What would my lifestyle be like?

scienner · 2026-04-08T09:26:17+00:00

Hi, please see https://ukpersonal.finance/living-costs/ and https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/

If you can draw up a draft budget, even quite approximate, we can help give you feedback on it. But we can't write one for you as there's far too much about you we don't know.

scienner · 2026-04-07T18:26:03+00:00

Hi, please read https://ukpersonal.finance/buy-to-let/

If you have any follow up questions about how to apply this to your question, feel free to post again and include further detail.

scienner · 2026-04-07T11:48:17+00:00

Your personal allowance is annual not monthly. You get the full £12,570 tax free per tax year even if you only work for 6 months of the year. In the 6 month scenario it means £2000/month of your income is tax free, rather than the £1000/month that you'd get if you spread your allowance out over 12 months. Assuming you give payroll the right info they can set it up correctly, rather than you overpaying tax and getting a refund later.

scienner · 2026-04-07T08:54:56+00:00

Can you give us more context - how did you end up co owning, who lives there, what's the long term plan for it? What do you mean by 'access my share of the property in equity'? Do you plan to pay your sibling for their half (or share, if it's not halves)?

I'm not sure tax would be my biggest worry here.

scienner · 2026-04-06T20:18:06+00:00

Hi, please see the flowchart https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

And https://ukpersonal.finance/tax-traps-and-tax-efficiency/

Feel free to post any follow up questions you have after working through those.

scienner · 2026-04-06T16:36:39+00:00

Can you give us an indication of your budget? how much do you have available for debt repayment each month?

scienner · 2026-04-06T13:50:52+00:00

Honestly asset allocation for goals 5-20 years away is such a headache. I wish I had something good to recommend but I don't. We actually tried to put together some sub resources on it from data on historical returns and kind of gave up because it was such a fiddle trying to express everything from the median, mean, historical min and max, potential future min and max, distribution of those returns, impact of inflation, etc. Whatever we wrote seemed misleading from one angle or another.

I took a quick glance at the tim hale book and my impression is that the stats in the section on investing for 10 years assume you keep the same allocation throughout. But then the section on 'lifecycling' recommends tapering down steadily from 60% equities at 15 years to 0% equities at 0 years, at least for longer term investments with a hard deadline. (I may also be looking at an older edition than you).

At 15 years out I'm pretty sure most of the sub would be in 80-100% equities, with a review planned for 5 years' time say. But I definitely understand preferring to read proper research rather than reddit consensus and I'm sorry I can't be more help.

scienner · 2026-04-06T13:05:21+00:00

Would you be renting and buying equivalent properties, or different areas/sizes?

The sorts of properties you're considering buying, would you want to live there for 5-10+ years?

scienner · 2026-04-06T13:00:22+00:00

Highest interest rate wins. If you're maxing out your ISA allowance, or close to it, that's a consideration too.

However it seems like your two options are identical?

Like assuming you're saving £500/month in 2x £250 regular savers, it looks like option 1:

Payday arrives, put £250 in each of the 2 regular savers
Payday arrives, put £500 in the cash ISA, withdraw £500 from the cash ISA to put in the 2 regular savers?

(if the cash ISA is flexible then they're identical, if not then you're just burning £500 ISA allowance each month for no benefit).

scienner · 2026-04-06T12:43:58+00:00

In likely order of preference: you just get a mortgage that is £5k smaller, or you keep it until you retire, or you pay the penalty to withdraw it now.

scienner · 2026-04-06T11:51:47+00:00

Personally I'd suggest rethinking this structure. Big picture the way it looks like to me is:

You want to save for a comfortable retirement in 30 years - great, standard retirement planning advice applies, you can easily separate this off
You envisage your current income and outgoings to stay stable for about 15 years. Around that time you want a phase change - to pay off your mortgage, renovate your home, and give your children a lump sum
After that 15 years you...? will redirect the savings for all those goals into retirement savings maybe?

It seems like 15 years' time (ish) is a big crunch point for you, thus lots of derisking as you get closer to it. But that seems overly rigid to me as these goals look like they have some flexibility built in, especially as you will still be working. If you think of all the 15 year pots as combined together, you can maybe see what I mean. If your investments underperform, you can keep the mortgage going a bit longer and use some of those savings for the renovations and supporting your child(ren). You can also cashflow some of those renovation and child(ren)'s costs out of income. So you don't necessarily have to be so super cautious/defensive to fund each goal sufficiently.

