have been investing monthly into global index funds as part of ISAs for a few years now without a real planned end goal aside from it being money that we know we didn't need in the immediate future and likely money that would allow us the option of an earlier retirement in the future should we choose. These ISAs are currently sitting at around £25k. We budget well, have cash savings for our short term goals plus an emergency fund in place so mentally the money in the Stocks & Shares ISA isn't really allocated. We are currently looking at extending our property and are weighing up how best to fund this. The work will cost around £50k and have equity in the house which means we could get this funded via an additional mortgage loan. The other option would be to get a smaller loan and cash in our Stocks & Shares ISA however mentally we are finding it difficult to do this as we see them as long term savings rather than something for now. Does it make sense in your opinion to use the money in the ISAs for something like this or would it be best to keep building them as we have been doing for a future early retirement as that is the primary reason I see mentioned as Stocks & Shares ISA funds eventually being used for. Thanks, Adam 33:55  Question 6 Hi, New to the site and finding it a superb resource. My question is about DB stepped pensions. I had to stop work due to ill health and am due to take a small DB pension @65. The pension has a stepped option which makes sense for me because my analysis shows taking the stepped option pays the most over 12 years which is probably all I have got. The figures: Basic pension £5000 p/a or Stepped pension £12000 for 1 year until state pension then £3600 p/a. However I have been told this increases my pension input. I have been told HMRC assume this 112k is a single contribution in a tax year and as it is a discretionary award it will be tested against the Annual Allowance. I have no other income and have been unable to make pension contributions that would allow tax relief (other than the 2.88/3.6k which I have done). It seems to me if I took the stepped pension I would have to pay a 25% tax charge on the HMRC perceived £112k pension input. i.e. £28k (112k x 25%) in a pension tax charge, double the first years stepped pension! This seems crazy, can you shed any light if this is correct? Regards, Ray

This week, we have questions about planning property purchases together as a soon-to-be-married couple, investing an inheritance, balancing an age gap between spouses and much more besides!   Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA27    00:52  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 07:50  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 4%). Would welcome your thoughts on this Gareth + Helen 12:27  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 18:53  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 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 30:28  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 33:21  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

Some great questions this week about planning for the loss of the personal allowance, investing in GIAs, persuading an aunt to write a will, and much more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA26  01:11  Question 1 Dear Roger and Pete, I enjoy listening to your show driving to work. You are both down to earth and humble with your opinions. I read a lot on finance and have been investing in stocks and share ISA since 2004 and VCTs since 2017. I have built a healthy portfolio of nearly 300k in VCT, 400k in Stocks and share ISA. I also have a healthy DC pension of roughly 700k and DB pension worth around 10k per year from age 60. I am approaching 50th birthday this year and so decided to use up some of my cash savings which is in excess of my target investment of 20k in ISA and 50 k in VCT(as unable to go over 10k in pension (due to annual allowance threshold). I know I am fortunate and I also live frugally as that's my nature and don't have too many wants. The question is if I have roughly 80k in mortgage and I have the ability to clear it, should I invest that 80k in VCT on top of my regular VCT allocation of 50k and get the 30% tax benefit(as I am unable to get much tax benefit from my pension) or clear my mortgage as the mortgage is coming up for renewal and likely interest rate will be 4-4.5%. I am torn as I understand in my head that 80 k invested is better than clearing the mortgage over a 20-30 year time frame, but as I am going to be 50 and would like to clear the mortgage and have freedom to decide if I want to enter a life of FIRE or have the ability to FIRE if I get bored. However, I have kids in school and so unlikely I will FIRE until they go to university. Sorry about the long question. Thank you, Fred. 06:25  Question 2 Hello Pete / Roger, Great podcast! I hope karma holds true and all the good you give out back comes back to you both! Question: I am a higher rate taxpayer who maximises their pension, stocks & shares ISA and other best tax sheltered places so need to also build wealth in a taxable GIA. What is best strategy for a higher rate tax payer to do this... dividend / income generating stocks or accumulating (non dividend paying) investments and pay CGT at some stage (regularly)? Thanks, appreciated as ever and hope may help others Ivana  10:43  Question 3 Hi, Nick (who I assume will read this first), Pete and Roger, I'm not sure if this is a suitable question for the podcast but here goes. How can we persuade an aged aunt that she needs to write a will, as us knowing what her wishes are is not sufficient. I have an aunt who has no children but she has said she wants her estate split equally between her 8 nieces and nephews but she refuses to make a will. The problem is that if she dies intestate there is an estranged brother who would be a beneficiary as far as we understand  and so what she wants to happen won't happen. Richard J 15:50  Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog My husband and I have been MM diehards for many years. We think It's a sad reflection of the state of nation when David Beckham gets considered for a gong before Pete does! I wanted to ask you about UK T-Bills because they are rarely (if ever) mentioned in your discussion of financial instruments. We are at retirement age I have a few DB pensions and a SIPP with Interactive Investor of approx. £300k. About ½ is sitting in Cash (including short term money market funds) because we want to draw out our 25% tax free allowance within the next 2 years and we want to minimise risk until that time arrives. I still want to diversify my low risk investments  as much as possible into bonds but my experience of bond funds is that they can also drop significantly with economic conditions whereas we want something to deliver us a (near as possible) guaranteed return. Our platform (ii) allows us to purchase bonds on the primary market however they are too long-term for us to see them through to maturity given our timescales. The platform has started to release UK T-Bills which seem typically much shorter term (3 or 6 months) and therefore appear to give us what we are looking for (guaranteed rate at a decent %) and very low risk. I know the % return is determined by the 'auction' but it currently looks to be around 4.5% on average (especially the 3-month ones). We plan to apply the bond ladder concept and buy these T-bills over the next few years on a rolling basis. As they are very short term, if rates drop we can change our strategy mid-plan so I think it also gives us a degree of flexibility too. Have we overlooked something obvious as it seems to fit our needs perfectly for the next couple of years? We are very hands-on on the platform so we don't mind getting stuck into the action process (which looks straightforward). I'd be interested if you had any additional insight / comment on T-Bills being used for this or other strategies. Regards, Gilly 22:55  Question 5 Hi Pete, Roger, Thank you for the podcast, I always look fw to listening to it on my Wednesday commute. I'm trying to figure out when it makes sense to accept paying more income tax versus increasing my pension contributions? My total compensation this tax year is estimated to be £125k meaning I will lose all of my personal allowance with an effective 60% marginal tax rate on the last £25k of my earnings. Part of my compensation is made up of RSUs and very predictable quarterly bonuses. My base salary is approx £85,000.Last year, my total compensation was £105k, with a smaller base salary. My pension contributions kept my taxable income below £100k. I do not have any children, so the loss of funded childcare is not a concern. I've been contributing 15% for the last 5 or 6 years, starting when I was earning about half what I earn now. I chose that percentage to bring earnings under the 40% threshold at one point. At the start of this tax year, I increased my pension contributions to 20% because my income increased and I had no immediate need for the extra money. My employer only matches up to 5%. I am in my mid 30s and have roughly £140,000 split between my SIPP and my current workplace pension. Both invested in 100% equities in a global fund. I am considering increasing my salary sacrifice from 20% to around 30%, to keep my taxable income below 100k to avoid the loss of personal allowance. I'm hesitant because, playing around with the compound interest calculator, starting with a £140,000 balance, contributing £1,700 per month (20% salary sacrifice), and assuming a 7.5% return (which may be slightly optimistic), I would end up with a pension pot of about £1.5 million at age 55. Which might be too much. I have £80k in my stocks and shares isa, also in global equities and I'm on track contribute 20k this tax year.  I own a flat with a mortgage, fixed at less than 2% for a couple more years with no interest in over paying. I'm worried I might end up with too much money left when I (eventually!) die, I have no kids and I am not interested in leaving a legacy. Shall I just accept the tax bill and increase my lifestyle today given I'm already saving enough that I know I will be comfortable later in life. I read die with zero a year or so ago, and it resonated with me a lot. What else is there to consider? Thank you, Mark. 29:15  Question 6 Dear Pete & Roger, I have one question on my financial planning. This year I had received extra bonus which lead to my salary at the end of tax year of £123k. I have contributed £17k to my pension using employer contributions but remaining £6k is through my company stock which was vested and I got £3.1k income after paying 47% tax. My question is as my salary threshold for this tax year crossed £100k, for this additional £6k do I need to submit self assessment and if yes, do I need to declare this £6k full stock amount completely as a separate income even though I already paid tax on it, does this mean I am also liable to pay capital gains tax on this £3.1k? I look forward to hearing from you what are my options to submit to HMRC through my self assessment so I can calculate if I owe any additional tax or HMRC will refund me some money due to £17k pension contributions? Many thanks, Vai  

It's another packed and mixed bag of questions here on Meaningful Money. Today we deal with Seafarer's pension contributions, tax-free cash on DB pension schemes and annual allowance calculations. Plus we give some thought to the evolution of the show… Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA25    01:10  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 05:06  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 11:25  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 17:02  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 20:20  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 24:00  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   30:10  Podcast and Video plans.  

This week, Pete is rested after his holiday and may even be more tanned than Roger, for once! We answer a mixed bag of questions ranging from financial planning if you're on benefits to tax-free cash recycling and lots besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA24  01:38  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 10:06  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 13:06  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 19:42  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   27:28  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 37:05  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  

