Category: Investing Knowledge

Last reviewed: 24 October 2026 I’m 52 and I still pay into my SIPP every month, which is exactly why the money purchase annual allowance feels personal to me. It’s one of the quieter reasons I won’t touch my pension early, and when I worked out how much you could lose by taking your pension…

Last reviewed 9 October 2026. All figures are correct at the time of writing, for the 2026/27 tax year, using the income tax bands for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. How much will I lose if I take my pension at 55? I’d never actually put that question into numbers, even though I’d felt the…

Last reviewed 29 September 2026. All figures are correct at the time of writing. The average pension pot figure you saw somewhere last week while you were researching this stuff late at night has probably done one of two things. Either it made you feel sick, or it made you quietly relax without being sure…

“Is my pension safe?” sounds like one question. It’s actually two, and they have very different answers. The first: if the company holding my pension went bust tomorrow, would my money still be there? The second is quieter, and I think it’s the one that keeps more of us up at night: could the value…

You’ve put money into a stocks and shares ISA. It’s invested, which means it isn’t sitting in a savings account with a reassuring bit of interest coming in from time to time. And somewhere along the way, a quieter question turned up: is this actually safe? It’s a fair question, and it deserves a proper…

Everyone tells you to pay into a pension. Almost nobody sits down and explains whether it is actually worth it for someone in your position, at your age, with whatever you have or have not managed to put away so far. So let me actually answer it. Are pensions worth it? With the numbers, the…

I get asked this a lot. Should I consolidate my pensions, or leave them where they are and hope for the best. If you’re asking I’d guess you’re in one of two positions. Either you’ve got old workplace pensions kicking about from jobs (and decades) you barely remember, and you’ve got a vague sense you…

There is a particular moment that happens to almost every woman managing her own SIPP, and I have had it myself more than once. You have been doing this for years. You check in every couple of months, you top it up, you leave it alone the rest of the time. Then something shifts. A…

Everyone tells you to get an ISA. It comes up at dinner parties, in the money pages, from the bank teller who upsells you one when you’re just trying to pay in a cheque. Nobody quite explains whether it actually matters for someone in your position, or whether it’s mostly financial industry noise dressed up…

If you’re weighing up a general investment account vs ISA, chances are one of two things has just happened to you. Either you’ve paid your full £20,000 into your ISA this year and still have money left to invest, or you’ve spotted “general investment account” sitting on your platform’s dropdown menu and wondered what investing…

Before anything else, one honest note. If you have come to this page recently after losing someone, please do not feel you need to take any of this in today, or even this week. It will still be here when you are ready. I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. How many ISAs can I have? I get…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. There’s a specific moment I want to name,…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. SIPP. It’s an ugly little acronym, isn’t it,…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. You have money sitting somewhere. Maybe it is…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. You’ve typed it into Google. Probably more than…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. Introduction.If you’ve opened a platform comparison table recently,…

I am not a financial advisor and nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. All investments carry risk and the value of your investments can go down as well as up. Please do your own research and consider seeking independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. There’s a particular kind of putting off that…