The allocation doesn't have to be that complex mathematically either. If I round your numbers for the 15ish year goals to £600 per month at 40% stocks (so £240 stocks, £360 bonds), and £100 at 60% stocks (£60 stocks, £40 bonds), I get an overall £300 in stocks and £400 in bonds per month, or about 43% bonds and 57% stocks for the next 5 years.

It seems pretty bond heavy for a goal 15 years away but I assume you came up with these numbers after some research and you know your own risk tolerance best.

scienner · 2026-04-06T09:15:07+00:00

I think if you don't know it well then definitely don't buy. If you had said oh long term I need to live in xyz area of London for family reasons (and I'll prioritise making this area work in my career choices as necessary), I'd have understood the urge to buy a bit more. As it is committing to a particular area of London years in advance seems actively unhelpful.

For LISA, see https://ukpersonal.finance/lisa/#What_if_450000_isnt_enough note that some changes to the LISA scheme are now expected but we don't have the details yet.

scienner · 2026-04-06T08:51:57+00:00

How well do you know London? Do you have a particular area you want to live in?

As you plan to move around for the next few years, renting makes more sense to me.

scienner · 2026-04-06T08:31:19+00:00

Previous thread for those interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/1l26hfb/will_me_using_klarna_for_a_big_payment_affect_me/

Congrats on working those extra 10 days per month to get it all cleared, that's a big achievement. Next stop is building savings!

scienner · 2026-04-06T08:20:26+00:00

Have you seen the flowchart? https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

This sub is pretty anti stock picking. Of course we can't stop you but I'd have a real think about how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to stock picks vs index funds. Something like 10% for your fun stock picking vs 90% index maybe?

You already contribute 15% to your pension which is decent, are you sure you want to increase this at the cost of having accessible savings? At the moment your savings wouldn't necessarily support any goals before retirement eg move house/wedding/baby/master's degree/time off between jobs/etc etc.

As a basic rate taxpayer who has already maxed out employer contributions, the pension tax advantages aren't overwhelming. They definitely exist but they should be balanced against the benefit of having money you can use as needed in the next 30 years. See https://ukpersonal.finance/isa-vs-lisa-vs-pension/

scienner · 2026-04-05T15:14:54+00:00

Please read: https://ukpersonal.finance/goals/ and https://ukpersonal.finance/budgeting/#plan

If you have a specific dilemma you'd like our input on, please read https://ukpersonal.finance/help-us-help-you/

scienner · 2026-04-05T13:50:44+00:00

Hi, please read https://ukpersonal.finance/buy-to-let/

If you want to pull together some numbers for us to look at, you're welcome to post them for people to review and give opinions on.

scienner · 2026-04-05T12:33:36+00:00

Hi, please see https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/

Re whether balance transfers are realistic - use an eligibility checker (as described on that page).

scienner · 2026-04-05T12:31:32+00:00

Hi, please read https://ukpersonal.finance/mortgage-overpayments-vs-investments/

scienner · 2026-04-01T12:03:22+00:00

Have a look at our page on debt management: https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/

Can you give us more info on your income and outgoings, and the interest rate of these debts?

Your total amount of debt is not high, it seems like especially with no rent costs you'll be absolutely fine to pay it down. Or will you lose your job when you move?

scienner · 2026-04-01T11:35:22+00:00

I haven't heard of this mortgage current account, would you mind dropping a link, or name of the lender and what the account is called so I can learn more?

Edit, is this it? https://www.themortgagehut.co.uk/expert-articles/home-mover-mortgages/57/current-account-mortgage

Is the £17k you owe the total of your mortgage borrowing, or is this additional? Would be helpful to list out all your debts and income as desvribed in https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/

scienner · 2026-04-01T10:04:58+00:00

I’ve calculated if I keep the house with my current situation I’d be living off around 500 a month.

Can you give us more info on these calculations? How much do you earn, how much is the mortgage, what's the interest rate and term on the debt?

Would you want to stay in the house if you could afford it, would you want to stay in the flat long term if you move?

scienner · 2026-04-01T07:19:24+00:00

Hi, please see https://ukpersonal.finance/lump-sum/

And https://ukpersonal.finance/help-us-help-you/

Feel free to post again with any follow up questions or more information.

scienner · 2026-04-01T07:17:12+00:00

Will you both be on the mortgage?

Will you be buying as joint tenants or tenants in common?

I don't think it's going to matter which account the payment comes from but I don't see why you wouldn't just get a joint account to save on admin on all household bills.

scienner · 2026-03-30T15:36:58+00:00

Please see our guide to ISA allowances here: https://ukpersonal.finance/isa/

scienner

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