This week we have a bunch of questions on the subject of inheritance tax, trusts and estate planning. Fair to say, these stretched us quite a bit and we had some surprises as we researched the answers! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA23  01:45  Question 1 Hi Pete & Rodger Love the podcast as it has loads of useful information and you make it very simple (as it can be) and clear. Love how you bounce off each other and make it easy to listen to. My question is - I have a reasonably large SIPP that will if added to my house value push me well over the 1 million level. I see a lot of press articles about how it would be good to start reducing estates that are in this position to mitigate possible IHT. My stance is that I am only 60 married and feel that - 1. It's too early to know what the new rules will look like 2. If I die before 75 and my SIPP goes to my wife she can pull whatever out tax free (currently) and gift some IHT free, as long as she lasts 7 years. 3. If my wife dies first I can do some gifting at that stage to reduce estate / possible house downsize to give large gift again with the 7 year IHT rule. Why do anything at this stage that would incur a tax charge? Your thoughts on this approach would be very much appreciated. Kind regards, Jules 07:08  Question 2 Gents, Outstanding podcast which I have listened to for years from overseas in the Middle East. The thing I like most is your consistent message about simplicity, being intentional and using low cost funds. Every season reinforces financial education and I never tire of listening to you. Thank you. I have a general question that I thought might possibly apply to other listeners regarding income drawdown ie should I use my pension pot or ISA money first? My situation is slightly complicated as my personal allowance will be used up by a DB pension. I will have a DB pension at age 55 (approx £30k) plus I have a DC pension pot plus an ISA. If I would like a retirement income (pre-tax) of say £60K (ie over the current 40% tax rate threshold), what is the most tax efficient way of drawing the income? I'm aware that in future my pension will be liable to IHT so in essence could take a 40% hit on death. Should I take all additional income from my ISA until that runs out or take money from the pension pot up to the 40% tax rate band (approx £50k) and use the ISA thereafter to save me paying 40% tax on any pension pot money? Are there any online calculators that can help as I guess it's partly just maths? Many thanks, Ian 13:48  Question 3 Dear Pete and Roger, My mum passed away over a decade ago and since then my dad has met a new partner. They live together and own their own home, split 60% (my dad), 40% (his partner). He has said a "trust" has been set up so that should one of them die, the other can live it for as long as they want before it is sold and the money passed to their children. With some research, I think he might just mean a "declaration of trust" but I am unsure. I just want to know if there is anything I should be aware in terms of inheritance tax to make sure his (and my mum's) residence nil rate bands are still in place, as I remember you saying on a previous episode of the podcast that if a house is left "in trust", it would wipe out the residents nil rate bands. The house is valued at approximately £725k and my dad's assets (including his share of the house) would be about £850k. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge, really enjoy the podcast. Steven 21:40  Question 4 Hello Pete & Roger Listening to you both has completely turned my future retirement around!  My trajectory is now very positive as I'm building a decent DC pot to supplement my DB pension several years before I qualify for state pension. That's not just great financial progress, it's the life enhancement of  4 additional  years of  retirement at a time when im most likely able to make the most of it! Complete game changer with some knowledge and commitment to build a better future. Now,  a query on the definition of income from the perspective of the gifts from surplus income exemption from IHT…….. Does regular (quarterly) UFPLS withdrawals count as income for these purposes? I know these gifts need to be from income-they can't be from capital withdrawals. However, when I take regular UFPLS withdrawals, am I taking capital withdrawals? I'm effectively selling down assets to get the UFPLS payments so really don't know if this is income or capital withdrawal for gifting purposes. Keep up the fabulous work. Thanks, Duncan 24:20  Question 5 Hi There Pete and Rodger, Long time listener, first time caller - been listening to and recommending your podcast to friends, family and colleagues for some time now! Keep up the great work! My question relates to Inheritance tax and is a question my mother has been wrestling with for some time. Long story short, my parents emigrated to south Africa from Scotland in the 80's where I was born - sadly my father past away when I was an infant. My mother remarried a South African gent and we all then came back to the England on a business secondment that never ended. My mother and adoptive father then divorced - over 20 years ago now! (Maybe not so short!) My mother has been getting her affairs in order (not due ill health - more my nagging after your fine education via the podcast). She discovered that due to the value of her house and savvy savings she may have an IHT issue. (I've told her to spend the lot!) The question she has been trying to get a straight answer about is whether she would be eligible to transfer the unused portion of my late father's basic threshold to limit her IHT exposure. Not sure this is in your wheelhouse given the complexities of foreign countries, remarriage etc. but hoped you might be able to point us in the right direction. She is hoping to get something in writing which solicitors seem to be reticent to do. Thanks again for the sterling work and look forward to many more episodes in the future! Kind regards, Craig Bell 31:18  Question 6 Hi there, thanks for a great podcast. I am a 67 yr old single woman with no children. I have 2 DB pensions + state pension, on which I live comfortably and can afford holidays etc. I have always been an investor and have £270k in stocks & shares ISAs. My house is worth  £250k. As there are no direct descendants my estate will be liable for IHT under the new rules. Obviously I'd like to avoid that or reduce the amount payable, if possible. I have nieces and nephews who are at that stage of life at which a financial helping hand would be a great benefit, so can I do that without falling foul of the taxman? I do use the £3k gift tax allowance, but (ideally would like to give away £100 k). Is there a tax efficient way of doing that? Thanks for your help. J Harvey

This week, Pete and Roger answer your questions about investing and planning for children, including trusts, life insurance and how to keep tax low. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA22  01:35  Question 1 Hi, A friend recommended your podcast in mid-Dec and have already listened to the Financial Advice Process and  Combining Pensions episodes (which were both 100% relevant) and working my way through the Q&A episodes. I have a question about share trading accounts for my children (14, 13 and 11). They are in a fortunate position where they all have JISA's (held at Hargreaves Lansdown) which I contribute to (max amount) and manage, without their knowledge. My wife and I also hold ISA's at HL as well, which we max out. I was taught to be a saver as a child, not an investor, and this is something I have learnt more about as I get older. Your recent Q&A podcasts mentioned a couple of times about looking forward and not back - there is nothing I can do about my historic saving, and wish this was invested rather than saved!! However, my children are a lot more savvy about investing, than I ever was at their age. The two oldest children play a game called Business Empire and are multi trillionaires, I'd like to teach them the benefits of investing in the real world, but that it might not be quite as easy as Business Empire! We have discussed setting up a separate trading accounts for the children, putting some money in (poss £3k / £5k) and the children then managing the investment decisions. I want to keep the accounts separate from their JISA, so they don't get visibility of their JISA. Preferably I own the account and login, and the children can then ask me the value or ask me to execute trades on their behalf, which they request. They will make all the investment decisions. I recognise that they could turn £3k / £5k into zero quite quickly! Let's hope that Business Empire teaches them something. The only way I have found to be able to set up trading accounts for the children is that I set up a Bear Trust for the children, which seems overly complicated for what I'm trying to achieve. Or I create an account at AJ Bell for one of the children in my name and find 2 other companies to set up trading accounts for the other children in my name. Or I create a SIPP for the children. So the question is, where / how can I set up a trading account for children, so they can get experience of investing and making their own investment decisions. Love the podcast, keep up the good work Thanks, Stuart 10:00  Question 2 Hello Pete and Roger, Really enjoying the podcast. The Q&A shows have been fantastic for hearing about other people's financial conundrums and thinking about how to apply those lessons in my own situation. I have some questions about children's savings that I hope will help others too. For context, my wife and I have a 12 year old daughter and 8 year old son. My son has a severe learning disability meaning he is unlikely to ever be able to manage his finances independently. I get a good salary from full time employment and pay additional rate tax, while my wife stopped working several years ago to care full time for our son. Question 1: Can you please interpret the rule: "if, in the tax year, the child gets more than £100 in interest from money given by a parent. The parent will have to pay tax on all the interest if it's above their own Personal Savings Allowance? Both children get £60 a month paid into children's cash savings accounts since they were babies - half from us and half from grandparents. Last year, my daughter got £300 of interest. My hope/assumption is that the rule applies per parent. Otherwise, given my personal savings allowance is £0 I would potentially owe £135 of tax on my daughter's earnings having only contributed a quarter of the funds over 12 years. We've now moved the bulk of her savings into a stocks and shares JISA to avoid any tax hassle, but this wouldn't be suitable for my son who will be unable to manage the account when he turns 18. Does it make a difference if the payments come from my wife's solo bank account vs our joint account? Question 2: Related to the above, where do you start with financial planning for a child with learning disabilities? What are the big things we should consider? Will savings in my son's name affect his entitlement to the benefits and care he will need as an adult? Any advice on finding and vetting a good financial advisor with expertise in this area, as I appreciate specific personal circumstances will have a big effect here? Thanks, David, in Leeds 19:52  Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger Thanks for all the content over the years, so glad I found your podcast in my late twenties so hopefully I can look back in years to come and thank you for helping set me on the right track financially. My question is a little general in the sense that I don't know what I don't know, but I'm wondering what things I may need to do differently now that my wife and I have our first child on the way (we're both 30 y/o). We currently save/invest each month in a mix of cash savings and a stocks and shares ISA, have a mortgage of which the payment is about to increase now our 5 year fix from 2020 is ending, and have decreasing life insurance (with critical illness cover). I mention these things specifically because they're the things I'm aware of that we may need to tweak when the baby arrives. We'd like to start putting money aside for them to use when they're 18 for travelling or a house or whatever they want really, I've heard of junior ISA's, is there an advantage to using these over just keeping a separate pot in our own names? Are there any other child specific options for this purpose? Do we also need to re-assess the life insurance when we have a child. It's currently set up to cover the mortgage should something happen to one of us, but with a child to think about I'd feel more comfortable knowing my wife wouldn't have the pressure of needing to work in the short-term alongside bringing up a child alone should anything happen to me (and vice-versa). Are there any other child related things we ought to be thinking about financially speaking? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and perhaps changes you made when you had children! Liam 27:15  Question 4 Hi both, thanks for the great content and your dulcet tones. Please can I ask two quick question? Q1: I've paid £2880 into my child's (2y.o) Junior SIPP, grossed up to £3600 through tax relief. I am a higher rate tax payer, can I claim the extra 20% tax relief, even though it's not my private pension? If yes, is this just via my self assessment? Q2: if this £2880 was transferred, via bank transfer, from my parent (I.e. grandparent of my child) to me, then to my child, can it count as gift from the grandparent straight to my child? Or does it count as 2 gifts, a gift from my parent to me, then another gift from me to my child, for IHT purposes. Loving your work, Best wishes, Phil 30:10  Question 5 Hello gents. Firstly, a huge thank you for everything you (all!) do there at Meaningful Money.  I'm a LONG time listener, and the help and support I've gleaned from this excellent podcast over the years has been invaluable!  Keep up the great work! My question: As the parent of a disabled adult (18 years old), do you have any suggestions/recommendations for the things that we should be thinking about and putting in to place when legacy planning.  My better half and I are married, with mirror Wills in place to leave to each other, or to both children equally in the event we both die (2nd child is currently 16).  However, we are aware that should our disabled 18 year old inherit a pretty reasonable sized share of our estate, this would impact on the support and benefits that they have recently been awarded.  This must be a fairly common situation, but we haven't been able to find much clear guidance, so we're hoping you can suggest what the best way(s) to deal with this situation might be so that we know where to look? We did have a brief look in to trusts, but they seem a bit of a minefield, and we don't want to burden anyone else with what appears can become a sizable task to administer. Just to also mention, we are hoping that we will be able to get LPA's in place for our disabled child (otherwise apply for deputyship, however LPA is the preference if possible as seems the much easier option…), however we're hoping to be able to manage until our youngest reaches 18, so that they can also be added as an Attorney(/Deputy), for longevity and diversification, rather than having to do it all again in a couple of years.  Not sure how relevant that is, but added just in case… Many thanks again. Peter. 36:16  Question 6 Hello Pete and Roger, My question for you is how best to invest a lump sum that you intend to drawn down over a period of time? I will soon be in the fortunate position to be gifted a significant lump sum which I intend to use to pay school and university fees for the next 15 years that my children will be in full time education. I could just keep it in cash and a draw it down over time but I would like to invest it to generate a higher return and hopefully still have some left over at the end. How should I go about investing this money? I have a high risk tolerance but 100% equity doesn't seem sensible if I am drawing down regular amounts. Also I am an additional rate taxpayer so should I be considering asking for the money to be gifted directly to my children in a bare trust rather than to me? Keep up the fantastic work. Best regards, George

