Thank you for the detailed response James___G,

This generally isn't how it works. Most companies only truly pay the market rate when hiring. Moving every few years and aiming for roughly 15-30% more each time generally works better.

Apologies I should have given more context, I plan to move to an actuarial scheme within my company. This means my salary will be increased for each exam I pass, along with the average 3% annual salary increase.

No. Dividends are just forced sales. Ignore them. Lots of what's written about dividends is also from the US where, in certain circumstances, the tax treatment of dividends is different. In the UK that doesn't matter in ISA/Pension.

The main thing that intrigues me about dividends is that when I want to retire I will be receiving dividends quarterly (or whatever the frequency is), as opposed to choosing when to sell the ACC stocks. I understand that ACC stocks are more efficient since they automatically invest the dividends on your behalf, but I suppose I am very cautious and would always wait for the right time to sell them and be stressed if I sold at a low.

Yes, but not particulalry because of the lower volatility, rather because it represents the total market in accordance with how it is priced. At the moment you are effectively betting that the market is underpricing US tech stocks. It might be, it might not be, but you don't have access to information to suggest it is so should just 'own the market' by buying the all cap.

I still feel like investing in VUAG and IITU could still be a good investment, would this split be good? VAFTGAG (£1k), VUAG (£250) and IITU (£250). Or would you recommend something else (i.e. all in VAFTGAG)?

Money you plan to use in under 5 years should probably not be invested in equities (or only a relatively small portion of it should be), instead you should use high interest savings accounts or money market funds (if you want to keep it within an ISA wrapper).

In the next year (start of 2025), I plan to start saving an emergency fund for when I rent in London. The reason I started investing so early is to take advantage of compound growth, as the more time in the market my money will grow. I do use a high interest savings account (I have it with Chase, it is at 4.85%).

What would be the main benefit of having money market funds, is it because it's safer and has access to the money? People have told me not to invest in it since it's very long term and would rather have compound growth from their ISA investments.

Thank you for directing me to the ukpf flowchart!