Should you switch your Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA?
On 6 April 2017 the new Lifetime ISA launches, allowing first-time buyers aged under 40 to save up to £4,000 a year, with the state adding 25% on top towards a deposit for a home. Yet there’s already a very similar product called the Help to Buy ISA many first-time buyers already have. So the big question is, should you...
Hurrah! The Citizens Advice ‘Martin Lewis’ Fund is up and running
Last year I blogged that as part of my ongoing giving strategy I made a donation to support the superb work of Citizens Advice. The charity decided to use the money to set up the ‘Martin Lewis innovation fund’ (its name, not mine). Well, I’m delighted to say that launched today, so rather than me regurgitating, here’s its press...
Why I’m proud to be a biased journalist…
In 1997-98 I took a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism at JOMEC which is part of Cardiff University. It was one of the best years of my life, and I made many friends. As part of an expansion of the journalism school they asked me if I would like to write a 250 word piece on my thoughts...
An important warning to every employee in the UK
This is a warning for every worker in the UK. Have you turned down a pay rise without realising it? Millions have done or risk doing just that. It happens when your employer ‘auto-enrols’ you into a pension scheme but you decide to opt out – in most cases a huge mistake.
Would you take £500 now or £1,000 in a year? And what that says about you
If I offered you £500 today or a guaranteed no-risk £1,000 in a year’s time, what would you take? Think about it for a second, as your answer shines a light on your financial psychology. I’m sorry to say this isn’t a real offer, but a simple poser I posted as a Twitter poll a little while ago...
What Brexit means for your finances in 2017
In June 2016, the day after the European Union referendum vote, I wrote an instant first impressions news analysis guide on what Brexit is likely to mean for your finances. Now for the start of 2017, I’m braving revisiting that guide – in the form of this blog, to see how well it stacks up and what...
The MSE Pub Quiz 2016 Answers
I suspect many of you have hardly been able to sleep since I posted the MSE Christmas pub quiz questions last week. Well finally I can pop that bubble of excitement and provide you with the answers. Phew… let the good times roll. SPOILER ALERT: If this is the first you’ve heard of the quiz – follow this MSE pub...
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2016
Every year, in the run-up to Christmas, the MSE team get the enormous joy, pleasure and cultural delight (indeedy) of facing my annual pub quiz. This long and proud tradition is in its seventh year and I continue to take their groans as encouragement. Some of the rounds don’t work in print (eg, the round where I...
The (morally questionable) way to earn 2.25% on up to £50,000 savings
Update 10/04/2018: This is an old blog but the logic in it still stands. Though note the rate has since increased to 2.5%. Savings rates are disgustingly low. The top easy access account is just 1%, the top one-year fix 1.4%, yet I’ve a trick that lets you save up to £50,000, in safety, at 2.25%, and withdraw...
Uni Minister Jo Johnson says NO to my letter asking ‘please be honest & transparent about the parental contribution’
The amount of the living loan that students aged under 25 get when they go to university is dictated by a means test of their PARENTS’ income. A reduction in the living loan starts for students from families with incomes of just £25,000/yr and the amount received can be halved for those whose parents earn £60,000. In...
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Recent Blogs
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How much the Govt expects you to give your children for university
16 July 2019
Update Note 25 May 2017: The ready reckoners below have been updated with the new 2017/2018 living loan amounts. Also since first writing this blog, and seeing the strength of feeling it attracted, I have written an open letter to the Uni Minister asking him to start telling people about this. Yet sadly received his no we won’t...