This week, we're covering redundancy sacrifice into a pension, cash ISA allowance reductions, evening up finances between spouses and much more - it's another MM Q&A! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA21    00:55  Question 1 Dear Pete & Roger, My question regards Redundancy Sacrifice into a personal pension (SIPP). In tax year 2024/25, I had "relevant UK earnings" of £44,000. I contributed the full amount (inclusive of tax relief) to my SIPP; as a Personal Contribution this used up 100% of my Annual Allowance. In addition, I received a £20,000 tax-free lump sum Redundancy Payment. Because it was below £30,000, it did not constitute "relevant UK earnings", as such, I requested it be paid directly into my SIPP via "Redundancy Sacrifice". (My understanding is that it would be treated as an Employer Contribution, not benefit from tax relief and, therefore, not limited by my Annual Allowance - please correct me if wrong). However, due to an administrative error, it was paid to me. Subsequently, I transferred it to my pension provider, together with the necessary paperwork (completed Employer Contribution form and Settlement Agreement detailing the source of funds). My pension provider has rejected the transfer designating it as a Personal Contribution because it was made from my personal bank account. Q. Does HMRC require Redundancy Payments be paid from business bank accounts? My understanding is that the rules are different from normal Salary / Bonus Sacrifice. (Disclaimer: I understand that in answering my question you are not providing financial advice). Kind regards, Ross 07:00  Question 2 Hi, There's increasing headlines that Rachel Reeves might be planning reforms to reduce cash ISA allowances from 20k to 4k. My understanding is that this will only affect new ISA's so for me and my wife we can continue to invest 20k per year maximum. Is this assumption correct? My main question though is planning for my kids. If they don't yet have any ISA open - what is the best way to start them off to hold onto the 20k annual allowance for potentially accessing cash They both have money put away for when they're 18 but our plan was to encourage them use some of this for a LISA then put some away in the best cash ISA available for short term requirements. Eldest son will be 18 in 1year whilst youngest is 18 in just over 3yrs. Thanks for considering my question. Stuart 11:43  Question 3 Hi Pete, I found you from the podcast you did with Damien on Making Money. I really enjoyed listing to your view on money. My question is: I'm a stay at home Mum (age 42) to my children (12 & 14). I have 20 years NI contributions but have no plans to restart work. I aim to pay volunteer contributions to help build up to a full state pension. I do not have any pension myself. My husband is a 40% tax payer and has been paying into his pension for the past 20 years. We want to start saving extra to either have my own pension pot (perhaps save in a S&S isa for the next 20-25yrs) or would we be better off putting more money into my husbands pension? We're happy to share the pot as it were. Or is there another option I haven't thought about? Many thanks, Louise 15:13  Question 4 Hi both, Loving the podcast, only recently came across it but have been an avid watcher of Pete's YouTube videos for years now. I am 33 and a higher rate tax payer. I have spent the last 3 years getting my house in order with my finances and wanted to get your thoughts on what else you think I could be doing to maximise my tax efficient savings. I contribute £1600 to my stocks and shares ISA each month, which I have fortunately been able to max out for the past two years (currently valued at £47k). I have £40k tied up in premium bonds, this is mainly to avoid going over my PSA allowance and also where I am keeping money for a house deposit that I am planning to use in the next 2/3 years. I have combined my workplace pensions and contribute 5% through salary sacrifice, with my employer paying in 7%. The pot currently sits at £31k (roughly adding £750 per month), but I feel I could be adding to this more aggressively whilst I don't have commitments of a mortgage or children. Also if I wanted to consider retiring at 55, realistically how much more do you think I will have to contribute to my pension each month? Cheers Ryan 19:10  Question 5 Hi Pete & Roger, Firstly, thank you for all of your fantastic work over the years.  It has completely transformed my financial life. I've been investigating trusts and have discovered what a wonderful mind-boggling world they are.  I have a number of questions in relation to discretionary trusts and hope that this doesn't cause other listeners to glaze over. Question 1: let's assume you make an initial transfer into a trust, for say £325k.  If you then survive 7 years, is the full nil-rate band available to your beneficiaries on death (assuming no other PETs during that time)? Question 2: If the trust receives dividends from investments (for example from a Vanguard accumulation fund) and these dividends are reinvested, are the dividends taxed at the appropriate rate, or do they dodge the tax bullet as they are reinvested? Question 3: Is it sensible to carry out tax harvesting every year to take advantage of the CGT tax exempt amount (even if it is only currently £1,500)? I have noted that I should obtain advice if I am to go down the trust road, I just wanted to clarify my understanding first as they seem wonderfully tax-inefficient, despite being peddled on many websites as a fantastic way to avoid IHT. Having done my research, they seem to be a tool of last resort for IHT purposes unless you have a specific reason to use them. Thanks, James. 23:43  Question 6 Dear Pete and Roger, I have listened to the podcast for many years and have recommended it to many over the years. I remember working in general practice over 5 years ago and singing its praises to numerous patients who felt stuck financially. Thank you. My question is more of a request/suggestion for a whole episode, sorry! I moved from being a GP to working in Occupational Health and now I joint own a small OH company based in Plymouth. In the South West we have a lot of manufacturing and this is the core of our client base. This means I am often based in factories seeing people who are on minimum wage and working nights or antisocial hours. Many have very poor education and minimum in way of social support. Although I think your podcast is outstanding, I do suspect its uptake is mainly the motivated middle, even if that isn't the aim. I think there is real need for an episode aimed at motivating, informing and encouraging the people who are truly living pay check to pay check and who may feel there is no escape. Many of the workers I see smoke and go home every day and have 3-4 "tins" to unwind after work. Often on their breaks they reach for a can of "Monster" and a chocolate bar or bag of crisps. Despite, in my opinion, wasting money on energy drinks they often tell me they can't afford prescriptions or have to work every hour of over time available in order to buy children Christmas gifts. It really upsets me how low socioeconomic status has such an impact on so many negative health markers. The National Institute for Health and Care Research found that people living in the most deprived areas may acquire multiple health conditions 10-15years earlier than those in the most affluent. The ONS states that men living in most deprived areas only have 52 years of "generally good health", vs 70 yrs of "generally good health" for those in the least deprived areas. This impacts children too, with "The Week" recently sharing a stat that in the most deprived areas 30% of children leaving primary school are obese vs Many I try to give advice to don't see the point in putting a few quid into a savings account because they can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. They just see working long hours until they get to 67, by which point they accept their health will probably be poor. Lots seem to think its normal by retirement age to just want to sit on the sofa and watch grandkids play football because they are too short of breath to play with them. I want them to be playing football with the grandkids/great grandkids in their 60s and 70s. I want them to realise that saving £2 a day by not buying the energy drink or more by stopping the cigarettes or booze, will add up, compound and could mean they have a deposit for their own flat in 10 years or enough to allow them choices over hours worked in their 60s. With such good access to a large group of people who are living at the lower end of the deprivation scale I feel that I have a responsibility to try and sow the seeds of change, for those who want it. I am therefore putting together some simple free educational resources to share with these employees, via their employers on healthy choices, simple lifestyle measures etc. Financial stability, health and wellbeing are closely interlinked. I am not qualified to give financial guidance and feel my approach of telling everyone to stop wasting money on expensive drinks, cigarettes and booze and instead to invest that money in a globally diversified, passive tracker is condescending, preachy and misses the mark. A doctor telling someone on the breadline that by saving £10 a week, compounding over a 50-year career they could end up with £300,000 giving them huge life options, doesn't cut the mustard. The message needs to be delivered by someone with financial acumen and a way with words…… Do you think at some point in the future you could put your thoughts to how people could use simple techniques to break out of the cycle of living pay check to pay check? I would love to be able to share an episode targeted at this population either by directing people to the podcast or by convincing employers to play it to employees at lunch breaks. Putting together one 20minute informative, evidence-based session takes me about 5-10 hours. So, I am in awe of the huge amount of time and personal sacrifice you must put into the podcast. I don't know how you have managed it for so long, but I am sure it has positively impacted many people's lives. Thanks again. Jonny

It's another full show of questions, ranging from assumed growth rates for investments, to Save As You Earn schemes to retirement cash buffers, and much more besides!   Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA20    01:21  Question 1 Hi to you both. Absolutely love the podcast and Pete's book. The information in both has made a huge difference to my understanding of what to do with my finances. My question is about expected returns when investing in equities. If often hear people use 5% growth as a estimate to use when predicting possible future values of an investment. But from what I can see (and I could be wrong!) The global stock market has averaged around 8-9% over the last 20 years. This obviously makes a huge difference to the total expected value when compared to 5%. I currently have a DB scheme pension through the fire service, so I do my 'extra' investing through a S+S ISA global index fund with 100% equities which has averaged 8.5% over the last 8 years. I am happy with a higher risk level as I have the DB pension from the Fire Service. Am I missing something with my numbers? Thanks again for all the great information. I have recommended you to many of my friends. Kind Regards James W 08:22  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you so much for your contribution to making the world a better place. Your passion for sharing and educating everyone is inspiring. I have a question about our Save As You Earn Scheme maturing this year. I'm lucky enough that (at the current price) I'll get a total return of > £20k at maturity in November. Not counting my chickens, but I'd like to plan the most tax efficient way of receiving these funds. The SAYE provider offers a flexible ISA to receive the shares. Could I transfer enough shares for £20k into the ISA, sell and withdraw enough cash to make space to then transfer the rest of the shares to avoid any CGT? Alternatively, could I exercise the option in March and partially transfer into an ISA across the tax year end? Are there any other mechanisms I could use to minimise tax? Thank you again for all of your hard work. Priten 15:01  Question 3 Hi Team Long time listener and YouTube viewer, heck I even watched a video when Pete wore a tie! Your podcasts have made me change my pension default funds, increase my salary sacrifice (really affects take home pay a lot less than people think!) and generally have confidence in my future. Thank you! Question: When I do finally decide to retire I'm planning a 1-2 year cash buffer for any market disasters that may happen.  But when would you say to use this?  The markets always move up and down a bit but should I use the cash buffer if they drop 3%, 5%, 10%?  And then if I've taken 1 years worth of income from the buffer how do I rebuild the buffer?  For example I'm targeting a pension drawdown of around £45K per year to keep below 40% tax.  But if I've just used up the buffer then I'll be taxed 40% on taking out extra to rebuild it, so why bother as any downturn is very likely to be smaller than 40%!  Wouldn't it just make sense to take out less in a downturn than get taxed 40% to rebuild a buffer? Thanks for all the podcasts! Simon Doig Halifax (but was in Cornwall!) 213:33  Question 4 Hi guys Podcast question for you please: "I've been a listener for ages, and so I have started to do the good things you suggest. I had a workplace pension (local gov DB) but now I have AVC's, a SIPP, and an S&S ISA, as well as a savings account and life insurance/ critical illness cover. Thank you. I am making contributions monthly to my pension and ISA but the gist of my question is, is it worth it if I'm only saving small amounts? This is the most I feel I can save without compromising my lifestyle, but it feels small. I'm 31 and so I'm prioritizing available cash in savings accounts for things like, new cars, boiler breakdowns and hopefully having a baby. I'm saving £80 a month into my ISA & £60 a month into my pension. Occasionally I did in extra bits when I feel I can afford it. Is this worth it, is it enough? Is it not worth bothering if I'm not saving in bigger chunks? Thanks so much - from Bianca 25:33  Question 5 Hi Pete & Roger, I have been listening to your podcast for some time and love your chat and sensible and pragmatic "advice" especially when walking my dog. I feel I'm quite knowledgeable but always pick up pearls of wisdom from you both. My wife and I have over £300k in GIAs having maximised our ISAs since around 2009. This is all in Scottish Mortgage (I'm sure you appreciate any withdrawals are 80% gains as we bought around £2). We sold all our Scottish Mortgage in ISAs near the £15 peak which was lucky and allows us to sleep at night as we are more diversified- mainly vanguard index funds.  You have mentioned taking the CGT hit each year and moving money to ISAs however I'm not convinced that would make sense for us. Assuming we sold around £24k each of our Scottish Mortgage GIA each year that would give us around £20k each to move into our ISAs however we would pay around £4k each in tax (24% CGT rate). My thinking is that it will take a long time to make that up via better tax treatment in an ISA. So far my plan is to hang on until we are retired and can pay a lower rate of CGT on any gains plus there is a chance a future Government (not one I would vote for myself) may increase the £3k tax free allowance. Also if we left it all in the GIA as inheritance to our daughter (as we may not need it ourselves) would she potentially pay IHT on it and no CGT would ever be paid? We are 54 and hope to retire by 56. Many thanks. Paul 32:05  Question 6 Hello Pete & Roger Fabulous podcast and I binged Pete's new book in one sitting-the best investment I'm ever going to make! I love the concept of the cashflow ladder. I'm in my early 50's and in the University hybrid pension scheme with a great DB component and a decent projected DC pot. I can select appropriate funds for each timeline tranche within my providers system. When I come to access the DC component (limited to up to 4x UFPLS per year only-no FAD), the provider doesn't allow the draw from each pot independently so it's impossible take money only from the fund I'm targeting at that point. The fees in the current scheme are subsidised to 0% by the scheme. What kind of broad principles should someone weigh up when thinking about the flexibility advantage vs the cost of transfer to get that flexibility? Thanks, Duncan

Today I'm joined by my friend Lee Jackson who came to me with a thorny financial/legal problem a few months ago pertaining to Family Protection Trusts. I was able to help him answer one specific question, but the issue he faced is shared by tens of thousands of other people up and down the UK. So, I asked him to come on to the show to discuss it, just in case it would help other in a similar situation. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session583 

I'm delighted to welcome back repeat guest, and one of the worlds leading lights in the field of behavioural finance - Dr Daniel Crosby. Daniel has a new book out, which I highly recommend, called The Soul of Wealth, and having read and enjoyed it, I asked Daniel to come and talk about it. It's a deeply practical book - not just theory or stats - and today I'm going to chat to Daniel to walk us through just a few of the concepts he covers. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session582 Book: The Soul Of Wealth - Amazon *Affiliate  Formats: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook

It's another mixed bag of your questions, taking everything from investing in offshore funds to evening up pension funds between spouses and lots more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA19  00:57  Question 1 Hello Pete & Roger I am a regular listener to you show, love it and keep up the good work. My question is… I have a full 6 months emergency fund, I have no credit card debt or personal loans, I have a mortgage and I have just started investing 5% of my wages every time I get paid into the Vanguard all world tracker fund (keeping it simple) I have a new car every 4 years on PCP (so I basically lease it) as I always chop in for a new car and never pay the balloon payment at the end, this PCP is at 8%. I would like to hear your thoughts on weather investing is still okay to do along side this, the reason for having a new car is that I use it until the warranty expires and then change due to rising repair costs and hassle free motoring. I have brought older cars outright in the past and always ended up costing me more in repairs over the years. I am planning on leasing my cars for the permanent future so if I do not start investing now I will never have a chance to invest, and I do not see leasing at car as a loan as such, more of a permanent lease. Feel free to shorten my message to suit and excited to hear your thoughts, all the best. Adam 10:10  Question 2 Hello Pete and Rog! First of all, a huge thank you for all the valuable content you share – I really appreciate it! Keep up the fantastic work!  I had a quick question that's a bit technical (apologies in advance!), but I was wondering if you might be able to cover the topic of UK-registered funds when investing in a GIA on the podcast? I've heard that non-UK registered funds are taxed at the income tax rate rather than the capital gains tax rate. Is the best approach to check the ISIN against the list of UK-registered funds, even if the investment is made through a non-UK exchange (e.g., Amsterdam or Ireland)? Also, when a new client comes to you with non-UK registered funds, how do you typically address this issue? Thanks again for all that you do – really appreciate it!  Best, your #1 Fan! 14:00  Question 3 Hi Pete / Roger Thank you for your great work with your Q&As. Your cashflow ladder idea is great advice but when I look at graphs of cautious, balanced, growth funds they all go up and down at the same time. Over the last 10 yrs every time there has been a big market fall all the funds I looked at (at all risk levels) recovered with 32 months max. If 2-3 years cash is held on the 1st rung of the ladder why shouldn't I hold the rest in growth/agg funds? The cash rung will ride out the fall / recovery so I may as well put my money in a fund with the most growth potential? What am I missing? Stephen 19:57  Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks for all you do. Your Podcasts and YouTube content has helped me get to retirement early. I have a number of investments in my Pension which are there to continue to grow hopefully over time. I have a well diversified portfolio mainly using trackers. I want to try to drop a particular individual investment from my portfolio that forms part of the Magnificent Seven, and is therefore part of a lot of the trackers I have. Unless I buy the FTSE Global index as individual shares can you see a way I cannot be in this one companies shares? Not sure there is an answer. Much appreciated, Chris 24:11  Question 5 Hello Love your podcast, I thought I was fairly clued up on pensions/finances but I have learnt so much more from your podcast. I recommend it to everyone! Especially my husband, who has so far failed to do so, he leaves the finances to me (which is probably why we are in this position as he has not addressed his pension). My question is: Our pension pots are very unequal, we're both 47.  I have 2 DB pots (combined are due to pay out circa 14k from age 65). I am also on track to have around 750k in a private pension by the time I am 57, and am planning to retire at this point.  My husband currently only has around 18k in a private pension, and is retraining as a teacher so he will only have a small DB pension not accessible until 68. He will therefore need to continue working for a few years after I retire.  I will need around a 2k a month in retirement, but I am thinking I can take up to £67k per year from my pension (so to remain in the 20% tax band). Use 24k for myself, and then we pay the remaining 43k into husbands private pension (or however much his earnings allow). If he is a higher rate tax payer by then, he would gain a 40% uplift on this or if not he will still get the 20% uplift back so we aren't losing out.  One of the main reasons for doing it would be to even the pensions out so that we can both withdraw tax efficiently in future, rather than me having to withdraw from my pension for both of us and so paying more tax. It seems like a no brainer but please let me know if I have missed something really obvious. Thanks in advance! Sarah 29:02  Question 6 Hello gents, If you pay a charity and claim gift aid within a given tax year, does that take your income down when calculating benefit calculations? E.g. if I earn £101k p/a and I give £2k to charity and (gift aid it), does that effectively bring my income below the £100k threshold for child government support like free childcare hours? Thanks, David

We've managed to cobble together another themed Q&A episode, this week dealing with questions around Inheritance Tax, Trusts and Care planning. Lots for Roger and Pete to get stuck into! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA18  00:48  Question 1 Hi Pete, Hi Rog, Thanks for your ongoing work on the Podcast, I've been listening for many years and have learned a great deal from you both. Keep up the good work! My question is in relation to trusts. My parents, both aged 70, have recently got round to updating their wills, putting POA in place for finance and health and have been in discussion with a solicitor about putting a trust in place, primarily to safeguard their assets from being used up in the event of them having to go into care in later life. At present I believe their estate to be approximately £600,000 including their house which I would imagine is worth approximately £250,000. The rest is made up of savings. I don't believe their estate would be subject to inheritance tax so I don't believe this is the reason for setting up a trust. I have listened back to your previous episodes on trusts but I was wondering, firstly whether much has changed since these podcasts in relation to the general setting up and management of a trust? Secondly I wondered if you could explain the negatives to my parents putting the majority of their assets into trust, namely are there any ongoing fees, can my parents take assets out of the trust should they need to and what are the tax implications for the beneficiaries when my parents pass away? Would any of these things change in the period where only one of them has passed away? I appreciate this is a huge topic and you may not be able to address all of these queries but it appears they have been advised of the positive parts of this process but I would like to ensure we are aware of the potential pitfalls. Thanks once again! Jon 11:10  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Still loving the show and I'm enjoying the current variation in format - keep up the fantastic work! My question relates to estate planning: My wife and I own our home (mortgage free) 50/50 as tenants in common. We have up-to-date wills, LPAs, expressions of wishes and "Dead Files" set up. Each half of the house will be left to our daughter as and when, with the appropriate "right to reside" wording in place for the remaining partner. We are both in our late fifties, so hopefully not needed for many years yet. The IHT side is fine as it's just numbers - allowances and values etc. What I can't quite get my head around is any potential CGT liability for our daughter following the second death. Not so much for the financial impact, as she is already comfortable in her own right (with my and - via the podcast - your encouragement over the years) and will inherit further monies when we pass, but more from a planning perspective. I have looked online and disappeared down several rabbit holes, but from what I can gather although she inherits half the house on the first death, essentially because the surviving partner continues to live in it and therefore any actual money can't be realised, CGT is only calculated from the date of the second death (assuming she sells the house at that point). Is this correct, or will her CGT liability on half of the value start on the first death and be based on (half of) the house valuation at that time, as obtained for that probate? Maybe I'm taking the planning a little too far, but I like to be prepared. These circumstances will be more and more relevant to families over time, I'm sure. Your usual wisdom and common-sense views would be very much appreciated (even if the answer is "...it depends!"). Thank you again for the information and humour the two of you provide each week - long may you continue! Best wishes, Glen 16:11  Question 3 Hi guys Thank you both for a great podcast, big shout-out to Rog because he gets missed off sometimes in these testimonials – genuinely wish I had found this podcast years ago. Have made so many past mistakes but now correcting them one by one! I have a question about care costs which I hope you could answer. My mum is suffering from late stage dementia and my dad who is her 24/7 carer is struggling to cope (they are both 80yo). I have PoA for my mum and am trying to involve myself more in her care plan going forwards. Care (in the home initially) is going to be required and I was wondering how this is paid for. My parents worked hard and have reasonably large savings and investments in both their individual names and in joint names and the extent of these means they would have to pay for care. What we are not clear on is whether money or investments in my mum's name would ONLY be used to pay for her care or whether jointly held money or investments would be used or whether anything in my father's name would also be used to pay for care? I've tried to find the answer to this online but cannot find a clear answer so remain confused! Also are there things that we should be doing to manage this better – end of life planning, trusts etc etc? My dad worked incredibly hard to provide something to his grandchildren and he is actively putting off getting help and harming himself for fear that he won't be able to pass something down to his grandchildren – this is incredibly sad and feels cruel. Any advice that you could give would be much appreciated. Keep up the great work David R 23:30  Question 4 Hello Pete & Roger, Firstly I want to say thank you so much for all the work you do to teach all us mere mortals how to navigate the world of personal finance. I have a question: Everyone talks about merging finances with a partner and then having children. I am in my mid 40s and my children are early 20s. I have a partner and I hope to move in with him one day (he has no children) I might move in with one of mine. How do I protect what I currently have and ensure that goes to my boys? He has considerably more than I do and I don't expect him to support or pass anything on to my boys. I understand I don't want to do a mirror will but would I do a "prenup"? We aren't getting married. Is there a cut off point "moving in day" where everything after that is split 50/50 with the new partners? Or am I over thinking this? I have been through one divorce and don't want to again but I do want to protect what is mine for the sake of my boys. Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you and keep up the AMAZING work. Kind regards, Carla. 28:56  Question 5 Hi Pete, Roger, Nick, Ruth and everyone else in your fantastic team. I have a few questions around a niche scenario that I can't find answers to online. I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction. My parents-in-law were convinced to transfer their home into an asset protection trust in the past before I met them (more than 10 years ago, as I think that's relevant). They were told it would help avoid having to pay care costs. They now know this was never going to be suitable for them, and are looking to mitigate the damage. I suspect the names McLures Solicitors, Jones Whyte, Andrey Robertson and Cynthia Duff might be depressingly familiar to you. The ownership of the house was changed to tenants in common, and each of them transferred their half of the house to a separate trust. So there was the Mr M trust and the Mrs M trust. The trusts were set up such that Mr M and 2 financial advisers were the trustees of the Mr M trust; Mrs M and the 2 financial advisers were the trustees of the Mrs M trust. The trust deed gave the settlors the right to add or remove trustees during their lives. When I started to look at this, I felt there were 3 stages to resolve this: 1. Change the trustees to a more sensible arrangement. 2. Update the land registry with the correct trustees. 3. Decide whether to end the trusts. I knew the first 2 steps were going to need a solicitor, who my parents-in-law found. However, the first 2 stages have now been resolved. So, they're now looking at the final stage - deciding whether to end the trusts. It's clear their current solicitor isn't going to be right for them for this part. I think the disadvantages to leaving the trusts in place are: - If either of them need care in the future, I don't think the trusts will make any difference in the local authority's means assessment. - The property is likely unmortgageable if they should need any kind of equity release in the future, for example to pay for care. - Neither trust has been registered with HMRC due to the original solicitors ceasing trading. There might therefore be a tax charge/penalty charge, and an obligation to file periodic tax returns for the trusts. Their preference is to wind up the trusts, but are there any pros to leaving them in place? And are there any cons I haven't thought of already? Knowing that "should" is a dirty word in financial advice, I'm trying to find out whether ending the trusts might have any drawbacks or tax liability. My understanding is that they each transferred their share of the property to the trust when the house was valued at £X. If the trusts are ended, they'll receive the property back at a value of £Y. My questions are: - Is there any tax liability, based on the difference in property value between £X and £Y? - Could they be entitled to any tax reliefs based on their circumstances? - Are there any other drawbacks you can think of that we might not have considered? I know you can only give general information and guidance, but I couldn't work out an answer to this myself. I couldn't even work out which type of professional they should speak to - a solicitor, accountant or financial adviser. I'd be really grateful if you could point us in the direction to get some personalised help. Many thanks, Mathew 33:55  Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger, As a long-time listener and viewer of your channel, I appreciate your insights on keeping costs low, investing in global funds, ensuring tax efficiency, and the benefits of long-term investing. My wife and I have recently become a grand-aunt and grand-uncle. Rather than giving the usual presents, we'd like to do something more practical by investing regularly (£100/month) for our grandniece—after all, there's no better time to start long-term investing than from birth. Likewise, we're comfortable investing 100% in equities, given the long time horizon. On the surface, I suspect you'd recommend a Junior SIPP or a Junior ISA. However, the challenge is that she (and her parents) are French citizens, living in France and paying taxes there. While I appreciate that you focus on UK matters, are you able to provide any pointers on how we could invest in a low-cost global fund for her under these circumstances? Many thanks for your time and any guidance you can offer. John

A bit of a themed Q&A this week, with some great questions from folks in their 30's. We cover share save schemes at work, large inheritances and retirement planning - yes, even in your 30's! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA17  01:29  Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, First of all I wanted to say I'm a new but avid listener to the MM Podcast, I'm so glad I found it while I'm still (relatively) young,  I'm 39 and after years of making bad financial decisions the MM podcast has turned my attitude to money/investing and pensions on its head. I now relish the challenge of taking care of my finances rather than what felt like years of fighting against it. I wanted to ask a question regarding selling Investments vs taking a short term loan. I work for a large pharmaceutical company and as a perk of being an employee I pay into 2 share schemes through work. The one I'm thinking of selling is a plan whereby I'm limited to a certain amount a month I can pay in and whatever I pay in is matched by my employer, so half the shares in this scheme are free. Needles to say I pay the maximum into this to benefit from the BOGOF offer. I've recently had a large unexpected bill that even my emergency fund can't cover! And I wanted to know if selling the shares would be advisable over getting a 12 month loan? If I sell the shares the money will be paid to me through my next pay so it will be subject to tax and NI contributions, after a bit of number crunching I've worked out that what I'll pay back on the loan is a lot less than the tax and NI I'll pay on the shares, however it does mean being in debt for 12 months, but I'm reluctant to sell the shares as I'd earmarked it as a supplement to my pension. If this was cash sitting in an account then it'd be a no brainer but I'm sure that I've heard people advise against selling investments. Please could you help and offer some advice as I'm really not sure what's best as I do what to avoid debt too. Thanks in advance, Anthony 05:30  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger Thank you so much for the podcast and content you put out - for free! - it's incredibly generous and has helped thousands of people including myself. I appreciate this is not a typical situation, but I am 30 years old and am due to inherit £500,000 (yes, really, though due to unhappy circumstances). Up until now (in no small part due to your content!) I've been confident managing my finances. I am single, and am just approaching becoming a higher-rate tax-payer as an NHS doctor. It is a stable job with a great pension and guaranteed pay progression. I have a £200,000 mortgage on my house which I am comfortably paying out of my salary. I also have a £10,000 cash emergency fund in place, and no other debt apart from my student loan. Due to the NHS pension (and the complexity of avoiding annual allowance breaches with a SIPP alongside a DB pension), I have favoured directing all my personal savings into my stocks and shares ISA rather than a SIPP, all in a 100% equities passive global tracker (currently about £60,000). I don't know what to do with this inheritance. I will put the first £50,000 in Premium Bonds. After that, I like the simplicity of £20,000 per year into the stocks and shares ISA in a passive global tracker. But in the short-term this still leaves a vast sum in cash. Even if I paid off the mortgage (which I'm unsure about, as I've had plans to spend on house renovations fairly soon), there is still a vast amount of cash left unsheltered. (First-world problems, granted.) I could pay for advice, but I would rather self-manage as I feel I don't want to do anything too complicated if someone could explain a simple strategy using a GIA. Option 1: GIA Is it easy to calculate the dividends on an accumulation global tracker fund? Should I ditch the simplicity of global trackers to find dividend-paying funds/investment trusts to try and pay less tax?  Option 2: Cash Option 3: Holding gilts to maturity Have I missed anything? Does it really matter whether I do Option 1 or 2 in the grand scheme of things? Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Kind regards, James 14:30  Question 3 Hi Pete (and Roge) Thanks for all you have done and continue to do on the podcast. I've now read both your books which I would warmly recommend to anyone. I've tried to keep this brief but tricky not missing out key details! My wife and I are in our mid 30s and have SIPPs invested in passive, 100% global equity, accumulation funds. With a reasonable time horizon, and stomach for volatility, we're very happy with this approach. We would like the option to retire as soon as we reach the Normal Pension Age minus 10years which we assume will be 60 by then if we assume the state pension age will rise to 70. Given this background, how do I pivot away from 100% equities to a cash flow ladder? My current thinking is to do the following: - 10 year prior to retirement buy a Gilt with a 10 year maturity - do this for following years working my way up the cashflow ladder - I would need to plan for what I would do if the market was down at any point during this period - perhaps something like - if down by >10% in a given year only sell enough equities to cover minimum expenses for the applicable year and hope for a recovery. This would seem like a reasonable hedge between being prepared and missing out on a recovery. Does this sound like a reasonable approach? What other approaches could I consider? I appreciate I wouldn't be acting upon this question til about 2039, ahead of retiring in 2049, but I guess that is a testament to how you have helped me with my financial planning. If you think this is too far out for planning when do you think I should revisit it? Thanks, Dave 21:02  Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, I've been a faithful listener for some time and yours is one of the best financial podcasts in the UK. Thank you for all your hard work. I've recently read Pete's new book. Gosh, it was not a light read but it was extremely valuable to me. My question is whether it is worth stopping contributions to the NHS pension if the money is needed more now rather than in retirement. Me (34yo) and my husband (43yo) are in an incredibly privileged position where we have 800k pounds in our ISAs (majority) and SIPPs  and no debt. I love my NHS job and have no plans to leave it any time soon.  My husband couldn't care less for his work. We figured we would like him to retire soon so we can enjoy benefits of having a stay at home dad at home for our child. The problem is, we cannot live off my salary alone and will have to supplement it. I calculated that if he retired in 3 years we would have 3 years worth of cash to cover the shortfall, 5-6 if I have more take home pay due to not contributing to pension. Basically leaving the NHS pension would give us 2 extra years of not having to draw from our investments but would cost circa 1k of guaranteed annual income in retirement for every year of missed contributions, plus benefits - death in service etc. I just wonder if it is worth it for potential returns which are obviously not guaranteed.  Based on historical returns, allowing our investments to grow for 8 years will bring us to our FI number (25x annual expense). I feel this would be more valuable then having guaranteed income later in life. To me, being able to take out NHS pension in 34 years is completely abstract. I know you cannot give specific financial advise but I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you in advance, Jane. 29:04  Question 5 Hi Roger and Pete, Love the podcast and have learnt so much! Thank you! I am 34 and have paid into the teacher's pension (TPS) for the last 8 years. For 5 years, I worked abroad and did not contribute to it. Living back in the UK, I am not sure how much longer I will be a teacher or eventually my school might even withdraw from it and offer a private pension instead. Missing 5 years of my pension whilst away, I did a few years whereby I increased my contributions using faster accrual from 1/57th to 1/45th of my salary, however I wasn't convinced this was actually going to make up for my lost contributions. This tax year, I decided to stop this and have now got back £300 a month into my salary. My question is whether I would be best to pay this £300 into a LISA (already have £1500 in there for my pension) or ditch this and pay it into a SIPP. I want to have access to some money if I retire early before I can access my TPS which I can imagine will be 70 by the time I am older. Thanks in advance. Rachel 32:07  Question 6 Hi Pete (and the fabulous Rodge) Me and my husband both listen to your podcast and absolutely love your content. We've gone from not really having a clue to having more than £50k between investments and savings for the first time this month, and we put it all down to you and your excellent advice. The question I have is about raising our children with good money attitudes. You like to say "your attitudes towards money are set by the time you're 7", and that makes me think about my kids, who are currently 1 and 3. Me and my husband are both second children, and couldn't be more different from our older siblings in terms of money attitudes. Both our older siblings are spenders, and both in significant amounts of bad debt, making what we would consider poor financial choices. On the flip side, we are both savers, sometimes to the point of unhelpfulness, and we've had to do a lot of learning about spending money to enjoy ourselves more in the here and now. Obviously, we've had functionally identical upbringings to our siblings, so I'm not sure what's made us so different, but certainly I never remember having any direct advice from my parents of money management, investing, budgeting ETC. What is your advice on imparting finical wisdom to our offspring? How is it different at 3 to aged 7, for example? What about their early/late teenage years and young adulthood? I haven't told my husband I'm submitting a question, but if he hears this he'll definitely know it was from me so I'll look forward to our conversation later based on your answers! All our best Hannah

It's time for another Listener Questions session! This week we cover commercial property in pensions, ethical investing, inherited pensions and so much more. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA16    01:02  Question 1 Hi Peter / Roger, Many thanks for all the wisdom plus superb book, you two really make my week with the banter. I always hear about DB and DC pensions but wondered if you'd ever cover the following: Many business owners like myself own buildings outright (as a pension) within a Commercial Sipp and then loop back into this rental payments. Also, within this using a GIA for diversified investments including cash lump sums for tax relief when possible. I'm heading North of sixty soon and feel its time to start thinking of the exit plus implications. It would be fantastic to hear your advice on these in the future. Best Regards, Steve 05:47  Question 2 Hello Pete Can ethical investing beat inflation? Myself and my husband are both 63.  We retired at the end of last year, having sold the business we have run for the majority of our working lives. We have some small DC pensions and a SSAS which includes a commercial property.  We both have cash ISAs. I've done some research, helped massively by your podcasts and YouTube videos, so thank you so much for these. From what I have learned I understand that  we need to invest the cash from the business sale in Global Equities.  We also need to look at the investments within the SSAS which, up to now, the SSAS provider has managed.  Cash in the SSAS also needs to be invested. Is there a way of picking a Global Index Tracker which is ethical and will beat inflation and that requires minimal management to keep fees low?  I realise that we need to look at our cash accounts too with this in mind. Many thanks for all your excellent resources and advice, the fog of financial planning is starting to clear and I'm feeling less panicked about being able to manage the money for our future. Kind regards, Rachel 12:52  Question 3 Dear Pete and Rog, Your podcasts have been a real source of steadiness for me over the past few years - a pair of reliable voices amidst the wider financial chaos. I'm writing with a question about nominee (beneficiary) pensions. Sadly, my father passed away recently, and I've inherited half of his private pension pot - around £70k from a total of £140k. It's been set up as a nominee pension, which I understand allows the money to remain invested and grow tax-free, with flexible access at any age. This has been a significant and unexpected legacy, and it's opened up the possibility of scaling back to part-time work well before the official retirement age. (I'm in my late 30s, so there's still a way to go, but it's a big deal for me and brings more options for me) I don't plan to draw from the pot for many years. My intention is to let it grow. The catch, however, is that the provider, without naming names, (let's just say three letters, last one P), is expensive compared to what I'm used to (I invest monthly in a Vanguard LifeStrategy ISA). When I've done some projections I can see that if leave the money where it is indefinitely, the fees will quietly erode a decent chunk of the long-term gains. There's a 6-year early exit charge, so for now I'm content to leave it be. I'm still dealing with bereavement and all the admin of being an executor, so pressing pause on any big financial decisions feels like the right call at this early stage. But when that 6-year period ends, I'll be weighing up whether to stick or twist. My question is: can nominee pensions be transferred to another provider without losing the key benefits, like the tax-free growth and the ability to access the funds flexibly before retirement age? I've looked into alternatives- transferring into my ISA would take years due to the annual limit; a general investment account loses the tax perks; and a conventional pension would lock the funds away until age 55+, which undermines the very flexibility that makes this pot so helpful for future semi-retirement plans. I'd be really grateful for any ideas or thoughts you might have on this. All the best, Alan 19:29  Question 4 Hi guys, I am 31 years old and currently investing 15% of my gross income into my retirement. 6.8% via my employer's DB CARE scheme, and the other 8.2% into my SIPP. My wife and I also contribute £200pm  into a S&S ISA for our son. We hope by the time he is 18 (3 months old now) this fund could pay for university, travel, driving - whatever he wants to do (within reason!). By age 60, I would like to be in a position to retire, whether I do that or not is another question, but I would at least like the option to. I often see YouTube videos titled "SIPP vs ISA which is better?" but I don't see much about how to use them in tandem. Do you have any advice on the optimal weighting between an ISA and SIPP given I'd like to retire before State/DB pension age and therefore, should I be splitting the 8.2% with a S&S ISA too? Thank you! John 24:08  Question 5 Hi Pete & Roger, I'm a big fan of the podcast, it's been a great source of advice for me - thanks for that. I'm currently 55 and probably not looking to draw down anything from my pension until I'm 60 at the earliest. I hadn't paid into my pension for a number of years and now trying to contribute as much as I can to catch up a bit. My main SIPP is £130,000 with Vanguard in a FTSE Global All Cap Index Accumulation Fund and is 100% equity as I'm looking for as much growth as possible over the next 5-10 years and beyond. I also have £25k in another SIPP, a small NEST workplace pension and approximately £60k in a Stocks & Shares ISA, all of which are in various global tracker funds. My main question is, is it a good idea to have everything in global index funds because of the heavy weighting to the USA, especially in tech stocks? I had considered changing my Vanguard fund to their LifeStrategy 100 fund which has a bit more of a UK weighting. I know you probably can't suggest specific products, but I wondered what your general advice would be on this, especially with all the uncertainty in the USA under the Trump administration? Thanks in advance, Alex Wilson 30:29  Question 6 Hi Pete and Rog, Love the podcast and I've been listening for a good few years now, so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring with a question. I was hoping you could give a quick overview of Qualifying Corporate Bonds, what characteristics the bonds need to have to qualify, what the tax treatment is and where to invest etc. I'm in the fortunate position of having made my contributions in full to my ISAs and Pensions and I'm looking for a tax efficient way to invest an extra few £s. I've heard that they are effectively treated like Gilts but was hoping you could illuminate. Thanka, Adam from Skipton, North Yorkshire

Another mixed bag of questions this week, including pension tax free cash, salary sacrifice for electric cars, de-risking a pension and buying gilts! Join us as we answer your most pressing questions! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA15  01:05  Question 1 Love the show, and whilst not all relevant to my own circumstances, find it all very interesting and enjoyable. Question :-You regularly discuss taking the 25% tax free and what to do with the rest (annuity or drawdown) but need advice as I have 4 different pension pots, 3 frozen and 1 existing employer. I am looking to take the 25% from one of the frozen ones to pay off mortgage but not clear on the below: - Can I keep the remaining 75% in the pension scheme and not take either drawdown or annuity until a later date (when I take early retirement)? - More importantly, I am sure I have read that once you start to take your pension, the amount you can contribute is capped.  How does this work if it is a frozen pension I am taking the 25% out of and would this impact on my current employer pension contributions? Thanks as always Paul 05:19  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Absolutely love the show, after listening to yourself for a number of years, I'm 30 and would even go to say I'm financially savvy as a result of everything I've learned over the years I'm wondering if you could help me with a question? My retired dad was looking for an electric car and as I've got a salary sacrifice scheme with work it seemed the best way to get an electric car for him. My father said that he would give me the equivalent of the total rental amount in cash as I pay for the car via Salary sacrifice on a monthly basis. I'm obviously the policy holder, with the responsibility for it but my father would be named as a driver (unsure if this is relevant). This amount is around £35k, and I'm wondering if the worst was to happen (father kicking the bucket under 7 years) how would this be treated for tax purposes? As the money is in effect to pay for a good or service, would drawing up a contract or something of the like allow it to not be treated as a gift and exempt from the estate upon death, the same as if you send a family member money for a holiday or other purchases? Thanks so much for your help! Ruben 10:37  Question 3 Hi guys, love the podcast! I have a workplace pension that's currently invested in a fairly basic fund, and I'm looking to take more control over it by choosing my own investments. I'm 38, so I still have time before I need to think about de-risking. My plan is to allocate 80% to a global equity fund, 10% to the S&P 500, and 10% to global bonds. I don't have a huge amount invested, but it's enough to make me consider whether I should be a bit tactical with my approach. With global index funds near all-time highs, should I wait for a slight market dip before making these changes, or just go ahead and make the move now? Steve. 13:59  Question 4 Hi Pete, Great idea to pause the "new material" and focus on questions. I was thinking that there are only so many ways to skin a cat/re-frame a concept! I would very much like to hear a little more around the concept of a bond or gilt ladders as one approaches/reaches retirement. Despite being a Chartered Accountant and working in financial services, I'm embarrassed to admit that I become flummoxed when thinking about how to set such up. I understand gilts can be purchased individually and held to maturity (as opposed to gilt or bond funds), but where and how do we buy them if our retirement savings are tied up in our employer's pension scheme - and they certainly don't offer such! I dare say that the demographic of your listeners/viewers are "of a certain age" where this sort of subject would be of interest. Thanks and all the best Avid listener Peter Coleman 22:22  Question 5 Love your podcast, it's been really helpful since setting up our business. Got a question for you, my wife and I set up the business 3 years ago and it's gone incredibly well so far. After pension contributions at £60k each and paying ourselves a salary/dividend equal to £100k each per year, the business continues to accumulate money. We currently have £750k spread across multiple business savings accounts. However, is there a better way to manage this money? We have considered setting up a housing rental company but we have not looked into this in detail. We have a financial advisor who seems to focus heavily on pensions rather than what we can do with the surplus money. Thanks, Mark C 28:25  Question 6 Hi there, I've invested in vanguard index funds for over a decade and have recently begun to actually think what goes on behind the scenes? When we invest in passive funds, like S&P 500, does that money blindly go into the businesses that make up that fund - ie just giving money to them, not knowing how good they are as companies, just because they happen to be part of an index, they get the investor's cash? I read somewhere, for example, there's billions of dollars invested in Amazon from index funds yet all that money was given by people like me who have no idea about these businesses?  I feel like I've totally misunderstood how it works so interested to hear. Thanks, Marc  

Welcome to another MM Q&A, taking in budgeting rules of thumb, pension tax relief and offshore worker pension contributions, and lots more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA14    01:57  Question 1 Hi Pete, I've been a long-time follower of your podcast and hope to be retiring or entering my 'renaissance' in the next five years or so. I'd like to know if you think the 50, 30, 20 rule is still a good rule of thumb, or is there a better one? About a year ago, I decided to give a presentation on pensions to the new starters at my workplace. As I prepared, I realised that while I could explain the mechanics and importance of pensions, the bigger challenge would be addressing the feeling many have that they "can't afford" to contribute due to financial pressures—especially for younger people. Reflecting on my own experiences during university and early work life, I noticed a pattern: no matter how much I earned, I always seemed to end up with zero by the end of the term or month. Earning more didn't make me happier, and I was going out less compared to when I had very little. A detailed review of my spending revealed I was wasting money on unnecessary things—like buying three CDs instead of two, upgrading to a large coffee when a medium would do, or adding extras to my car that weren't needed. It was only when I learnt to pay myself first that everything changed overnight. Recently, I've been listening to podcasts about retirement that emphasise health, purpose, and happiness. One by Dr. Chatterjee introduced the concept of core happiness versus junk happiness. Core happiness comes from meaningful, lasting fulfilment, while junk happiness provides short-term pleasure through things like sugar, smoking, alcohol, social media, or shopping. Looking back, much of my unnecessary spending was driven by junk happiness. While paying myself first helped control this, understanding the why behind it made a big difference. This led me to realise that my presentation shouldn't just focus on the mechanics of finance—it also needed to explore the psychology behind spending. Understanding why we buy the things we do is important to becoming more financially secure while staying happy. It was something in one of Nischa's videos that seemed to tie everything together at a high level: the 50-30-20 rule —50% for fundamentals, 30% for fun, and 20% for the future. So my question is ( I know I've gone around the houses so sorry about that) given today's financial turbulence, do you think this is still a good rule to follow? Kind regards, Steve 09:16  Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks for all the content you've put our over years, it really has been so helpful. I am 54 and have a work place pension with Fidelity where my employer matches my contributions to a certain level and I make additional through my monthly pay to the tune of £2.400 p.m. This summer I am due to inherit around £130,000 and will look to add around 20k of it  into my pension fund.  My question relates specifically to tax relief. I understand that when I make the contribution in the summer I will get 20pc tax relief automatically, but how will this show itself, will my contribution of 20k actually show on my pension balance a 24k?    Also as a 40pc high rate tax payer I understand I will need to to complete a tax return to claim the additional 20%.  This being the case, would I still be able to do this if I had left my employment later in the same tax year as I may be looking to retire in Autumn 2025.  Would it be the case that as I was no longer a higher rate tax payer as at 4 April 2026 I would not be able to claim the extra 20pc  on the 20k contribution the previous summer kind regards Gary 16:09  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Firstly, I am absolutely addicted to your podcast. What you're doing is nothing short of heroic and am waiting to see your names on the New Year Honours List. Sir Pete and Sir Roger has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I am 34 and work in a career that gives me the opportunity to go on expat assignments (typically 3-year stints). This results in me becoming a non-tax resident in the UK meaning I can no longer contribute to the UK DC workplace pension and no longer able to contribute to my S&S ISA. My company do have an Offshore version of the DC pension but contributions to this are made after hypothetical tax so effectively there is no tax relief and to be honest I have really struggled to understand how I would access this pension come retirement and the UK tax implications so will likely avoid contributing to it this time around. When I go on an expat assignment, although I do get significant uplifts to my income, it interrupts my flow of regular pension and ISA contributions. The income I earn on assignment just mounts up and gets eaten up by inflation until I return to the UK and continue investing again. My question is what advice would you give to people like me? Should I speak to a financial planner before I go on assignment, or can I DIY this? Should I try to max out pension contribution limits before I go on assignment and max them out on return or should I be investing in GIAs while I am on assignment? What other considerations would you recommend? Thanks, Ryan 23:23  Question 4 Dear Pete and Rog, Thanks so much for your podcast - not just for the technical tips and tricks but for educating us towards and encouraging healthy relationships with finances. Q1 can I buy you a drink when I'm next in Cornwall? Q2 I don't know if this will resonate with other listeners, but here goes.... Pete, you have sometimes made reference to your upbringing in a Christian home, particularly in relation to talking (or not!) about money.  I appreciate that it may not be something you have chosen to follow in later life, but I guess if anyone understood the moral, ethical and belief issues surrounding money and Christianity, you might. As a Christian who tries to follow Biblical principles & the teachings of Christ, on one hand I strongly believe that what ever we have, be that time, skills, talents or money, they are a gift from God and we should use them or "steward them" well.  I am an NHS consultant so am fortunate to be in both 1995 and 2015 DB NHS pension schemes, expect to get a full state pension, am building an emergency fund, don't have bad debts, have adequate insurance / income protection and am seeking to invest a little of my spare money via an ISA into a low cost, passive, globally diversified index tracker (not financial advice!)  This seems wise to me.  I would encourage my fairly grown up children in this way too. On the other hand, there is much Biblical teaching along the lines of - "don't worry about tomorrow, what you will wear etc", "build up treasures in heaven rather than on earth" and "seek first the Kingdom of God".... Have you any thoughts or insights on how I might square some of this.  Or can you point me in the direction of planners / advisors who can? Many thanks once again. Robbie 31:14  Question 5 Hi Roger and Pete Love the show, which I have recommended to so many people. I consider myself a more mature investor with long-term savings, ISA's and Pensions who has also completed the build wealth course on Meaningful Academy and coaching with Alistair. I was listening to the Making Money podcast with Damien, and he was interviewing the COO of Nest who talked about how they are offering access to Private Equity investment via Schroders Capital. So my question is, what do you think of this as an option for further diversification, and are there any good options/ funds for private investors like me to access? Thanks in advance Jamie 35:23  Question 6 Hi guys, Been listening for a couple years now. Really enjoy the show and the rapport you both have. You've made me passionate about saving regularly into my stocks and shares ISA, maximising pension contributions and building up an emergency fund. My dad is 71 and has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He is still in good shape, but we are starting to think and plan more for the future. My sister and I have recently been set up to have power of attorney so we can help with various health and financial things when the time comes. My dad is selling a property (not his main residence) and once completed will have about £250,000 in cash sitting in his bank. He receives a DB pension of just under £60k a year which he can comfortably live on. £60k of the £250k is currently in a cash ISA with a decent enough rate. Although I think this may be best sat within a stocks and shares ISA tracking a global equity index fund, as he will almost certainly not need this money any time soon. Could he transfer the £60k cash ISA to a stocks and shares one? I have suggested for him to put £50k into premium bonds and I think he would like £50k readily available in an instant access account should it ever be needed. This would leave him with about £90k that we're not sure what to do with. Do you have any tips for the remaining cash whether that be with a short term, or medium to long term view? (GIA? Fixed term income account? Gift the money? Anything else we're missing?) His pension makes him a higher rate tax payer but his estate would fall under the inheritance tax threshold. (If my question is already too long, please don't feel obliged to read this last part out!) Finally my sister and I are also concerned about potential fraud or him doing something daft. Not only because he has Alzheimer's, but it seems anyone can so easily be caught out these days. Do you have any tips for us to help combat this or what his bank might suggest. We haven't currently told his bank about his condition or that my sister and I have power of attorney. Thanks for all your great work, Steven

This week's MMQ&A covered questions on whether you need an emergency fund in retirement, starting late and the mechanics of the residence nil rate band, among other things! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA13  Questions Asked 01:03  Question 1 Hello Pete n Rog Thank you for the brilliant podcast which has turned my money management around in four months. I love your banter as much as your expertise. My question is: Do people need an emergency fund in retirement, and if so how big should it be? With DB pensions coming my way I'll have a guaranteed income so how important is it? Many thanks and keep up the great work Caroline   04:21  Question 2 Hi guys, I'm probably not your usual demographic so I'm not sure if this will be of enough use to your listeners but… Having grown up in what may be classed as modern day poverty (raised on state benefits, single parent family) I had zero financial literacy. This meant that when I started my career as a teacher I opted out of the pension because I "couldn't afford" to pay into it… yes I know now that was a bad move! I eventually opted back in, but then took big chunks [of time?] out to travel and have children. I divorced and had to leave my career to raise my own children. I'm now 47 and staring into a huge financial hole (as I suspect are many mothers/divorcees). Now it's not all doom and gloom as I have made a few intuitive moves. I own a large family home and a second property (these are mortgaged), but my worry is actual cash. State pension won't touch the sides of what I'll need. What would be your suggestion on how to start accumulating at this late stage? I've opened a vanguard pension and make personal and company contributions (I have a tuition business now) but it feels like too little too late as I've missed the opportunity for exponential compounding. I can't work out how to figure out what I'll need and then reverse engineer the numbers to see if I'll make it! I have a high tolerance to risk, but Is it just pour as much as possible into the pension and pray? Keep doing this amazing podcast please as you have no idea who you are reaching and helping each week. Jenny   11:51  Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Love the pod, keep up the good work! My mum is in her eighties and has been asking me about inheritance tax and in-particular "passing on her home".  We both take an interest in finance, so I said I'd read up on it online. I understand you can inherit up to £325,000 tax free.  My Dad passed away 9 years ago and I believe that his threshold would be taken into account as well, to make the total tax free amount £650,000. I then read that If you give away your home to your children or grandchildren, your threshold can increase to £500,000. I believe this would mean that the total threshold (with my late Dad in mind) would be £1,000,000? Her house is worth just under a million and she has approximately £100k in a Vanguard stocks and shares ISA. My main question is, if she were to make a change in her will to "pass on her home", would this be an inheritance tax saving to her children in the future, as there would be less of a total amount to pay tax on? I'm, also unsure if the home has to be passed on to an individual, or if stating "her children in equal splits" would suffice. In reality, we would probably sell her home when the time comes, so I don't know if there are additional rules around how long you would have to keep it for etc. Any clarity on this subject would be much appreciated. PS: There's nothing dodgy going on here and we're not wishing her away! Many thanks! John 17:19  Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, Thank you for an excellent podcast and your contribution to allowing people to self improve their finances. I am 33 and think I was already on the more competent end of the financial spectrum before I found your podcast. I.e. I had no 'bad debt', had an emergency fund, had cleared my full student loan and overpayed our mortgage to clear 60% in 6 years (just in time for the rate rise!). That said, I now definitely have a better understanding of the fundamentals of financial stability and have started to invest in the last year since listening to you. I listen to a few other podcasts more directly targeting doctors to see if anything specific applies to me / the NHS pension, but still enjoy yours the most. Anyway, my question (regardless of whether you want to include the above compliment or not) is … why is more weight not given to S&S LISA's for later life (alongside a normal S&S ISA)? My understanding is the 'negatives' would be … (1) loss of invested money if withdrawn early by way of the reverse 25% deduction (2) fees being slightly higher That said, if not withdrawn early, when comparing £4000 / year in a normal S&S ISA, the 25% bonus is surely a significant bonus even with slightly higher fees? What am I missing? Best wishes, Ben 21:23  Question 5 Great podcast My wife and I are both additional rate tax payers and hence our ability to put money into our pensions is limited. We have a field behind our house that we have thought about buying for a while and I was wondering whether the below was legal/valid. The govt introduced the concept of biodiversity net gain (BNG) around property development. There is a market in BNG units where you are paid (I believe) an upfront cost and you need to preserve the habitat for 30Y+. Receiving all the money upfront isn't that tax efficient so executing in a pension would make sense. Can I 1. Buy the land behind us in my pension (believe I can get 2x leverage but not that important) 2. Sell the BNG units – bringing cash into the pension 3. Sell the field back to myself out of the pension for the amount I sold it to the pension for (clearly it's worth less since it is now encumbered with the 30Y liability but ultimately if I want to pay full whack for it then can I?). I am happy to pay for the maintenance of the land inline with the BNG requirements I am now net flat (ish) on the land deal inside my pension but I've managed to get the upfront payment for the BNG in a tax free wrapper. If all that makes it too complicated I think I'm essentially asking if I can sell my pension an asset, realise a gain inside the pension and then buy it back (potentially at an off market price)? Hopefully makes sense, Best John 26:47  Question 6 Hello Pete & Rog, Long time listener and meaningful money fan... No worries if you don't get to answer this, just grateful for all of the amazing content you give away for free. Thanks to you both! In response to another question on a prior podcast Pete mentioned that he wasn't super keen on investment properties due to the fact that it's not very tax efficient and increasing regulations. I have a buy to let with no mortgage so I'm not leveraged like many landlords which has led to me questioning it as an investment. I don't especially enjoy being a landlord and I realise that quite often my SIPP returns are more than my rental income and the property increase in value over the year (I do charge quite low rent because I have a lovely tenant who has been there for 14 years). At 47 I'm thinking when the tenant finally does move on, rather than renting it out again, instead selling the property and paying the money into my SIPP and S&S ISA. It's worth ~£270k after £35k CGT and estate agent costs. I earn approx £50k and can back date my SIPP allowance from the last 3 years. I have a good emergency fund and my SIPP is currently £205k, LISA £45k, ISA £50k (and no mortgage on my own home, living with my partner with no kids, no debt). My plan to live on a fairly modest retirement of around £25,000 a year from my early to mid 60s depending on how my Investments do. Love the podcast and the clear way you explain things in a way even I can understand ;) Best wishes, Russell 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 [email protected] Subject line: Podcast Question

Join Roger as he interviews Pete to celebrate the launch of The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide, asking the questions you want answered! Order The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/meaningful-money-retirement-guide/ Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/session574  02:10  Congrats on the new book, Pete - how was it writing this one, compared with the first? 05:39  Why write this book NOW? 07:10  What isn't in the book that you wish you'd included? Or probably more difficult to answer, is there something that (having completed the audiobook after writing) that you felt it didn't need? 10:00  How difficult did you find setting out concepts without going too in depth to potentially "lose people" or too simple to make the book not interesting enough? 13:07  How different do you find it writing "evergreen" content in your books vs more topical content for YouTube, and to a lesser degree for the podcast? 16:20  After reading the New retirement book, will it provide knowledge to go alone in retirement without seeking expensive financial advice? 20:05  Does the book help with a 'soft' retirement or is it just for those that want to completely stop work on a particular date? 25:00  What will the book offer the reader that I can't get elsewhere? Is it worth paying for the Academy if I read the book? 28:38  What's the best thing you would tell your 20yo self? 31:03  Would you lobby government to have PROPER financial teaching delivered to kids in school? How would you package your knowledge for teenagers? 33:22  Pete talks about a new podcast - Bank of Dad - which daughter Kate will host. 35:25  A few people asked: What are Pete's plans for retirement? Did 'die with zero' change them? 38:00  Pete talks about Dave Ramsey and how he brought in different personalities. 41:35  Pete talks about practicing what he preaches.  

This week we devote an episode of the MMQ&A to pensions of all flavours, answering questions on public sector schemes, partial transfers, fund choices and much more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA12    00:52  Question 1 Hi Chaps! I only recently got into podcasts and am frantically trying to listen to as many pension ones as I can. Yours are the most useful I've come across and now I can't stop listening to them all! A small question I hope you can clarify for me please: I am 48 and a few years away from possibly an early retirement (hopefully 58) but trying to plan ahead. I have both a DB pension through work (NHS) and a personal Vanguard SIPP pension I also add to monthly and am of the understanding that you can take 25% tax free (up to the set limit) from your pensions overall and therefore my question is- could I take all the 25% tax free amount from my SIPP and leave the rest of my SIPP and all my DB pension pot to pay me a pension from. In example (arbitrary figures): my DB and SIPP are each worth £100000, totalling £200000. Therefore, under current rules, could I take £50000 tax free from the SIPP (the overall 25%) and the other £100000 in DB and £50000 left in my SIPP to pay me a pension monthly. Or is this not possible at all as they are different schemes, ie DB and DC? Many thanks Jon, from Norfolk   05:30  Question 2 Hi Guys, Firstly, a massive thank you for all the information you provide, it really has completely transformed my personal finances. I still have a long way to go until retirement (I've just turned 30) but thanks to you, I'm confident it won't have to be the state pension age! My question is – I work in Local Government and, whilst the salary is distinctly average (37k) it does come with the benefit of a DB pension scheme. I'm now considering making some additional contributions but there are two options available and I'm struggling to find any useful information online… – Make AVCs into what I understand to be a separate pension scheme more akin to a DC pension – Make APCs whereby I effectively buy more DB pension. It works out at approx an additional £10 guaranteed yearly income for every £80 (£100 if including tax relief) I contribute. In my head, this sounds good as long as I make it 10 years into retirement! Is there an obvious answer to this question? Only obvious downside to the DB option is, if I were to pass away before retirement, the additional pension is effectively lost and not paid to my next of kin! But then again, I don't intend to go anywhere anytime soon! Any thoughts appreciated and thanks again! Jack   12:03  Question 3 I have a question relating to the upcoming change in minimum pension age and how it affects those of us in the 55 bracket before the 6 April 2028 change.  I don't know if there is any clarity from government yet but if I am 55 in September 2027 and take a PCLS 25% tax free from an AVC DC running alongside my DB pension scheme, then want to retire fully and start taking the DB in September 2028 when I am 56 is that possible? There seems to be a grey area about what happens after the April 2028 cut off to those of us in this age range. It doesn't even appear clear if someone taking early retirement at 55 would then stop being eligible for monthly payments after April 2028 until they were 57. So they think they have retired fully, then when April comes around their payments stop! Appreciate that sounds a dramatic scenario but I haven't been able to find anything comprehensive on it so hope you can help. I also have a question on DBs with AVCs which might be useful for others. If I have a DB pension valued at £300k and saved £75k in AVCs over the years, can I take the full £75k at 55/57 without it a) affecting the DB monthly amount which can be taken from age 60 in my case, and b) without it being classed as a pension event, so I can continue to contribute over £10k a year into a DC scheme as I plan to continue working until 60. Appreciate they are specific to me but thought there must be others in a similar position. Sorry for more long questions. Thanks for all the great podcasts, look forward to the next. Thanks, Don 19:34  Question 4 Hi Pete! Hi Rog! I've been a long time listener to your dulcet tones and concise advise for a long time and love what you guys do, so please keep doing it! Another pension Question I'm afraid! A while ago I consolidated a few old workplace pensions in to a SIPP, but I still have my current workplace DC pension ticking away. Its not great, being the bare legal minimum (2.5% contribution from my employer) and the fees seem higher than they should be. If I close that pension and transfer to my better performing and cheaper SIPP, I effectively opt-out of the employer contributions scheme. My question is what should I do to be most efficient with my pensions to ensure I am getting the benefit of employer contributions without paying over the odds for an underperforming scheme? I'm 34, and (thanks in no small part to you) feel somewhat on top of my finances. We have an almost balanced budget, regular savings (both short and longer term) in tax efficient wrappers and only a smidge of interest free debt all under control. My SIPP is knocking on for £50k, my DC around £18k. Thanks again Tom 26:49  Question 5 Hi guys Thank you for the advice from your book, podcasts and videos. They encouraged me be brave enough to open a Stocks and Shares ISA, to begin my investing journey. They also encouraged me consider income protection, which I now have. My question is about Additional Voluntary Contributions, compared with a SIPP. I am fortunate to be part a Local Government, Defined Benefit Scheme. I would like to contribute more to my retirement savings, each month a third into a pension and two thirds into a S&S ISA. My pension gives me the option of buying additional pension, however the rates are not very competitive. I make AVC to a third party provider. I have also started a SIPP. This has lower fees and better customer service, then the AVC provider. Something I can't quite understand. What are the benefits of making a AVC, which deducts my contribution pre-tax compared with making a contribution to a SIPP and claiming the tax back? I am a higher rate tax payer. My employer does not offer employer match or salary sacrifice. Thanks for all the help. Rob 29:45  Question 6 Hi question for your podcast if you'd be so kind. My question is about salary sacrifice and its effect on relevant earnings for the annual allowance. I'll use some figures to illustrate and for simplicity assume tax relief and employer's contributions are included in the amounts going into the scheme. I have my employers scheme and a separate SIPP. My income comes from employment and rents from property. I generally put anything I can from the property into the SIPP and sacrifice as much as I can into AVCs in my company pension to benefit from Sal sac. Scenario; my salary before tax is £60000. If I where to sacrifice £500 per month under and electric car scheme and £1500 per month into my pension (combination of pension contributions and AVCs) that would be a total of 24000 sacrificed from 60000 leaving me with a pre tax wage of £36000 and £18000 in my pension pot for the year. My question is what is now left of my annual allowance. Are my relevant earnings now only £36000 and therefore the £18000 already sacrificed come off the £36000 or do I have the £36000 left? Or something else? What would be the amount of money that I could put into my SIPP from my income from property and not break the annual allowance. I hope this makes sense. For ease assume previous years are full in respect to carry forward. Thank you both! Love the podcast! John. 32:30  Question 7 Love the show. Listen whenever I get a chance. I know you've covered investments, savings, pensions etc, but I'm after some advice. To keep it short as requested last week, I've been a public sector worker for 10 years now and have not paid into a pension scheme due to personal financial issues. I got promoted 3 years ago and am now in a much better financial position. I have still got 25 years service until I can retire, but am concerned I've missed out on a a large contribution for the pension scheme. Would I be better opting into the pension or looking at other alternative such as S&S index, ISA, etc? I do intend to promote a few more times before retirement so pension contributions/investments will increase with income. Looking forward to your advice. Regards, Raph